i'm not going to play his game
he'd love me to talk about and i've i've
already said something on
corporate president roosevelt clearly
had the right to send to the united
states senate the united states congress
a proposal to pack the court
it was totally within his right to do
that he violated no law
he was legalistically absolutely correct
but it was a bonehead idea
well then senator biden was very clear
how he thought about court packing
adding justices to the supreme court
now president biden has this commission
studying that but there are several
democrats
who are launching a bill to add four u.s
supreme court justices to the court
let's bring in our panel jonathan swann
national political reporter for axios
morgan ortega's former state department
spokesperson and trey gowdy former
congressman
from south carolina trey um nancy pelosi
says she's not bringing up this bill
she's going to wait for the commission
but it does seem like it's just
putting it out there
brett this is a gift from god that is
the only way to describe it it has
no chance ever of becoming law with the
current congress but it will be used to
bludgeon democrat candidates
in 2022 which is why you saw that motley
group of
only four that can't even wait for
biden's commission
so republicans rejoice that jerry nadler
is handling strategy for 2022
you're guaranteed to retake the house
and the senate
all right well it all depends on doing
away with the filibuster
this is a number of things that that
lynch to that that tie to that
uh take a listen to chuck schumer answer
a question on that and then the key vote
joe mentioned
what do you see getting done in the
senate on a
traditional sort of 60-vote margin well
as i said we're going to try to work
with republicans wherever we can
but we must get bold change and if our
republican friends block it
we're going to put our heads together
and figure out the best way to go
everything's on the table it's plain and
simple
whether it be packing the courts or
ending the filibuster i will not vote to
do that
i will not vote to pack the courts i
think and i will not vote to end the
filibuster
jonathan uh where do you think this goes
well biden's tried to defer it with this
commission that was just you know
him trying to buy himself some time you
know
the left is not really buying it they're
they're coming out and doing this
regardless but um it all comes as you
said
it comes down to joe managed it's not
just joe manchin that kirsten cinema
also
opposes eliminating the filibuster but
manchin's the one who's very very dug in
on this issue
and when you talk to people who know him
well he you know
he learned the senate at the feet of
robert byrd from west virginia and he
talks about him with reverence
and it's just one of those things that
he seems very very dug in on
and he's put out an op-ed he said it a
million times on the record
i i don't see any sign that he's
softening on this issue whatsoever
but democrats are going to come after
him uh to try to change that i mean with
the
hr 1s1 the voting bill okay
what effect it's west virginia i agree i
mean it's like it's a
plus 40 for trump i mean he he's joe
manchin says bring him on
come down and campaign it only helps me
when when
i'm left-wing activists come and pick at
him in west virginia
yeah that's right morgan yeah i think uh
congressman ocasio-cortez summed it up
today
uh in a fox news article that i was
reading she was quoted as saying how
does the current structure benefit us
and that is the attitude of the most
liberal members of the congress and i've
got to tell you
this makes me think about the actions
packing the court is the actions uh that
a two-bit dictator
would take this is something that we
would see out of uh chavez
or maybe maduro this is undermining
democracy and in fact
when i was state department spokesperson
if we had a fledgling democracy that was
packing the court so a dictator could
get their way
i would be issuing statements condemning
this very behavior that we're seeing
uh from some members of the house and
the senate and the democratic party this
is
this is very serious erosion of
democracy
it's a very very serious authoritarian
behavior
and they're doing this quite simply
because they do not control
an institution that they think they need
to control so the logistics behind it
don't make sense they're going to get
this passed
have four supreme court justices confirm
doesn't make any sense
right but somebody like lindsey graham
was on our air today
saying that this is about putting it out
there the commission comes out
and people say no no no no we're not
going to go for the four justices we're
going to do something else here's
roe khanna on our air today
i'd rather take a different approach
which is term limits for supreme court
justices and i'm for term limits for
members of congress and senators as well
i have a bill that says
18 years you serve on the supreme court
and then you go back onto a circuit
court they shouldn't be
there for 40 years 50 years and i hope
the president's commission will look at
that but
it seems to me that may be less
polarizing at a time where our country
is deeply divided
so there you go it kind of advances the
ball tray and somehow the commission
comes up with something else
well the constitution doesn't say for
life it says for the period of good
behavior if republicans really want to
get worried about something
uh go back and look at the the terrible
choices you've made i mean who gave us
brennan who gave us blackman who gave us
warren who gave us suitor
i mean if republicans want to worry
about something get your own supreme
court picks right
and and the choices jonathan what's the
thing we're not thinking about
news was i just russia russia russia i
mean
seriously that they're amassing troops
around ukraine
and and from what i'm under
understanding you're setting up blood
banks and things like that you never
know if he's bluffing or not
but they could well seize more territory
in ukraine
and you know it's going to be one of
biden's potentially one of his first
really serious tests
and you know he's sending mixed signals
he put out this sanctions package today
uh which is less than meets the eye
and they turned around navy ships that
were heading uh towards the black sea
there's no sense that they're going to
obviously do anything militarily there
so that's something i'm watching really
closely
yeah that's good we'll have many panels
about that when we come back panel
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