To all but declaring it the party of insurrection. the party that has no place for mike pence. michael steele is a former chairman of the republican committee. he joins to mike pence. they both join me now. let me start with you. you ve worked with the former vice president. your reaction to that speech? hey, look. i have to say out loud. i ve been waiting for this moment. i m proud of him. i have been wanting for him to take a stand against donald trump. i was shocked. i will say this, to hear him, finally, say that donald trump is wrong. i have never, in my entire tenure of working for the vice president, have heard him ever say those words, especially publicly. i think that was a big step for him. i realize that he did the right thing on january six. he is finally doing the right thing now, by saying this now. there s a whole group of voters out there who are listening to
And that is why pence made his speech at the federal today. the substance of that speech was embodied in a memo that he passed out right before we got on to the floor at 1:00 on january 6th. he simply did not have the power to do with donald trump and all the republicans were asking him to do. what was your reaction to the speech that pence gave today, and the reaction in that room in the federal society? well i am always of two minds about it. that is what passes for courage in the republican party today. of course, it is not courage at the level of liz cheney and adam king zinger who are willing to call out the big lie, and all of its implications. mike pence should be out there saying that it is a scandal, that donald trump is dangling pardons in front of hundreds, or perhaps thousands of people who participated in the insurrection. he should be calling out the
Trump s first nominee, neil gorsuch, he is speaking at the, where else, disney autumn beach clippers, or the sight of this year s society convention. we know for a fact in a very good video camera technology, there and it works because that is the exact same room where mike pence just told the crowd that donald trump didn t understand democracy. but there is no such footage of the neil gorsuch speech, he probably wrapped up his remarks a little while ago, maybe he is even speaking now because he is scheduled to speak at the banquet being held at this very moment. i would love to play what he said to you, you deserve to say what here with a supreme court justice has said to a roomful conservative activists. this is the one event that is marked close to the press. now, obviously, justices can have closed precedents. small intimate gatherings. this is not this. this is a big event. it is a huge political event. as i noted, the former vice president delivered the keynote,
Place, to places like fox news, to stephen colbert, and others. that is the exception, when they speak in public, they tend to do it in these sealed situations. and sometimes in these hermetically sealed situations, sometimes without the press a lot in the, room they take the opportunity to attack the press. like justice samuel leitao, and his speech on notre-dame last september, calling an article about the short, unexplained ruling on the infamous texas abortion rights law false and inflammatory. they also like to give speeches of plainly political gatherings, like when justice alito gave the keynote at the consider or when newly installed justice, amy coney barrett, give a speech at the university of louisville s mcconnell center, named for none other than republican senator mitch mcconnell sitting there right next to her. we have no public video record of that speech, because it was prohibited. though, apparently, reporters said she went out of her way too think the court is not