In 1986, he testified, i have needed mr. Sessions help in those cases and he has provided that help every step of the way. Is that correct . Is that what he testified . Senator sessions, yes, that is correct. Senator cruz lied it to the truth. The civil rights cases that i questioned, before he claimed to have personally handled, this is senator sessions, the guy we are talking about confirming or not, they were not what mr. Hebert was talking about and that quote in 1986. He worked on a number of cases in the Southern District of alabama and he spoke about how he interacted with senator sessions generally. It to be clear, mr. Hebert had explained to this committee that two of the four civil rights cases that senator sessions claimed he was personally handling, mr. Hebert litigated himself personally. They were filed before senator sessions was the u. S. Attorney. He was not involved, nonetheles nonetheless, senator cruz attempted to conflate how senator sessions and mr. Hebert acted g
committee yelling is this what took place you are shameful to the members. will bring you back to capitol hill. in the meantime, we have avenues to get to as well. jon: it we want to get back quickly to our discussion with edward welland, the president of ethics and public policy. you wrote about what neil gorsuch, the man who is nominated to replace judge scalia, how he reacted when he learned about his death. can he tell us about that? sure, as he recounts, he broke out in tears and could hardly see straight. i think many of us had at the same reactions back then, i think it s testament to judge gorsuch s high regard for justice scalia and of course, i think the entire warm reception that judge gorsuch has received is a testament to how much justice scalia transformed the
left who are already throwing in the towel. i think beyond the one or two people who have threatened to fight tooth and nail, here you have a half dozen or more, including durbin who was part of the democratic leadership, indicating their interest in having a floor vote on this. there still might be an internal battle on the democratic side of. i personally would love to see them try a filibuster, as i think that would get rid of the filibuster. democrats might try to keep the vote level on final confirmation down below 60, frankly, with all the red state democrats who have be worried about reelection in 2018, i think would be tougher than even to do that. it jon: edward welland, clerk for justice scalia appeared thanks very much. jenna: the movement sparking controversy following the shooting death in
another big donald trump nomination is edward welland, president of the ethics and policy center. he is former clerk to justice scalia and contributor to bench memos blog where he has been writing extensively about the nominees and to the records. let s discuss. you worked with judge scalia very closely, is neil gorsuch another scalia? no one can be a full replacement for justice scalia, but neil gorsuch is an outstanding judge, like justice scalia, he s it dedicated ritualist and textual list credit like scalia, he has a brilliant legal mind. it like justice scalia come he writes forcefully and with verb. jon: democrats seem to be suggesting that he s unqualified to take scully as a seat, what you say to that?
there is senate hatch on the left, discussing the way forwar forward. jeff sessions has been nominated by the judiciary committee after a fair amount of back and forth between republicans and democrats. you see senator ted cruz there in the background. senator jeff sessions has been nominated to serve as attorney general of the united states. we want to continue our discussion with edward welland regarding the nomination of neil gorsuch to replace the late justice scalia. will be back with that in just a moment.