plus -- the new book "church ladies: the untold stories of harlem women in the powell era." and later, we'll talk to the women starring as the church ladies in the revival of the hit broadway musical "the color purple." "here and now." >> as the presidential campaign heats up, fists have been flying along with the expected political rhetoric. critics are accusing republican front-runner donald trump of stoking that violence and hate. now, who's really to blame for the escalation of tension on the campaign trail, and how did we get here? joining us today is the executive director of the new york state democratic party and political analyst, basil smikle jr. welcome back to "here and now." >> thank you. >> nice to see you. oh, man. let's get to it. it has just been, really, a reality-television show on the campaign trail. say that, from the beginning, trump was kind of stoking this animosity and it just finally boiled over. what's your take on that? >> well, you're right to say that it's somewhat of a reality show, right? and you have the carnival barker leading the pack, so t

plus -- the new book "church ladies: the untold stories of harlem women in the powell era." and later, we'll talk to the women starring as the church ladies in the revival of the hit broadway musical "the color purple."

. >> lewis powell was 64 when nominated in 1962. in the modern era of the court, that's the oldest nominee that's been confirmed. i think his age is certainly part of the politics of the situation. it's an implicit statement to senate republicans confirm my 63-year-old nominee now during president obama's year in office for prepare for hillary clinton to nominate somebody who may be in his or her 40s. that's the tradeoff that senate republicans are facing. it certainly seems at the moment that they are happy to just kick the can down the road, think that a republican may be elected president, something that has happened. they have put their line in the sand about this nominee. so this is a very interesting ceremony coming up. but the idea that merrick garland will be on the supreme court anytime, perhaps ever, seems remote. >> that's a fair point. dana, you spent time looking at the various contingencies out there. it seems extremely doubtful after all the public comments, since antonin's sudden death, that they are going to change their mind at all.

>> the -- frankly, if you go back to the nixon era, when nixon nominated both of them for the same vacancy that was just cities powelllitics of it has become so bad because what began with democrats saying, you know, we're not going to do this, we're not going to do this, we're not going to do this and then switch to republicans and then they basically said the same thing. so now you've got this just ocean of mistrust here. on top of which you've got in the base of each party people are saying, we want this seat, more or less, as jeff has indicated. so it's terrible. and i just don't see any way out of this. >> the politics of this actually don't make any sense at all. i mean, the republicans and conservatives had really bad luck as justice scalia died. >> what do you think of justice scalia's luck? >> we are not going to get a better nominee under a hillary clinton presidency. we are just simply not. if you look at the way the nomination is going, conservatives don't trust that he would put up a strict originalist to be a nominee anyway. >> very quickly and then we've got to go. >> this is where the challenge become