This concludes the Press Conference. Thanks, everybody. Theyre doing a photo op, but not answering any additional questions being shouted by the press. That was President Biden and the president of kenya. He is the first african leader to be given an official state visit since 2008, three days of it. David ignatius, foreign columnist and Associate Editor of the Washington Post and an msnbc contributor has been watching along with us. Look, obviously very heavily focused on foreign affairs. The 300 million the United States is going to give to fight gangs in haiti, although were going to see kenyan troops there, no american troops. He reiterated again talking about the growing debt, the problems, the Crushing Debt really for developing nations like kenya. A lot of that money owed to china. I thought the toughest question maybe, david, for President Biden was about the icc warrant on benjamin netanyahu, the International Criminal court charging as the reporter said israel of using starvation as a weapon of war against hamas and against the palestinian people, and i wonder what you make of President Bidens response and whether you think this showdown is really heating up in this fight between the court and israel with joe biden and the United States in the middle. So i agree with you that was certainly from an american stand point, the most newsworthy thing the president said. He was emphatic. He didnt use a lot of words to say it. He said the icc has no jurisdiction here. He said there is no moral equivalence between israels actions and those of hamas, just totally rejected the request thats been made for the icc to issue a warrant. The warrants not been issued yet. I think this issue obviously is heating up. Theres a way to go before there actually would be escalation with seeking a warrant, making it difficult for israeli leaders to travel, but the president was blunt, direct, short of speech in his response. This really was an event that was focused on kenya and the idea of the United States is pressing for much more meaningful partnerships in africa with kenya. I thought that part of the News Conference couldnt have been clearer. One of the things that they did, so help us understand because i think a lot of people will watch and theyll try to figure out why there arent state dinners, for example, and state visits that often. This was a threeday visit. I was with president obama when he went to kenya back in 2015, the major issue was security then, a major issue is security and the economy now. So in i guess those broad categories, that hasnt changed, but one of the things that the United States has done is to designate kenya as a major nonnato ally. Why is this important, and why is this threeday state visit even taking place. Why kenya . So i think the answer to that is that the Biden Administration wants to make kenya a show piece, if you will, of a broader effort to engage what we call the global south, countries in africa and latin america and asia, that china is aggressively courting with loans, with assistance of various kinds, Economic Development projects, and President Biden was elevating the status of kenya, that phrase, a major nonnato ally. Thats kind of right up there with our key partners who are not actually part of nato, and then also interestingly trying to draw kenya and by extension other countries in africa into the expanding world of technology opportunities, a lot of reference to Green Technology projects in kenya. I found it very interesting that the president is going to ask for funding for kenya to be part of the chips and infrastructure act, the big effort to build american technology. He wants to extend that to kenya as a partner. I think its an attempt to say to countries around the world, were in this game too. Dont think that china is the only country thats seeking to interact with you about Economic Development and security issues. Were there too. I thought it was interesting as well the funding from the chips act. Thats the first african country that would get money from it, and also write that Student Exchange involving s. T. E. M. Students. I also want to bring in nbc news chief White House CorrespondentPeter Alexander who was in the room. I think i heard your voice, peter asking some of the questions. The president didnt take the bait, but we were talking about the question about the icc for President Biden, but whats your big takeaway from this Press Conference . Reporter i too was struck by the president announcing that he would be supplying kenya with some of the Investment Money provided by the chips act, which was focused, as you noted logical, more microchips being produced in the u. S. He was very blunt on the way he addressed the situation with israel saying there should be no equivalence between what hamas did and what israel did. There were a series of other topics i was hoping to ask the president about, specifically as it relates to some of the news of day as we describe in politics, his reaction to nikki haley making it official yesterday saying that she will be voting for donald trump in the election this fall, despite her repeatedly attacking trump throughout the primaries. Donald trump has said very little, if anything about it since then, but joe biden had that opportunity now. How will he try to win over those collegeeducated, those independent voters looking ahead to the general election this fall. There are other questions as they relate to the debate, why the president thought it was necessary to hold the first debate in june and why he has decided that its there is no reason that he should hold any more than two debates with donald trump. There have been other offers. He has agreed to do only two, and then finally as it relates to the issue of the Supreme Court right now, the series of decisions on its plate, most notably as they relate to donald trump, president ial immunity one of the issues before the court, other issues as they relate to Donald Trumps effort to try to overturn the 2020 election, questions about the Election Integrity in general. Whether the president would have any comments specifically about Justice Samuel alito and the new reporting from the New York Times about multiple flags now at a Northern Virginia home and at a home in new jersey where the justice was flying flags that had been embraced by rioters on january 6th, the president not keen to take that question either. But the bottom line, the focus of this visit really to sort of to make a clear message to the people of sub saharan africa, to the people of africa broadly that the u. S. Does want to be engaged in that effort, that the u. S. Has investments, and that democracy can deliver. It comes amid so many of the coups weve seen there, the instability throughout that region, american troops being kicked out by the Military Junta in niger most recently. Really a lot of challenges there. It should be noted this tonight this is the first state visit with a state dinner to take place tonight for an african Nation Dating back to 2008, the sixth state visit that president of the United States joe biden has hosted since taking office, chris. Peter alexander and david ignatius, thank you guys, both. I really appreciate it. Up next, the other controversial flag spotted outside a home of Justice Samuel alie toe. The links to the january 6th attacks and the growing pressure for the justice to recuse himself. Thats next. For the justice to himself. Thats next. ella fashion moves fast. Setting trends is our business. We need to scale with customer demand. In real time. jen so we partner with verizon. Their solution for us . A private 5g network. ella we now get more control of production, efficiencies, and greater agility. marquis with a custom private 5g network. 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With a laundry detergent. gain flings. Seriously good scent. Growing questions today about the impartiality of Supreme CourtJustice Samuel alito after a second provocative flag was spotted flying outside one of his properties. The New York Times reports that an appeal to he know flag flew outside his new jersey beach home last summer. That flag along with an inverted American Flag that flew outside his Virginia Property has links to the stop the steal movement and was carried by rioters on january 6th. Eric toller is the New York Times reporter who helped break that alito story. Also joining us nbcs ryan reilly and carlos curcurbelo, a former republican congressman from florida and msnbc political analyst. Eric, what more can you tell us about the display of this flag at alitos home, and has he had anything to say about it . Thanks for having me. Yeah, so alito was flying this flag last summer, so july, august, and september of 2023. We dont know if the flag was up continuously the entire time, but we do have about four different photos and actually a fifth that actually surfaced after the report came out. So yeah, and we asked him about this. We asked him about the Upside Down Flag from a week ago, and there he blamed his wife for it, so it was after a dispute with his neighbors, but he refused to give a comment about this flag. So he had something to say about the first Upside Down Flag, but nothing about this. Ryan, Trump Supporters i mentioned this were seen carrying the appeal to heaven flag during the january 6th insurrection. Give us a little bit of the historical background on this, though, and how after a really long time in obscurity its back. Yeah, you know, if you really wanted to go back to, you know, john locken when this all started, you know in the 16, 1700s, thats one thing. In the modern era its been closely associated with Christian Nationalism. Thats what we really think of it in that context, starting with sarah palin a decade ago and all the way up to now. It was carried by a number of people who were there for january 6th. Its probably not something that would be unexpected in a crowd with the makeup of this type. There are also a lot of Blue Lives Matter flags there as well. I think the Upside Down Flag in the context of January Of 2021 is definitely more of a direct link in terms of january 6th, but this was definitely a feature of january 6th altogether, but more directly i think speaks to this idea of Christian Nationalism being promoted on the lawn of someone on the Supreme Court. So critics have said, carlos, that Christian Nationalism, signs of it, signs of an attempted overthrow of the government or any implication of support, overthrow of an election have no place with somebody who is a Supreme Court justice. But former National Security adviser john bolton had a fiery response to critics of alito and i want to play that. I think it is outrageous, outrageous and unacceptable for people to take a flag from the American Revolution and say that because some january 6th protesters flew it that its now unacceptable to fly that flag, and id like to hear a Democratic Party politician say that expressly. Carlos, do you agree at all . Is this much ado about nothing . Look, chris, i think the irony here is that for conservatives, the ideal Supreme Court justice, the ideal judge is someone who soberly interprets the law. Someone who is not an activist. Someone who is simply taking the letter of the law and applying it to modern day questions, and what we have seen both from Justice Alito and Justice Thomas in recent years is a kind of activism, right . Their opinions have been very aggressive, very pointed, and then also theres all this extracurricular behavior that raises questions. So look, i dont think thats very hard to reach any strong conclusions from any of this, but certainly it injects doubt into an institution that is supposed to be objective, unbiased, and that would hopefully have the support of the majority of the American People because it weighs so heavily on our democracy, so in doing these things, these justices are certainly reducing the credibility of the court yeah, i mean, as you just suggested, this is one in a line of controversies on the court, right . Several of them surrounding Justice Clarence thomas, also his wife who denied the 2020 election results. So senator dick durbin is trying to push through ethical standards for the Supreme Court. Even Amy Coney Barrett supports them, but chief Justice Roberts could not get it done, so what do you think the likelihood is that congress could actually take some action . Well, look, i think congress should at least try, right . The constitutionality of congress imposing rules on the Supreme Court means certainly that thats going to be controversial, and its going to be contested. But for better or worse, congress does have its rules, does have ethical standards for its members, both Chambers Have Ethics Committees that regulate the conduct of their members, and really, the Supreme Court should be held to the same standard as the congress, as the executive branch. It really does seem ironically that its been pretty lawless over there at the Supreme Court for a while, and again, if we want to restore the trust and confidence of the American People in these institutions, the court should either take its own action to regulate the ethics of its members or congress should try to do what they can. So eric, you also report that the appeal to heaven flag is being flown outside the office of House Speaker mike johnson. How do they explain that . Yeah, mike johnson, they plant to kind of the roots of this flag. It was back in 1775, i believe, is when the flag was created and used during the Revolutionary War, but its been repurposed and its pretty naive to think this is purely a nod back to the Revolutionary War. Its been used very heavy by christian nationalists and other right wing groups, kind of as a Mobilization Campaign to bring more of a Christian Focus and more kind of christian law making and interpretation of law. So thats what many havepointed to who have been asked about this, pointing to the Revolutionary War origins of this flag. A flag is not just a flag. Its been repurposed heavily in the last decade or so, and it kind of fell out of use for a while until relatively recently. Eric toller one of the great reporters on the New York Times investigative unit, congressman carlos curbelo, thank you both. Ryan, youre going to be back with me in a little while. Comi