be, giveren the history of barack obama not allowed to advance his nominee, merritt garland. what are the republicans best chances? what should we expect in terms of fight ahead as to whether kavanaugh will be confirmed? i want to bring into the conversation a former staffer, adam gentleson. he is not a household name but he is a crucial character. he was part of the fight in 2016 to put garland on the supreme court. he was deputy chief of staff for harry reid who was seen as a master of the senate rules and who went to the mat in all sorts of unprecedented ways in fights like this in the past. thank you for being with us tonight. i appreciate you being here. thanks for having me. you ve spoken publicly about what you think democrats ought to do if they want to pull out
now that the president made the choice, this nominee has to get through the u.s. senate. where the balance of power stands at 51 republicans to 49 democrats. among those 51 republicans is senator john mccain who is out and at home because of health concerns. given that math and the way this supreme court nomination came to be, giveren the history of barack obama not allowed to advance his nominee, merritt garland. what are the republicans best chances? what should we expect in terms of fight ahead as to whether kavanaugh will be confirmed? i want to bring into the conversation a former staffer, adam gentleson. he is not a household name but he is a crucial character. he was part of the fight in 2016 to put garland on the supreme court.
associated with this man who is poised to wield a massive influence on the future of this country, should be and ought to be scrutinized. and it is likely to be millions of documents, given the length of his career. adam gentleson, former deputy chief of staff, now part of the group democracy forward. thank you for your time. appreciate you being here. nina totenberg will be joining us in just a moment. we have much more to come this big news night. do stay with us. (vo) i was born during the winter of 77. i first met james in 5th grade. we got married after college. and had twin boys. but then one night, a truck didn t stop. but thanks to our forester, neither did our story. and that s why we ll always drive a subaru.
adam, go ahead. so the upper left corner would be the republican cloakroom. and that s probably where they went to have a private conversation. so i think that means that there is something afoot. again, it comes back to the point, though, what is the plan b? the only thing we ve heard raised today is senator graham s clean cr, which doesn t have much of anything attached to it, but it would keep the lights on for a little bit longer. in order to put that vote up for ovote on the floor, you would need unanimous consent. and all of them would have to agree to hold that vote immediately. because setting up a vote takes three days in the senate at least. and then for it to become law, it would have to immediately go over to the house and be passed there. so the senate can t unilaterally
resistance in that march, that historic march in the united states and around the world. what is it like for you tonight on the eve of that anniversary to be watching this kind of resistance to the president unfold on the senate floor? not surprising. thank you for taking time for womens rights with an hour to government shutdown. we appreciate it. it s necessary. we re going to bring adrenaline. we re going to change the government. you ve gone from a march to a giant march of women candidates who are entering the field this year. and that seems to have been in large part sparked by the march. it has been. women are coming out to say, you know what, not only do i have a voice, i need representation. and if i m not going to get it by the current government, i m going to run myself. and it s just incredibly beautiful. we re not going to see a shutdown once we get women on that board. i want to go back to adam.