Ketanji Brown Jackson is an unequivocally well-qualified nominee for the Supreme Court. But if she is confirmed, the court's conservative hammerlock will not change.
trying to handicap this. there is a fair amount being made of a recall pusal push. people saying let s go the path of at least resistance. that s right, it comes down to credentials and confirmability. in the last few weeks, it has all been about who is the splashy candidate that trump will pick. but now he has to think about who can he get throughout without too much political capital. and i would say erica and john, it goes into two categories here when we get to those four. brett kavanaugh and amy comey barrett. kavanaugh has the largest
crosscurrents, the communications that i was involved with by the various groups lobbying for or against the four finalists. one of the deciding factors in the president s decision. i could be wrong. we ll know in 12 hours, was confirmability. and senator mitch mcconnell the republican leader on the senate said to him we ll have issues with judge barrett and judge kavanaugh that we won t have with the other two. bill: suggesting republicans would have a problem. yes, concerned about the perception. we don t know what the reality is. the perception that these two judge kavanaugh and judge barrett would be lightening rods on the issue of abortion. i think senator mcconnell is right. they are perceived as lightning rods on abortion. whereas the other two are not. bill: let s take it one by
confirmed? do you believe, judge gonzalez, that should be the test, the confirmability of the candidate, or should it go beyond that? i believe it is a factor that should be weighed. obviously, the confirmation, looking at the calendar, who controls the senate, who is the senate judiciary committee chairman, all of those are considerations. the number one consideration for president bush was ideology. how is this person going to approach the job of judging? if you ve got the right person, then that person is worth the fight. you work with the senate republicans. hopefully get some democratic votes and get this person confirmed. from my perspective, you re not going to look solely at confirmability and ignore ideology. ideology and qualifications are the two most important indications in terms of what i think a president should look for. alberto gonzalez, thank you for coming back on the show. we appreciate your perspective. thank you. joining me now is political reporter for the
his relative youth. many qualified nominees they looked at, potential nominees that were older, late 50s, early 60s. these day presidents seem to think they re too old. they want someone that can hang around for a while. that was a factor. his record. he approaches the law the way antonin scalia did. the confirmability issue comes in between him and, say, william pryor, a federal appeals court judge from alabama, who was considered. had some more difficult to explain to members of the senate from the democratic party, his views on abortion. one of the worst decisions ever in supreme court history. so you look at all those factors. his confirmability was definitely an issue. pete, when you look at, if he is to go through the confirmation process and end up installed on the court is he going to have an impact or is is