News on Youtube Jun 30 2018

ROBERT COSTA: Hello. I'm Robert Costa. And this is the Washington Week Extra, where we

pick up online where we left off on the broadcast. Joining me around this table, Seung

Min Kim of The Washington Post, Pete Williams of NBC News, Joan Biskupic of CNN, and

Carl Hulse of The New York Times. For the second time in less than two years, President

Trump will be nominating a new Supreme Court justice. This week Justice Anthony Kennedy

announced he would be retiring at the end of July after 30 years on the Court.

Kennedy has wielded a lot of influence during his time on the bench as a

sometimes-centrist, sometimes-conservative swing vote.

Whoever is confirmed could reshape the country's judicial future for generations.

But, Pete, when we think about Congress and how they approach this, the Democrats on

Capitol Hill face a dilemma. They could protest and protest whoever the president

decides to pick, but then the president has a list of justices who are very similar

in profile. So what to do if you're a Democrat?

PETE WILLIAMS: Well, I think that's the issue, because if you say I'm sorry, this one

just doesn't work for us, it's not like the next one is going to be - think about Anthony

- let's finish the sentence, Pete. (Laughter.) It's not like the next one's going to be

that much different. And here's what I would contrast it with. Go back to look at the

way Justice Kennedy got on the bench. It started, remember with Robert Bork, and it

became quite clear that the Senate rejected him. Then we had that little detour to

Doug Ginsburg, who - amazingly, back then - (laughs) - smoking marijuana was considered

a bad thing for people in government. And then they got to Justice Kennedy. So you

actually went from a more conservative to a less conservative choice. It's not like that

now. Now, people in the process that have sort of put this farm team together from which

the president is choosing would say, look, these are all people who have a consistent

view of the Constitution. They are sort of like Justice Scalia in that sense.

They believe in interpreting statutes as they're written. They don't want to make law.

And that's all true, but the fact is they all have a pretty consistent sort of view of

the law, a judicial philosophy. So all of that is simply to say, you know, this one

down, the next one up is I don't think going to be that much philosophically different.

ROBERT COSTA: But this is a president who loves throwing a political curveball.

Is there any chance he ever deviates from this whole Leonard Leo/Federalist Society -

Leonard Leo runs the Federalist Society -

PETE WILLIAMS: By the way, I just have to say for the sake of accuracy he's actually

taken a leave of absence right now to do this.

ROBERT COSTA: Oh, really? So he's going to help out formally with the process?

PETE WILLIAMS: Exactly.

ROBERT COSTA: Interesting. So is there any chance the White House goes off the list?

SEUNG MIN KIM: I mean, doesn't seem like it because this is the one conventional

Republican thing that the president has done. I mean, you look at the list of

nominees, this is something that other Republican presidential nominees, had

they won the nomination and won, could have nominated as Supreme Court justices.

So it's interesting, while these swing votes that we talk about from Lisa Murkowski to

Heidi Heitkamp are privately urging and publicly urging the president to maybe look off

the list a little bit, this is - the list is something that they will stick to.

CARL HULSE: But the president said I'm going to pick from this list and it was a huge

win for him during the campaign. It was a genius idea. Democrats now think their future

candidates are going to have to provide lists like this. And so he's going to go with that.

I did hear one story during some reporting I was doing on this that the president really

didn't know the difference between the Federalist Society and the Heritage Society, and they -

ROBERT COSTA: The Heritage Foundation.

CARL HULSE: Heritage Foundation. And they kept trying to straighten him out on that.

ROBERT COSTA: Well, thinking - and we're mentioning all these inside names - Leonard

Leo, Federalist Society, Heritage Foundation - but to me maybe the real relationship is

Don McGahn, White House counsel, with Mitch McConnell, the majority leader.

CARL HULSE: Yeah, I think that is totally accurate.

Don McGahn and Mitch McConnell have worked extremely closely together.

Don was a Republican lawyer around town, was the head of the Federal Election Commission,

and was then - early on in the administration was the president's - I mean, in the

campaign was the president's counsel, was part of the group that came up with this idea,

and he and McConnell are really in lockstep on this, so.

ROBERT COSTA: He thought about quitting McGahn. There was - every week -

CARL HULSE: There's always somebody quitting, right?

ROBERT COSTA: - a new story in D.C., McGahn's about to quit. Yet, he's staying for this.

CARL HULSE: Yes. (Laughter.)

SEUNG MIN KIM: Exactly. Yeah, this definitely extended his tenure by a couple months.

CARL HULSE: So we talked the other day some people could call this the McConnell Court.

Maybe it's the McGahn Court. (Laughs.)

ROBERT COSTA: Well, McGahn would like that, I'm sure. Joan, you're working on a book

about Chief Justice John Roberts. And you think about, as you go through all your

reporting and research, what a moment for him now.

JOAN BISKUPIC: It is. He already - you know, the man in the center chair, he presides

over the Court, but so much of his power was undercut by the man next to him, Anthony

Kennedy, over the last 13 years because he was that decisive vote. So the chief had

to work around him at times. You know, he - face it, Anthony Kennedy was a conservative,

but on a lot of these social issues the chief was on the opposite side of him.

He dissented when Anthony Kennedy wrote the gay marriage ruling. Now, with Kennedy

gone, he doesn't have to do that. He'll have a full contingent of four other justices

to make a majority who would be on the conservative side. So this will really make a

difference for him. But one way that I think it could hurt him a little bit, Anthony

Kennedy was - he was kind of an old-fashioned Republican, a very civil individual.

He worked well with others. He dissented from the - (laughter) - seriously.

I mean, you think of - and if you're talking about nine people around a table, nine

people appointed for life, it matters if someone can work well with others, you know,

because they all have their strikingly different personalities.

So I think they did have a good cooperative spirit, but the chief now has his own Court

and we'll just have to see what this fifth conservative brings.

PETE WILLIAMS: By the way, you asked me during the broadcast if this would put Justice -

Chief Justice Roberts in a different position, would he become the swing vote?

And I should have thought of an example from this term where he did it, and that's

the Supreme Court voted a sort of pro-privacy ruling to say if the police want

to use your cellphone records to track where you've been, they have to get a search

warrant. That was a five to four ruling, the chief with the libs.

JOAN BISKUPIC: And what does it recall? Obamacare in 2012. It's the only other major

decision that John Roberts went with the four liberals, and boy do we remember that. (Laughter.)

CARL HULSE: Well, and a lot of conservatives continue to think he was a sellout - or, it

was David Souter -

JOAN BISKUPIC: That is so true. And that's why, frankly, even on this court, several of the chief's

colleagues don't quite trust him in ways because he broke from them for this momentous ruling in 2012.

ROBERT COSTA: We talked about a lot of senators on the broadcast. Two Democrats we

didn't get to bring up but intrigue me, Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Senator

Doug Jones of Alabama, who was just elected in a special election late last year.

Any chance they could be drifting toward the Republican pick here?

SEUNG MIN KIM: So the reason that Bob Casey is interesting, at least from this angle, is

that he is the rare Democrat who opposes abortion rights and has voted with Republicans

often on these restrictive abortion measures.

But if you look at where he is politically, even though Pennsylvania is a state that

went, surprisingly, for President Trump in 2016, he - and he's up for reelection this

fall - he is actually not expected to have a difficult reelection race.

He is - polling shows he is up, you know, high double digits - or double digits against

his challenger, Lou Barletta. He has kind of gone woke, as the kids say.

(Laughter.) In the era of Trump, very embracing these liberal, progressive values.

So I would be incredibly surprised if he broke the other way.

CARL HULSE: Yeah, he's been radicalized by the Trump administration. (Laughter.)

You know, there's - Doug Jones is 2020, right? Is that right? So, you know, he's a

civil rights force down in Alabama. Who knows, but I think that he - probably worried

about the Voting Rights Act and some of the other things that have happened on this court.

He can't be that open to it. But you know, there's other Democrats running in red states.

Sherrod Brown - or, that were red states this last election, anyway - Ohio, Wisconsin.

But, you know, we're not seeing -

ROBERT COSTA: Why do we never hear about those names?

CARL HULSE: Why? Because I don't think that - there's no way that Sherrod Brown is

probably going to ever confirm a - or vote to confirm, you know, someone from Trump's

list. So - and I think - you know, some of these races aren't playing out that way.

I mean, he's looking pretty good there. And Tammy Baldwin, who was actually - of

Wisconsin - was a big concern for the Democrats for a while, seems to be in pretty

good shape. You know, one thing that I've been thinking about - and I think I'm right

on this - I think Kennedy was the last member of the Court to be elected - confirmed

unanimously by the Senate.

I think everyone else that's currently on the Court had at least some opposition - some.

ROBERT COSTA: It's a different era.

JOAN BISKUPIC: Right. Ruth Bader Ginsburg had three votes against her. And - yeah, so -

CARL HULSE: But then it's gotten extremely party line.

I don't think we'll ever see another unanimous confirmation.

ROBERT COSTA: Speaking of Ruth Bader - Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she's in her

mid-80s. She's one of the most spry people I ever see in Washington. She moves

faster than me when I see her at different events. But any retirement rumors?

CARL HULSE: Oh. (Laughs.)

JOAN BISKUPIC: She will - (laughter) - she will go out feet first, frankly.

She is not going to go during Donald Trump's watch.

ROBERT COSTA: Why?

JOAN BISKUPIC: OK. She is - you know, she just turned 85. She's about to take

an international trip. She is going to hang in there as much as she can.

And especially I thought, you know, for the four liberals who only had Anthony Kennedy to

sort of cling to for most of the rulings that they could possibly prevail, they must have

just been devastated Wednesday afternoon. And I think - she's the senior liberal.

And it's her troops that she's going to have to try to bring together.

ROBERT COSTA: Final thought, Pete. Justice Gorsuch. That seems to set the precedent

for so much of our discussion right now, how that played out, how President Trump and

Senate Republicans went about it. What do you - what do you think about the

justice one year - over a year in?

PETE WILLIAMS: Well, I think he's a little different than he was when he came on the

bench. I think - you know, he's smart. He's well-regarded. And he came with a very

good reputation. But let me just say that - I think the best way to say this - he did

not suffer from freshman shyness when he came on the Court. (Laughter.) And I think

there were some sharp elbows. But he's kind of mellowed a little bit.

And one of his - one of his first acts, which struck some of us as rather odd - you

know, here is this man he used to clerk for, Anthony Kennedy, who swore him in on the

10th Circuit, swore him in again when he became a Supreme Court Justice.

And Gorsuch immediately joins this dissent that has this little dig about the same-sex

marriage ruling that Kennedy wrote, which surprised some of us. But I think he's sort

of settling in and getting the pattern and realizing that even though he came from a

court of appeals where collegiality is important, it's even more important here.

ROBERT COSTA: You all are terrific. I know we could go on all evening talking about the Court.

PETE WILLIAMS: Let's do.

ROBERT COSTA: Maybe we will, Pete, off camera. That's it for this edition of the

Washington Week Extra. While you're online take our Washington Week-ly Quiz and

find out if you can remember the many other stories that made headlines this week.

I'm Robert Costa. See you next time.

For more infomation >> President Trump's search for a new Supreme Court Justice - Duration: 11:29.

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Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement causes a Supreme Court shakeup - Duration: 23:55.

ROBERT COSTA: President Trump steps up his search for a new Supreme Court justice.

I'm Robert Costa. We discuss the highly charged fight over the future of the high

court, tonight on Washington Week.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: (From video.) And I'm very honored that he chose to do it during

my term in office because he felt confident in me to make the right choice and carry on

his great legacy. That's why he did it. (Cheers, applause.)

ROBERT COSTA: Supreme Court shakeup. The retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy has

sparked a political battle over the confirmation of his successor.

Democrats argue Republicans should wait until after the November elections and follow the

precedent they set in 2016. That's when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

refused to give President Obama's Supreme Court pick a vote.

SENATE MINORITY LEADER CHARLES SCHUMER (D-NY): (From video.) Our Republican colleagues

in the Senate should follow the rule they set in 2016.

Anything but that would be the absolute height of hypocrisy.

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): (From video.) This is not 2016.

We're right in the middle of this president's very first term.

ROBERT COSTA: President Trump isn't waiting. He has identified potential nominees who

could cement conservative control of the Supreme Court for decades.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: (From video.) We have a very excellent list of great, talented,

highly educated, highly intelligent, hopefully tremendous people.

ROBERT COSTA: We examine the impact a new justice could have on policy, midterm

politics, and the president's legacy with Seung Min Kim of The Washington Post, Joan

Biskupic of CNN, Pete Williams of NBC News, and Carl Hulse of The New York Times.

ANNOUNCER: This is Washington Week. Once again, from Washington, moderator Robert Costa.

ROBERT COSTA: Good evening. President Trump may look back on this final week of June as

one of the most significant of his term: The Supreme Court upheld his travel ban; and

Justice Anthony Kennedy, a pivotal swing vote on the bench, announced his retirement.

Kennedy's exit will give the president a chance to nominate another justice to a lifetime

appointment. On Friday the president said he would make a decision by Monday, July 9th,

and that would certainly escalate the already fierce battle between Democrats and Republicans.

Nominated by a Republican president, Ronald Reagan, in 1988, Supreme Court Justice Anthony

Kennedy has long been referred to as the swing vote on the bench, a label he never liked.

SUPREME COURT JUSTICE ANTHONY KENNEDY: (From video.) The cases swing; I don't. (Applause.)

ROBERT COSTA: But his voting record supports his sometime-centrist and sometime-maverick

reputation. On issues of gun rights, campaign finance, and voting rights, Kennedy

voted with conservatives. But during his 30 years on the bench, he often sided with

liberal justices on cases involving abortion rights and other social issues,

including the 2015 landmark opinion which legalized same-sex marriage.

SUPREME COURT JUSTICE ANTHONY KENNEDY: (From video.) They ask for equal dignity in the

eyes of the law, and the Constitution grants them that right. (Applause.)

ROBERT COSTA: Last year the 81-year-old justice swore in the newest and youngest justice

to the high court, his former clerk Neil Gorsuch.

SUPREME COURT JUSTICE ANTHONY KENNEDY: (From video.) Congratulations. (Applause.)

ROBERT COSTA: Kennedy's retirement clears the way for President Trump to name his second

Supreme Court justice in as many years. The president is expected to nominate a young

conservative who could significantly tilt the Court to the right for generations.

HOUSE MINORITY LEADER NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): (From video.) Republicans now have the

opportunity to erase a generation of progress for women's rights, LGBTQ rights, civil

rights, workers' rights, and healthcare.

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): (From video.) We will vote to confirm

Justice Kennedy's successor this fall.

ROBERT COSTA: We'll get to that scene on Capitol Hill in a moment. And what a great

group we have here tonight. Joan, you were there at the Court.

You saw his wife, Mary - Justice Kennedy's wife, Mary. And you must have thought maybe

this was in the works for a long time, that this was not a surprise.

JOAN BISKUPIC: I knew he had been thinking about retirement. I knew he had been

thinking about it for more than a year. As you said, he's 81. He's about to turn 82 in

July. But he's got such a powerful position. And he liked it. He took it very

seriously, his role, even though he would be modest about is he the swing vote or not.

He really liked deciding cases and obviously controlling the legal reasoning that we're

all living under. So he comes out with the rest of the eight justices that Wednesday

morning. They announce this important labor law case, that many of your viewers will

be familiar with. The justices look fairly relaxed. Mary Kennedy is there. A few of

his other relatives are there. But Mrs. Kennedy has come often at the very end.

And the body language from the bench seemed sort of at ease enough that I thought, huh,

maybe not. And then, of course, he doesn't do anything. And it turns out that he then

goes into a private conference with his fellow colleagues - gotten this from other

justices - and that's when he tells them. And then, of course, we know from the White

House information, that that's - then he afterwards goes and delivers his own letter

personally to the president. Not all retiring justices do that. They send a letter

usually. But he goes over there. And then at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time, we will always

remember - (laughter) - that's when the word comes down. And I have to say, even

though I had written many times about him thinking about retiring, I still have to

say I was surprised. He did it. He did it.

ROBERT COSTA: Were you surprised? Why now for Justice Kennedy, Pete?

PETE WILLIAMS: I think he was ready. I think a couple of things. I think the sort

of health always becomes an issue at these ages, not just of him but of other members

of his family, his wife especially. You know, everybody says I want to spend more

time with his family. He really wanted to spend more time with his grandchildren.

And the other thing is, you know, we talk about how decisive he is and sides with the

liberals. We forget, he's a conservative. He is comfortable with this president.

Appointed by Ronald Reagan. This term especially he was conservative pretty much

right down the line. And so he thought this would be a good a time to go. I don't

think any Supreme Court justice really sits down - I don't think their main calculus

is ever who's going to choose my successor. But I think it was probably one of the

things he thought about. And I think he was comfortable with this president.

ROBERT COSTA: And that's such a good point, Pete, because the White House seems to have

had a quiet campaign, Carl, to reassure Justice Kennedy over the course of the past year,

by picking Justice Gorsuch and other signals, that this would be maybe this right time.

CARL HULSE: A Kennedy clerk, right? The - and other people who were clerking for

Kennedy named to the court. I think there was a very subtle campaign going on.

And, you know, to say, hey, things will be OK if you get out. And you have to remember -

I mean, I agree with your point at the beginning. This - the judicial approach is

what's been working for the Trump administration. This is something that's really

worked for them. Gorsuch has been a big hit with the conservatives.

They've got all these other appellate court judges -

JOAN BISKUPIC: All these lower court judges setting records.

CARL HULSE: And they have, you know, the district court.

And that list - the famous list - was key to his election, because evangelicals stuck

with him. So I think Trump looks at this week and says: This is another chance to

make a really big mark, you know, and to cement the conservative control on the Court.

And, of course, as Seung Min knows, this really stirs up the Senate every time.

(Laughter.) There's nothing like a Supreme Court fight. So we've got a ways to go here.

ROBERT COSTA: And, boy, Seung Min, that's so right.

Does it stir up the midterm elections or what, for both parties?

SEUNG MIN KIM: Exactly. I mean, this is going to be a monumental fight.

I mean, we've seen Supreme - there is nothing like a Supreme Court fight in Washington,

but one that really does have the chance to tip the balance of the Court for a generation

is just something monumental, especially in the middle of an already heated year.

I mean, if you're looking at the Democratic messaging that's coming out on the Supreme

Court nomination already, it's very heavily focused on health care. That's for a reason.

They see this as the year of the woman. They see that health care is the most motivating

factor for their voters, particularly with their successful efforts to protect the

Affordable Care Act. So you see that's why - that's why you see the messaging from - you

know, led by Chuck Schumer, and almost the rest of the Senate Democrats, saying, you

know, your - you know, a woman's right to choose is at stake. The future of the

Affordable Care Act is also at stake. And that is to not only motivate their voters

and try to keep the rest of the Democratic caucus together, but also to really put

that pressure on the two Republican senators who are pro-abortion rights.

PETE WILLIAMS: So a little footnote here, Justice Kennedy said in his retirement letter

that he was going to leave the Court at the end of July. Now, what they usually say

is I'll retire when my successor is nominated and confirmed. So if it seems like the

Senate is going to try to play this drama out all the way up till the election, what

it says is the Senate doesn't care about the Supreme Court. It cares about the Senate,

because they're apparently not concerned - (laughs) - that by the first Monday in

October, when the new term starts, we're probably only going to have eight justices.

JOAN BISKUPIC: And we just went through that for some 400 days after Antonin Scalia's death.

You know, one thing I was going to say about the Senate is that even

though this is cast, rightly so, as a monumental battle, this is the first nomination

that's going to be brought to the Senate that doesn't have the same filibuster power.

You know, the filibuster rules were changed for Neil Gorsuch. So now all it takes is a

simple majority to approve a Supreme Court nominee. So this could end up potentially

being quick and dirty. I mean, they might not have a hard time getting him on the

bench by the first Monday in October, which is when the new terms starts.

ROBERT COSTA: And if anybody's ready, Carl, it's Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

(Laughter.) He said - during that whole fight over the filibuster he said, quote, "I

thought the decision I made not to fill the Supreme Court vacancy when Justice Scalia

died was the most consequential decision I've made in my entire public career.

The things that will last the longest time, those are my top priorities." And certainly,

this has to be the priority now.

CARL HULSE: Well, I wanted to address Pete. The Senate does care about the Senate.

(Laughter.) That's what they're really caring -

PETE WILLIAMS: I suspected so. (Laughter.)

CARL HULSE: And I think the Democrats to that would say, you know, well, they had the

lack of a justice for whatever that was -

JOAN BISKUPIC: Four hundred and forty-two days or something, yes.

CARL HULSE: But, yeah, during that period.

But Mitch McConnell doesn't want to wait, and he is going to push ahead and fill this,

and he's really got the gears oiled up over there from what they've been doing.

The funny thing now that I think has gone on with Senator McConnell this week, he's

actually gotten quite personally upset with the accusations of hypocrisy against him for

holding up Garland because he's saying, well, wait a minute, this is a midterm election.

That was a presidential election. It's very different. Well, we get the distinction,

but a lot of other people don't. And I thought that was funny, that he was feeling the heat.

But I think when you look at this July 9th date, the White House knows where they're

going here. They've worked off this list. These people have all been vetted.

Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society is now helping them.

So I think they have a pretty good idea of who they want to go forward with.

ROBERT COSTA: So if the Senate majority is so narrow for Republicans, and they really

don't have a lot of room to lose votes, the president said on Friday he has his list down

to five, six, or seven people, two women included in that list. Who are we looking at right now?

JOAN BISKUPIC: Well, I can tell you a some of them because they're - a couple were already

put on the bench by him. I'll just name people who we believe would be the frontrunners.

ROBERT COSTA: Who's on your radar? Two or three names?

JOAN BISKUPIC: OK. I'll start with Amy Coney Barrett. That is a woman who had been

a law professor at Notre Dame who President Trump put on the 7th Circuit, which is

based in Chicago. She has a very strong following among religious conservatives.

She had a little bit of a controversial hearing in the Senate, in part because Senator

Dianne Feinstein challenged her in a way that, frankly, Trump probably liked. The

president probably liked how she and her people, you know, fought back. So that's

one person. A man by the name of Brett Kavanaugh, who's been around for a long time,

even helped vet John Roberts when he was chosen by George W. Bush. He's on the D.C.

Circuit Court of Appeals. He's a former Kennedy clerk also.

Another former Kennedy clerk who we believe is on the list, a man by the name of Ray

Kethledge, who's based in Michigan on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.

A McConnell favorite, a favorite of Mitch McConnell from Kentucky, Judge Amul Thapar, who

would be the first south Indian Asian-American nominee. And he was also put on the court.

ROBERT COSTA: Anyone you'd add?

PETE WILLIAMS: Yeah, just - I'm sure Joan would have added it too - Thomas Hardiman of

Pennsylvania. He was actually a finalist. It came down between him and Neil Gorsuch

the last time. One thing to note, these are all appeals court judges. And there's a

reason for that, because the Republican mantra is no more Souters - no more David Souters.

They want someone who has a thorough record that they can look at and make sure that

these people are going to be rock-solid conservatives, that there are no little hidden

surprises in there. And appeals court judges write a lot of opinions.

CARL HULSE: And also, that they've been through the grinder already and, you know,

there's - especially at the appeals court level - they've gotten a pretty good look.

So they are hoping - they'll do another vetting and a background check, but they're

hoping that these people have already - you know, there's no secrets there that are going

to pop up, because really all the Democrats have going for them, because of the lack of

the filibuster, is the nominee. They need to create doubts about the nominee.

JOAN BISKUPIC: Right. And I will say some have already met with the president from

the first round, but some have not. So, you know, it'll be interesting to see

who emerges from the contest of sorts that President Trump puts on.

PETE WILLIAMS: Because that's important to him. We get the impression that that's -

JOAN BISKUPIC: It is. It is, yeah.

ROBERT COSTA: Personal rapport does matter, of course. JOAN BISKUPIC: Yes, yes.

ROBERT COSTA: Your point, Carl, about the confirmation process, they used to be rowdy

events. Now it's all about careful presentations on Capitol Hill.

CARL HULSE: How little you can say, right. JOAN BISKUPIC: Yes.

ROBERT COSTA: And so some things can be unpredictable, and, Seung Min, you reported this

week that two of the most powerful senators in this whole process are Lisa Murkowski of

Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine.

You wrote, quote, "Murkowski and Collins are the rare elected Republicans in Washington

who support abortion rights and voted against repealing the Obama-era Affordable Care

Act, issues Democrats are using to frame this battle over the Supreme Court." When you

look at this razor-thin GOP majority, where are Senators Collins and Murkowski going to go?

SEUNG MIN KIM: That is an excellent question.

We probably won't find out until the confirmation -

ROBERT COSTA: What are the smoke signals they're sending? (Laughter.)

SEUNG MIN KIM: So I spoke with both of them this week on Capitol Hill and asked them

about the issue of Roe.

So, for Susan Collins, she has had the pretty consistent answer - because she was also

asked this during the confirmation process for Neil Gorsuch - and she says she won't ever

ask a judge how he or she would rule on a specific case - that's inappropriate - but she

does really grill each judicial nominee about precedent and how they feel about

precedent, and she makes it very clear to them that she personally believes that Roe

versus Wade is settled law. I also had a long conversation with Lisa Murkowski.

I had to chase her down after a hearing, but we actually had a 10-minute conversation in

the stairwell of a Senate office building. That's kind of how Capitol Hill works.

And she told me that Roe versus Wade is clearly a significant factor, but in no way is

that the only factor for her. She's very well aware of the pressures that she's facing

already. She is - mentioned that she is under the pressure cooker a lot considering her

independent streak and her willingness to buck the party, buck the party leadership.

But it is - for now it's anybody's guess where they'll end.

ROBERT COSTA: And they're not the only ones under pressure.

I just keep thinking, Carl, of the red-state Senate Democrats.

If you're Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Senator Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Joe

Manchin of West Virginia, this is a tough call right before an election.

CARL HULSE: I think it's - they're the - they're in the most interesting position

because you're - right before the election, they don't really want to be getting

crossways with Trump voters. So, you know, how do they approach this? But at the

same time, they need Democrats in their state, Heidi Heitkamp and Donnelly particularly.

You know, you need your network of Democrats. You can't alienate them either.

I'm actually - this is one of those times you go, boy, I'm glad I'm not a senator -

(laughter) - because this is going to be a really tough decision. I think the

interesting thing is that what if - say someone breaks away, one of the Republicans.

So then what do those Democrats do? Do they want to be the vote that puts a

President Trump nominee on the Supreme Court? I just think that, you know, it's

fascinating the way that they're going to have to operate in this environment.

ROBERT COSTA: I want to come back to a point Joan made, that we often don't pay, I

think, enough attention to how this administration has overhauled the U.S. courts.

And you look at - it's not just the Supreme Court; it's all these other appointees.

And you have Don McGahn in the White House working closely with the Federalist Society

and the Heritage Foundation, two conservative groups, and they've really changed the face

of U.S. law, in a sense.

JOAN BISKUPIC: They have. They've set records for the number of appointments they've

made to the U.S. Courts of Appeals, which is the intermediate level between your trial

judges and the Supreme Court, and that's where much of the action is because the

Supreme Court takes so few cases.

And those people not only are changing the law of the land, they're also on deck.

You know, he is putting them on to have them ready for this kind of moment and to,

frankly, really change what's happening out there for the law.

ROBERT COSTA: What about Chief Justice Roberts? Joan, I know you're working on a book

about him right now. But, Pete, does this make him now the key vote on the Supreme Court?

PETE WILLIAMS: Yes, but nothing like what - of course it does, because I think - for a

couple of reasons. One is he's the least ideologically rigid of the other conservatives.

No matter who the choice of President Trump is, I think I can still confidently say that.

And, number two, he does think about the Court as an institution. So, for example, when

you talk about the Roe versus Wade precedent, first of all, only Clarence Thomas is on

record opposing Roe. We don't really know how the other conservatives would vote; we assume.

But I think Chief Justice Roberts would really think twice and maybe four times about

whether he wants to overturn a 45-year-old precedent. And the same may be true on

gay rights, for example. You know, I think this is, by the way, the thing that

many people have wondered about Justice Kennedy's decision to step down.

Many people say, doesn't he know that, well, whoever comes next will immediately try to

begin to saw the legs out from under all the things that he did?

He wrote the same-sex marriage decision in 2015.

I suspect that Justice Kennedy thinks that once something is in place it's going to stay

and there's no going back, but I think there Justice - Chief Justice Roberts again would

think twice knowing that 70 percent of the country supports it.

So, yes, I think he will be in a different position, but nothing like Justice Kennedy

was, nothing like Sandra Day O'Connor was before she retired in 2006.

CARL HULSE: But they did overturn a precedent this week, correct, with the Janus decision, so.

JOAN BISKUPIC: Right, yeah, a decision that - PETE WILLIAMS: Well -

JOAN BISKUPIC: No, no, a decision called Abood versus Detroit. How many of

your viewers would know of that when they would know of Roe v. Wade?

PETE WILLIAMS: I thought you meant Korematsu. (Laughter.)

JOAN BISKUPIC: No, which is true. But the point is that if John Roberts - he will

be in the middle, but whatever he does with the liberals it will still have much more

gravitational weight toward the right side than Justice Kennedy. And one last thing

on Roe. I can see them chipping away on access issues, imposing new regulations that

would then make it very - it much harder for a woman to exercise her right to abortion.

ROBERT COSTA: So, knowing all of this and thinking about this week, Carl and Seung Min,

the Democrats saw in the primaries across the country this energized left.

We had Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez win an upset primary in New York against Representative

Joe Crowley. If you're Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, a Democrat, you're under

pressure from that left base to maybe not move toward the center and vote here.

CARL HULSE: I think Chuck Schumer is in an interesting position because he has to manage

this as the Democratic leader, and they have to look at this and show their base that they're

doing all they can. At the same time, they're pretty limited in what they can do, and -

ROBERT COSTA: What can they do, not show up?

CARL HULSE: Well, that is - would be very extreme, but then what would that do to the

moderate Democrats out in these other states - well, you're not even doing your job?

I think there's a(n) argument you can make for the Democrats to say, listen, we know how

this is going to end. We need to put up a fight, work over the nominee, see what we can

do, but maybe get it done before the election and then go to our base and say look what's

happening here, you need to - you need to elect Democrats so we can stop more of this.

SEUNG MIN KIM: Exactly. And I think the key for Chuck Schumer and Democrats here,

if they do want to defeat this nominee, is that they have to first keep their own

members unified because that's how they were able to defeat the repeal of the

Affordable Care Act. Everyone from Joe Manchin to Bernie Sanders was against the

Republican efforts to do that. So if everyone from Joe Manchin to Bernie Sanders again

is - looks at the nominee and says this person is unacceptable, then that's when the

pressure really heats up on the Susan Collins and the Lisa Murkowskis of the world.

ROBERT COSTA: You've covered House Democrats. Is Leader Pelosi nervous that

some money now is going to be redirected to Senate races, not toward House races?

SEUNG MIN KIM: So I think that there has been some concern from both sides that the

focus might be generated towards the Senate because Democrats are seen to have a pretty

decent shot at flipping the House. But I think that Pelosi has a lot of things

to think about this week considering, you know, is her leadership at stake because

of this energy that we're seeing from a new - from a new generation of Democrats.

ROBERT COSTA: The Court tumultuous, Congress tumultuous, the White House as always a big

story. That's it for this week. We're going to have to leave it there, but so glad

to have all of you with us for the discussion. And before we go, our team here

would like to extend our heartfelt sympathy to the families, friends, and colleagues

of the five Capital Gazette journalists who were senselessly killed on Thursday in

Maryland. And even with their hearts broken, the dedicated staff put out the newspaper

today - remarkable courage and resilience, done to remember Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen,

John McNamara, Rebecca Smith, and Wendi Winters. Thank you, and good night.

For more infomation >> Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement causes a Supreme Court shakeup - Duration: 23:55.

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Washington étudie un départ de ses 35.000 soldats stationnés en Allemagne - Duration: 4:37.

 C'est c'est plus gros contingent de l'armée américaine dans le monde avec celui déployé au Japon

Le Pentagone étudie le coût d'un départ ou d'un transfert des militaires 35.000 américains stationnés en Allemagne, a rapporté vendredi le quotidien Washington Post

 L'idée a déjà été évoquée par le président américain Donald Trump lors d'une réunion avec ses responsables militaires

Elle a provoqué l'inquiétude des pays européens membres de l'Otan, qui ignorent si Donald Trump est sérieux ou s'il souhaite mettre la pression avant un sommet de l'Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique Nord à Bruxelles, les 11 et 12 juillet

 Il a notamment envoyé une lettre comminatoire à sept pays de l'Alliance, dont l'Allemagne, pour les rappeler à l'ordre sur leur engagement de consacrer 2% de leur Produit national brut aux dépenses militaires d'ici 2024

Le président américain dénonce régulièrement la part, trop importante selon lui, payée par Washington dans le budget de l'Organisation

 L'Allemagne, dont les relations se sont tendues avec Washington ces derniers mois, a déjà annoncé qu'elle ne pourrait tenir sa promesse

Parmi les options examinées figurent le rapatriement aux Etats-Unis d'une grande partie des troupes, qui comprennent environ 35

000 militaires d'active, et le transfert de tout ou partie du contingent en Pologne, un allié politique que Donald Trump cite en exemple pour avoir atteint l'objectif demandé de 2%

200.000 soldats stationnés dans le monde  Selon le quotidien américain, qui cite des responsables sous le sceau de l'anonymat, l'étude n'en est toutefois qu'au stade interne

Un porte-parole du Conseil de sécurité nationale de la Maison Blanche a démenti dans un communiqué avoir demandé une analyse sur un éventuel retrait des troupes stationnées en Allemagne

 Le porte-parole du Pentagone Eric Pahon a également démenti toute idée de retrait, soulignant que le ministère «examine régulièrement le positionnement des troupes et les analyses coûts-bénéfices»

«Nous restons engagés auprès de (l'Allemagne), notre allié au sein de l'Otan, et auprès de l'Alliance de l'Otan», a-t-il ajouté

 Donald Trump a toutefois multiplié les critiques contre l'Otan, qualifiée d'«obsolète» pendant la campagne de 2016 et récemment de «plus néfaste» que l'Accord de libre-échange nord-américain (Aléna) qu'il dénonce

 200.000 troupes américains sont stationnées dans le monde, dont près de la moitié dans trois pays: 39

000 au Japon, 35.000 en Allemagne et 23.000 en Corée du Sud. Les troupes américaines sont présentes en Allemagne depuis la Seconde guerre mondiale et le pays sert de base arrière aux opérations américaines en Afrique et au Moyen-Orient

L'Otan s'est avérée cruciale pour la sécurité occidentale depuis des décennies.

For more infomation >> Washington étudie un départ de ses 35.000 soldats stationnés en Allemagne - Duration: 4:37.

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Happy Nugget! #1 George Washington - Duration: 11:50.

Hi, I'm Olivia, and today's Happy Nugget! comes from George Washington, the remarkable

first president of the United States of America.

Washington had numerous achievements as a statesman, soldier, general and commander

in chief of the continental army during the American Revolution.

His bravery, honor, and popularity led him to be known as the "father of the country."

George Washington's character is best described by the loyal men he led into battle.

Long before the American Revolution, after five difficult years as Virginia's leading

military figure, George Washington resigned his commission in 1759 returning to civilian

life.

His officers wrote him a letter.

From James Thomas Flexner's fantastic biography "The Forge of Experience," Washington's officers

wrote, "The happiness we have enjoyed and the mutual honor we have acquired together…In

our earliest infancy you took us under your tuition, trained us up in the practice of

that discipline which alone can constitute good troops…Your steady adherence to impartial

justice, your quick discernment and invariable regard to merit…first heightened our natural

emulation and our desire to excel…Judge then how sensibly we much be affected with

the loss of such an excellent commander, such a sincere friend, and so affable a companion!

How rare it is to find those amiable qualifications blended together in one man.

How great the loss of such a man."

George Washington was born in 1732 in Virginia to a line of ancestors who'd forged their

fortunes in the New World.

His father was a gentle businessman, his mother self-willed and determined.

As a boy George saw his two eldest half brothers sent to England to study in the same school

his father had attended and George was expected to attend.

When he was eight, his brother Lawrence, who was a great influence in Washington's life,

became a captain in the regular British Army.

When George was eleven his father died and with him the promise of studying in England.

George became the oldest child in the household helping to care for his younger sister and

three brothers.

His mother mismanaged their farm and George grew up wanting for many things.

Extremely self-centered, Washington's mother resented anything that took her son's attention

away from her.

She put down his achievements, and tried to stop him from getting any opportunities.

Early on, George learned to rely on himself forever longing for the love and domestic

stability he never got as a child.

Because of his father's death, Washington's formal education ended when he was fourteen

or fifteen.

Everything he knew he taught himself from experience, conversations, and books.

When George was a teenager his brother Lawrence worried about his future urging him to join

the British navy.

He didn't, but Washington was already harboring military dreams.

For years he made a living as a surveyor mapping Virginia's back country, frontier and wilderness

falling in love with the vastness and the promise of the American landscape.

At nineteen he invested his earnings on buying land.

When he was twenty his brother Lawrence died after a prolonged battle with tuberculosis,

one of the greatest losses in Washington's life.

To escape his mother's clutches, Washington paid calls to prominent Virginia ladies in

the hopes of securing marriage without luck because Washington came from a secondary family,

the only thing to his name was a second rate farm, but this did not stop him from dreaming

of a better future.

As was common practice in those times, Washington began to lobby for the military position his

brother Lawrence had held, but beyond intelligence and boundless energy he had no qualifications

for the job.

Persistent, focused, and diplomatic, George Washington rode up and down the Virginia countryside

paying his compliments and request to those influential in the Virginia government and

he succeed in securing the appointment.

At the time England and France were vying for much of the world, including colonial

possessions in America.

In 1749 France laid claim to all the land draining into the Ohio, engaging in bitter

rivalries over Native American land and treaties.

The Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, a representative of the British crown, insisted that they should

build forts on the Ohio and that they should send an emissary to the upper wilderness to

see if the French were really on English soil.

That emissary was to deliver a letter requesting the French to depart peacefully, and if they

refused, by order of the British King, they would be driven out by force of arms.

Through a combination of skill, luck, and being in the right place at the right time,

George Washington was selected to be that emissary described as being 'used to the

woods, a youth of great sobriety, diligence and fidelity.'

George Washington was an ordinary young man thrust into extraordinary circumstances of

world shaking implications.

As the bitter winter approached, Washington set out into the Ohio wilderness amidst excessive

rains and snow.

After weeks of hardship, Washington met with the Indians and delivered his fateful message

to the French.

He headed back after making note of their military fortifications with an official letter

for the British.

That letter would help plunge the European powers into a terrible seven years war.

Wrecked with anxiety, Washington carried his lethal message through half-frozen rivers

and ice-chocked wilderness, barely escaping a bullet shot by an Indian.

Washington was convinced the French had offered a reward for his scalp and his companion's.

In the darkness of night they hid, and come morning they hoped for a frozen river so they

could cross, but they found the opposite.

Washington and his companion chopped wood for most of the day to escape on a raft.

Jammed by the ice, Washington expected to sink and perish at any moment.

Trying to secure the raft, Washington was flung into the freezing wild river.

He escaped drowning through sheer physical strength only to sleep in the freezing cold.

The next morning he thanked God the river had frozen.

Now he could cross it and deliver his message.

For his bravery George Washington was appointed second in command of the newly formed Virginia

army encountering the difficulties he would face throughout his career of enlisting, clothing

and feeding his soldiers but at twenty-one years old George Washington persevered, undaunted,

perhaps naive, often falling short of the insurmountable expectations, but never wavering

in his commitment, his courage on the battlefield unmatched.

During the French and Indian War, Washington failed miserably in diplomacy with the Indians,

with the French and as functioning commander of the expeditionary force.

Washington was inexperienced, often proud and sometimes foolhardy, but to the people

his bravery was absolute, to his neighbors he had already become a hero.

When George Washington resigned his commission in 1759 he was stung with a sense of failure.

For the next seventeen years he built a peaceful and domestic life with his wife Martha as

a landowner, farmer and businessman.

Kind and generous he was a loved and respected member of his community.

By the time the seeds of the American Revolution were sown, Washington had no intention to

serve or to lead, but history had other plans.

Washington's popularity had only grown.

He was loved by the people, respected, admired and envied by his contemporaries, but Washington

was modest and humble enough to acknowledge his shortcomings, equipping himself at every

turn with as much knowledge as possible to be able to rise to whatever occasion he might

be called upon.

In 1775 George Washington was overwhelmed when he was unanimously elected to command

the continental forces for the defense of American liberty.

Two days later, Washington wrote his wife Martha a letter and he said, "My Dearest:

I am now set down to write to you on a subject, which fills me with inexpressible concern,

and this concern is greatly aggravated and increased, when I reflect upon the uneasiness

I know it will give you.

It has been determined in Congress, that the whole army raised for the defense of the American

cause shall be put under my care, and that it is necessary for me to proceed immediately

to Boston to take upon me the command of it.

You may believe me, my dear Patsy, when I assure you, in the most solemn manner that,

so far from seeking this appointment, I have used every endeavor in my power to avoid it,

not only from my unwillingness to part with you and the family, but from a consciousness

of its been a trust too great for my capacity, and that I should enjoy more real happiness

in one month with you at home, than I have the most distant prospect of finding abroad,

if my stay were to be seven times seven years.

But as it has been a kind of destiny, that has thrown me upon this service, I shall hope

that my undertaking it is designed to answer some good purpose."

George Washington was not born a hero, and he made many mistakes along the way, but he

never stopped working tirelessly to perfect himself through the exercise of his own skill

and will.

His bravery and tenacity were always there, but his wisdom and strength developed with

time and in the process and American hero was forged.

Washington was not an intellectual, he was a man of action, who kept his gaze forward,

who carried in his heart the lessons from the past, who lived in the present fully,

and who fought for the future and freedom of all Americans.

George Washington was never just a military figure.

He was the embodiment of the indomitable American spirit, of courage, energy, ingenuity, and

an unshakable will.

Sometimes life has plans for us we don't expect, but if we live an honorable life,

if we acknowledge our weaknesses and work to improve ourselves we will always rise to

meet the challenges life has in store for us, no matter how big and insurmountable they

may seem.

Heroes are not born, they're self made.

And that's today's Happy Nugget!

If you enjoyed this video please like it, share it, and subscribe.

As always, I link below the video anything I recommend.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Thanks for watching.

See you next time.

For more infomation >> Happy Nugget! #1 George Washington - Duration: 11:50.

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Washington lawmakers visit Northwest Detention Center - Duration: 2:54.

For more infomation >> Washington lawmakers visit Northwest Detention Center - Duration: 2:54.

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Coleen Rooney puts on leggy display in denim shorts in Washington - Duration: 3:35.

Coleen Rooney puts on leggy display in denim shorts in Washington

Her husband Wayne has jetted out the states after he completed his big money move to Washington DC United. And Coleen Rooney ensured things ran smoothly at home as she stepped out in Cheshire on Friday.

The WAG, 32, was dressed for the sunny climes as she put on a leggy display in a pair of tiny denim shorts.

Having recently jetted to Barbados before heading on a family holiday to Disneyland, Coleen showed off toned and tanned pins in the frayed hem hot-pants. Casually-clad for the outing, she teamed the look with a black multi-striped t-shirt and black studded sandals.

Slicking her glossy brunette tresses back into a high ponytail, Coleen shielded her eyes from the sun's rays with a black pair of aviators.

Her outing comes after her husband completed his move to Washington DC United, with the former Everton player being spotted watching the England game in the States on Thursday night.

The footballer has followed in the footsteps of fellow former England stars including David Beckham, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, to have made transatlantic moves towards the end of their care.

Earlier this week, Coleen took to Instagram to share a sweet family snap of the couple and their sons at Disneyland Paris. The doting mum shared a number of happy snaps, along with sons Kai, eight, Klay, five and Kit, two.

Youngest son Cass, four months, wasn't in any of the photos, but brothers Kai, Klay and Kit all looked elated to be at the famed Disney park.

Wayne and Coleen recently celebrated their 10 year wedding anniversary, with both the TV personality and the footballer paying tribute to their significant other in a sweet collage of their happiest moments shared to their social media channels.

The couple tied the knot in June 2008 in a romantic ceremony with their nearest and dearest in Italy. Since then, the pair have battled through their fair share of hardships, but have continued to stand by one another.

Speaking to OK! magazine about marking the milestone, Coleen confessed that they had never celebrated their anniversary together before. She admitted: 'It'll be the first time we've been together on the day.

However, Coleen has ruled out having more kids and is content with the size of her family, admitting: 'I can finally say no more. I'm happy with the four boys.'.