appropriate. let me ask you this, i ll ask both of you this question. what s the standard? i mean, you testified in opposition to his nomination before this, right, so put that aside, there are other reasons you don t think he should be on the supreme court. but were this, say, a nominee who you did think should be on the supreme court and then this happened, this exact same fact pattern, what s the standard to you that makes someone fit or unfit, confirmable, unconfirmable? it s not a criminal case, the standard is not beyond a reasonable doubt. but i think here where someone is about to take on the mantle of supreme court justice, have the power to interpret the constitution, to interpret former precedents, you need to have a person of sterling and impeccable integrity. if there is any doubt that this person doesn t meet that standard, and i think it s a lower standard than proof beyond a reasonable doubt, then i think you ought not confirm. the it s not as though there aren t ot
more confidence in, i will support that choice with the understanding, ethey have to be highly qualified, confirmable, and we ll make sure that mueller is not impeded. you know, i m going to play a clip. this is what you said a little bit more than a year ago about firing jeff sessions and what you said more recently and then i ll give you a chance to elaborate. right. if jeff sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay. clearly, attorney general sessions doesn t have the confidence of the president. after the election, i think there will be some serious discussions about a new attorney general. all right. go ahead and yeah, so, he was thinking about firing sessions because he recused himself. he had no choice. i told you, mr. president, this man you re not a lawyer, i am there s no way jeff sessions could oversee the investigation but he s still always complaining about the fact that jeff sessions recused himself. he thinks that s the biggest mistake. he can
martha: what that lead to the votes we used to see? i do. i am hopeful. when justice passed away i called the white house and said to the president obama white house coun sell have him nominate someone who is a centrist and confirmable. jurist. he nominated the d.c. judge of the circuit garland who i think should have been that confirmable centrist. it s unfortunate and tragic he never got a hearing and a vote. a lot of bad feelings where that is concerned. thank you very much. thank you. martha: you bet. martha: coming up next, the other hearing that got really heated today. not only inside the chambers but at one point spilled out to the hallway.
abortion illegal. at northeast large swaths of the country by overturning roe versus wade. brett kavanaugh is expected to reveal secret money in political campaigns. a potentially decisive vote a number of issues of racial justice including his enthusiastic hostility to affirmative action and i could keep going. the basic idea is clear and republicans see all of those as the plus side for brett kavanaugh. that s why they want to confirm him. but there are a million jls like that they could have picked. a million judges who have all those same positions on those issues who would actually be more confirmable than brett kavanaugh for this seat on the supreme court. a million conservative judges throughout who don t have gazillions of pages of documents from their five years serving in the george w. bush white house dealing with the most controversial issues of that administration. documents which republicans will
but you know what? there s a million judges like that they could he have picked. a million judges who have all those same positions on those issues who would actually be more confirmable than brett kavanaugh for this seat on the supreme court. there s a million conservative judges out there who don t have gazillions of pages of documents from their five years serving in the george w. bush white deeting with the most controversial issues of that administration. documents which republicans will have to bend over backwards to conceal from scrutiny. thus breaking all their own precedents how nominees are reviewed. the top republican in the senate, mitch mcconnell, is said to have warned the white house specifically against picking kavanaugh because he might be difficult to confirm specifically because of his super long paper trail that will republicans didn t know how they would contend with. kavanaugh is not the easiest pick for them. he was first nominated to a federal judgeship in 2003.