somewhat different, how much would you expect his comments about the judiciary to figure in tomorrow, what are you hearing from your legal sources? well, i m sure his that neil gorsuch will be asked a lot about donald trump the president who nominated him. whether in the end it would make any difference, i don t know. i think to some extent that part will be political theater and these hearings now as long as everybody is clear about the process, for the first day the nominee doesn t say much except hello. he sits there and listens to all the members of the judiciary committee make openings statements, he gets to briefly introduce his family and say what a privilege it is to be nominated and the fireworks don t start until tuesday when the actual questioning begins and then on wednesday, any questioning that continues and then people who will speak for and against the nominee. well, pete williams, i think we can agree that senators make sure to schedule their remarks first en if
been used anywhere, i think to some extt they mischaracterized it. i can t at this point envision any of those things happening. sandra day o connor used to say, it all matters can you get to five, it takes five votes for majority opinion in the supreme court, and here it may only take the answer may be 51. right. that s a great and useful piece of nuance there, and, pete, to your point, whether or not folks thought garland should get a hearing, it didn t move the needle. look at the polling on that. 64% of people said at the time in march he deserved some kind of hearing. that s higher than, say, support for trump or, you know, against democrats. but the notion of process didn t win out, nina. process is a pretty hard thing to win out with in the heat of a presidential campaign. and the white house was enormously frustrated they couldn t do something about this. i know democratic pollsters who
replied, give us time. if nominees go down based on vetting, political opposition or losing the white house s confidence, do any of those patterns spell trouble for trump s pick? joining me now, nbc justice rrest pete williams, who covered six of these battles and npr legal affairs correspondent nina totenburg who covered 18. great to have you both here. pete, we just saw you there on the miers nomination. what do we know about how any of that plays into gorsuch? well, i think that what has happened here is that the opposition to neil gorsuch is sort of like the opposition was to merrick garland. it has to do with the principle, not the person, the republicans were saying that it should be up to the next president and now the democrats are saying that what happened to merrick garland is wrong, and neil gorsuch shouldn t take the opportunity to capture a stolen seat. but i don t think any of those
thousands of documents from the justice department in the days when he when gorsuch was a very high ranking justice department official. and i would imagine that he ll be asked a lot about some of the positions he took about torture, about other things, and there may be other areas in which new stuff or old documents show up, or new charges show up, that is the stuff of it is never over until it is over, but for now, it is looking pretty smooth. right. this is what i m going to do. dalla, thank you for your service last hour and this hour. howard and nina, stay with us on a double legend special. right after the break, we ll hear more from you. merrick garland not the only supreme court nominee to be denied a vote. president george w. bush had one of his own. a look at those that came close and failed. as we go to break, a little supreme court confirmation hearing test for you. listen to two senators, one
units vot unanimous vote. what would be the argument as a democrat you would have to make i voted for him last time but this time i m not going to and here is why? right. you know, both republicans and democrats have been in this situation before and they have tend to argue the supreme court is different than the lower court. a lifetime seat and more important. you can get away with that shift in votes. the real tactical question is going to be filibuster or not. right item right. do you decide during this first appointment in the end will not be blocked to fill p t filibuster which the nuclear option blow it up and wait until the next seat which nina said is the important one replacement of justice kennedy and i think that is the tough choice for democrats. jeffrey rosen and nina totenburg thank you for being on our show. democrats started drawing their battle lines after the announcement. one released a scathing statement calling for democrats to block the nomination.