we join you with this breaking news. justice antonin scalia, the voter s most influential conservative, has died. when antonin scalia, perhaps the most conservative member of the court suddenly dies in his sleep, it s march of 2016. barack obama is going to be president until january 2017, and he nominates merrick garland, who is a federal circuit court judge to replace scalia. i simply ask republicans in the senate to give him a fair hearing. if you don t, it will indicate a process for nominating and confirming judges that is beyond repair. now if the gop doesn t give garland a hearing, it will be the first time since such proceedings became the norm 60 years ago that a nominee has been denied a hearing. mitch mcconnell, he is going to do something that no senate majority leader has ever done, deny a sitting president a vote on his supreme court nominee. the american people may well elect a president who decides to nominate judge garland.
perhaps the most conservative member of the court, suddenly dies in his sleep, it s march of 2016. barack obama s gonna be president until january, 2017, and he nominates merrick garland, who is a federal circuit court judge, to replace scalia. i simply ask republicans in the senate to give him a fair hearing. if you don t, it will indicate a process for nominating and confirming judges that is beyond repair. now if the gop doesn t give garland a hearing, it will be the first time since such proceedings became the norm 60 years ago that a nominee has been denied a hearing. [jeremy] mitch mcconnell, he s going to do something that no senate majority leader has ever done, deny a sitting president a vote on his supreme court nominee. [mitch] the american people may well elect a president who decides to nominate judge garland. the next president may also nominate somebody very different. [bill] mitch mcconnell thought there was some chance republicans will win the presidency and therefore
it will be released. i ve been audited i think for 15 straight years. when the audit is done, i ll release them. i m under routine audit. and i think it s a very unfair thing. as soon as my routine audit is done, i ll release my returns. i would be very proud to. i would love to give them, but i m not going to do it while i m under audit. it s very simple. according to maggie haberman s new best-seller confidence man , i ll release it when it s over is something trump came up on a flight in march of 2016. quoting in the book, you know taxes under audit. i ll release them when i m no longer under audit because i ll never not be under audit. he didn t tell voters that part. but when democrats in congress demanded the returns, he didn t try the audit excuse on them, he just said no. here is his acting chief of staff at the time. to be clear, you believe
name. months before donald trump was elected, leo was already shaping trump support court nominations. listen to how he describes this meeting with trump in march of 2016. he had an idea he wanted to flow, which was, what do you think of having me put out a list of people who i would pick from for the u.s. supreme court? now, this was a little bit of a radical idea. no candidate ever tried it before. i said about two edge suggests to him names of people who would be appropriate for that kind of a list. think about how all this works? right scalise is dead, vacancies not being filled by mitch mcconnell, who says under no circumstances will they fill it. so there is this opening, and i know that if donald trump becomes the president, conservatives will get the nominee in the court. so he says to, leroy should do list. and leo says, i ll give you a
roe v. wade being overturned, it is him, leonard leo. it was his six justices whose vetting and nominations and confirmations he all shepherded who all voted to gut reproductive rights. when you see the news about a ten year old forced to flee her state to terminate a pregnancy from a rapist, think about leonard leo as the man who brought the state of affairs about. he is the guy pulling the strings in the background, and yet, no one really knows his name. months before donald trump was elected, leo was already shaping trump support court nominations. listen to how he describes this meeting with trump in march of 2016. he had an idea he wanted to float, which was, what do you think of having me put out a list of people who i would pick from for the u.s. supreme court? now, this was a little bit of a radical idea. no candidate ever tried it before.