Final vote on the senate floor. all of this will be very tight in a 50/50 senate and an evenly divided judiciary committee. whether they can pick off any republican votes will be one of the big story lines we ll be following. tamika, talk about the significance of this moment for the country. well, it s important for politicians to keep their promises and especially so for president biden whose poll numbers are pretty disaltering i think we know. more important is that such an appointment would reenforce american values of equal opportunity is mandated by the civil rights laws. you mentioned my book. this appointment has been a long time coming. constance baker motley was the first black woman appointed to the federal bench. she was on the supreme court short list, but in her position,
jesse: justice intrir retiring from the supreme court. biden is going to hire a black female to take his place. he promised he would do this in the primary campaign in exchange for endorsement and voters of south carolina and beyond. a little quid pro quo but that s politics. whoever biden nominates it won t really be his choice though. the people with the biggest say will be clyburn, durbin, cory booker, chief of staff ron klain, the squad and obviously the yale law faculty. the hearings will be filled with washington drama and theatrics but mostly involve idiotic trying to sound smart and must smarter nominee patiently waiting until they stop showing off and just confirm her. grandstanding doesn t each begin to describe it. so it s worth a look back at joe chairing the clarence thomas confirmation, watch. we all know what we re talking about here. that you and i know at least when we are talking about here. there is a it fervent and
Live. i will ask about the presidents strategy to get confirmed. also tonight, we are following the u.s., ukraine russia standoff. reporting that moscow is continuing forces on the border of ukraine. today biden had a phone call with zelensky. more on that ahead as well. let s bring off our lead off guest on this night. peter baker, courtney white house correspondent for usa today. and barbara mcquade, a veteran federal prosecutor and former u.s. attorney for district of michigan. coasting the podcast sisters in law. celebrating its one year anniversary today. peter, let me start with you. there is a lot of speculation about how hard the republicans will. fight we ve heard the not so veiled warning about mitch mcconnell about the radical pick. the washington post notes that some conservatives have signaled they want to take an aggressive approach. and fight whoever biden nominates. how strong peter do you think
Battles. but what really matters is that people understand the constitution and interpret it faithfully, because that is important for all of us regardless of whether we re male or female, black, brown, white. this is what unites us as a country, is our constitution and our founding principles. and anyone can lay claim to that and should lay claim to that, and it s not about what genitalia you have or what skin color you have. howard: well, that s a good point. but since you brought up clarence thomas, it was george w. bush naming him to replace thurgood marshall. leslie, why are emotions running so high in this media debate when everybody knows it s virtually certain that a 51-50 with kamala harris breaking the tie in the senate will confirm whoever priden nominates? and just president biden nominates? and just as the democrats lost with the battles over merrick garland and amy coney barrett and it doesn t change the 6-3 balance of the court? ah, howie, one of the reasons
Comments? reporter: yeah, lindsey, i don t think anyone is particularly surprised who covers the hill that this will be a partisan fight in the senate for whoever president biden nominates to fill justice breyer s spot on the supreme court. both because of how partisan it s been in the last couple of months in the senate, but both because of what president trump and president obama s candidates had in the senate. the bitter fights those candidates had. and when you look at senator wicker s comments, it certainly raised eyebrows. he suggested that because the court will hear these race-conscious admissions while promising to nominate a black woman to the high court for the very first time, that that is somehow, quote, ironic. but he was asked by the radio host that it s, quote, demeaning that president biden announce his intention to put a black woman on the supreme court for the first time, and that somehow her race will be her qualifications will be