fifl lebeau is at the mercedes suv plant outside tuscaloosa, alabama. >> reporter: job one for mercedes latest redesigned suv, the gle, with worldwide suv sales at a record pace, mercedes expects the gle to be in strong demand. >> this plan is basically invented the premium suv 21 years ago with the first m class. today the gle. today we see growing demand worldwide for suvs. and especially the electric suv. >> >> reporter: this plant outside tuscaloosa is critical for mercedes. two thirds of the week vehicles built here will be loaded up and exported with a good chunk in china. while sales in china of suvs like are under pressure because of higher tariffs in the country it's not slowing down mercedes-benz plans for expanding here in alabama. the company is breg ground on a new plant here in alabama where three hundred new works will build batteries for electric suvs set to roll out in 2020. >> for our operation and let's say for the future of in plant and especially for the state of blachl alabama it's a fantastic thing. this is the only battery plant we plan on building in the united

intro good morning >> good morning, joe the reason we're here in vance, alabama, just outside of tuscaloosa mercedes-benz will be further expanding this plan. we'll talk about that in a little bit it has to do with electric vehicles in terms of production of suvs, this is one of the global centers for mercedes-benz. for all the talk about tariffs and whether or not fewer vehicles will be exported to china, estes, they're looking at strong demand. that's why they continue to crank out as many suvs as they build down here. you have the vehicle exports, about two-thirds of what they build here, about 300,000 this year, about two-thirds will be exported 80,000 to china. why is the worldwide sales of suvs continuing to grow? the demand is there. especially on the luxury front record worldwide sales for mercedes suvs. up 5.4%. and luxury suvs here in the united states, you guys, up 9% for the industry this year there is clearly demand on the higher end when it comes to suvs for alabama, this is an important facility because alabama now builds about 9% of all the vehicles that are built in the uni

that doesn't play well in peoria or tuscaloosa. >> forget politics.ely human level, if you're you a part of the smear campaign can, think about what you're saying. think about what you're saying. you're saying a man who went into a consulate to get a marriage license and left in pieces in a bag after he was tortured and murdered, he's the bad guy? >> wow. >> that's what you're saying. you're saying he's the bad guy. >> just putting it out there. >> think about what you're doing. it's pathetic. and what are they going to do now, donnie, that donald trump, the president of the united states, whose bidding they're doing, seems to be moving in the other direction saying i think he was killed and it does like like mbs -- >> like everybody else, trump will leave toxicity in his path. i made a joke before we were going to break and alex yelled at me. little jared kushner is going to be very upset because his crown prince buddy, they're fought going to be able to do future dealings together and jared will be so upset because he had such a nice -- >> what's th

we saw polling around tuscaloosa, alabama state.t young people did in the democratic party, so what is actually -- what actually needs to be done to make sure this happens so we don't have lucy taking the football out from charlie brown. >> well, i think one thing that's happening, one of the reasons i'm confident about this year and by the way when joe mentioned john kerry didn't live up to what he expected, youth vote went from 40% to 49% between 2000 to 2004. one of the connections to that is attitudal shift that politics matter. young people are open to politics matter. it's incumbents on candidates to drive that issue home. it's a tangible difference in alabama last year. young people, people under 45 voted for the democrat. the share of the youth vote will increase. there's more opportunity for young people to participate at a higher level than a ceiling where older folks are. i think it can make a significant difference. >> i can spend all day talking with you about this stuff but i want to get up high and ask this question.

what my -- the seventh congressional district is birmingham, selma, montgomery, marion, tuscaloosa, a lot of historic stuff happened there. i see it as an avenue for economic revitalization. a little selfish, but it's not just my district. so many other districts would benefit as well because we know that if we don't learn from our past, we are going to repeat the past. i think that -- so the -- i went to the president at the time obama and said i think that for the 50th anniversary of the selma and montgomery march it's not enough we have a department of interior with historic preservation grants, how about we do specific grants for civil rights sites and then clyburn said why don't we do specific grants for civil rights sites on hbcus too. we started a conversation based on our life experience knowing that those kinds of historic preservation grants can be a catalyst for economic revitalization of our community. there's too many of those churches are crumbling. on saturday, tomorrow, will be the 55th anniversary of the 62 baptist church bombing of the four little black girls killed.