Democrats stay together behind whoever it is that biden nominates, and that s one of the reasons that the white house was so quick yesterday to make clear that they are standing behind president biden s campaign pledge to nominate a black woman to the supreme court. they have had a short list for quite some time dating back to the campaign of folks they think are qualified. chief among them is of course judge brown jackson, who is someone who is already on the appellate court and has the benefit of having been confirmed less than a year ago by the senate including with three republican senators who are now of course going to be very closely watched to see whether they will back president biden s nominee to the high court. that will be senators collins, murkowski, as well as senator lindsey graham. a few other names that we are hearing quite a bit about include leandra kruger, who sits on the california supreme court,
Discrimination. and while adding someone who is the beneficiary of this sort of the majority of the court may be saying at large that it is unconstitutional. we ll see how that irony works out. gloria, do you think that whoever president biden nominates is the beneficiary of a affirmative racial discrimination? not at all. you know, what is so ironic about this, we ve had white male affirmative action for nearly 400 years by law and by violence. and yet we have now these black women who have harvard, yale, princeton backgrounds who are looked upon everything that they have gotten was given to them where they have the highest integrity and highest intellectual minds. and i think the other thing that needs to be understood here is that the first white female
I think most people are keeping their powder dry to see who biden nominates obviously. they re not going to make proclamations about a candidate that does not yet exist. i would say two different things, number one, susan collins has voted for every supreme court nominee going back except for amy coney barrett in her entire career. that s number one. number two, the supreme court has gotten quite polarized. we don t see 80 vote confirmations, but could this nominee get 55 votes, 56 votes, i think that s possible. i don t think this will be an overwhelming vote of the senate but i think that s what the administration is trying to do. jake sherman, i want to congratulate you for the success of punch bowl news. thank you for being with me this morning and i want to thank jackie for being with me as well. i appreciate both of your time. why one biden official working on immigration reform left her job at the white house. we ll talk to the reporter who has her story next. you re watchin
reporter: remember, in 2017 republicans changed the senate rules to allow for supreme court justices to be confirmed with just a bare majority. every supreme court justice since has been confirmed with just a bare majority. neil gorsuch had the most votes at 54. i doubt we see the number go that high with whomever president biden nominates now just because of the polarization of this body. the democrats that have been causing trouble for the president lately, joe manchin and kyrsten sinema have voted for every single one of 42 judicial nominees he s made up and down the federal bench thus far, i think they ll continue to support whomever the president nominates. the challenge may be maintaining their 50-seat majority. we ve gone the longest the senate has ever had a 50/50 split. democrats will need every single one of those votes to get this across the finish line. thank you all for being with me. really appreciate it. sexual harassment is now a
It comes to filling vacancies on the supreme court. graham voted for both of president obama s supreme court nominees and was one of three republicans to vote for judge jackson s confirmation to the d.c. appeals court along with alaska s lisa murkowski and maine s susan collins, each possible votes for whomever president biden nominates. we can take our time, have hearings, go through the process, which is a very important one it is a lifetime appointment after all. reporter: whoever the president nominates will make history if they re confirmed. a 50-50 senate has never confirmed a supreme court justice. lester. garrett haake, thank you. let s turn to the ukraine crisis now and no signs this evening that russia is scaling back its military buildup along the border despite pressure from the u.s. and nato our richard engel is in ukraine and has the very latest. reporter: this time, russia mobilized its ships in the black sea as it continues its military buildup for a possible