What exactly is happening with Chris Christie beyond awesome twitter memes . And as the Supreme Court hears the most important reproductive rights case in 20 year, senator al franken on the republican blockade when all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. After last nights Election Results, this much is clear. Barring some huge unforeseen event that forces him out of the republican primary race, donald trump will either become the partys president ial nominee, or despite having the most delegates, hell be toppled by gop leaders this summer in cleveland and could potentially be the messiest, most Chaotic Convention in decades. Until now for the entire time trump has led the race, conventional wisdom has held the only way to beat him is to narrow the field and consolidate the antitrump vote. Now the opposite seems to be true. After super tuesday, the only candidate winding down his campaign appears to be ben carson and many of his voters are expected to go to trump. Everyone else is still in it. And while no one of them has much hope of defeating him outright, the partys best shot at stopping trump may be for all of them to stay in the race and split the upcoming votes as evenly as possible. Because this is the magic number. 1,237. Thats the number of delegate trump needs to lock up the republican nomination. Now, if no one candidate gets that number, then the convention gets to choose the nominee. A contested convention. It wont be pretty, but it might just be the gops only last hope. At least one of trumps rivals is signaling hes ready to fight all the way to cleveland. No matter how long it takes, no matter how many states it takes, no matter how many weeks and months it takes, i will campaign as long as it takes and wherever it takes to ensure that i am the next president of the united states. After last night, trumps lead in the delegate count almost 100 delegates ahead of ted cruz is looking pretty formidable, if not insurmountable. Less than two weeks from tonight on march 15th, another big batch of states hold their primaries including florida and ohio which both give all their delegates to the winner instead of awarding them proportionately. A lot of delegates at stake. John kasich, ohios current governor, and marco rubio junior senator from physical. Are counting on their homefield advantage but even if they were both to eke out a win, it probably wont be enough to catch up to trump. As president obamas former campaign guru, david plouffe, who knows a thing or two about this tweeted last night, a reminder unlike in boxing there are no lateround knockouts in the sport of delegate acquisition. Fall behind too much and its over. As of march 15th, 58 of all the available republican delegates will have been allocated. It could be basically a whole ball game which is why the fractured and feckless gop establishment is now scrambling to halt trumps momentum in the next 13 days before the winner take all contest. The antitrump group our principles pac released a new online attack ad today. Will you unequivocally condemn david duke and say you dont want his vote or that of other White Supremacists . Do you think this will put an end to the socalled Birther Movement . I want to go on to what donald trump said after he said this is out. The word is he wasnt a good student and he ended up getting into columbia and harvard. How does he get into harvard . Thats just code for saying he got into law school because hes black. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker who just saw trump in his home state just became the latest republican official to announce he wont vote for trump in the general election even though that state handed trump his largest margin of victory last night. And tomorrow, mitt romney is delivering a speech on the state of the race in which hes expected to make the case against trump. Its a sign of how truly desperate things are gotten that Lindsey Graham who said this year that choosing between trump and cruz would be like being shot or poisoned, now thinks cruz may be the partys best hope. We may be in a position we have to rally around ted cruz as the only way to stop donald trump. Im not so sure that would work. Youd recommend that in order to stop donald trump, rally behind ted cruz . I cant believe id say yes, but yes. Tom delay argued primary is only part of it, when it comes to the convention, all votes are off. The popular vote is important only in allocating delegates. 60 of the delegate in the Republican Convention will be picked proportionately. So if trump never gets more than 40 in each state, tonight hell only get 250 delegates. So no one has to beat him for him to lose . Thats right. The delegates get to choose. It is a party function. The party is putting up a nominee. Im joined now by someone whos more than a passing familiarity with that party. Rnc chair, former rnc chair, Michael Steele and msnbc political analyst. All right, michael. Lets talk delegate math. Nothing lights up the boards like delegate math. Oh, yeah. So heres what we got coming out of last night. Its actually interesting to me that trumps lead over cruz is not massive. Right . But the problem there is that cruz has already gotten the big boost hes going to get from the homestate win in texas. So there is no huge win on the board for him to get. Is first of all, is it possible for cruz to overtake trump in that and make up that deficit . There may be a pathway for him when you consider that last night what people glossed over and didnt pay too much attention to was the state of oklahoma. Oklahoma was the first state in this primary season that had a closed primary which means only republicans got to vote, not independents, not democrats who show up to switch and vote. It was Straight Party line Party Activists who went out and voted and he did very well. So he can now go make the case in these other states that are coming down the line this weekend and next week that those conservatives have a rallying point, that he has shown both in iowa and in oklahoma, specifically, that he can become the focus for a lot of conservatives. If hes able to do that, he wont necessarily, you know, may not win, he can then begin to pull some of that conservative vote away from donald trump. But heres the that gets us, again, to the convention. Everything leads to the convention. Thats my point. If youre talking about an outright overtake, were it the case that the ideal situation in the field would winnow cruz and trump, i dont think i agree. Those states are, even in a winnowed field, those states are more advantageous for trump. Those are 160 delegates on the board. I cant do the math you end up at a position if trump stays in this barring some crazy unforeseen twist, the only options, go to the convention, take it away from trump at the convention or trump get to 1,237. Thats basically it. The first option, you know, taking as much away from him as you can starts now. Thats what youre hearing rubio talk about, cruz talk about, kasich pinning his hopes on ohio. Their goal is to slow the momentum, slow down the number by which he wins. Now, keep in mind that when you go to winner take all, donald trump even if he holds the proportions that he holds right now is still going to win those states. Right. Because the rest of that 60some percent or 58 of the vote is split up among three other individuals so donald trump right now is still in the best possible seat to just win this outright even though you have the establishment types trying as hard as they can to take it away from him. So lets say everyone stays in, everyone takes their bites. Kasich maybe takes a bunch of people in rhode island, in connecticut, rubio does relatively well in florida even if he doesnt win or he wins, hes still going to be down. Can you imagine for a moment what that would look like in cleveland if donald trump goes in with the most delegates and somehow the Party Engineers a way of taking the nomination away from him . All hell would break out. It would be armageddon on the floor. I mean, it just this is what youre talking about. So the guy that comes into the convention with the plurality of the votes, probably some 200 votes, delegates away from getting the nomination on the first ballot, that youre somehow going to convince his delegates, first off, to move off of him to the guy who came in second, let alone third place . Right. It just doesnt work like that. So now theyre trying to roll out the mitt romney carpet to see if, you know, by having him come out and make a, you know, give us a state of the election in 2016, i dont know what thats all about because all its going to do is solidify Donald Trumps vote. Yeah. Because as people tell you, they didnt listen to romney in 2012, why are they going to listen to him now . The best thing mitt romney could do is endorse donald trump tomorrow if hed like to slow up his momentum. I agree. Joining me, betsy woodruff. Former dnc chair and msnbc political analyst howard dean whos a supporter of Hillary Clinton. Howard, let me start with you. Last night we got this, a little bit of a preview i think of trump in the general. You can start to see the pivoting, real economic nationalism, economic populism, hitting the Obama Clinton economy from the left. Is that what youre anticipating this general election looks like if he gets the nomination . This general if he should get the nomination, it could look like anything. The one thing you can predict about donald trump, it will be a huge surprise, nobody will have any what hes going to do next which, of course, is likely to scare the hell out of most american voters. Betsy, there is a belief that is, i think, a genuine belief among the republican political operative class that trump will get his clock cleaned by Hillary Clinton. Is that fair to say thats a kind of widespread consensus view among republican political professionals . I think its fair to say thats a view that has a significant number of adherence. That said, there are some who argue that trump could be the most competitive because hed drive up turnout and messes up the turnout models. Were already seeing republican primary turnout spike dramatically compared to 2012, last republican contested primary. In nevada, more people caucused for trump than the total number of people who caucused for everyone combined in 2012. Virginia, more republicans voted in the primary than democrats voted in their primary even though democrats have done really, really well in virginia over the last few election cycles. So theres an argument that we dont actually know how this is going to play out. If trump can galvanize, all the people who go to rallies end up voting for him, it wont be a guaranteed win for hillary. Theres a New York Times article about this today, a growing theme, something we couvered about the turnout gap. Hillary clinton got 3. 3 million votes last night. She has a half million more votes total. Right . Do you worry were seeing flagging enthusiasm, or the party in power and fewer contestants . I dont think its about flagging enthusiasm at all. And im not worried i also dont think theres any Predictive Value in looking at the two turnouts. I do agree that we should not take donald trump for granted should he be the nominee. I think hes surprised people all year. Wed be really stupid to think that were just going to roll over him because hes a nut. You got to be careful of that. You got to take him seriously. And i think i think we will and i do think hillary will be the next president , but weve got to our battle on our side is not done either, so well see. Yeah, no, that is absolutely true. Betsy, glenn beck and erick erickson, sort of floating this idea, take a listen to glenn beck floating a rubio cruz ticket idea. Ted cruz as the president , marco rubio, and i think they should announce this and run as this. I think we should begin to demand this. I think this should go all over the internet. Erick erickson saying a cruz rubio ticket makes the most sense right now. Pair up, announce the deal, let rubio win florida, get to the convention and make it so. That strikes me as fan fiction rather than actual political advice. Its kind of adorable, right, the level of creativity and imagination thats going into this. Its actually sort of endearing. Think its fan fiction that theres going to be a mad max brokered convention idea. The reality is getting cruz and rubio to magically deflate their egos to put together some sort of unity ticket, good luck, bless your heart, well see what happens. The fact is donald trump right now is the prohibitive favorite to be the republican nominee and republicans are to an extent making peace with it because he does drive turnout, because he has phenomenal name i. D. And because perhaps having a wildcard candidate against a fairly predictable democratic candidate might give them a decent shot as odd as i feel saying that. Howard, if you had to predict, i mean, weve seen all these riffs and all these divisions, seen this never trump movement, have Charlie Baker saying he wont, ben sasse, senator of nebraska saying hell never vote for trump. What is your prediction about the degree to which people will coalesce behind trump as the nominee if, in fact, that happens . I think it will be very problematic. Look, ive thought for a long time this is the election which the republicans need to lose for their own benefit. Thats going to change the orientation of the Republican Party. The Republican Party is heading off a cliff. They say things that are completely alienating to everybody under 35 in this country. Yeah. And in eight years theyre going to be 43. This is a losing game theyre playing and have to go through this catharsis just as we did when we nominated three people in a row too liberal for the american electorate. This is the election thats likely to happen. Howard dean. Thank you. Betsy woodruff. Thank you both. After Hillary Clintons big wins on super tuesday, Bernie Sanders says hes staying in until the convention. Jane sanders will join me next. Later, Chris Christie and the press conference that broke the internet. What was he thinking . Today the Supreme Court hears the most important Abortion Case in 20 years. And senator al franken on the fight over the next nominee, ahead. announcer need to hire fast . Go to ziprecruiter. Com and post your job to over 100 of the webs leading job boards with a single click. Then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. You put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. Makes my job a lot easier. announcer over 400,000 businesses have already used ziprecruiter. And now you can use ziprecruiter for free. Go to ziprecruiter. Com offer99 time now to check in on a special all in feature, the department of least surprising headlines. Todays courtesy of rolling stones. Bernie sanders, i like fish. The candidate also gave praise to the bands drummer, jon fishman, who was in attendance. Jon and fish have made new england proud. They are one of the great bands, have been one of the great bands in this country, so jon, we thank you very much. Fish, of course, got its start in Burlington Three decades ago and drummer jon fishman longtime sanders supporter says hes been following sanders career since his days as the mayor of burlington. After super tuesday, though, what is the path to victory for Bernie Sanders . His campaign vows to stay in this race until the convention. Next, ill talk to the top surrogate for Bernie Sanders, his wife, jane. The democratic candidates, super tuesday did not shake out entirely as expected. Hillary clinton won all those Southern States you see there among them. She also won massachusetts which is practically sanders backyard. Senator Bernie Sanders won his home state of vermont plus oklahoma, minnesota, and colorado. Sanders campaign was contesting five states. They won four of them. The loss of massachusetts was a disappointment. After a strong showing, clinton speaking from miami, florida, congratulated sanders on his wins but continued to take aim at her likely general election opponent should she win the nomination. That work is not to make America Great again. America never stopped being great. We have to make america whole. We have to fill in. I believe what we need in America Today is more love and kindness. Sanders in vermont spoke just after winning that state. Made clear hes in this primary battle to the convention. Let me assure you, were going to take our fight for economic justice, for social justice, for environmental sanity, for a world of peace. This morning the Sanders Campaign held a press event to discuss the path forward for their campaign. Super tuesday, in my view, was, perhaps, the single best day on the calendar for Hillary Clinton. If Hillary Clinton does not consistently win in the weeks and months ahead in big states and in small, questions will arise around her candidacy and her ability to coalesce a nominating majority of delegates will be, i think, substantially inhibited. The good news and the bad news for the Sanders Campaign is that all states in the democratic primary race are proportional, no winner take all. Candidates get delegates in proportion to their vote share but must get 15 of the vote to win any delegates. Over time, clintons lead which is now nearly 200 allocated delegates more than sanders will become difficult for sanders to overcome because of the proportional allocation, a lesson clinton learned in her 2008 race lens barack obama. Joining me now, spouse of 2016 president ial candidate Bernie Sanders, jane sanders. Its wonderful to have you. What is your feeling about nice to be here, chris. The mathematical path forward for the Sanders Campaign facing now this banked deficit of 200 allocated deficits and the fact that its proportional all the way through . Well, we knew the early maps would be harder for us. For several reasons. First, that the people across the country might not be as familiar with bernie as they are with the woman that has been in three president ial campaigns with two of her husbands, and one of her own already. Shes well known throughout the world. We needed to introduce bernie. However, the early states have turned out to be at least as good as we had hoped. As you say, its proportional. So in massachusetts, we had 49 of the vote. The delegate count is going to be just about equal. In vermont where they know him the best, he got a shutout. He will get 100 of the delegates because secretary clinton didnt meet the 15 threshold to get any delegates from our state. In terms of the states that we just had with super tuesday, it seems i think there are two important things to point out. Most of the states that secretary clinton won had low voter turnouts. Most of the states that bernie won had high voter turnouts. We know when we have a high voter turnout, bernie does better because the more people that participate in the process, the more they his ideas are carried out. The second is that most of the states, just, you know, not all of them, but most of the states are historically red states and are not likely to carry the day in the general election. Most of the states that bernie has won are mostly blue states or battleground states and hes won them handily. 10 in oklahoma, 19 in minnesota, 20someodd percent in oklahoma. Let me stop you right there, though. I think were looking good. Let me stop you right there. Two things. Talking about the red state blue state. Insofar as general elections are different. It seems dismissive of the good folks in alabama. Oh, to. Its not alabama and democrats fault that they dont have a majority of voters in alabama. They cant do anything about that except, you know, make more democrats. And that links up i think to a bigger issue here, right, which is there is this stark demographic divide happening in the states that clinton is winning, the States Sanders are winning. Exit polls showing Bernie Sanders losing black voters by 8514, losing in those states with very High Percentage of black voters across the south. I mean, it just seems impossible for me for someone to win the democratic nomination in the age of the Obama Coalition who is losing by those margins among black voters. Well, the age of the Obama Coalition was 2008. This is 2016 and well see either the Sanders Coalition or the clinton coalition. I think that its youre absolutely right, we need reach the africanamerican voter better. As i said, theyre not that familiar with them with bernie. What weve done is try to reach the working class voter, the middle class voter, and not go not divide and reach out to individual sectors of the community, the latino community, the africanamerican community, the women, the men, the young. But we have to do a better job on that. And we know that and we are going forward. I think if you look at the Election Results of yesterday, youll see that we were we had increased significantly with the latino vote. And in terms of the wide discrepancy, the same discrepancy holds true with bernie against clinton in terms of anybody under 30, whether no matter theres a huge generational no matter what race, what ethnicity they are. Jane sanders from burlington, vermont, if were not mistaken. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Still to come, the latest in a string of incidents at Donald Trumps rallies. The story behind this incident caught on videotape, ahead. Perhaps the most disturbing theme of the 2016 election so far has been the incidences of violence and verbal abuse hurled in the direction of protesters at donald trump rallies. Over and over again, with increasing frequency, over the past several months, often seemingly encouraged at the podium by trump, himself, these incidents are happening against the backdrop against two other equally disturbing phenomena. Growing list of avowed neo nazis and white nationalists who threw their support behind trump and his flirtation with david duke, former leader of the ku klux klan. Will you unequivocally david duke, say you dont want his vote or that of others in this election . I dont know about david duke, what youre talking about with White Supremacies or White Supremacists. Trump is insisting he does disavow david dukes support, something duke, himself, was asked about on monday. He said today finally he renounced you and your support. Whats your reaction to that . Ill laugh it off, thats fine. Look, donald trump, do whatever you need to do to get elected because we need a change. Trumps claim he disavows dukes support hasnt kept White Supremacists away from his rallies. Yesterday another disturbing incident that brings this together happened at up of his events. Several videos taken show a student at the university of louisville over the weekend being pushed and shoved by donald Trump Supporters at a rally in kentucky. Get out. Get out. Get out of here. This is what that student said happened to her in an interview posted on facebook. I was called a [ bleep ], [ bleep ], got kicked out. Whats your name . Im shya. What happened . I just got escorted out by the police along with the people at the rally, they were pushing and shoving at me, cursing at me, yelling at me. Called me every name in the book. Theyre disgusting and dangerous. Thanks to some excellent reporting from the daily news we know one of the men pushing that young woman whos wearing a make America Great again hat is Matthew Heimbach who confirmed his identity to all in today. Hes an unapologetic white supremacist and neonazi. Last year he tweeted, guess what, jews, were back with a picture of him. He tweeted, donald trump is not bothered being compared to hitler. Political correctness is losing its grip on america, with the picture of people hailing trump. Earlier today he wrote of the incident, ill avoid any additional trump events to ensure i dont become a distraction, but white americans are getting fed up and learning they must push back or be pushed down. Heimbach understands how the game is played, trump will have to distance himself from them and other White Supremacists. The fact is trump is their guy and they are sticking with him. The internet had a very good time last night with Chris Christies incredibly historically instantly iconically awkward appearance behind the man he has endorsed for donald trump, during trumps triumphant last night. A viral freechrischristie. His were the eyes of a man who has gazed into the abyss, and the abyss gazed back. Tim mack tweeted, going to need Chris Christie to hold up a copy of todays newspaper to prove this is not a prerecorded hologram hostage video. There were vines featuring curb your enthusiasm music and christie standing behind trump with the arrested development line, ive made a big mistake. The onetime National Finance cochair for christies president ial campaign meg whitman called christies endorsement of trump, a display of political opportunism. Christine todd whitman of christies home state of new jersey said shes ashamed christie would endorse anyone whos employed the hate mongering trump has. In new hampshire, a newspaper repudiated his endorsement, and an editorial calling for christie to step down as governor opening the editorial with the lines, what an embarrassment, what an utter disgrace. New jersey state senator Jennifer Beck a republican today called on christie to leave the campaign trail or resign. A new poll found christies already dismal Approval Rating in new jersey has fallen from 33 before the trump endorsement to just 27 today. 61 saying they disapprove his performance as governor. The pollsters also asked people to describe christie in a single word and produced this word cloud. Youll see that words, bully and arrogant, are particularly prominent. Christie seems profoundly diminished in trumps shadow like a swaggering schoolyard tough who has to defer to a bigger and stronger boy. Trump recently heard on a hot mike telling christie to, quote, get on a plane and go home after which christie dutifully walked away. Christie calls trump, quote, mr. Trump, all which leads us to the question a lot of people are asking right now, what is Chris Christie thinking . Joining me is the man who wrote the book on the subject, matt katz covering christie since 2011. Just wrote a new book american governor Chris Christies bridge to redemption. What is going on, matt . Let me start with this. I know this was very strange for america to see and i know it was very bizarre that he just stood there instead of going back and sitting down after he introduced trump. However, this is actually what christies face looks like when hes standing behind somebody at a podium. I went and looked at all these old pictures today of him being governor and often if he makes an appointment, the person speaks for a few moments, he stands to the back and he has this sort of dour expression, his eyes are darting back and forth. His hands sort of hang low to his sides. And this was kind of what he normally looks like. No, this is a classic example in cinema, right, where you set up the shot and then the audience fills in the emotional life of the character, right . The reason that everybody thought he looked weird isnt what he was physically manifesting on his face, it was the complete bizarreness of the entire setup of what we were witnessing. Absolutely. And we were also, like, thinking about the context which is this guy just dropped out of the race two weeks ago. The reason why he lost is mostly due to the person hes standing behind. Most of much of his inner circle and the people that helped to run his president ial campaign have disavowed christie over his endorsement of trump so hes losing all these allies. So the viewers at home were aware that part of christies political world is sort of falling apart over this, so i think there was a bit of projection on our part here. Heres my question, what is the play here . To me it looks like this is someone whos essentially taken a 1 in 1,000 chance to be in a Donald Trump Administration and other than that basically ripped up his entire political future. Yeah, hes all in. So to speak. I mean, he really hes making the, what he considers the savvy political move which is i know this guys going to win the nomination, im going to get ahead of everybody else, im going to be the first real actual establishment republican with actual governing experience to endorse this guy. Im going to give him some legitimacy. And then if, for some wacky reason he happens to win the white house, im going to get almost any position i want. And i believe thats what Chris Christie is thinking. People close to him tell me that this is an absolute rational, pragmatic decision on his part. You know but in the Chris Christie, it reminds me, hes been around the state so much, people you meet are workaholics and their family life starts to fall apart because theyre working so much and you realize the causality runs the other way, theyre working so much because they dont actually like being home with their family. Christie, it seems to me he hates being in new jersey, he wants to do anything he can to get back out on the campaign trail and not be stuck in trenton being the governor of his home state. Theres three pieces of that. First, i did hear he was a little bit antsy in trenton since he got back. The second thing is, new jersey in a lot of ways is a mess, and he doesnt necessarily know how to deal with it and the third thing is, you know, its kind of easy for him. Hes kind of bored with it. He did it for six years. Yep. Maybe hes not interested in continuing it. Thats the way it looks. Matt katz, thanks for being with us. Coming up, senator al franken on the latest in the Supreme Court battle, how it could impact a massively influential case involving Womens Health, ahead. The first major case since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Heard the most important abortion rights case in a generation. With an eightmember court, theres a possibility of a 44 split. What that would mean for the future of Womens Health, next. This just got interesting. Why pause to take a pill . Or stop to find a bathroom . Cialis for daily use is approved to treat both erectile dysfunction and the urinary symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently, day or night. Tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or adempas for pulmonary hypertension, as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. Do not drink alcohol in excess. Side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. To avoid longterm injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. If you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or any symptoms of an allergic reaction, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. Ask your doctor about cialis and a 200 savings card today the u. S. Supreme court took up the most important Abortion Case in over two decades. Large crowd gathered outside the court before oral arguments were heard in the case of whole Womens Health versus helerson. Imposes strict requirements on abortion providers, a law other states are looking to replicate. The court will be examining whether those requirements constitute a, quote, undue burden on the constitutional right to an aabortion. Its decision could have enormous consequences for women across the country. This is the first highprofile case to be heard since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia last month and a 44 decision would uphold the lower courts upholding of current restrictions. Msnbc National Reporter irin carmon was there today, shes the author of this book. What has the law done and why is it being challenged . The most important thing to think about, more than to years the antiabortion side has been trying to bait Anthony Kennedy into slowly chipping away the right to abortion, not a frontal assault, not saying lets ban abortion, but chipping it away so effectively that its very inacceptable to most women. They know Justice Kennedy is uncomfortable with abortion. Enter this texas law and many laws like it, it requires abortions take place in very expensive facilities known as ambulatory Surgical Centers and requires all abortion providers have privileges at local hospitals. In places like texas mississippi, louisiana, alabama, even wisconsin, this can be really hard to comply with. Its expensive, hospitals say no. The end result in texas, you have 5. 4 million women of reproductive age who may be left with only ten abortion clinics. By contrast, california which is the most populous state has about 160. We should note, doctors say these regulations arent done actually theyre done in bad faith essentially. The doctors are saying we dont actually need these things, this is being done to cut off access. This is what they were talking about today in the courtroom. They actually say these laws make women less safe because they make it harder to access safe and legal clinics and they say, this is something the liberal justices made a lot of today, they say, in fact, texas already had a very, very high safety record, nationwide abortion is safer than carrying a pregnancy to term. Texas, itself, lower than the National Average complication rate. Many women die of pregnancyrelated complications. What was happening in the court today, liberal justices hammering the solicitor general of texas and saying, well, if abortion is safer than a colonoscopy, why arent you regulating a colonoscopy this way . Right. If you say a woman can go out of state, but they dont have those laws, are you really trying to protect women here . Thats something Justice Ginsburg everyone focuses on Anthony Kennedy in these cases because hes a sort of swing justice although its a whole new math right now with four justices appointed by republicans, four appointed by democrats. What happens if the court splits . For lowincome women who would be primarily affected by these restrictions in texas, mississippi, and louisiana, it doesnt really matter that Justice Scalia is no longer on the court. If Justice Kennedy, despite what he said in the past, then the law is going to go into effect, there will be no clinic left in mississippi. Three out of four in louisiana will close. All but ten in texas will close. Now, that will just be for that region of the country. It only only be in the region of the country covered by the fifth Circuit Court of appeals which already said these laws are basically fine. Every other part of the country would have a different kind of regime, in fact, in wisconsin, they were deemed unconstitutional. We could get a patchwork or they could kick the can down the road. Msnbc National Reporter irin carmon. Thanks. That was clarifying. Can Senate Republicans obstruct the replacement of scalia with a trump nomination . 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You cannot be turned down because of your health. Call for your information kit and read about this rate lock for yourself. Youll also get a free gift with great information both are free, with no obligation, so dont miss out. Call for information, then decide. Read about the 30 day, 100 percent money back guarantee. Dont wait, call this number now. Todays Supreme Court arguments about the most significant Abortion Case in years is a stark reminder of just whats at stake in this years election. Republicans continue to argue they will ignore any nominee president obama picks to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the court. Not only has Mitch Mcconnell refused to have a confirmation vote, he says he wont have a hearing. The more republicans insist a scotus vacancy wont be filled this year, it means donald trump could pick the next. All we want them to do is fulfill their constitutional duty and do their job. And at this stage, theyve decided not to do that. They think that theyre going to wait and see what President Trump will do, i guess, as far as the nomination. Joining me now, senator al franken, democrat from minnesota, member of the Judiciary Committee who says Mitch Mcconnell would set a dangerous precedent refusing confirmation hearings for president obamas Supreme Court nominee. I wonder how much the awareness in the political world that the person the Republican Party is likely to nominate is donald trump, thats the person for whom theyre holding this vacancy in an unprecedented fashion well, you know, the prospect of President Trump is very disturbing to a lot of people, including myself. So much of what hes been saying throughout his campaign is offensive. Maybe that will have some effect. The fact of the matter is this is unprecedented. Since 2000 since 1916, rather, 100 years ago, when the Judiciary Committee on which i sit started having confirmation hearings for Supreme Court justices, everyone whos been nominated has had a hearing except for the ones who, either one withdrew, harriet miers, and the other night were all confirmed within 11 days. So this is unprecedented. This is making something partisan out of something that is just in the constitution. We have a vacancy thats caused by a death of Justice Scalia. The President Shall appoint and the with the advice, consent of the senate. Scientists tell us there are 10 1 2 months left in this president s term. He was elected by the people. The people have had their say. They know what happens when you elect a president. He gets to nominate justices and the senate is supposed to do its job. Well, the argument that Mitch Mcconnell made in that letter and the Judicial Committee made is, look, the constitution is clear, advise and consent and they use that word, we are withholding our consent preemptively to anyone you nominate. Their argument is this is squarely constitutional. Well, i understand that, but whats unprecedented about this is, you know, i guess we dont have to do anything. Its probably constitutional for me to stay in minnesota and not show up here. But thats certainly not the point of bothering to become a senator. Well, so then the question well, that is i agree, i mean, that seems persuasive to me not only that, but they have said things like, you know, we havent in the last 80 years confirmed a justice in an election year. Thats just not true. So in addition to everything else, to just say stuff that aint true. Kennedy, Justice Kennedy, who sits on the court, was confirmed in 1988 during an election year. Scientists tell us an election year. What is your leverage here . Obviously theres a certain amount of shaming, moral, they view this as a sheer question of political power. Well, were kind of counting you know, theyve done this kind of thing before where they take a stand and then they public sentiment is against them and they back off it, and thats what were hoping for when the president nominates someone whos obviously qualified, there will be public pressure. I put on my website, alfranken. Com, a petition for people to sign, a letter to the leader, the republican leader, mcconnell, saying we want to have hearings. And so you can go, your viewers can go to alfranken. Com and register their opinion for that and their desire for a confirmation hearing. So i believe that once the president nominates, the pressure will build, and once they start seeing who im sorry. Im hearing something in my ear. Is it that were yes. Senator, im afraid were closing on the end of time, but i think once the nominee happens, were going to see some more pressure mount is the point. Senator al franken, it was a real pleasure. Okay. Thank you very much, senator. Thank you. That is all in for this evens. The Rachel Maddow show begins right now. He knows exactly what was happening there. Hes a broadcasting pro. Am i being told to wrap . A Little Something i hear right here in my ear. That was brilliant. Well done, my friend. Apparently leaking a second name of a possible Supreme Court nominee to replace antonin scalia. Nevada govr