merrick garland. also, he may agree enough is enough as we re going to get this guy through because you heard him very clearly stating that this is what i promised. i m a man of my word and i m giving the base what i believe they elected me to do. yeah, he s going to be giving his base what they want. his base. but in terms of the rest of the country, the precedence is going to be set for destroying how the senate operates at a fundamental level. the average voter may not care about it but what you re basically going to do is create a toxic and dysfunctional environment and make the last eight years look like a picnic. chris, robert, wow. huge news coming out of that pool spray. huge news. we ll have tape playback of that. we re wanting to hear what the president had to say. the reports we re getting from the pool is that the president is going to say to mitch mcconnell, if he hasn t already, invoke the nuclear option, which
folks are about the supreme court pick, take a look outside chuck schumer s house in brooklyn. democrats want a fight but how much of this is about neil gorsuch and how much of it is a proxy for democratic frustration in general? dating back to the election. can this nomination be blocked? chris kofinis is a democratic strategist along with robert traynum. how much of this is about this judge which everyone would look at his resume and say impressive and how much is it about democrats still mad about merrick garland and the election and a whole lot of things? it s a complex mixture of both. neil gorsuch, the idea that he could be on the court for 20 or more years is going to be a problem. this would have happened
has happened over the last year, democrats have to energize their base and be standing up for something. they have to be fighting for something. when you re talking about a supreme court justice, somebody is going to be there for 20 years, that s something you have to fight over. okay. i m just getting told in my ear and so i m going to go to you with this, robert. donald trump just said to the pool spray, in the roosevelt room, that is he going to encourage mitch mcconnell to go nuclear. are you surprised at all by that? wow. well, that s clearly breaking news if in fact that is accurate. i would hope that this is not the president s stance on this. if he feels the only way to get his nominee through is through the nuclear option, that s coming out of the gate swinging. is your concern that when you step back and look at the big picture, robert, this is just such an escalation of where we have been and where the senate
numbers and what s caused it, let s bring in your panel. victoria difrancesco, professor of mexican-american studies at university of texas. robert traynum, former bush senior adviser and eleanor clift at the day by beast. robert 50shgs% in this abc poll that just came out. as you watch the numbers grow not only in terms of the gap, that 50% is a major barometer to be watching here, hitting that bench mark. is not making any headway whatsoever with the american voter out there, particularly with independents who typically make um their minds at the last minute. it seems like paced based on what you said, more americans, donald trump, saying the election is rigged against them and the election is yet to happen, they re saying wait a minute, this doesn t make sense. this goes against everything we
do you think, robert? do you think that it will extend to the republicans? do you think they will hail the health care law? probably not. it s clearly something that they all ran against and governor romney s campaign was that he was going to defund and embark on obama care. but maybe a generation fortunately now. let s get to the second part, part 2. what do you see the biggest challenges that the president is going to face during his second term? i see two things, alex. first and foremost, presidents have had a horrible second term. bill clinton with his personal situation with monica lewinsky, george w. bush when it came to hurricane katrina. it s tough. the white house staffers are around and soft and not on their a-game. also, the president is tired and perhaps he s not on his a-game.