Holdout no more. Idea that the Merrick Garland decision was unfair and therefore it has to be made up by doing something which also wouldnt make a lot of sense which is saying to President Trump you cant get your nominee either. That just doesnt follow for me. The garland decision was consistent with history. The decision to proceed with a new nominee is also consistent with history and precedent and thats where i come out. Romneys announcement with cory gardner and Chuck Grassley saying they, too, support the nominee. And Lindsey Graham who chairs the nomination committee. We got the votes to confirm the Justice Ginsburg replacement before the election. Were going to move forward in the committee. Report it out of the committee to the floor the United States senate so we can vote before the election. Where does this leave the democrats . Well, to stop a trump nominee, they would need at least four republican defections but that number now appears stuck on two. Earlier today, Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer vowed to fight and took aim at republicans. Were supposed to believe this speechous and flimsy arch. And how angry republicans are mad at democrats and all the scary things we might do in the future. Joining us nbc capitol hill correspondent garrick haake and shannon pettypiece. Shanks for both of you for being with us. Garrett, lets start with you. I was talking to you about 24 hours ago, and you can going through the math for this, for democrats, hoping to stop this nomination. We get more information now, in the last 24 hours, gardner, grassley, romney. Is it a sealed deal now that the republicans can get this through . Its just about there, steve, barring some kind of lightning bolts here that really changes the game later on. But for right now, there just arent any other republicans, as i look out at sort of the senate roster here, who have demonstrated a history of breaking from trump or who would be willing to do so on a decision as controversial as a Supreme Court pick. And you heard from romney today who, frankly, is in a position thats enviable to a lot of his other colleagues because he doesnt have the 2017 Merrick Garland mess on his hands. He essentially said this is political hard ball. And this is the way it goes Going Forward and things need to be balanced out well, thats too bad. Heres part what he told reporters this afternoon. I recognize we may have a court which has more of a conservative bent than its had over the last few decades. But my liberal friends have over many decades gotten used to having a liberal court. And thats not written in the stars. So, steve, i think the question now is will romney and his conservative friends get used to having a more liberal senate. This is the reality. Democrats dont have much to slow this down or stop it. But they can certainly campaign on it. That seems to be the direction, taking the Supreme Court vacancy and turning it into another potent campaign issue. Yeah, there is certainly the campaign hanging over it all. And shannon pettypiece, an important aspect of this romney piece, a couple months ago we were talking about mitt romney breaking with the president voting to convict in that impeach trial. Now the white house siding with romney in a consequential way. There there been any communication, what can you tell us . Reporter i know there are white house aides who are nervous about what romney was going to do. They have certainly put him in the uncertain basket. At this point, there was an acknowledge that nothing that the white house can do or President Trump can do or say thats going to sway romney. He is someone who is being driven by his own beliefs and principles and views about the way things should be conducted in the senate. Of course, has a long history of supporting conservative justices. So, no, direct outreach from the white house there. But certainly, a sigh of relief coming from aides once he put out a statement. Because i think he really was the one question mark. Collins, murkowski, they knew were probably gone because they typically didnt have a lot of strong position or a lot of support for justices who were prolife. Grassley, they felt was going to be in their pocket, despite some talk where he might be, but romney had remained a question mark so now they erase him off the page. Garrett, were waiting to hear from Senate Republicans and they may shed some light in this. Im curious, what are you hearing when it comes to timing on all of this, the election 42 days away from today, 42 days away. The timing of this process, how this is going to work, what are you hearing on that front . Reporter the folks who would know are being mum about trying to get this done before the election. Mitch mcconnell is not a gambler or someone that wants to take chances. I said it would be take a lightning bolt to get this through, and Senate Republicans in november and trying to get a Supreme Court justice could be that lightning bolt so why risk it. I think what youll see republicans trying to move as quickly as this process might allow. It might take a couple weeks to get to a committee hearing. Documents to reviewed. Interviews with the nominee to be done. Kind of a pro forma work that goes into selecting a Supreme Court justice. But everything extraneous will be cast aside. I think republicans want to move as quickly as they possibly can on this front. Garrick haake on capitol hill. Shannon pettypiece, thank you. Lets bring in Vermont Democratic senator Patrick Leahy who sits on the Judicial Committee that will be critical to the events unfolding and beginning to right now. Senator, thank you for joining us, let me ask you about the political reality we were just discussing with our reporters. In the last 24, 48 hour, thomas tillis, martha mcsally, correspondny gardner, Chuck Grassley, mitt romney. All of these republicans mentioned as potentially standing up and saying they dont want this to go forward, all of them indicating they are okay with it Going Forward. Does it appear to you that republicans now will have the votes to move forward with this process and confirm a justice . They could well have the votes. Of course, if even if a few of the people who gave their word back when they were blocking Merrick Garland, that they wouldnt vote for any nominee of any president , this election has actually kept their word and been able to point and able to say people kept their word. Im amazed that none of them are certainly, mcconnell, grassley and others have gone back on what they said before. We have a political, not a judicial nomination, but a tone in political nomination. The president said hell make an announcement this weekend. Were not even talk about Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Shes going to be lying in state this weekend. Shell be buried next week. Its jewish holy days, and the president says, no, ive got to announce something so ill get great ratings. It has nothing to do whats best for the Supreme Court, not whats best for the country. Hows he get great ratings. Just break into the time when Justice Ginsburg is lying in state. And break into the fact that its the holy day and just go forward because he wanted to get great ratings. And, of course, the reason he does, is the administration has been a failure on covid. Thats why we have 200,000 deaths. We have one of the worst reactions in the world to it. Because it took so long for the anybody at the white house was not taking it seriously. And we have in june and july, we had legislation that passed the house of representatives to get some help to covid people. They gave help to businesses. That had to close because of covid, to those who have to hope they get their jobs back. And the republican leader would not allow a vote on it, in the senate. So, you had one political thing after another. The disaster, the mishandling of covid. The failures of doing anything for the people who are suffering from it. And then making a political spectacle of the Supreme Court. I guarantee you, what this means is that we will lose all respect for our federal courts. Well, so, lets pick up that point. Because there have been some democrats, some of your fellow senators, i saw ed markey from massachusetts out with a statement a couple days ago, that hes by no means alone among democrats saying if republicans go forward with this, if trump nominates a candidate, if the Republican Senate confirms that nominee to the Supreme Court, now democrats, if they get President Joe Biden out of this election, and if they get a Senate Majority out of this election, they should respond next year, by among other things, expanding the size of the Supreme Court. Adding seats to the Supreme Court. And then filling those seats with democratic appointees. That should be the response to republicans going down the road they appear to be going down here. Do you agree that should be the democratic response . Its nice to say heres what well do if, if, if, and if. First off, we have to win the presidency. Secondd secondly, its a 50 50 chance we get the majority of the senate back. I definitely hope we do. But what we ought be doing is focusing on those republican senators, especially the ones who are up for reelection who are not keeping their words, who supported the hiring the Merrick Garland and do something about them. What we ought to be doing is focusing on that. And focusing on the fact that republicans have blocked any help for covid victims. Blocking any help for the people out of work now, who are blocking the kind of things we need to do this fall. Because theyre hellbent on making a political statement with the Supreme Court, even though thats going to damage the Supreme Court for generations to come. Whether you expand the court or not, what youre saying is this is a political ploy. If you want to go to a federal court, you better yep, i think the senator got a phone call right there. This is what happens in the age of television and covid. We will try to reestablish that. But looks like we may have lost that interview there. But senator Patrick Leahy, democrat from vermont, thank you for joining us. Well squeeze in a quick break here. The calls from activists, talking about this with the senator. Democratic activists, some calling to expand the Supreme Court, fill those seats with their own appointees if they do take the senate and get the white house this november. Could democrats do that . Should democrats do that . Well get into that. Plus, were going to have new polling from two states where you might not think that the president ial race would be a dead heat but it is. And later, the president says the coronavirus affects, quote, virtually nobody, quote, virtually nobody young. And the response speaks to nbc news. Its official National Coffee day is now National Dunkin day celebrate with a free medium hot or iced coffee with any purchase on september 29th. With any purchase essential for sewing, but maybe not needles. For people with certain inflammatory conditions. Because there are options. 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[hard a] tonight. Ill be eating four cheese tortellini with extra tomatoes. [full emphasis on the soft a] so its come to this . [doorbell chimes] thank you. [doorbell chimes] bravo. Careful, hamill. Daddys not here to save you. Oh i am my daddy. Wait, what . What are you talking about . With perhaps no way of preventing the president from moving forward on a Supreme Court nomination, some democrats are threatening action that could change the courts and the structure of government. Among those possible options ending the filibuster, granting statehood to d. C. , puerto rico, even potentially the virgin islands, even adding seats to the Supreme Court filling them with democratic appointees. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said every option is on the table. Joining me the executive director of demand justice, brian fallon, and former National Committee spokeswoman elizabeth mayer. Shes spokeswoman for mayer strategy. Brian, let me start with you, we started to get into this with senator leahy in the last segment. Your group is active on this front. Take us through what youre calling for mere, because it appears that the republicans have the nomination to get the votes through. If that happens if the president finds himself with the presidency and the senate next year, for the sake they do, what is it that youre calling for them to do with that power . First of all, we want democrats to pull out all of the stop to oppose this nominee. They do have options to try to grind the senate to a pulp, depriving republicans of various requests to keep the senate in business. Requiring that they have quorums in order to hold votes. That can slow things down. And firstly, we can try to get this to the election. I think the ball game changes if you get to the other side of the election, but also boycott the hearing, not take hearings with the nominees. What we want to do is hold republicans to account. I lot said theyre not going to vote for this nominee. We need the goal of opposing this nominee and the election fully aligned, i dont think theyre crosspurposes at all. If the republicans go on with this, at the heels of the election that they have potentially lost in the white house and senate, democrats should say when they take office in january 2021, theyre going to change the filibuster rules and adding seats to the Supreme Court in order to restore ideological balance on the Supreme Court. And for the republicans to hijack the court and have a 63 majority that can weigh in on the Affordable Care act and roe v. Wade and others. Liz mayer, you heard what brian just said there, do you think this factors into republican thinking right now at all . Or should it factor into republican thinking, the fact that youve got democratic activist groups out there, pushing democrats right now, if they get the power next year, to say, okay, you went and did this with the ginsburg seat. Were now going to, for instance, expand the Supreme Court. How does that factor into republican thinking, should it . I think it does factor in. And i think the way that it does should be very scary to brian and to most progressives. I think the more were seeing calls coming out there calling for progressives to expand the court and Court Packing the more it gives idea what happens if they happen to pull off a victory this november which is still possible, i think its unlikely, but its possible. And i dont think the democrats want to put in the mind of donald trump of expanding the court and putting even more conservatives that justices have a real problem with on that court. If you look de daily beast last night, Senate Republicans had a Conference Call about this, in my recollection, 50 of them came out and said we need to stop talking with the courtpacking talk, specifically for this reason, its going to given Mitch Mcconnell ideas and brian is correct when he says that the way that Senate Republicans handle this is probably going to motivate more progressive voters and more voters who support roe v. Wade. And that probably includes quite a few suburban republican women who wouldnt otherwise be motivated on this issue but suddenly who would be motivated to vote for joe biden who does not support courtpacking. We just heard from the senate and Mitch Mcconnell, they had their republican meetings. We expect any moment now Mitch Mcconnell and the leaders to be there. We think theyll be talking about their plans to do with the nomination. When that begins, well take it to you, brian fallon, i might interrupt to you get to that, brian, but i want to continue this conversation while i can here. What liz is getting at here. The answer, frankly, ive heard joe biden go down this road when hes talked about this issue of potentially expanding the court. The last time i heard biden talk about it, he was against it. He said democrats would rue the day they did that. And now, im being told Mitch Mcconnell is on his way to the podium. Hopefully, we will continue this conversation. But lets go to that right now. Well, good afternoon, everyone. As we all know, the president is going to be sending out the nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy later this week. I anticipate, we all anticipate its going to be an extremely well qualified woman. And with regard to the schedule after that announcement, chairman Lindsey Graham will lay out the plan for handling the nomination before the judiciary committee. Number two, a word about the negotiation on the cr. The speaker seems to be hung up on doing the ccc replenishment which has been automatically done under majorities on both sides, for as long as anyone can remember. Hopefully, well be able to get that worked out. But it basically is a message to farm country to drop dead if you dont do what weve automatically done, largely, without negotiation in the past, which is to replenish the ccc at the beginning of the fiscal year. With that, ill be happy to turn it over to you. Thank you, leader. As the leader pointed out, we are all looking forward to the president s announcement of his nominee to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. We expect that, as the leader pointed out, to be a highly qualified woman. Most of us came to the senate, ran for the senate, in a lot of ways for big moments like this. For an opportunity to fill seats on the Supreme Court. And theyre with nominees that believe in the constitution and rule of law, and want to assure that its applied in the work that they do on the court. Weve seen in the last several decades, a lot of attempts by the Supreme Court, judicial activism, legislating, and attempting to push a political agenda on the court. Thats not what the court was designed to do, by the founders. And were looking forward to having an opportunity to consider the constitutionalists to the Supreme Court. In someone im sure will be very well qualified. And i think the American People will have an opportunity to observe that person, too. And make their own judgments. But i expect that to be somebody that theyre going to say this is somebody that we believe would be a great nominee to fulfill that vacancy. Agency the leader also pointed out, and i dont understand exactly why the House Democrats have decided to take the hostage of agriculture on the cr, but thats a really bad decision for them politically. The ccc program is one that funds all of the ongoing farm bill, mandatory programs that we authorize in the farm bill. The farm bill passed in 2018. Art payments, plc payments, convasico conservation payments have come out of that. The ccc commodity credit corporation, is the place that we go to fund those important programs and should be in the middle of this. They are basically saying to farmers of this country to go pound sand, sat when theyve experienced tremendous economic adversity as a result of the coronavirus and other low commodity prices. And bad weather and Everything Else that goes with it. I hope theyll come to reverse that decision and decide that it makes sense to work with the republicans on legislation that takes care of that important priority. Well, as we honor the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and realize that she was a role model for many who entered the law, im looking forward to a nomination by President Trump who i assume is going to be a woman who will equally be a role model for a whole next generation and the legal profession. We know its going to be a very powerful and positive appointee, someone who is likely to have been vetted by the senate and highly qualified for this role on the Supreme Court. What have we heard from Chuck Schumer . Weve heard threats. Threats to the institution of our nation. He says if you do this, hell do this. These threats have been going on a long period of time. Remember when Chuck Schumer stood outside of the Supreme Court, when he yelled at the building and gorsuch and kavanaugh and said you will pay the price. Whats he threatening to do . Add members to the Supreme Court, if President Trump is not reelected and if the senate goes into democrat hands. If you have the house and senate in democrat hands thats what youre looking at. You know who said dont do it . Ruth bader ginsburg. She said nine is the right number, she said to expand the court would politicize it and not the right thing to do. But the democrats are not going to listen to her. Theyre going to go after President Trump makes his nomination. Theyre going on a seek and destroy mission to undermine whoever the president nominates, yesterday, joe biden was asked a question, what was he asked . Whos on your short list . And he was asked what do you think about expanding the number on the court . Well, he didnt answer either, the answer he didnt answer who is on his short list, he knows if he answered any way, he would alienate half of this voters. Either those loyal to bernie sanders, elizabeth warren, alexandria ocasiocortez or those on the other side. Either way it was a loser question for joe biden. I dont know what joe biden remembers but when you think back of the time when he played such a role in the hearings for judge bourque, he was the one that basically turned on what became a political circus. I dont know if he remembers that he was the one that smeared clarence thomas. I dont know if joe biden remembers that he is the one that led the filibuster of justice alito. Im not sure what he calls of any of those, but i do know that the democrats today here will continue to remember those lessons and use them against whoever it is that President Trump nominates. Well, the constitution requires two things to happen to put somebody on the Supreme Court. One is the president makes has to make a nomination. And, two, the senate has to determine that theyre willing to deal with that nomination and eventually approve it. Anytime the president , the white house and the senate have been in general political agreement. And i think there have been 29 of those times in an Election Year, judges have been confirmed. When theres a disagreement, thats solved in another way. Theres a constitutional job to be done here. We intend to do it. Another job, we need to be focused on right now that seems to be slipping away from us is the opportunity to have another package on how to get people back to school. How to get people back to work. How to get people back to child care and better health. Ive thought and told several of you over the last several weeks, i really thought the 1st of october was sort of the deadline where we can make that package happen. I hope we can really get focused here and not assume that somehow the economy can struggle along, that schools can do whatever they need to do. That hospitals will continue to do their work and other Health Care Providers if we simply decide not to act. If you take the targeted package that we voted on in the senate, the problem solvers package put together in the house, democrats and republicans, even the House Republican proposal, there is clearly a deal there to be had. We dont need to let this limp along, as we finish out this Election Year and see then what we can do, after the election. We need to deal with that now, i hope we can still figure out a way to take all of those elements that theres broad agreement on. And come up with whatever that agreement is. Ruth bader ginsburg, i see her spirit and determination reflected in so many generations of young Women Leaders today. Leaders like my daughter libby. And when i found out the news of her passing last friday evening, i was at an event. I quite literally teared up in front of the audience, while we may not agree on everything politically, i really admired what a tremendous woman she was and what a great example she set for, again, so many generations of Women Leaders. So, all of my best wishes to her family during this very, very difficult time. With that being said, we do expect a nomination coming from the president very soon. And as a fairly new member of the judiciary committee, i do look forward to vetting whoever that nominee may be. I will do my duty as a member of that committee. Moving on to the ccc, as has been mentioned by a number of my colleagues, for nearly three decades, we have moved forward with the replenishment of ccc funds for our farmers in a bipartisan fashion, supporting our farm bill, our farmers and our ranchers. So many of those supports go to concentration efforts. They go to dairy, you name it, it is there to support our farmers, our ranchers and maintaining integrity of our food supply here in the United States. So, i do hope that Speaker Pelosi will rethink her idea of stripping out funding for the ccc, holding our farmers hostage, putting that funding back into this continuing resolution bill. And moving forward with it. We in farm country, we will remember this. We will remember this. And we need that funding back to take care of our farmers. But everyone across the United States that enjoys eating. So, thank you. Well, when this republican president was elected in 2016 and when the American People expanded the republican majority in the Senate Elections of 2018, the expectation of the American People was that should a Supreme Court vacancy arise, that vacancy would be filled. We will act, because the American People want us to act. The people of indiana, in particular, want me to act on this forthcoming nomination. Historical precedence supports action in a case like this, clearly. And the president s put forward a list of incredibly talented potential nominees, including indianas own judge amy Coney Barrett. But i think any of the judges that the president has been discussing in recent days would be an excellent choice. Its my intention to dutifully evaluate the records of whomever the president ultimately nominates. And to ensure bold action, following his nomination. I have high confidence that the American People are going to be favorably impressed by a faithful constitutionist nominee. And theyll be proud of the person who becomes the next associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. One further observation, you might enjoy, as we celebrate the life of Justice Ginsburg, you might be interested to know that there is currently pending, before the judiciary committee, a nominee i recommended to the president for the District Court who went to columbia, had originallial applied for justice scalia. Justice scalia ended up being full, picked up the phone and called his good friend Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and she hired the guy who applied with scalia. Knowing full well he was pretty much a federalist societytype person. And juices ginsburg said to him, well it will be a good challenge for me to have a clerk who challenges my assumptions. Just another antido anecdote ab extraordinary justice that the country lost this week. Mr. Leader, are you confident you have the votes to move this nomination now . And is it your goal to have it by election day . The next step will be for chairman graham to lay out the way to handle this in committee. And when the nomination comes out of committee, then ill decide when and how to proceed. Early polls show that a majority of americans disagree with your approach. They want you to wait. Does that give you pause . Well, as all of us have pointed out, we have an obligation, under the constitution, should we choose to take advantage of it with a president the same party as the senate to advance the nomination. And we will certainly do that this year. This senate is the Current Senate elected the last time in 2018 will be here until the end of the engineeyear. And the president will be here until january 20th. But do you understand why americans view this as a double standard . I can only repeat, we have an obligation under the constitution should we choose to take advantage of it and thats going to happen. With Justice Ginsburg, why not listen to her dying wish to allow the next president fill the position . Well, its under breath. And she also thought the number of the Supreme Court ought to be nine. Have you spoken to President Trump recently about this vacancy . And then also, do you think that trying to get this done before election day, do you feel its an appropriate amount of time to vet a potential candidate . Of course, ive talked to the president about it, yeah, from the very beginning. What about the time line . Is the possibility that the election could be contested and essentially it goes through the court, does the Supreme Court factor into the thinking about the time line at all . Does the reality that we could face a contested election coming up, that it could end up in the courts that the Supreme Court could be making decisions about the results of the election factor into your statement about the time line . Yeah, all kinds of things could happen. For example, my colleague senator barrasso and i think senator blunt as well mentioned there were all kinds of threats out there, way predating this Premium Court vacancy. Theyre going to get rid of the filibuster. Theyre going to make d. C. A state. Puerto rico a state. Pack the Supreme Court. All of these threats have been out there for months. What we do know is what the job is right now. The job right now is for this wellqualified nominee which i expect well see on saturday to be processed in committee and brought to the floor and voted on. And thats what we anticipate will happen. Leader mcconnell, do you feel with an extension of the programs for the farming and do you think its possible to get a deal . Take the mask off. Sorry. Ill do better. Would you expect the deal on the cr that would extend the farming in change for the Nutrition Program . Well, were talking to the speaker right now about trying to resolve the issue that many of us are concerned about, about what has been in the past, a kind of automatic replenishing of the ccc. This is a really big issue in farm country. And there are both democrats and republicans who are farmers. Im hoping we can get that worked out and go forward, thank you. Okay. So, there you heard it. Republican Senate Leaders wrapping up their press conference after their weekly meeting. All of the republican senators got together. You heard from Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell and the other Republican Leaders there. We are also expecting to hear from the democratic Senate Leadership. They also held their weekly meeting. They will be holding a similar session. You see the podium there setting up outside the capitol, when that gets under way, well bring you that as well. Were expecting to hear a lot about what the democrats are thinking about now about what now is a pending nomination. Lets talk about that what we just heard from the republicans. Msnbcs Garrett Haake is with us on capitol hill. Garrett, a couple of things i jotted down here. Mcconnell and other republicans say they expect there to be a qualified woman nominated by the tread in coming days. I heard mcconnell asked point blank there if he had the votes land get this through before the election. And he said he will leave it to the judiciary chairman Lindsey Graham to lay out his process when a nomination comes out of the judiciary committee, mcconnell says, i will decide when and how to proceed. Is he leaving himself any wiggle room there to potentially wait until after the election . Or is this mainly a formality at this point . Whats your understanding . Reporter thats how i heard it. I heard the majority leader leaving himself plenty of wiggle room. Some of it is reality of the situation and some is wiggle room creation. Lindsey graham has the next step in the process, after the president names who his nominee will be. It will be up to graham to decide when the hearings will be. Typically, theres a lag of a couple weeks. The nominee comes to the hill. He or she meets with senators in their parties theres scholarships and additional papers to be reviewed. We know this is going to happen on a condensed time line but how condensed is still up in the air. Mcconnells role after committee, moving her to the floor. Mcconnell can do that fairly quickly but he cant speed up the first part of the process. Some of that is it political for mal formality. And kasie hunt was asking there, the way ted cruz has asked we need a court of nine in case some parts of the election gets kicked up to the Supreme Court. Even then, mcconnell would not bite. Hes very good at not engaging in questions he doesnt want to answer. Or it could be the political one that we talked about earlier in the hour which is how does a vote before the election affect his majority . And how does a vote after the election affect this majority gentlemen and how confident is he after the election he can still get this done. All of this to say, there are a lot of moving parts as it relates to timing. Really, steve, its a question of when, not if, this nominee will get confirmed. Republicans have the majority. They have the fear they can cast to the wavering members of the nominee placed by joe biden in january. And that still remains the state of play here. Garrett haake thank you for joining us there from capitol hill. Again, fast moving situation but we expect to hear from the democrats in just a minute. Joined again here by brian fallon, liz mair, standing by, elizabeth, let liz, let me start with you. The politics of this, Mitch Mcconnell not committing there to having this vote before the election. But talk about that calculation and that consideration. Because garrett was getting at this as well, if the election were to not go the republicans way, if donald trump were to lose the presidency, if democrats were to take back a Senate Majority in the election, how would that scramble the politics of this nomination, if republicans havent already confirmed before the election . Yeah, its hard to say. A lot of this is so gedependentn the timings. And most likely, were looking at a nomination of Barbara Lagoa or amy Coney Barrett, both of whom obviously have been confirmed before. The idea there to speed up the paperwork to enable a vote to happen before the election. But we dont know whether that will actually happen. With lagoa, its probably easier. She got a far higher number of senators to confirm her than Coney Barrett did. I think thats critical here, because when you get past the election, we dont know if somebody like Susan Collins is going to win her race. If she loses, we dont know how that affects the way she votes if youre looking at that period thats sort of a lame duck, right . We dont know whats going to happen with cory gardner, right now hes a damned if you do, damned if you dont. Hes come out and said he will vote progressive. But he could lose a lot of suburban women he needs to win by virtue of doing that but if he does that, he could lose Trump Supporters that he also needs to carry him. So its hard to speculate about the politics of the timing of this, and thats probably why you hear Mitch Mcconnell making such careful statements here because i dont think he wants to foreclose options. Brian fallon, im curious how you look at the politics of this, too. Just from the standpoint of trying to stop it. Theres what liz is looking for, as you look at the most politically vulnerable republicans running for reelection. Potentially, they alienate swing voters one way. And the other thing that jumped out listen to that press conference was john thune of south dakota who said a lot of us ran for the senate for big moments like this. And it may be just the possibility that some senators look at this and say, i dont know, the politics they cut against me both ways on this, but in the end, i want to get something that i think is big done. How do you combat that, from the standpoint of you politically trying to tell republicans its in their interest to stop this . Well, i do think that theres probably a lot of republicans that are prepared to lay down their political livelihoods on the line for the sake of getting the sixth seat on the Supreme Court. The federal society is a very conservative movement. And judges are a very salient issue on the republican side. What were seeing that we havent seen on the republican side, certainly, when i worked for hillary clinton, the salient on the Supreme Court is on the rise for democrats. Even democratic voters thought that the Supreme Court was a more important issue when it came to the ballot box than republicans. I think were going to hear a lot of these Senate Democratic challengers talk about issues, not in terms of adding seats, but theyre going to talk about the impact on the Health Care Case which is literally argued the week after the president ial election. We all know that john roberts has voted down twice the Affordable Care act. If amy Coney Barrett or another of trumps picks is confirmed in the court shell be seated in time. And the Affordable Care act will no longer be the law of the land. I think thats the argument that we hear democrats invoke against the Senate Republicans. Thats a stuff issue. Brian fallon and liz mair. Thanks for both joining us. Appreciate the insight from both of you. Again, were going to keep our eye on the podium outside the capitol. Chuck schumer, Senate Democratic leaders are expected to react to the developments what we expect for the next few days, a nomination by President Trump to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant by Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Next, an nbc news exclusive, Andrea Mitchell with an interview to a former top aide with the Coronavirus Task force who left her post out of concern that the president is putting american lives at risk. But before that, the president s claim that covid19 affects, quote, virtually, nobody, especially the young as u. S. Deaths from the virus reached 200,000. I am rob. Ive been taking prevagen on a regular basis for at least eight years. For me, the greatest benefit over the years has been that prevagen seems to help me recall things and also think more clearly. And i enthusiastically recommend prevagen. It has helped me an awful lot. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. And at fidelity, youll get planning and advice to help you prepare for the future, without sacrificing whats most important to you today. Because with fidelity, you can feel confident that the only direction youre moving is forward. Because with fidelity, you can feel confident when it comes to the quality of our cars the highest. Its why only 1 in 10 cars we look at qualify to sell on our site. If its been in a reported accident, we wont sell it. And at our stateoftheart facilities our ase certified mechanics roll up their sleeves and get to it. Inspecting, dialingin, and fine tuning every single car inside and out, bringing all of it up to our high standards. By the time were done, our cars are beyond certified. Theyre carvana certified. So whether you have it delivered or pick it up, we do it all so you can rest easy. All right, weve been wa waiting for this. Chuck schumer, the Democratic Senate leader. This was mcconnells rule when Merrick Garland was nominated by president obama, the American People should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice, therefore this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president. Certa certainly implying now. Leader mcconnell has basically the rules dont apply to republicans, even their own rules, its just brute political force. If that becomes the standard in the senate, how can we expect to trust the other side again . Why should the American People trust the republican senators to do anything they say when they are proving right now that their speeches mean nothing the moment the shoe is on the other foot. Senate republicans should heed leader mcconnells own words from 2013, quote, he said, youll regret this and you may regret this a lot sooner than you think. The American People dont want republicans to move forward with a confirmation, they know this is wrong, a reuters recent poll showed 52 of americans said the vacancy left by Justice Ginsburg should be the candidate who wins on november 3rd. The next Supreme Court justice of course we know could change the complexion of the court for a generation, and their decisions will touch every aspect of american life. But if republicans say, the heck with it, we dont care about anything, the rules, the senate, the institution and just move forward, everything americans value hangs in the balance. Health care. Protections for preexisting conditions. Womens rights. Gay rights. Voting rights. Civil rights. Climate change. And so much else. The entire Affordable Care act and protections for up to 133 million americans with preexisting conditions hang in the balance, a womans fundamental constitutional right to make her own medical decisions, the right to choose, for the first time in decades hangs in the balance. The right of workers to organize and collectively bargain for fair wages hangs in the balance, the future of our planet, environmental protections and the possibility of bold legislation to address Climate Change as well as the clean air and clean water acts hang in the balance. Voting rights. And the right of every american citizen to have a voice in our democracy hangs in the balance. And so much more. And on every one of these issues, what the republicans have done is they have pulled the federal judiciary to their farright side. Now they want to tilt the Supreme Court even further away so it doesnt reflect the values of the majority of americans. It reflects the values of an extreme rightwing majority. Weve seen this play out over and over again. Republicans at the same time as theyre rushing through a Supreme Court nominee, theyre doing nothing about the covid crisis. Its been four months since the house pass ed its heroes about, mcconnell had a pause, he wanted to assess the situation, then he put a bill on the floor that did hardly anything and now, theyre inmothering covid and the huge crisis once again to try and rush through a Supreme Court nominee. And at the same time, Senate Republicans in this administration have demonstrated they cant be trusted to protect the American People. Senator murphy and i introduced the stop act to establish essential oversight of the Coronavirus Response the bill would create a task force to report to the public when politics are respond to Covid Response decisions rather than just letting scientists doing their work. We democrats are fighting as we hard as we can to protect americans. And we need americans to thank you democrats are fighting as hard as we can to protect americans. But we need americans to fight with us to Keep Holding Republican senators accountable. Senator durbin. I got it. You want to put that down. Okay. Want to thank you, senator schumer, when we used to do tours of the capitol, they would point one of the rooms its senate. Its a hundred men and women that come together with a constitutional responsibility, the only way they can be a senate is if they have some basic understandings, underst d understandings of history, tradition, the rules and mutual respect, what we see happening in the senate today with senator mcconnells decision to reverse his position of four years ago and to push through the vacancy fulfilling the nomination of the trump is assault on all of those. We watched as hi colleagues have come forward and squirmed away from their positions of four years ago, which kept Merrick Garlands name from even being considered in a hearing. Here today, we face another issue, not just whos going to win this verbal balt over how to choose the nominee to fill the vacancy but whos going to lead on this Supreme Court across the street . Most of the people i represent in illinois knows the Supreme Court importance, why is it important to you personally, they would hard pressed to come one answer. The theres an easy answer today. Because we have 20 million americans who are protected by the Affordable Care act we know that this protection is at risk in the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court majority is at risk for the tactics of Mitch Mcconnell. We also know that the protection of preexisting conditions is particularly relevant today in the middle of this covid19 crisis, over 6 million americans have been diagnosed as positive. Some of them will be lucky and get over it and many will carry problems with them for a long period of time. Trust me f the Insurance Companies were given the power they had before the aca, those people, those who have tested positive will be people with preexisting conditions. Thats the reality of the future of the aca. The role of the Supreme Court and the debate taking place on the floor of the United States senate. Whats at stake here is whether or not well stand up for the history, rules and traditions of the senate and most importantly, for new church. You listened to the Democratic Leaders after their weekly meeting, their weekly press conference. That brings us to the end of our hour. Im Steve Kornacki in for katy tur. Im ayman mohyeldin. Beginning to serve. The backdrop as President Trump has been