Powerful conservatives including republican senator ted cruz of texas who has argued once on the bench he will disappoint the right. So our big question this hour, in a Selection Process that is growing more contentious by the day, whose advice will President Trump take on his Supreme Court pick . Msnbcs garrett headacaake is i great falls, montana. Pete williams is the justice correspondent for nbc news. Robert costa a political reporter for the Washington Post and at nbc news and msnbc political analyst and Caitlin Hueyburns is a political report for real clear politics. Thanks to everybody for being here. Garrett, start with you, that list of three, what do we know about it and do we know if there is a pecking order within the list of three, a favorite and more of a long shot . Its always impossible to tell with this sort of thing, steve, because its so much depends on the president s viewpoint at the moment and the person lobbying him most directly at the time. I can tell you we expect this to be a topic of conversation out here in montana as the president has done in other cases like this where he puts things up for almost a snap poll, brings it up with the crowd and tries to make it part of the reality show if you will of how he makes these choices. So no particular inside into the president s mind beyond those three picks and the idea that this is still very much an active process. Well, pete williams, those three names, brett kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Raymond Kethledge, any of them making it on to this court right now . What would how would it affect the balance of the court, those three names . Well, any one of the three would move the court much more further much further to the conservative side. You would have five reliably conservative votes. You wouldnt have the swing vote of Justice Kennedy. That means probably upholding more state laws that would restrict access to abortion. It would mean probably more tolerance to positions where people argue that on behalf of their religious faith they cans serve samesex couples, samesex weddings, would probably mean perhaps a willingness to take up gun rights cases. Curiously the Supreme Court, after in 2008 saying for the first time that the constitution, the second amendment, provides an individual right to have a gun, has dozens of times since then declined to take up any other questions including the hot questions about concealed carry and the use of the gun outside the home, perhaps with five conservative reliable votes the court would be willing to go where it hasnt gone before on gun rights. In those areas it would definitely move to the right. And in the larger picture here, i think any one of them would more or less move the court in the same direction, though, all of them would bring unique perspectives that would be different from the others. Robert costa, let me ask you about that question of if President Trump, who ultimately is he listening to here, where is he getting his counsel from on this . You have conservatives who are some conservatives at least mounting the campaign against brett kavanaugh, democrats in particular ratcheting up the rhetoric on Amy Coney Barrett and apparently kethledge just sitting there. Who is the president listening to on this do we know . Influential conservative host Rush Limbaugh called it a Whisper Campaign on his program a few days ago and you see that on the right wing of the republican party, questions about judge kavanaugh and his rulings on health care and abortion issues. At the same time, the president s taking counsel of friends and associates as much as monitoring News Coverage based on my conversations with white house officials. At this point it looks like the president Still Believes kavanaugh is at the top of his list or near the top of his list encouraged by White House Counsel Don Mcgahn and then kethledge and judge coney barrett. What is it about kavanaugh that puts him at the top of the list . What puts him at the top of the list his judicial record and support from a lot of people inside the white house and outside of the white house who see him as the kind of pick who would follow in the judge gorsuch model on the Supreme Court which holding the president up and weve reported this at the post is his connection to george w. Bush. Judge kavanaugh worked as an adviser in the bush 43 white house. And caitlin, the objectships, lets take a kavanaugh then. The objections from conservatives, how deeply held is that view on the right and how much influence could that ultimately have here . The objections now that are being voiced publicly and privately are because there isnt the pick yet, right, so this idea of trying to sway the president s opinion through that. Whats also interesting to consider is the way in which gorsuch hangs over all of this. As the president consistently touts gorsuch as a key achievement of his presidency, not only that he got to pick the Supreme Court justice, but that people by and large at least supporters of the president really like him and he had a relatively low relatively less dramatic confirmation battle. The president has to consider the way in which this pick whoever emerges on monday, gets through that nominating fight. The margin is so narrow in the senate and theyre looking at about five senators who could kind of sway the court on this one. Yeah. I mean, pete, youve seen these through the years. Any of these three candidates stand out to you as particularly confirmble or particularly problematic when it comes to that path to confirmation . Well, they each have pluses and minuses. Both kethledge and kavanaugh are former kennedy clerks and i think that may count for the white house because i think they wanted Justice Kennedy to feel it would be possible for him to step down and know that somebody he would be comfortable with would take his seat. So that may factor into this. Amy barrett would bring the number of Supreme Court justices to four. I cant think of a time when someone who is a judge and thats been the recent trend here, certainly were times in the past where you didnt have to be a judge to be on the Supreme Court, but now seems to be a desire, so that you have someone with clear record and you know what theyre going to do, i cant think of a time when someone was a judge for less than a year. Shes been on the federal court of appeals put there by President Trump for eight months now. So her philosophy is pretty well known but largely through law review articles, some written when she was a law clerk. So she may be a little more of a cipher here looking for a positive record than kavanaugh who has written something close to 300 judicial opinions or Raymond Kethledge who was looked at the last time around as well. And garrett, where you are right now becomes very important, montana, john tester a democrat, is running for reelection there. This november, this is a state that donald trump won by 20 points in 2016. Doesnt seem at all coincidental that donald trump is out there right now. Tester voted against the Gorsuch Nomination last year. Joined democrats in trying to filibuster that nomination. Is he seen is the attitude here that he can be persuaded because of his reelection . This is going to put john tester in a difficult position, no matter who the president picks. He didnt just vote against gorsuch, he voted against mike pompeo, gina haspel and known to the president for being the main person who stopped Ronny Jackson to be Veterans Affairs secretary. Testers Reelection Campaign is predicated on working with President Trump when he thinks its good for montana. Hes running an ad in every major newspaper touting bills he has worked on that the president has signed. Any big public break from the president is a risky proposition for tester in a state that did vote overwhelmingly for the president , has a democratic governor. The more that the Supreme Court is an issue, closer and closer to november, the more difficult it will be for him to swim in these waters, whereas his republican opponent will be standing side by side to President Trump and velcroed himself to the president to his advantage. The flip side of this, we talk about these democrats in red states, also the republican wild cards and really the big republican wild card right now is Susan Collins, the signal shes sending about roe. When you look at these three potential picks were talking about here, do you see Susan Collins having issues with any of them . It seems when you look at kavanaugh being described as the more establishment pick that could give cover to some like Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski, given that, you know, his positions arent as entrenched on the issue of roe v. Wade and other more socially aligned where conservatives are more aligned as Amy Coney Barrett, for example. Whats interesting to see is, whether the red state democrats can wait to see whether republicans consolidate around whoever the pick is going to be. If Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski or anybody else breaks from the pack they give political cover for some of the democrats make it a little easier for them to cross over and support whomever emerges as the nominee. And robert costa, i am curious when it comes to this president and just sort of his style, we always talk about the polarization, weigh on him at all in a way that might attract one of these candidates, make one of these candidates attractive to him, the level of democratic opposition . I noted last in the last couple days intense democratic concerns being registered about Amy Coney Barrett, is that something trump might look at and say that makes me more likely to want this candidate . In fact, steve, allies of judge kethledge, Raymond Kethledge, have been passing on tweets to me today from senator Chuck Schumer criticizing judge kethledge and they think that could play in his favor if those tweets surface in front of the president on his way to mon tan. Interesting politicking behind the scenes. Thank you. Pete williams to you. Garrett haake, Caitlin Hueyburns. Appreciate that. Just to put in context here were talking about Susan Collins and talking about john tester, the math in the senate, democrats come into this fight with only 49 votes if they want to stop a Trump Nominee they got to flip a republican. They got to hold their side together. And again on the republican side, all the suspense is Susan Collins. She is the republican expressing publicly potential reservations. If she were to say no to one of these picks, especially on the grounds of roe, would that signal Lisa Murkowski, the other pro choice republican in the senate. Could there be two there. That is balanced against that other really reality were talking about, these red state democrats, facing the voters in 2018, manchin in west virginia, trump won the state by 42 points. Donnelly in indiana, trump won by 20 points. Hide camp in a trump plus 36 state. The wild card were saying today john tester, tester has been voting against a lot of these trump nominations. The Supreme Court nomination last year as well. Trump in montana today trying to turn up the heat. He did carry the state by 20 points. Could you crank up enough heat on tester. If tester if hes leaning towards being a no, the recent polling out of montana has has him ahead in the high single digits. His Political Health may be better than heitkamp in north dakota. Another wild card, doug jones, not up this year but this is alabama, the circumstances of his win in that special election, very strange last year, hes up in 2020. Obviously those sort of red state politics weigh on him too. Always keep the math in mind there. Democrats trying to hold the line. Republicans, you know, as well if they hold the line they can pass any nominee. Thats the math. Turning now also to new reporting, the government is now planning to use dna testing to match Migrant Children with their parents after being separated at the border. Hhs secretary says the agency is struggling to meet a courtordered 30day deadline to reunite 30,000 children with their families. Im joined by Nbc National Security and justice reporter julia ainsley. So julia, dna testing, numbers here of children who still havent been reunited what can you tell us about this . Steve, the number jumped out today and said nearly 3,000 children have not been reunited with their parents. We previously put that number somewhere around 2,000. The reason its bigger is because the Court Mandate is having them go back before trump started the zero tolerance policy. Prior to that about may 6th or so, even prior to may 6th, they were separating some children just on a smaller scale. Now they have more children and they say some children may not realize whether they were separated by Border Agents or whether they were separated by smugglers on their journey. Those separated by smugglers would not qualify for reunification. They have a bigger problem than they thought and in order to comply with these Court Deadlines theyre going to have to start doing dna testing. To get a birth certificate and check it with the consulate in the home country would take too long. That raises a lot of privacy concerns for activists who say once this dna is used, taken from the children, taken by the parents it could be used in a way to track them through biometric data and keep tabs on them through the country. I asked that question on the call and they said that they would only use dna evidence for this one purpose. But, of course, some people are pretty up in arms about the fact that they would use it in this way. Thanks for staying on top of the story. Good reporting there. Thank you. Coming up, another nerve agent attack in the uk. Fingers are already being pointed at russia. Live at Scotland Yard next. As we head to break, also there is this, meet the newest member of the White House Communications team. The president announcing that bill shine is joining the white house as a new assistant to the president , deputy chief of staff for communications will be his title. Shine is the former copresident of fox news. He spent 20 years also producing for sean hannity. Well be right back. I love my grandma. Anncr as you grow older, your brain naturally begins to change which may cause trouble with recall. Learning from him is great. When i can keep up anncr thankfully, prevagen helps your brain and improves memory. Dads got all the answers. Anncr prevagen is now the numberoneselling brain Health Supplement in drug stores nationwide. She outsmarts me every single time. Checkmate you wanna play again . Anncr prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. But shes got work to do. Pain. So she took aleve. If shed taken another pain reliever, shed be stopping for more pills by now. Only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. Aleve. All day strong. We all want to know you know, the new, new thing. With xfinitys retail stores, you can now see the latest. Want to test drive the latest devices . Be our guest. Want to save on mobile . Just ask. Want to demo the latest innovations and technology . Do it here. Come see how were making things simple, easy, and awesome. Plus come in today and ask about xfinity mobile, a new kind of network designed to save you money. Visit your local xfinity store today. In Critical Condition after being exposed to a deadly nerve agent. Investigators are investigating this as a potential attack on serg guy skripal and his daughter yulia in march. Theresa may said she was troubled by the second poisoning and vowed to get to the bottom of it. To see two more people exposed to the novichok in the uk is deeply disturbing and the police i know will be leaving no stone unturned in their investigation. Im joined by nbc correspondent matt bradley. The second poisoning here, what do we know about this in particular. Well, we just got some breaking news, steve, from right behind me the counterterrorism unit. They said that they now believe that this couple actually came into contact with part of this novichok poisoning. They believe it sounds like they came into contact with a residue from the previous poisoning. That was four months ago, steve. Kind of hard to believe this stuck around for so long. We know this couple the day before they reported feeling ill, that they had been Walking Around as you mentioned nearby salisbury, about seven or eight miles from where this couple live in nearby amesbury. So its quite likely they came into contact with this poison there in salisbury, maybe at a park, maybe they picked something up, but steve, as you know, thats going