top of the hour. nice to have you have us, i m eric hill. on this very busy monday morning. election day, if you re not counting, just 15 days away. early voting already breaking records in at least one battleground state and this week there will be a number of major debates in key match-ups around the country. first up is florida where ron desantis is set to scare off with charlie crist tonight. we ll have more on that in just a moment. we re also following this unprecedented rise in rsv cases among children and why it is putting pressure on hospitals, some states in crisis mode. we ll take you inside one texas hospital. and happening right now, jury selection is underway here in new york city for the trump organization facing several felony charges. we re going to be live outside of the courthouse with an update on that for you. let s start this hour with reporter dan america. and 15 days until election day. we re seeing some impressive turnout numbers when it comes to
thomas is a defender of former president trump on the court. when a court declined to hear a case of republicans seeking to disqualify certain mail-in ballots. and this past january, he was the only justice to vote against the lease of trump white house-related documents. and joining me now is nancy gurtner, former u.s. district judge of the district of massachusetts, currently a senior lecturer at the harvard law school. so, the question i guess, judge, is this, should justice thomas have recused himself regarding the election results and the events of january 6th? let me break it down in two parts. should he have recused himself in the past. and whether or not he should recuse himself going forward with any case involving the election of 2020 or the january 6 investigation. should he have recused himself from the past.
47 months is only one or two of sentences coming to manafort. he ll be sentenced in a federal court on d.c. on wednesday. joining us now what paul manafort could face next week and how to understand the 47 months sentence is nancy gurtner, is currently a senior lecturer at harvard law school. good to be here. judge ellis, says the court must take into account the characteristic of the defendant. here is how judge ellis expre expressed on manafort. the defendant has no criminal history. he s a graduate of a law school. he earned the add muir
interfered in any way with the special counsel s investigation. that was the line from matthew whitaker, the acting attorney general also testifying that he had provided no insight about the mueller probe to the trump administration. whitaker refused to discuss his conversations with trump among other issues. prompting jerry nadler, joining me for more on whitaker s testimony former federal judge nancy gurtner. there has been universal condemnation of this testimony as ill advised and ill prepared and ill executed. i wonder if there was anything in it that tells you whether or not this gentleman poses a threat to the future mueller probe. i see that your five minutes
well, you see, i actually think they went for the death penalty in part. if you recall, when this case happened, there was enormous pressure to talk about making this go before a military tribunal, having him go before a military tribunal, and it was critical to show that a civilian court could do this. and i felt that they were pressured to accept a death penalty, to go for the death penalty. but they had an option at any moment, we know that now, to accept a plea of life without parole. would the facts have come out? the same facts would have come out. we had no surprises in this case. there would have been a plea colloquy in which the facts would have come out. the victims would have been able to speak. and the significance of life without parole and a plea to that would mean that it would have been over. this is not over. nancy gurtner former federal judge, thank you. breaking news that the amtrak train may have been hit by something before the crash. we ll go live to philade