not go forward according to senator grassley after they questioned their fitness to serve. now another nominee matthew peterson is coming under fire after this testimony went viral when he couldn t answer the most basic questions about the law. nbc justice correspondent pete williams has more. raise your right-hand it s rare a nominee for lifetime appointment as a federal judge had no courtroom experience. that was a prb for matthew peterson during his senate confirmation this week. the most attention getting questions came from a republican from louisiana. have you ever tried a jury trial? itch not. civil? no. cripple? no. bench. no. have you ever argued a motion in federal court. no. peterson is a former congressional staffer and lawyer in private practice. he served on the federal election commission with don mcgann, the current white house counsel. he conceded he has no background
means when he says it. when he said we re not talking about a pardon yet. he means yet. he means that is something that s on the table, and i think we should take it seriously. all right. stay with us. i ll get back with you in a few. straight ahead, the $1.5 trillion tax cut. how can republicans convince skeptical americans it s all for their own good? up next, someone who voted for that original bill next hour, judge for yourself. how can you defend nominating someone for judge with no courtroom experience at all? have you ever sat on a jury trial? i have not? civil? no. criminal? no. bench? no. state or federal court? i have not.
district attorney, professor of law at university of michigan, also a nbc news and msnbc legal contributor. professor, i want to go to you first just on your courtroom experience and equal investigating the credibility of witnesses and jurors are told that they should use many elemented elements in evaluating the witnesses. we couldn t see roy moore s face today. that would have helped a lot. it would have helped the jury but based on what you heard today, and with reference to some of the inconsistencies that i just highlighted, what was your assessment of that as testimony? yeah, jurors are told supposed to use their common sense in assessing witness credibility. what i heard him say is he doesn t recall whether he dated an underage girl at the age of 14. you don t recall. maybe you don t recall what you had for dinner three weeks ago on tuesday but you don t recall whether you committed statutory
joining us now david frum senior editor of the atlantic and jennifer reuben at washington post, also with us, barbara mcquaid, former eastern district attorney, professor of law at university of michigan, also a nbc news and msnbc legal contributor. professor, i want to go to you first just on your courtroom experience and equal investigating the credibility of witnesses and jurors are told that they should use many elements in evaluating the witnesses. we couldn t see roy moore s face today. that would have helped a lot. it would have helped the jury but based on what you heard today, and with reference to some of the inconsistencies that i just highlighted, what was your assessment of that as testimony? yeah, jurors are told supposed to use their common sense in assessing witness credibility. what i heard him say is he doesn t recall whether he dated an underage girl at the age of 14.
follow strict legal procedures we will ensure that the rights of the accused are guaranteed. it up and off. the court will not allow those rights to be abused by either side. at first three lawyers had a normal and informal relationship with the judge for comfort or threat knows who they wish to how did you hopeful that is i had hoped that given my courtroom experience i would at least be able to impose a sense of order on the proceedings. and your shuffling kind of hands on snow. in late one thousand nine hundred seventy four the area of prisoners were transferred to. the trial against enslin hospital baader meinhof and mines was to start there in a few weeks the charges against them included four counts of murder the group had