After Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito began his book tour over the weekend with interviews on FOX News and CBS, MS NOW, of course, reacted with some displeasure as former host and now analyst Alex Wagner complained that Alito did not mention Trump as a person who was threatening the court. Both Wagner and State of Play host Peter Alexander did not mention threats against conservative justices, including an assassination attempt on Kavanaugh that Alito cited in a FOX News Sunday interview, as they instead insisted on labeling the court as “right-wing.”
Alexander led the segment by playing a clip of Alito in the FOX News interview, where he said, “There has been a concerted effort to intimidate the court and justices on the court to try to influence us, to decide cases differently from the way in which we have been deciding them. And I am concerned about the future of the court.”
Alexander, ignoring the part of the interview where Alito mentioned the Kavanaugh assassination plot as part of his fears, took this as a way to go after Trump for his on-and-off displeasure with the court:
That is a notable alert, especially considering the president's repeated swipes at the justices, including saying he regretted his Supreme Court picks just last week. But we should also note Alito did not mention the president or anyone outright in his warning.
In response to Justice Alito’s book tour, MS NOW’s Alex Wagner ignored threats against conservative justices, and instead blamed Trump for threats against the Court, not Democrats who constantly decry SCOTUS actions and label it as “right-wing.”
Wagner, herself, then said the… pic.twitter.com/i26b1Xiu0T— Nick (@nspin310) October 5, 2026
Then Wagner, who has a book titled The Steal: Four Right-Wing Hard-liners, One Republican Presidency and the Raid on America's Courts, which definitely does not attack the court in its title alone by the same logic, laughed at the idea of an Alito book tour, while simultaneously bashing him:
First of all, it's super unusual to have a justice of the high court speaking out, going on book tours, and selling a book largely in conservative media that is highly unusual and to speak out the way that he is, which is, in his term, “Evenhanded criticism” of those who are out unhappy with his decisions, is equally unusual.
Wagner then stated she was “struck by the fact that he puts blame squarely on the shoulders of President Biden as much as, if not more than any criticism he has for Donald Trump, who, you know, Peter, has been vocal nd, I would say, aggressive in a way that we've never seen an American president in his attitude towards the court when it doesn't rule in his favor.”
She then continued to simply describe “Democrats and Progressives” as being “upset with the court decisions on things like Dobbs.”
This also omitted Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer telling Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh that they would “pay the price.”
Wagner later said the court was in a “very unusual moment,” but it was “also the culmination of a plot that has been largely successful to swing the court dramatically rightward, which I detail in the book.”
Continuing the framing of the court as right-wing, Alexander mentioned Alito’s retirement and asked about the “damage” to the court under Trump:
Well, to say nothing of the fact that Samuel Alito now appears to be considering potential retirement, could happen during this lame duck next two years here, which would give Donald Trump, were he to nominate and get confirmed another Supreme Court justice. Not one, two, three, but four justices that he appointed to the Supreme Court.
What kind of damage - What concern does that raise to the way that an already hyper-partisan, at least in terms of our view of it, court moves forward?
Later, when asked about her fears about possible election cases before the Supreme Court, Wagner worried about another Bush V. Gore and laughed as she said, “That’s what I’m worried about.” She closed, “We really are in unknown waters as far as what comes next.”
The transcript is below. Click "expand":
MS NOW’s State of Play with Peter Alexander
October 5, 2026
11:29:38 AM Eastern
PETER ALEXANDER: A new warning from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito just ahead of the court returning to work this morning for its new term. Here's what he said.
[Cuts to video]
JUSTICE SAMUEL ALITO [On FOX News Sunday]: There has been a concerted effort to intimidate the court and justices on the court to try to influence us, to decide cases differently from the way in which we have been deciding them. And I am concerned about the future of the court.
[Cuts back to live]
ALEXANDER: That is a notable alert, especially considering the president's repeated swipes at the justices, including saying he regretted his Supreme Court picks just last week. But we should also note Alito did not mention the president or anyone outright in his warning.
We want to bring back in our senior political analyst, Alex Wagner. She, again, is the author of the new book, The Steal, about efforts to reshape the American judicial system. Alex, your take what's the significance of Justice Alito speaking out in those terms right now?
ALEX WAGNER: First of all, it's super unusual to have a justice of the high court speaking out, going on book tours, and selling a book largely in conservative media that is highly unusual and to speak out the way that he is, which is, in his term, “Evenhanded criticism” of those who are out unhappy with his decisions, is equally unusual.
I found - I watched both of the interviews he did this weekend on CBS and FOX News, and was struck by the fact that he puts blame squarely on the shoulders of President Biden as much as, if not more than any criticism he has for Donald Trump, who, you know, Peter, has been vocal nd, I would say, aggressive in a way that we've never seen an American president in his attitude towards the court when it doesn't rule in his favor.
I mean, he has called these justices who rule against him every name under the sun. He has accused Ketanji Brown Jackson of being a low IQ person. He says some of their rulings are like shotgun blasts to the faces of Republicans. I mean, the threats the president is making are explicit and yet Justice Alito, who Donald Trump likes very much in terms of his position on most issues, has more criticism for President Biden and Democrats and Progressives who are upset with the court's decisions on things like Dobbs, which, of course, struck down Roe v. Wade. I mean, it's a very unusual moment generally in terms of the history of the court -
ALEXANDER: Yeah.
WAGERM: - but it's also the culmination of a plot to, that has been largely successful, to swing the court dramatically rightward, which I detail in the book.
ALEXANDER: Well, to say nothing of the fact that Samuel Alito now appears to be considering potential retirement, could happen during this lame duck next two years here, which would give Donald Trump, were he to nominate and get confirmed another Supreme Court justice. Not one, two, three, but four justices that he appointed to the Supreme Court.
What kind of damage - What concern does that raise to the way that an already hyper-partisan, at least in terms of our view of it, court moves forward?
WAGNER: Okay. Number one, we should look at the age of some of the judges that Trump has been appointing. I mean, he's he likes them 30-year-old or maybe younger if possible. Hard to find a law student who has any experience on the bench. right.
He's been enormously successful in terms of filling these vacancies with partisan hardliners, people who are dyed in the wool, true believers in terms of conservative cause. And we should expect that if he gets another vacancy, it will be filled by someone who is absolutely a conservative in the MAGA mold and young.
But I will say, Peter, if justice Alito decides to retire in the lame duck and John Thune and the Senate Majority, which will still be under Republican hands, presumably in the lame duck, but likely to change to Democratic hands if we're to believe the polling that is going to reshape senate dynamics in a fundamental way, and you can be guaranteed that senate Democrats will move forward with supreme or at least try to move forward with real supreme court reform, whether that's term limits or expansion, but also any number of sort of parliamentary procedural standards that have been upheld just because in the spirit of bipartisanship. Things like the filibuster, things like granting statehood to Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.
I mean, I think truly everything will be on the table if they go ahead and pull a maneuver like confirming a justice in the lame-duck, which would have been unthinkable even two years ago. I mean, it will be terra incognita for both the court, but also the Senate.
ALEXANDER: Obviously, Alex, this court is going to likely have some role to play in these midterm elections that we have coming up right now. Consider the decisions this court has made in the course of the last several months. This summer we saw the justices allow the president to implement parts of his mail-in voting executive order. They have blocked certain redistricting efforts while allowing others. At the same time, they allowed the SAVE voter database to check voter citizenship, at least that's through the midterms.
What specifically are you watching as it relates to this court and these midterms?
WAGNER: Hey, Peter, do you remember Bush v. Gore? That's what I'm worried about. [Laughter]
I mean, I think all roads when it comes to election disputes tend to end at the Supreme Court. And you just rattled off a litany of reasons why people who are in favor of free and fair elections should be concerned. They have, you know, they have tapped Donald Trump on the wrist. But in the context of all of their large landmark rulings, including and especially presidential immunity, there should be deep skepticism about what might happen if Donald Trump finds a reason to call into dispute some election results that are very narrow in an important swing state, one that could, you know, represent the transfer of power from Republicans to Democrats.
So, yeah, I mean, I think I was on earlier in the show when Governor Kasich said he's not as worried about the insurrection act being invoked. But I am very much worried about the number of people Trump has brainwashed inside the administration who are election deniers, the state and local officials who have taken it upon themselves to carry his mantle of election fraud. We've seen cases in California that should be alarming, where sheriffs are seizing 650,000 ballots because they're concerned about whether they were cast accurately or lawfully. I mean, there's just a number of levels in which sand can be thrown in the works.
And ultimately, the, you know, that jurist that falls under the Supreme Court's jurisdiction to decide whether or not it's lawful or whether the results are truly need to be contested. So we are, like I keep saying the phrase terror incognito, but we really are in unknown waters as far as what comes next.
ALEXANDER: That is, multiple Democrats have told me the issue may not just be this whether the insurrection act gets enforced or whether he, you know, goes forward with that. But just the fact that he is threatening it, the impact it has on American voters, their faith in our system, and whether they're willing to show up at the ballot box on November 3rd. Alex Wagner a pleasure to have you here. Alex's book again, The Steal: Four Right-Wing Hard-liners, One Republican Presidency and the Raid on America's Courts, available online and at your local bookstore.
(..)
