it's a big night and "hardball" with chris matthews starts now. it's time for democrats to play "hardball." i'm chris matthews urging them to do just that. good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. there are times to fight and this is one of them. if the democrats in the u.s. senate allow trump to pack the supreme court with a 5-4 majority for the next 30 years, it's not something the progressive democratic voter will soon forget.

two years ago, republican majority leader mitch mcconnell mocked the democrats by refusing to even meet with president obama's court nominee. in 2018 with a handful of months before election day, one that will decide which party controls the senate, democrats owe it to their party, principals and their own survival to do to mitch what mitch did to them. if this strikes anyone as a men fes toe from me so be it. it is a statement of political reality. the democratic base will not accept failure and not listen to arguments how the 49 senate democrats could not stop the 50 voting republicans from picking a supreme court for much of the century. justice kennedy was the defining force that is saved apportion rights is, marriage equality, tolerance and respect for individual decision making. he believes as he told me personally there needs to be some form of punishment for a woman choosing an abortion. he has supported capital punishment for minors and donald

trump is the guy out to pack the court with his idea of individual rights and criminal justice. if the democrats fail to stop him, there will be i predict a full scale rebellion against the leaders.p. the first sign of which we saw in joe crowley's stunning defeat in new york, the beginning of the fall if the senate gives trump his pick to fill this historic vacancy on this country's highest court. for those who say the supreme court is above politics, let me recite to you some cases. bush v gore, that put w in the white house. and the country headed toward war in iraq. citizens united that put money in the power seat of american elections, both decisions were 5-4. if trump gets his way in filling that number five seat, expect a lot more in the decades to come. if the dras fail to stop him, put a good share of the blame there. justice kennedy delivered the news he'll retire on july 31st to president trump in personyer today. his decision effectively puts

control of the nation's top court in the hands of donald trump, mitch mcconnell and the republican majority. and sets up what will most likely be one of the most epic battles over his replacement. the president promised to begin a search despite it being this close to an election. here he is. >> mr. president, it's an election year. would you give consideration to holding that of spot open till the congress is determined? >> i haven't thought about that. i haven't really thought of that. >> that's acting. mitch mcconnell who orchestrated the strategy of block barack obama's supreme court pick called on senators to make sure that the president's nominee is considered fairly. >> the senate stands ready to fulfill its constitutional role by offering advice and consent on president trump's nominee to fill this vacancy. we will vote to confirm justice kennedy's successor this fall.

>> senator chuck schumer of new york called mcconnell out. let's watch that. >> our republican colleagues in the senate should follow the rule they set in 2016. not to consider a supreme court justice in an election year. senator mcconnell would tell anyone who listened that the senate had the right to advise and consent and that was every bit as important as the president's right to nominate. millions of people are just months away from determining the senators who should vote to confirm or reject the president's nominee and their voices deserve to be heard now as leader mcconnell thought they should deserve to be heard then. anything but that would be the absolute height of hypocrisy. >> but with so much at stake, senator mcconnell doesn't care about right or wrong, just about

winning much like trump. i'm joined by kamala harris, democrat from california, member of the senate judiciary committee. this came as a surprise today. we knew it was coming. >> the on the heels of the janice decision, yeah. >> on federal public employees. >> let me ask you, what's it going to look like if trump gets what he wants here? what's the court going to look like? >> an a destruction of the constitution of the united states based on all the folks he's been appointing thus far for lifetime appointments. he's been appointing ideologues, people who have refused to agree brown v board of education is settled law, people not even qualified by bar associations. so this has got to be one -- we all need to understand this to be one of the most serious fights we have yet to have had with this president. and we cannot relent. we are going to have to fight to the end to make sure that we can do anything and everything that

is football require this president to choose a consensus pick. talk to democrats. the position is going to be filled. but with the track record that he has demonstrated so far, it does not look good. we have to put all parish we can to make sure the person who fills kennedy'set is someone who is a consensus pick and will respect the constitution of the united states and respect the fact that our system is supposed to be about equality for all and justice and fairness. and not about the politics and the political games that so far i see that a lot of his nominees are prepared to play. >> mitch mcconnell said no to barack obama's pick merrick garland. i'm not going to have hearings. and he won because now you've got neil gorsuch. with you going to play "hardball" this time and not going to rush this through before election day. >> based on every conversation i've had, everybody is prepared

to play "hardball." >> can can you push this off till after the elections so we can take the matter to the people. >> we have to fight. listen, unlike merrick garland where there were eight months left in that term, there is four months. we're four months away from an election. one-third of the united states senate practically is up for election. the decision that we make is going to have generational impact. and the american people should be able to weigh in on who will be this in this position on the united states supreme court. let's remember, chris, this is not like gorsuch where gorsuch was about one conservative replacing another conservative. we fought on that one. i voted against him but he's there. he replaced scalia. this is about a swing vote. this is a different seat, a different seat and everything lays in the balance in terms of how this court could swing on everything from choice, roe versus wade to what we did in terms of same-sex marriage to so many issues that are about fundamental rights and about

respecting the constitution of the united states. so this is not like gorsuch. >> yeah. >> this will have generational impact and let's all be clear about this. the decisions made by the united states supreme court make decisions about who we are as a country and who we can be and who will be where in this country. had the supreme court under the leadership of erl warren not decided brown v. board of education, i would not be sitting here talking with you right now. >> the heart we'll lose here, justice kennedy was a conservative, he was a northern california conservative. i get that. he was a bit of live and let live guy. he found in the constitution the way that the landmark decisions always find in the constitution something wonderful. he found not just liking in warren found the injustice of separate but equal, the essential injustice of it. he found in it the live clause and the constitutional protection for people to have

same-sex marriage to have -- not to be stopped by an undo burden to make a choice about reproduction. he found that essential american liberty that we treasure. do you count on anybody trump picking doing that? >> there is a way that that can happen. and that's bring a consensus pick. that's what happened with merrick garland. >> a pro-choice conservative. >> president obama consulted with republicans. this president should consult with democrats and choose a consensus pick. anything less than that would be unacceptable entirely unacceptable and something we should fight tooth and nail against. >> the new trick, it used to be you picked a people who have -- they were all white males for years, occasionally a jewish seat. now it's like pick somebody as young as you can, give them 10, 15 years to show which way they're going politically and jam them on the court like charns thomas for 40, 550 years. when you pick this next person, they'll be there much of this

century. >> you're exactly right. this have generational impact. this have impact on issues that we decide in terms of discrimination, who will have equal opportunity, who will have equal rights under the constitution and under the law. this is -- this is one of the most important powers that a president has. this is why the federalist society for decades have been creating this road map for decades. to make sure that precedent is built up toward the united states supreme court making decisions that are going to be about choice as we go forward. about issues that relate to immigration, issues that relate to fundamental rights. and to your point about kennedy, he understood that on same-sex marriage, he understood it's a fundamental right marriage. there's so many issues that this court decides that goes to the heart of what we value as americans. and what we decide should be the personal rights and liberties of individuals. this is -- this has potential

disastrous consequences. >> how do you think a right wing, if you will, a rightist judge coming in as number five on the court on the conservative side outweighing or outvoting the four liberals, what would they do to roe versus wade? how do you see them dismembering it? >> what it would look like is this. it would look like the various states that have already been passing legislation at a state level to restrict a woman's access to health care to, reproductive health to abortions affirming those rules, those laws that are passed by the states. >> like it has to be a hospital. >> it has to be a zone of safety or in terms of what term, what stage in the pregnancy a woman can having an bortion or not. what parental consent, whether a woman has to, if she is 17, a young woman, does she have to have parental consent before she can have an abortion. all these laws created at the

states right now and it would go then to the united states supreme court that would affirm those restrictions on an ability that a woman has to have an abortion or to have access to reproductive health care. that could be again disastrous because it would essentially undo the protections that women currently have under roe versus wade. >> let's look at these two contestants at the top. chuck schumer, smar guy, been around in awhile. mitch mcconnell, you don't have to like him to know what he's up to. who is better at parliamentary procedure? >> can your party get. >> i put my money on chuck schumer. >> do you have enough strength to hold this vote off till the voter vote in november? >> chucking is an incredible leader. he cares deeply about this issue. he's reaching out to all of us. because he knows how critical this is and he needs all the soldiers on the field. and i believe that he is

committed to this and he is going to fight to the end to make sure that the right thing happens. >> what's going on in the democratic party? you're a progressive and young and new. you've had a political history of real substance as attorney general. i know all elections are local. tip always said all things local. i don't think everything's local. a young hispanic woman was able to knock off a brand name product of this country, joe crowley. she's 28 years old what's going on? >> what's going on is that i'm seeing it around the country. there are people who have never run for political office, a lot of them are women. hop are deciding that their voices are not being heard, their voices are not present and they are getting out there, they're showing courage and determination and they're putting themselves out there. they're running for office and they're winning.

> oka >. >> /* if i were in the leadership, people want change and want things to move on. >> they want leaders who will be courage juice enough to speak truth no matter how unpopular it may feel. they want people are elected, the voters are going to elect people who have the courage to speak truth nothing matter how uncomfortable it makes other people feel. that's what we need right now. we've got a lot of people in their country very distrustful of their government, institutions and leaders. one of the best ways we develop relationships of trust is we speak truth. people are courageous to speak truth and they're winning. > i hope you can stop the nomination before the election. i think it should be taken to the voters. they ought to have say in it. senator cam ma la harris a member of the judiciary committee. eugene robinson, west and susan

page, "usa today" washington bureau chief. gene, talk about so anybody that couldn't get it yet, the importance of number five seat on the united states supreme court. >> well, justice kennedy was the swing vote. and everybody understands that. he was a conservative identified as a consecutivetive but he voted with the progressive side of the court on a number of issues. he was the leading voice on the court actually for lgbt rights in a very real sense. and he played that crucial role in a court otherwise evenly divided. so the gorsuch seat replaces scalia that's a conservative for a conservative, as senator harris said. this is an entirely new, an entirely different ball game. it has different stakes including for some republican senators such as susan collins

and such as lisa murkowski and even jeff flake and bob corker, people who have been critical of donald trump. so there has to be a nominee who is palatable on these contentious cultural issues. >> susan what, about the timing? i mean, for whatever reason justice kennedy decided to drop this bomb today a few days before july, the big election on whether the senate will be republican or democrat controlled is coming up in november. there will be what do you call vacations or working at home periods between now and then. they're going to race this baby through. do you think they're going to try to do it? i think they will. will the democrats be able to stop them? >> it's hard to see what tactics democrats have available to them to stop this with the republican party in control of the senate. you'd have to swing a republican vote your way and hold all the democrats. there are about a half dozen democrats running for

re-election in states where trump is popular. one other thing to remember even if democrats succeed in delaying this vote till after the midterm elections president trump will still be able to make a nomination. it's possible democrats will be in a stronger position to temp ter his choice. trump will make a conservative choice for this seat. >> but the voters, it seems to me a position on the court which will have a profound effect being number five, the middle of nine we can all figure out the arithmetic here for 30 years. the voter will get to decide after it's done. they'll be a fait accompli. gene, it's my argument that the voter ought to -- this ought to be taken to the people. i don't see how the democrats can lose this before the election and say there's still a decent resistance when they only have a one-vote deficit against the republicans and weren't able to slow this down so the vote ares had to vote first. >> look, i think the democrats have to fight it tooth and nail and be seen to fight it tooth

and nail if they want any credibilicredi credibili credibility. of president trump ultimately will make the nomination and look, anyone with an understanding and appreciation of the recent history of this country, the past 50-year history of this country and of the court would understand that this crucial middle vote, the swing vote, the nominee has to be somebody who is not way, way over to the right. i think anyone with that sort of appreciation would understand it. donald trump doesn't have the that kind of appreciation of history that anyone can discern. and so who knows what sort of nomination it would be, if he's smart and he wants it to go through quickly, he will nominate a more moderate justice but it's not clear to me that that's even in the realm of possibility. >> we've learned a republican

actually just as justices are picked by presidents, presidents are picked by justices and we saw in 2000 bush v gore. we better remember teach the voters this supreme court is damn political. look what it did in citizens united and bush v gore. it makes partisan decisions on a partisan basis. this should be part of our electoral process and not allowed to occur before we get the vote. coming up, justice kennedy had been the deciding vote on some of the biggest cultural values issues of our time. president trump is gloating about his excellent list of replacements. every one of them would lurch the court fwurter to the right. during the 2016 election is, trump told me some fox punishment should be in store for women who have chosen abortions. with trump's ready to pick kennedy's successor, suppose he gets somebody who thinks like he

does. the "hardball" roundtable tackles today's upheaval at the supreme court and the fourth ranking in the house of representatives was unseated alexandria ocasio-cortez a 28-year-old self-identified democratic socialist. what does this say about the energy on the left heading into november. i'd say it's a warning for the leadership. let me finish tonight with trump watch. this is "hardball" where the action is. this is not a screensaver. this is the destruction of a cancer cell by the body's own immune system, thanks to medicine that didn't exist until now. and today can save your life. ♪ ♪ let someone else do the heavy lifting. tripadvisor compares prices from over 200 booking sites

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welcome back to "hardball." justice anthony kennedy has arguably been the most influential justice of recent years. decades. sometimes he sided with the conservatives like in bush v gosh, citizens unites and the heller case on guns overturning washington, d.c.'s handgun ban back then. he advanced progressive causes. perhaps his greatest legacy will be his deciding vote in the 2015 ruling that struck down bans nationwide on same-sex marriage. city wrote it would misunderstand these men and women who say they disrespect the idea of marriage. their plea is they respect it so deeply they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. not to be condemned topped live

in lonely hez. the constitution grants them the right to dignity. for more i'm joined by pete williams, nbc news justice correspondent, charlie sykes from the weekly standard and jonathan turley, university law professor. what a group. pete, we've been talking about thissing about three hours. i want to skip politics for about five minutes. i think the democratic party is loaded for bear on there baby. talk about justice kennedy. you're from california, you went to stanford. understand the nuance of what a california republican, a northern california republican is all about. i think kennedy's the essence of that. >> he's from sacramento. remember it was president reagan who put him on the supreme court. initially he voted with the conservatives. one of his first breakaway votes was on the core question of roe versus wade. he's been a pretty consistent vote on abortion rights ever since. he up held a ban on partial birth abortions but on the core

holding of roe versus wade, he's been solid. affirmative action his vote critical. you mentioned his vote on guy marriage. he wrote that decision. it's interesting you picked that quote because it has the word dignity and that is the word that appear this had that decision i think 10 or 13 times. it was all about dignity. he has been the deciding vote, the swing vote ever since sandra day o'connor retired 2006. justice kennedy is a conservative. that's one of the reasons why he's stepping down now. he's comfortable with this president. he's comfortable with this president's choice of neil gorsuch, someone a former kennedy clerk who kennedy swore in when gorsuch was a judge on the 10th circuit and again when he became a supreme court justice. he had ivanka trump and her daughter up here shortly after the inauguration. so as he said today, he has a deep desire to spend more time with his family.

i think he just decided after nearly 31 years, it was time to step down. >> let me, jonathan, let me ask you how his politics worked. it's implicit in what pete was saying. somehow he managed to be a libertarian on court. he's -- he has fought for the right to avoid any undue burden for a woman choosing abortion, for the essential liberty of this country when it came to sexual orientation and gender and sex, the whole thing. he seemed to understand that that it was wronging to have sod dommy laws. nobody had any hostility towards him. like scalia dumping on him, sometimes scalia did question him. he would say he was -- what's the right word? capricious. what do you make of how he was able to bib as a conservative without being the kind of conservative that mike pence

likeses? >> frankly i think the loss of kennedy is a loss of grace. he was a bridge justice that had a unique voice. his voice was most profound when he was talking about individual rights for those of us with libertarian tendencies he was the truest voice in that answer. he showed you can have a conservative view of the of constitution and still defend individual rights. he tooking that from jon stewart mills and other philosophers from the 18th and 19th century. he believed in the concept of liberty and that within the constitution embodied a protection of individual dignity and self-expression. and when he spoke to those interests, i think you really heard the true voice of anthony kennedy. it was transcendent in a way his other opinions perhaps were not. he also wrote other opinions that were incredibly historical and important. but i think it's in those opinions that you hear this

voice of anthony kennedy. >> let me go to our friend, charlie sykes. i mean, you hear from people all the time in a way i'm glad i don't. people are able to talk to you on radio all the time. maybe atticus finch is too much. he seems to fit so comfortably into the american culture, this guy. >> well, yeah. it's a good reminder as professor turley pointed out. not all conservative judges come from the same mold. anthony kennedy had that specific lane that, respect for human dignity and liberty and quite frankly, he has been for the last several decades the most important member of the court and right now, leonard leo, the head of the federalist society is the most important man in america in choosing his successor because i think there's been a lot of admiration for justice kennedy but also for movement conservatives. there's been frustration he has in fact been unpredictable. that unpredictability made him

so significant. i don't think that the choice of his successor will be of someone like anthony kennedy. >> that's what we worry about on my side. that's what i'm worried about. >> it is a very impressive list. understand that not everybody described as a conservative judge comes from the same school or emphasizes the same sort of thing. anthony kennedy is a reminder how justices can change and grow once they get on the bench. >> well, maybe we'll bring back the sod dom laws and trump will get his way and we'll have some form of punishment for women who choose abortion. what a world we're headed towards thank you charlie sykes, jonathan it yourly. up flecht with justice kennedy's retirement it's virtually certain a woman's right to choose is in jeopardy. trump told me there needs to be some form of punishment. he never said which. but it is a dangerously stated

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do you want to see the court overturn roe versus wade. >> well, if we put another two or perhaps three justices on, that's what will happen and that will happen automatically in my opinion because i am putting pro-life justices opt court. >> it will happen automatically?

welcome back to "hardball." curing the presidential debates as you saw, donald trump said very clearly he intended to appoint supreme court justice who would be willing to overturn the court's landmark decision of roe v. wade. most larkbly is he went so far as to say there should be some kind of punishment for a woman who chooses to have abortion. here's an interview with then candidate trump in march of 2016. >> do you believe in punishment for abortion, yes or no as a principle? >> the answer is that there has to be some form of punishment. >> for the woman. >> yeah, there has to be some form. >> now with the retirement of anthony kennedy, president trump is set to appoint his second justice to the high court. that could have massive implications. for years opponent of abortion have been leading a campaign against the right to choose in courtrooms across the country. if you're one of those cases that reach the supreme court. marie ca cantwell and miguel johnson a planned parenthood

board member and executive director confident perception institute. i want to talk to the senator first. generally, you've been confronted with staggering news that the vacancy sits there number five on a nine-person court. >> unbelievable. the most important thing about this whole thing is that the president's views are out of the mainstream of the american public. so the question is, is the president going to insert his views or is he going to consult with congress on what are the mainstream views of america on this particular issue. >> what did you make of his talk about. >> horrible. >> it's a little weird to talk about. what did he mean by some form of punishme punishment? >> the fact he took this pledge during the campaign and said he is going to appoint nominees that believe there so he's not for holding up the privacy rights that now have been well established and supported by many courts. he's beak saying i'm going to roll that back and so now he has an opportunity to really put his thumb on the scale to make that

difference. we have to do everything possible to make sure that that doesn't happen. so his views are not in the mainstream. that's the case we need to take to every member of the united states senate. you're willing to change what is now accepted as policy in our state, it's been codified into state law. maybe we'll have a campaign in every state in america to show people we are going to fight for the privacy rights. >> ronald reagan picked kennedy. justice kennedy said there could not be the essential right of -- the right to choose, to make the decision must be protected and there will be no undo burden. you got to do this one minute after midnight. no tricks. he said none of that. >> right. so the point is that you have nowing this libertarian judge now being replaced by a president who is showing authoritarian tendencies. >> mike pence tendencies. >> an authoritarian.

he's like it's my way. >> can you slow it down to -- here's my hope. you can slow it down until after the voters vote so you can throw this to the people this fall. >> we're going to throw it to them right now. these privacy rights that are so important across the board are things that have now been well established and in the me numb bra. we're going to point out this president if he's getting his list is supporting textualists. he it means they're not going to agree that these privacy rights whether it's your right to privacy at home, whether it's your right to privacy on the internet, whether it's your right to privacy as a woman, that they are going to support the pen numb bra existing in the constitution. that's the fight we'll take to the people and ask our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to make sure they're supporting those privacy rights, as well. >> thank you very much for coming. alexis, i think that every great

supreme court decision whether it was roe versus wade, the basic privacy rights of a woman to make a decision about her body and the idea that separate but equal is wrong inherently, these are all profound decisions where you can't find in a letter necessarily of the constitution. you have to find it in the spirit in it and what the constitution is all about in terms of the bill of rights. you're not going to get a textualist to help you on these landmark decisions. they're always going to be saying no. they'll always say leave it the way it was. >> yes, absolutely. >> except for roe versus wade. >> exactly. look, i was born in 1972, five months before roe versus wade. the idea that a right that has always existed in my lifetime and the majority of women have grown up under is something that this administration wants to undermine and overturn is completely insane. and the preview, we've seen the trailer. 18 states have existing laws

unlike senator cantwell's state, there are 18 states that have existing laws that are intended to overturn to eliminate abortioning if roe versus wade is overturned. so there's reason to be concerned about trying to find a textualist as opposed to having this conversation with the 70% of american who's support roe versus wade. is your group going to try to stop this vote from occurring before this election? >> we're doing exactly what senator cantwell suggested. we're out talking to every senator, having these conversations because it is imperative that the senate rejects any candidate that opposes roe. part of the resistance has been engaging in the streets in the marches and movement. the other part is having these conversations with our senators. people like susan collins and lisa murkowski have been incredibly thoughtful on helping support women's health care. these are the kinds of voices the conversation taz we need to

be having activating engaging in people across the country. >> republican senator susan collins of maine said roe versus wade is settled law when asked about abortion rights this afternoon. let's watch. >> well, first of all, i view roe versus wade as being settled law. it's clearly precedent and i always look for judges who respect precedent. >> susan collins is great and said she respects jungs accepts it as it is. do you believe that roe versus wade is safe? >> no, because when a president makes that pledge on national tv and says he's going to stick to it and goes to the measure of saying he would punish women, you have to take what he said during the campaign, he is implementing. and what we don't want is a bench that basically is going to follow that will textualist list

being sent to him. it would be one thing if he was calling us and saying i hear you. let's hear who you think or justices that would follow privacy rights. >> this 5-4 court has done stuff none of us could imagine. intervene in a presidential election in 2000 and decided that george w. bush, the five republicans on the court, said should be president and they voted 5-0 to make george w. bush the president of the united states. on citizens xwrints they said money should talk more than a voter. they made that partisan decision. they keep making partisan decisions and say we've above partisanship. >> it's not about partisanship. it's about corporations. the other side right now is hurrying to end the tax bill to give corporation what's they want. they have people in the cabinet who are not following regulations and now they want a court that is also going to side with them and basically say whether it's clean air that basically was so hard fought. >> you mean the working people of pennsylvania, wisconsin, indiana and michigan, the

working stiff man and woman thought they were getting a populist president and they got a corporate shill. >> right now if they're going to overturn this, no, the little guy is not going to be represented on the bench. >> senator maria cantwell of washington state. alexis johnson. this is a huge night. up next, justice kennedy's retirement is shaking this city of washington and this country to its core. is there anything dras can do right now to keep trump from putting another hard-core conservative on the nation's highest court by october? there's the october surprise. you're watching "hardball." abor abor social security alerts. oh! just sign up online and we'll alert you if we find your social security number on any one of thousands of risky sites. that sounds super helpful. how much is it? well, if you have a discover card, it's free. no way! yes way! we just think it's important for you to be in the know. all right! hey... ewww! everything ok? being in the know is very good. yeah, it is. ooo don't shake! don't shake! ahhh!

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welcome back to "hardball." even before news broke of kennedy's departure coming in in a couple weeks, mitch mcconnell was gloating about the way he helped transform the high court. in the wake of the supreme court's decision yesterday to uphold trump's travel ban,

mcconnell tweeted this picture of himself with justice neil gorsuch. isn't that something? a little pro man's there. today he took another victory lap defending his decision to refuse a hearing for president boll's nominee merrick garland. watch this. >> i think it was the single most consequential decision i've made. i felt very confident that had the shoe been on the other foot, the democratic senate would not have confirmed a supreme court nominee by a republican president in the middle of an election. i was pretty confident that the complaints would be pretty rank hypocrisy knowing full well that in the middle of a presidential election, you're not likely to be able to confirm. if the senate is crowed by the other party, not likely to be able to confirm a supreme court nominee. >> speak of hypocrisy, i'm joined by the roundtable to talk about what you just heard from mitch mcconnell. ken vogel, sabrina sidique and

milbank. what do you make of the hypocrisy of mitch mcconnell having refused merrick garland for a whole year, very going to try to jam through his -- he doesn't know who the nominee is before october or november. >> we just heard him laugh off the charges of hichtcy. he knows that he's going to get them and he knows the political benefit of this. you talk about the decision yesterday on the travel ban. the one that really resonated with him was the one today and this janus case ta sort of neuters public sector labor unions. >> where is the heart of the labor union movement right now. >> this has been a bugaboo as a sort of campaign finance deraeg later, this is what having a conservative supreme court means to him and republicans. >> they seem to understand this is big casino, the republicans. they seem to get it. that's why they fight so hard for this. >> republicans have galvanized their base behind the supreme court and judiciary for years. democrats have to do the same. 2016 exit polls found that 20%

of voters said that the supreme court was the number one priority for them. 56% of those broke for trump whereas only 41% broke for clinton. democrats have not been able to mobilize progressives behind. >> who wins if this issue boys the national issue going into november, trump's pick for the supreme court? >> i think republicans win. they've done a good job of this. they have a whole network of groups funded by some of the biggest donors on the right who get out the vote on this issue. >> mitch mcconnell may be utterly unappealed but he has the politics right because democrats suffer from garlanditis. the democrats thought their base would get riled up why they're not confirming the nominee. they didn't. with the possible exception of bork which is too many decades ago, we do not see the democrats get riled up in the same way the republicans do. now, if and when it's probably more likely when abortion rights

are lost, then you will see the left get much more fired up than the right. you have to get to that first it seems. >> put together some things. i was overwhelmed because i know the house. joe crowley was on his way to be speaker. he's blown away by a new person, ocasio-cortez, 28-year-old activist. this must be sending a message to the leadership, i'm wondering with people like schumer is of new york if i lose the fight over the supreme court nomination, the young people will say what a joke this crowd is. >> the energy is on the left of the party right now. >> not the establishment. >> that does happen when a party is out of power. it could help democrats in the general election. i don't see the potential for sort of a tea party-like break up of the house democratic caucus because we've seen a number of incumbents facing challenges from the left stave them off. this one last night in queens is the exception ratheren the rule. >> what happened to crowley is similar to what happened to eric

cantor. he had his eye on his national policy. >> number two republican in the house. >> as someone who voted for ocasio-cortez said her campaign knocked on her door three times. she heard from crowley's campaign not once. ocasio-cortez ran and you pol jet tick economic progressive. >> why they split the primary in half why there's a primary for governor in september and the primaries for the house into it was an extremely low turnout election. people are reading way too much saying this is some sort of establishment versus insurgency. he is the only incumbent to fall. 27 of 29 house democrats backed by the dccc have won. the establishment of the party has already lost the battle in the sense they're now just as progressive as the insurgents are. it's a completely false narrative. he lost because he moved his kids to washington. >> when i walk through the

washington, i hear every sound around me and make an effort to pay attention. the roundtable is sticking with us. danamy bank who fears nothing from these strange elements of change will be back with us. you're watching "hardball." whoooo. looking for a hotel that fits... ...your budget? tripadvisor now searches over...

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trump watch wednesday, june 27th, 2018. i said at the top of the program it's time for democrats to play "hardball" because there are times to fight and this is one of them. i'll say it again now. if the democrats in the senate

allow trump to pack the supreme court with a 5-4 majority for the next 30 years, they don't deserve to be there and there will be i predict a full scale rebellion from the base of the democratic party against its leader if they blow this one. thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" tonig >> i just want to thank justice kennedy for the years of tremendous service. >> a supreme court earthquake. >> justice anthony kennedy announcing his retirement. >> the supreme court's swing justice announces his retirement. tonight as democrats vow to fight. >> our republican colleagues in the senate should follow the rule they set in 2016. >> can they use mitch mcconnell's tactics against him. >> give the people a voice in filling this vacancy. >> plus, it the massive implications kennedy's retire