she is temporarily steppin down from the judiciar committee. i hope that the republican will have the decency to enabl this to happen i believe that diane and her constituents need to mak further decisions about he service. look, and the process t temporarily replace her will begin this week. that question if republicans will allow to happen is a bi one. can you expand on that. if you will. you had some reporting on this just a couple of days ago abou how republicans are making i more difficult to replace - diane feinstein on the judiciary committee. what s happening i ve spoken to both democrats and republican behind the scenes on this. democrats are saying thi shouldn t be a political process to replace someone o the committee when we have the majority at the same time, i spoke to republican operatives who don really have to have the mone to victory here. they have a slate of judges to confirm only about four or fiv of them are partisan or in controversial. the arrest of them
the world s oldest democracy joining me now, democratic new york congressman ritchie torres congressman, this has not ever happened in the u.s. but we ve seen these types of things i other countries, in italy, i israel do you see this as a huge test for our democracy? well, the fundamental difference between a dictatorship and a democracy i that a democracy should be capable of holding its leadership accountable in court of law i mean, donald trump sees hi self as a king who is above th law and who can do whatever he wishes with impunity and he s finally facin accountability we re sending a powerful message to the world that no one is above the law, not even a former president that in the united states of america, there is no king or queen, or the only king or queen is the majesty of th law. when you say we are sending a message, who is we the american legal system
law and can do whatever he wishes with impunity and he s finally facin accountability we re sending a powerful message to the world that no one is above the law, not even a former president that in the united states of america, there is no king or queen, or the only king or queen is the majesty of th law. when you say we are sending a message, who is we the american legal system american democracy, that s what s at stake. the decision to indict donal trump was not made on the basi of politics, it was made on th basis of law by a grand jury o his peers. and as a criminal defendant, donald trump is entitled to du process, he s entitled t presumption of innocence and he should surrender himsel to manhattan district attorney and defend himself in a cour of law, rather than attempt to delegitimized the process. and i find it outrageous tha house republicans have bee intent on intimidating alvin bragg, district attorney, an
will know this then they get a bit more heat. they ask you what newspapers you read or what news yo follow and then, can you promise to guard against allowing any stereotypes about individual or groups of people, you know, referred to as implicit bias t not influence your decision. and then they get to the big question that they were al asked, do you have any stron opinions or firmly held belief about former president donal trump, positive or negative, that would interfere with your ability to be a fair and impartial jury and they kept going deeper and deeper into the feelings about donald trump i can tell you, every juror ha a very strong feeling. most were very negative. but they managed to go through it, and at the end of it, it was can you still, even though you feel that way and they kept reminding him, donald trump is not on trial it s his company - but can you put those aside, here are the facts, and come out on the other end they came out with a jury, and one of the concerns
they managed to get through. and i think, empaneled, i thin the jury was fair. i read some of the exi interviews, it was people wa did through the evidence they seemed to have a good hol of it. but it s a hard town and everybody in this countr has an opinion on donald trump it s not just in new york. the judge that he s als going to face here is the same one that presided over allen weisselberg and the trum organization so, do you think trump will tr to get rid of that judge i m sure he s going to do everything he. can we ve seen this playbook many times running the clock - over the almost 70 year since he s been involved in his father empire, he s been involved in this i don t think we re gonna see break in character here. someone who knows his character well, you, phi rucker, you wrote the book a very stable genius a book all about the inner workings of donald trump s mind so, take us to mar-a-lago righ now. apparently, he has raised $4