This Morning’s Top Headlines – March 20 | Morning News NOW

we're happy you are with us on this Wednesday morning Wednesday all right good morning good to have you with us I forgot already I'm Joe and I'm Savannah sellers this morning we're going to get started with the legal battle over Texas's controversial immigration law so oral arguments are set to begin today in federal appeals court on the Biden administration's effort to block the law known as S sp4 A lot happened yesterday for a moment Texas was allowed to enforced the law then it wasn't this co

ntentious law would allow local police to arrest migrants who crossed the border illegally from Mexico and impose criminal penalties it would also Empower state judges to order people to be deported to Mexico now earlier this month the Supreme Court issued a temporary freeze on the law until justices could consider the case then yesterday those justices ruled that Texas could enforce the law until a lower court the federal appeals court issued its ruling on the matter well that didn't take long

just hours later that appeals court unexpectedly opposed a new block on the law last last night and is now expected to hear arguments on the case today NBC News Homeland Security correspondent Julia anley has the latest on all this also NBC News legal analyst Danny savalos is here to break it all down because it's a little confusing so Julia let's start with you a lot of back and forth going on in this case especially yesterday what are you watching for today how soon could this appeals court is

sue a decision a lot of whiplash right now but what's really coming down to is that we may actually have a court that weighs it in on the merits of whether or not asb4 should stand rather than having debates about whether or not it should be on hold pending those oral arguments in fact it was at first we heard earlier this week the Supreme Court said let's issue is stay indefinitely we thought that might stick for months um and then obviously they were really just buying themselves enough time t

o say you know what actually it can go into effect pending what the fifth circuit does we thought that might last a while now the fifth circuit is saying it should go on hold and scheduling those oral arguments so that hopefully the Biden Administration The Advocates and Texas will be able to come bring their cases here about why this law should or should not stand but yes it's a lot of whiplash overnight waking up to this news trying to figure out whether or not this law can go into effect and

why do we care so much because it's a radical change a radical departure from the way the US has carried out immigration law for the last 150 years because it has fallen to the federal government not the state government government to be able to arrest people who they think came into the country illegally and really States haven't been trained in that law much less uh not their police and much less their judges Danny let's hear more about the Supreme Court's decision what are the implications th

ere of that and then also tell us as we move ahead and look to actually this appell at court what this means in terms of the Biden administration's argument as well as from what we're hearing from Texas the Supreme Court's decision was really a non-decision it essentially sent it back to the Circuit Court of Appeals and that's who has it right now but what was really interesting about the Supreme Court was its dissenting opinions where the three liberal justices made very clear that not only wou

ld they have taken this case up but they signaled exactly what direction they would go so you could say that the conservative justices didn't give us any signal by simply sending the case back to the fifth circuit but the three liberal justices who are a minority and they're just dissenting and a dissenting opinion is basically has no Force it's basically just lodging your objection uh they told us that pretty clearly that they would uh go against this Texas law so what that means effectively no

w is the that Texas can enforce the law which is going to be problematic because it is inconsistent with Federal immigration law so Julia if this law does go into effect after everything we hear in the courts does Texas even have the resources and capacity to handle the arrest and on top of that Mexican officials said yesterday they won't accept deportation so where would Texas even send those who are deported yeah that's a big question I talked at Texas Department of Public Safety yesterday jus

t after the Supreme Court decision and they said they still needed to gather together with the key stakeholders and especially decide when they could start rolling that out and Texas DPS is one part of that you also have to think of the many local police across the state of Texas including in small rural areas who might not have the capacity to enforce this law as of yesterday when they thought this could go into effect they didn't have a concrete date it was not immediate but they said it could

be as soon as tomorrow meaning today before we heard from the fifth circuit so a lot influx in Texas but Mexico has staunchly come out against us a foreign minister said yesterday they think that this is inhumane they think that this violates human rights whereas uh the a top Mexican official came out on Twitter and said we will not accept deportations and the Texas law has set up so that anyone who has given a deportation order would go back to Mexico it's not clear that they would be able to

establish the individual authorities they need to send people back to their home countries for example if someone came from Venezuela the US can't even send anyone back to Venezuela right now how would Texas then establish that Authority and get Venezuela to accept those people uh really a lot of the the practicalities have not yet been sorted out Danny what are the broader legal implications here should this be able to move forward even after we get the appeals court decision given as both you

and Julia smartly pointed out that you know this is not standard practice this is not how it's done across multiple different states that are along the border what would this mean here as we move forward for immigration policy that this case is this mired in appeals is a surprise to me because it seems to me a pretty uh straightforward constitutional issue the federal government has exclusive authority to dictate immigration policy and there's a very good reason for that it's why we have certain

things that are left exclusively to the federal government imagine if every state decided coining its own money or printing its own dollar bills it would would be a disaster imagine if uh different countries had to negotiate immigration policy you just heard Julia Julia's reporting on Mexico's negotiation with America about its immig our immigration policy and how they feel about this Texas law imagine if Mexico had to negotiate with every border state individually as if it was a separate Sover

eign these are certain things powers that the states gave up to be part of the United States it seemed to be a pretty settled issue the Supreme Court weighed in on this back during the papers please Arizona case uh I'm surprised it's gotten this far but the danger is that if allowed to persist this Texas law could create a patchwork set of immigration law which is really an athma to the Constitution itself so I'd be really surprised if Texas ends up prevailing here see what happens Julia and Dan

ny thank you both for breaking it down for us this morning we appreciate it well this morning Donald Trump is celebrating a big win in Ohio NBC News is projecting Bernie Marino a former car dealer and Trump back candidate has won Ohio's Republican Senate nomination Marino defeated Matt Dolan and Frank lose who were considered more traditional Republican candidates Marina will now face incumbent three term Democratic senator shered Brown in November for more on this we're joined by NBC News senio

r White House correspondent Kelly O'Donnell and NBC News senior political editor Mark Murray thank you both for being here that's right Mark Let's Get It Started With You obviously big night for the former president and the Maga movement in Ohio again because this was his back candidate who who did take this what's your reaction to what we saw in the Buckeye state and also what do you think about how this is going to stack up against sharid Brown yeah so this was a another reminder last night th

at the Republican party is Donald Trump's party what we ended up seeing in the exit pole was that M Moreno ended up doing really well among the very conservative as well as non- col voters the same types of core voters in Donald Trump's base uh and this in a lot of ways was a replay of what we end up seeing in 2022 when then uh uh uh Trump backed JD Vance won a three-way Republican primary for the US Senate on the Republican side and Matt Dolan was also in that contest with another traditional R

epublican as well um and so Savannah I do think that this is just another reminder of how this is Donald Trump's party and how this Stacks up for the general election it's worth noting this is going to be one of the key races that will decide control the United States uh Senate shared Brown is one of the more formidable Democratic incumbents uh but he's going to end up needing a lot of ticket Splitters in a state that Donald Trump will probably be favored to win in a general election so Mark I m

ean Democrats really aren't complaining about this in this Ohio Senate race National Democrats actually put millions of dollars behind ads for Moreno thinking he's the easiest candidate to defeat at the same time as you mentioned Ohio seems to be getting redder and redder each election so what do you think of this strategy of Democrats pushing Trump back candidates in the primary thinking the Democrats will win in the general how effective has it been in the past well so in the past it worked fo

r someone like CLA mccal in 2012 elevating the person who you actually see is maybe the weakest uh opponent and so Democrats did pinpoint Moreno and thinking that he was a potentially weaker general election candidate uh than uh Dolan or even lose and so we saw an advertising and some of the ads were saying that the the Trump backed very conservative Bernie Mareno uh and trying to get him out uh to for for Republican voters to know that uh but again in 20 in 2020 Donald Trump won Ohio by eight p

ercentage points and so that's going to be the brutal math for shared Brown where he is going to end up needing a considerable number of Donald Trump shered Brown vot voters in a political world where there are very there are fewer and fewer ticket Splitters Kelly let's bring you in here keep talking politics President Biden is out west campaigning this is part of a three-day tour through Arizona and Nevada specifically here he's looking to drum up support among Latino voters it's an area where

Republicans have been making inroads so what is on the president's agenda today and what is the White House saying about this specific push well good morning and good to be with you this is a part of the campaign season where the Biden campaign is working on trying to build the coalitions with affinity groups and constituencies that they believe are essential to their ability to get the math to win and so that is some of the work that's going on that Outreach to Latinos in Nevada and Arizona the

president will also be in Texas and doing that is a way to try to connect and the President also spoke in Phoenix about how much he needs the support of Voters in these critical States and especially within these critical communities because it could make the critical difference here's the president you know last time you're the reason in large part I beat Donald Trump let's beat him again well you know I need you I need you badly I need to help Comm and I desperately need your help because loo

k there's only about six or seven states are going to term in the outcome of this election they're tossup States this is one of them and he's speaking there in Phoenix so Arizona was of course part of the essential math for his victory last time and a state where they believe they have to keep that maintain it and build on it where possible so Outreach to those sort of communities is a big part of what we're seeing in the month of March and perhaps somewhat into April before they go on to expand

in other ways so long elections have seasons and right now it's about building those coalitions Kelly O'Donnell and Mark Murray thank you both very much today a GOP Leed house committee looking into the business dealings of President Biden's son Hunter is scheduled to hold a hearing but without two star Witnesses Hunter Biden who had originally requested a public hearing is now refusing to appear today at the hearing being held by the Republican controlled house oversight and Judiciary committe

es it's entitled influence pedaling examining Joe Biden's abuse of public office Biden's lawyer dismissed the hearing as a carnival Sideshow NBC News Congressional correspondent Julie ciren joins us now with the latest good morning so Hunter Biden's one of the main Witnesses who won't be there today the other is Devin Archer a business associate of the president's son so why not didn't Hunter Biden ask for a public hearing he did ask for a public hearing his lawyers asked for a public hearing fr

om the Republican lead committee for months this is back when the committee wanted to hear from Hunter Biden behind closed doors eventually you'll remember Hunter Biden after coming to the hill making some unprompted appearances before the Press he did end up testifying for more than 6 hours before the committee behind closed doors at the end of last month well now his lawyers are saying that they are not going to continue taking part in a quote political charade he called it a baseless conspira

cy uh Witch Hunt and probe by this committee his lawyers say however if the oversight panel again led by Republican fire Brands decides to bring in family members of former president Trump then Hunter Biden his lawyer says would consider sitting before the committee in a public setting you talk about Devon Archer as well that's for a little bit of a different reason his lawyer actually says that the committee notified his client way too late and he's far too busy in his schedule in order to acco

mmodate a hearing that is designed essentially uh to be a charade and sort of dramatize this issue guys so Julie Devon Archer who Joe had mentioned didn't we see him testify last year in a closed door meeting and hear him say that he was not aware of any wrongdoing is ultimately what we think came out of that has the committee indicated what else is new here that they hope to learn from interviewing him again well they hope that Devon Archer like the other Witnesses like the other business assoc

iates of Hunter Biden would somehow help bolster this claim that they have they have yet to prove uh that the president benefited uh or the president excuse me used and shaped his foreign policy in office and before he got into office as vice president and before that potentially as Senate uh to help his son in his business dealings that's a connection they have yet to prove but Devon Archer and some of the other Witnesses that'll be testifying today they have said behind closed doors Deon Arche

r telling the committee last July uh that yes Hunter Biden perhaps threw his father's name around but that the relationship did not go the other way around so Julie who will testify at the hearing today yeah two guys two business associates of Hunter Biden one of them is actually going to testify from prison Jason ganas he's serving a 14-year term for fraud so he won't be there physically but he will be there via video the other one Tony balinski he is another business associate of Hunter Biden

who testified before the committee behind closed doors for hours we've seen that parts of that transcript both of the men have also sat before the panel behind closed doors before they have both again said that yes Hunter Biden may have used his father's name in conversations but that again that evidence that the president himself that Joe Biden himself had shaped foreign policy in any way uh to benefit his son was just not conclusive there but we will see an empty chair additionally for Hunter

Biden with his name on it again the committee trying to dramatize this event Julie quickly while we have you let's get a Tik Tok update today National Security officials are holding a closed door briefing for senators on the Commerce and intelligence committee so this is after the house overwhelmingly passed that bill that would force Tik tok's parent company to sell off the app within six months or face a ban and the big question about what's next has been over this bill's future in the Senate

does the fact that we are seeing this briefing happen mean that we're a step closer to potentially actually seeing a vote in the Senate on this yeah there's certainly a lot of pressure especially from the White House coming to the Senate ask asking them to take up this house pass bill which I know you covered extensively Savannah and so this morning at around 10:45 the Senate intelligence committee the Senate Commerce Committee these are really the panels that would have jurisdiction over not on

ly Tik Tok but its National Security implications on Americans on the US government as well they're going to have a chance the members of these panels to sit behind closed doors to hear classified briefing from Top intelligence officials in the Biden Administration to lay out why this ban uh why this uh bill should go forward now why they should FasTrack this process much like the house did what are the National Security implications of millions of Americans who use Tik Tok who use potentially o

ther apps that are controlled by Foreign adversaries that data collection what that could potentially uh be used for these are all the questions that Senators on these committees want answers to especially because they are being asked again to push full steam ahead and pass this legislation through the Senate legislation that the president indicated he would sign swiftly all right Julie cirin thank you so much let's turn now to the economy the Federal Reserve is expected to announce its latest i

nterest rate decision today in 2022 and the first half of 2023 the Central Bank raised rates 11 times to get inflation under control since then no hikes but also no Cuts we have Investopedia editor and chief Caleb silver here in studio with us to preview what today's decision could mean for our economy thought you didn't like us for a minute there we haven't seen you in studio in a minute I've Been Everywhere tour he was here while you were gone okay well I haven't seen you in a minute Caleb wha

t are you expecting to see the Federal Reserve do today yeah they are not going to change rates today they have been pretty clear about that but words matter and the words that Jerome Powell says in the press conference after the decision at 2:00 are what we're going to be paying attention to but also the charts particularly the summary of economic projections that tells us how many times the FED thinks it needs to cut rates this year how's GDP how's the economy doing right now how's how's unemp

loyment and when you look through those things that checklist GDP is pretty strong we thought these higher rates would tip us into a recession GDP clocking in around 3.3% inflation still higher than the FED wants 3.2% and the unemployment rate below 4% that's full employment so the economy is in good shape and they haven't had to cut rates yet Powell has said that lowering the rates too quickly could risk us losing this battle against inflation that we've been fighting for the last two years wha

t is the line that the FED is trying to sort of strad here if they lower rates too quickly it's going to stimulate a lot of buying right we haven't been buying homes or selling homes we haven't been buying a lot of cars because rates have been so high spending is held in but if rates go lower people are going to want to spend more that's just going to cause companies to raise prices again and then you get back into that inflation Geral wheel where you just can't get out so they're going to be uh

very careful about when they when they cut rates and that looks like probably June right now the June first meeting in 45 days 6 hours and 42 minutes going for a countdown clock um what does this mean for the average American at home and is any indication when we could see those rate cut is people waiting to buy homes or whatever when do we think that could happen starting to see a little crack in the home buy Market it started last month we started to see existing home sales selling again buil

ding permits Rising again we need that mortgage rate to come down to like five and a half 6% before you get that activity but it's the credit card debt that I want to pay attention to because credit card aprs they're north of 20% families households are hanging in especially those that own homes and have stocks those prices have gone up lower income folks have not done as well but we are not nearing a great financial crisis type situation right now all right okay Caleb silver as always great to

see you thanks for coming new storm systems are set to bring more snow and showers to much of the country so let's get a check on your Morning News Now weather Andrew lassman's in studio with us hey Andrew good morning hey good morning guys we've got some snow to talk about in a couple of spots across the country over the coming days this morning we're still seeing some of that lake effect snow happening across the Great Lakes region downwind of Erie and Ontario you can see some of that snow sti

ll falling across parts of Michigan as well that's where you'll find some of these winter alerts still up and again downwind of the lakes in both New York and Pennsylvania we'll slowly but surely start to see this system kicking out but through the day today still dealing with a bit of that snow we could even see some of these showers working across uh basically places from Boston to Philadelphia here as we get through the afternoon hours today impressive amounts of snow you're going to have to

look up to the northern portions of Maine that's where we'll see upwards of four to six maybe even eight inches and isolated amounts higher than that as we get through the next couple of days in the meantime we're going to watch the middle of the country for a couple other things going on we've got a low pressure system that's moving out of uh out of Canada uh and bringing the potential for some snow showers across parts of the northern Rockies and the Northern Plains today across parts of the S

outh we'll see this other low pressure system that'll kind of start some rumbles of Thunder uh some showers some thunderstorm potential will be there here even as we get into the day tomorrow and it'll really ramp up as we head into Friday but notice there's more snow on top for tomorrow for that same area the Northern Plains as we look ahead to your Friday we see this snow work across parts of the Midwest and the Great Lakes it does intensify so we'll see a good amount of snow in some of those

spots and on top of that the southeast will start to see some of that Heavy Rain working in and the storm potential too will focus along parts of the Gulf Coast and then unfortunately just in time for your Saturday plans looks like it'll be a soggy uh start to the weekend here across parts of the Eastern Seaboard and then we'll also be dealing with parts of Northern New England picking up some heavy kind of wet snow and I know what you're thinking I thought it was spring yeah well it's early spr

ing so we still have that snow potential until temperatures really start to Surge uh in the in the coming weeks as far as rain is concerned I think the higher amounts will be places like Texas along the east coast parts of Southern Florida uh we'll see maybe two to three Ines and you can see there's a good uh dose of rain in store for much of this region here as we get through your Saturday now snowfall it looks like those higher amounts 9 in maybe a foot in some spots but overall we're going to

have to look to parts of northern Maine maybe parts of the dtas to see some of those higher amounts otherwise places like Detroit Buffalo Boston could see maybe an inch or so by the time we get into the weekend uh the rain and the wind is on top for your Saturday but guys look at that the spring Sunshine returns for the East we'll have to deal with the the wet cold snow for parts of the other half of the country as we get into Sunday so not really spring in some parts of the country and that's

how you sum it up soar all right thanks for watching stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media