trump term and a continued senate republican majority we can transform the courts even further. we would certainly confirm a new justice if we had that opportunity. and we re going to continue obviously to fill the circuit, district court vacancies as they occur right up until the end of next year. my motto for the remainder of this congress is leave no vacancy behind. donald trump is impeached and the senate is supposed to conduct a trial but mitch mcconnell still has his eyes on the judicial prize. joining me now is a former republican, tom nichols. and tom, thank you so much for being here and i m going to start right there on this issue of judges. 187 and counting mitch mcconnell having thrown out the rule saying he will continue to put judges on the federal bench right up until the election day of next year where he said you couldn t do that as far as the supreme court when it came to president obama. is that really what this boils
of representation, i hope that will give honor to good proper service in the united states congress. what about the very quiet senator tim scott? where is he on all this? senator schumer said they only need four senators to side with them to force mitch mcconnell to have a real trial. is there any chance that tim scott might be willing to step up and be one of those four? i don t know. i have not talked to tim. i have not heard him say anything publicly about this. i have not read of anything. maybe he has, but i know tim. i know his background. and i think that tim is an honorable person. i think he will listen to the facts and i think he will vote his conscience and i open his conscience is one that will maintain the integrity of the constitution of the united states of america which is what we re here to do. we swear on the with an oath
is is just a myth that conservatives tell themselves. yeah, speaking of survivors, you talked about mitch mcconnell being the ultimate survivor, lindsey graham is even a better example of it. i want to play you the two lindsey gram grahams there was the graham in 1999 and the lindsey graham of today. this is on the question of whether or not witnesses should testify in the impeachment trial. take a listen. the idea of not being able to call witnesses is crucial. how would you like to do this show without guests? what if you sat here and read transcripts based on questions you asked? your ratings would go down. if there s a witness request by anybody, i m going to say no. i want this to end quickly. i am going to make my decision based on the trial record established in the house. the constitution never envisioned the house being able to impeach the president and
want a trial. mcconnell appears more interested in covering up the president s misconduct than pursuing truth and fairness. he s trying to limit the impeachment trial and he has all but announced a verdict in doing so. he s actually seems to be agreeing with sflath tor harris saying he d rather not have a trial at all. what do you think are the chank chances there would be no trial at all and that donald trump will be left impeached and untried? i think that the senator harris has it exactly right. i don t think that mitch mcconnell wants to have a trial. he knows full well to have a trial you will swear in witnesses, he will bring them to testify, but what it is they know and when they found it out, he does not want that. he wants a kangaroo court. it s not a trial. that is just a process that you go through to legitimize what you know to be unfair and in
the common good of our nation requires. you know, there are few members of the republican party more brazenly partisan, more fixated on accumulating maximum partisan power or more allergic to irony than mitch mcconnell. mcconnell, the guy who bragged about saying this to the duly elected president of the united states barack obama who will i remind you had been elected with a 10 million vote margin and re-elected with a 5 million vote margin. one of my proudest moments is when i looked ahtyba rack obama and i said you will not fill this supreme court vacancy. that guy. mcconnell. who blocked so many of president obama s judicial appointments that then senate majority leader had to kill the fill buster to allow president obama to seat