but if we are to honor the sacrifices of those who came before us, we must plenl to use our efforts to ensure that this most essential of american rights, the right to vote, is protected for this and protected for future generations. thank you very much. xxxx. >>> >>> tonight on american history today our series landmark cases looks at the series slaughterhouse cases which helped define our leading understanding of the 14th amendment. >> all persons having business before the honorable the supreme court of the united states are admonished to draw near and give their attention. >> landmark cases, c-span's special history series produced in cooperation with the national constitution center. exploring the human stories and constitutional dramas behind

. >> which is why a lot of republicans can't stand people like mitch mcconnell because they had plenl plenty of time to do this. saying our bill is a bad bill, can't blame donald trump for that. >> donald trump repeatedly contradi contradicted himself. demanded the republicans in congress do completely different things at different moments. and finally got behind a bill that had like less than 20% support in the country as a hole. >> these are representing people. >> and before that set an artificial timeline. >> didn't do their job. can't blame the president for republicans like mitch mcconnell and john mccain and others would say it's a bad bill, well, you're in congress, do your job and get a better bill. n cat criticize donald trump he didn't write the bill. >> clearly i'm not here. to defend donald trump or any of the republicans currently today. >> trust me we all know. >> i just want to be clear. but why i say it's crazy is donald trump the president of the united states not understanding health care is as complicated as it could be words from his own mouth put an artificial ti

this as the white house repea d repeatedly dodged the president had abandoned his campaign plenl that mexico would pay for that wall. >> how is that not a concession from this white house that mexico isn't actually going to pay for this wall and american taxpayers will? >> again, this is something the president is committed to. he is committed to protecting american lives and doing that through the border wall is something that's important. it's a priority. we're moving forward with it. >> he is not saying that mexico is going to pay for it. >> he hasn't said they're not either. >> just for some reference, the last time the government shut down under one party rule in washington was during the carter administration. >>> the white house is downplaying the discord as fissures seem to be deepening between president trump and members of his party. white house press secretary sarah huck kwabee sanders told reporters yesterday that the relationships are, in fact, fine, but she also hit back at comments made by senator bob corker earlier this month in which he criticized the president. >> th

the next night bannon -- excuse me -- mercer had dinner with trump and plenled support so he is bothside supporter but also going to be funding this hugely powerful outside movement to pressure trump to go in the direction that he and bannon wanted to go into. it's a very strange role. he is an incredibly wealthy man with an unusual amount of power over this white house. >> is the goal to try to continue to shape the white house in bannon's image, his sort of nationalist image despite the fact that bannon is not in it anymore? is that the idea to try to get the other people who are opposed to bannon's vegs out of there and to get more people like bannon close to trump now that bannon is out? you can see why it seems sort of backwards. >> one way to look at this is bannon did all he could as he sees it inside the white house. he didn't get his way on an awful lot of things. particularly having to do with economic nationalism, you know, all kinds of things having to do with trade policy. the mercer fortune will be behind him. one of the things we're going to see in the fall will be ove