jonathan, you heard there the name robert bork was just mentioned. anthony kennedy is on the court, has been on the court, for the last 30 years because robert bork could not get confirmed. ronald reagan's very conservative nominee was rejected by a democratic senate in 1987. kennedy, the fall-back choice. the fear of democrats all across the country right now certainly is that now with a republican senate by the slimmest of margins, but a republican senate, nonetheless, and donald trump as president, that essentially robert bork -- a robert bork-like figure could everge and go on the court here. is that a real possibility? >> it is a real possibility. the change in the filibuster rule made this an entirely different process from the one we've seen in the past. the republicans have every incentive to move this as quickly as they can. the fact is those mid-term elections are looming over the senate. they don't know quite what they're going to have after the next election, and they don't want to be put into the position that the obama administration wa

so bork was frequently in the office.e were not privy to these conversations, but it was striking that they clearly were very close friends and robert bork trusted him. and hisom, his acumen, advice. brian: how did you get your job in the solicitor general's office under -- which president? amy: reagan. charles friede was the solicitor general at the time. i had lucked into a summer internship at the solicitor's office while i was at columbia law school. i had a visiting professor from chicago who is rather famous and prolific. i had taken a couple of courses with him. he had said to me it's clear that you love to argue. he said you should really think about doing an internship at the justice department at the solicitor general's office. the solicitor general is the master litigator for the united states government and everybody in the office is devoted to that mission. and i applied and got the job. so i spent a summer there. i got to know charles freed, people in the office, and they asked me to come back on the permane

little-known fact that bork, who was on the d.c.cuit at the time, and bork was still hearing cases, they were very close friends. they had gone to law school together at chicago. so bork was frequently in the office. consulting about the whole ordeal. we were not privy to these conversations, but it was striking that they clearly were very close friends and robert bork trusted him. his wisdom, his acumen, and his advice. brian: how did you get your job in the solicitor general's office under -- which president? amy: reagan. charles friede was the solicitor general at the time. i had lucked into a summer internship at the solicitor's office while i was at columbia law school. i had a visiting professor from chicago who is rather famous and prolific. i had taken a couple of courses with him. in he had said to me, it's clear that you love to argue. he said, you should really think about doing an internship at the justice department at the solicitor general's office. the solicitor general is the master litigator for the united states go

we are living in the age after bork. before then, the senate mesa the nominee can't be confirmed because there's an ethical problem. ever since bork, we have a right to say that a justice is not fit for the court if the person stands opposed to central things that americans believe. >> in this case we don't know who the nominee is and knows the president trump has a litmus test and will only pick one who will over turn row versus wade. is there anything we should look to to try to push and delay the vote until after the midterm elections as pay back on what happened to garland and give democrats a chance to win back the senate and have say over the nominee is. >> absolutely given the importance of this, that's the way the system operates that people feel so strongly. we are about to see one of the most intense political struggles in american history and for my point of view, that means the system is working. >> nbc news presidential historian. great to have you here. big night. lots to get to still. we'll be right back.

i think what happened to judge bork is a model here. he was nominated by a popular republican president, ronald reag reagan, had superb credentials and people said the democrats couldn't hold together and win, yet they did, and got six republicans to cross lines with him. the senate is in worse shape now, but i think if the case is made about the rights americans will loose, especially the right to choose, you can hold a few republicans and flip this person and beat this person like the democrats beat bork in 1987. >> i talked to strategists who are saying it's all about susan collins and lisa murkowski and every bit of pressure needs to be put on them. they can't stop this with just democratic votes at this point anyway, they need to pick up at least one republican or more. >> that's absolutely true. and i just want to remind everyone that a year ago at this time health care hung in the balance in a very similar way. and the american people rose up, people flooded town halls, made calls. this is not inevitable. mitch mcconnell today tr

bork was a guy who was a lifelong critic. if he got on the supreme court, he was going to change a lot and overturn a whole series of presidents. -- precedents. , alia was the same thing hard edge, heart conservative, let's overturn. kennedy was a different person. he was a conservative guy. he came up in the reagan administration when reagan was governor. he's a catholic, conservative, pro-court, but he had none of that passion that says i'm going to, and sweep aside the 1960's and 1970's and overturn. e was much more of a temperamental moderate, status quo conservative. there are not a lot of moderate republicans left in washington. that's what we are losing, the last of the sort of moderate republicans. the really great likelihood is the trump administration is not moderateseek out a republican of the anthony kennedy mold. they are going to seek out somebody who is a much more committed conservative and much more willing to go back and say these earlier decisions were wrong. is certainly in that category and we got to the

i love bob bork but he gave ammo. he answered questions in a way that made him seem perhaps a bit distant. you know, he said, "i'm not the kind of guy who loves the flag." other things. but then consider gorsuch. how do you really attack like gorsuch? he will say and even on the abortion question, i predict whoever up there will say of course i will honor the precedent. which the court does. look at the fact of each case that comes up. it will go over and over and over but that will basically be the response. i don't think the democrats can stop it. particularly if it's good, valuable, attractive candidate. >> this is a gift for republicans looking for an energy to energize the base to get people to turn out. we saw this as a big issue for republicans in 2016. election where president trump did one of the smartest things in the campaign put together a list and put him out there of who he would choose as a nominee, driving force. it helps the republicans as bill pointed out, as jessica pointed out as well if democrats

fact that bork, who was on the d.c.ircuit judge the time, they were both on the same court was still hearing cases, were very close friends. they had gone to law school together at chicago so bork was frequently in the office. the clerks were not privy to these conversations, but it was striking that they clearly were very close friends and robert his wisdomd him for and acumen and advice. brian: how did you get your job in the solicitor general's office under which president? amy: it was reagan and charles friede was the solicitor general at the time. it was near the ends his 10 years that i was hired. i had lucked into a summer internship at the solicitor general's office while at columbia law school. i had a professor who was a visiting professor from chicago, he is rather famous and i had taken a couple of courses with him. he had said to me, it is clear you love to argue. he said, you should really think about doing an internship at the justice department and the solicitor general's office because the solicitor gen

we're now living in the days of borke, before then the senate would say we can't nominate him becauseoblem. but since then we have a right to say that person is not fit for the court if that person stands opposed to central things we believe. >> we don't know who the nominee is. we know president trump said he will only pick a nominee who will overturn roe versus wade. have there been previous examples or anything to look to in history to try to push the vote, to try to delay this until after the midterm elections essentially as pay back but also to give democrats a chance to win back the senate and have say over who the nominee is? >> absolutely. the importance of this, that's the way our system operates. we are about to see in the next four months one of the most intense political struggles i think probably in american history, and from my point of view that means the system is working. >> michael beschlosbeschloss, presidential historian. thank you. >> thank you. >> we have lots to get to. we'll be right back. let someone else do the heavy lifting. tripadvisor compares prices from

quickly otherwise we will be sailing into the next really big crisis i have is the reporting from staff bork thank you very much. and you're watching news we serve a lot more to tell you about it including then we'll take a look at the economic implications of the trump kim summit. and off the other top the out. of school exercise book filled with stories of war atrocities written by brave people who want. to flee come. in the now this picture was taken in. the same show was shot you prove what's going on in the central african republic. it's in an exercise alongside many other photos of people who were abused to rape. women and down to change those to one wanted children in the out of the nomination of. the winning documentary starts june fourteenth on d w. two to the. korean caution history yes' north korea's kim jong un and u.s. president don't propagate an end to hostilities on the korean peninsula would mean the beginning of prosperity but financial markets aren't all that short. and i.m.f. officials say the global economic outlook is docketing by the day we'll talk to the we see the se

quickly otherwise we will be sailing into the next really big crisis i have is the reporting from starts bork thank you very much. bens got the big clouds dark clouds that hang over the global economy according to the chief of the international monetary fund christina god describing the state of global trade in the era of trump here in germany economists that appear to worry and report presented by the o.e.c.d. in berlin suggests growth in europe's top economy will remain strong next year that said the group did list germany's large trade surplus as a source of concern and has called on the country to invest more in infrastructure and technology. and as he so we've got the o.e.c.d. secretary general right here with us in the studio. thank you very much for coming in thank you and explain to me how everything is going so wrong as far as trade goes as far as global trade goes and how jummy is managing to remain so economically stable when it's so dependent on global trade it's a huge export or would your basic premise is that everything's going so wrong and does not trade is now growing at four

that is how we now have ended up with the term "being a borked."xford english dictionary describes as "obstruct someone by systematically defaming or vilifying them." let's fast-forward a couple of years later. the confirmation of now supreme court justice clarence thomas, during his senate hearings, this goes back to 1991, democrats ruled out his former colleague, anita hill, to make sexual harassment allegations against him. the process became so vicious and nasty, justice thomas, and what is now and intimates, famous comment, he referred to it as a high-tech lynching. watch this. >> this is a circus. it's a national disgrace. from my standpoint, as a black american, as far as i'm concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who, in any way, deigned to think for themselves. to do for themselves. to have different ideas. it is a message that unless you count how to an old order, this is what will happen to you. you will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the u.s. senate, rather than hung from a tree. >> sean: wow. powe

uphill battle and in the end, they held their people, they won over six republicans and they beat bork and president reagan had to put tony kennedy on the supreme court. democrats have to fight just as hard, even harder right now as if the constitution was at stake because it is. if they make this about rowe and take this fight to susan collins and lisa murkowski, they can beat trump's nominee. >> share lynn, you're nodding. >> i'm nodding my head because this is no time for leaning back and reclining and doing milquetoast politics. this is about the future of our democracy. this is very serious. this is about the most serious moment i've seen in our democracy in a very long time. it's time for every american to wake up. it comes two weeks after this country has been roiled by this crisis involving migrant children. i think many americans are recognizing now what is truly at stake that we truly are hanging on the precipice. counting numbers is not strategy. strategy is not saying wow, there are 51 republicans and 49 democrats. it's that's not how it works. strategy is how you mobilize

>> it says the rules change all the time, maybe no time more so than 1987 when robert bork was defeatedich was usually the reason they would get defeated, but ted kennedy and others said this is someone whose views are so far from mainstream, he shouldn't sit on the court. he was defeated. that hadn't happened in as dramatic a way before. since then we've seen it a lot. >> that was one of the first times we saw an outright public statement that ideology or where someone stood was going to be used instead of just the ethics and the aba professional stuff. the other thing experts are asking is what happens if people don't show up. avoiding a quorum. abraham lincoln jumped out a second story window to avoid a vote on a bill. and senators walked out of congress for a spending bill fight. that prompted democrats to order the sergeant at arms to chase them down and arrest them. >> the yaes, 45, and nays 43. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will continue to call names of absentee senators. and the sergeant-at-arms will execute the order of the senate. >> that order with all those empty desks

the tragedy of bork not getting on the court, bork was a great writer. and we have people like others that have been on there a long time, that are very, very good. trish: well, i think one of the challenges unfortunately for some justices is that they -- and dershowitz articulated this the other day, they're too tempted their political heart as opposed to their intellectual honesty. the president is being introduced right now. you see him coming out on the stage. lots of people. lots of workers there that are highly anticipatory of new jobs, better paychecks and investment in the state of wisconsin which is much needed. you see the president shaking hands with the head of foxconn, a taiwanese company making this investment in the u.s., interesting in that people have accused the president of being protectionist with the tariffs, et cetera and a taiwanese company coming into wisconsin. let's listen? >> 18 months ago, this was a field and now one of the most advanced places any kind in the world. it's incredible. and i want to be thanking terry go, chairm

bork's behind the scenes bitter truth manipulation exploitation corruption obvious style of business worth millions but just how murky is the world of sports and reality. dirty games starting june sixth on t w. everyone welcome to another edition of euro max here is a look at what we've got lined up for you today. top talent need an indoor skydiving champion from one. picture perfect play on cheer is a top three b. artist from the netherlands. great getaway portugal's island tazer region is a fantastic place to chill out. sometimes the best experiences simply happen by accident and that was the case for finish artist reset and now she wanted to create a project combining nature with elderly people but she needed a photographer and some senior citizens who were willing to pose so she did what any logical person would do she did a google search for photographer and grandmother now the results can be seen in an international photography exhibition called eyes as biggest. first glance there's unspoiled nature. but a closer look reveals a solitary figure at one with the environment. pictu

he replaced robert bork. that actual act was the beginning of the politicization of the supreme court in a dramatic way. the refusal of to allow justice bork to serve on the supreme court and how politicized it became. kennedy went on the court and was far, far less partisan. he was a kind of centrist who leaned to the right. mostly voted with the conservative bloc but often voted with the liberal bloc to form a majority. he'll now be replaced by somebody who is very conservative and will give a much stronger bend to the conservative side, and it continues the politicization of the court. supreme court is becoming a less respected institution because it splits along party lines so often and with kennedy leaving, it the split along party lines even more often. trish: you worry about that? >> i worry about it. trish: a strict interpretation of the constitution from a very conservative perspective and believe fundamentally in that document, are you as prone to the political bias in your view? >> i do. i think so

it sounds like he's stuck to the 1980s more robert -- kind of bork line -- chicago line on anti-trust anything and i think the law has evolved and economic research has evolved so this decision may be vulnerable to appeal for those reasons. >> we only have about 30 seconds left but as quickly, and i recognize you could speak for six hours on it, why would such a merger be a badidea. >> it is just that the idea that vertical mergers cost consumers money. and also interfere with competition and this ruling -- again, i haven't read it. but it sound like the old 1980s reagan style and nothing vertical is ever suspect. this is a very big vertical merger and if he's gone too far the opinion may be susceptible to appeal. >> thank you for your time. that is it for "the lead." i turn you oif to wolf blitzer in "the situation room." thanks for watching. >>> happening now, trust but not verified. president trump heads home from the summit with kim jong-un saying he trusts the north korean dictator. but why is he relying on kim's vague promise to denuclearize when north korea has repeatedly broke

i said bob bork is here. he was the number three guy in the department.ne that was really eligible to do it. >> the commander in chief found someone willing to carry out his orders. bork fired cox. >> and i have asked all the personnel in the department to stay and help keep the department from going in this extraordinarily difficult time. >> and so ended what would become known as the saturday night massacre. >> one white house source said the president's motive was to remove the possibility of a constitutional confrontation as quickly as possible. >> richard nixon violated the law, he compromised the office and he violated the compact that we thought we had with him. >> before he did all of this he must have considered the probable reaction in congress including the possibility of impeachment. >> there with some of us who felt that the imperial presidency was getting out of hand. the saturday night massacre was a signal to the american people that a president was putting himself above the rule of law and they demanded action. >> and the public outcry to

in this moment we have for example today also a meeting of the un journal ministers and looks and bork and mr selby who is the new interim minister of italy has been sad that he will go there because the well understandable because he is involved in the vote of confidence for his government today but also it is a sign in a certain sense because he said i don't i don't want to collaborate in a simple revision of the dublin agreement we want a completely new agreement ask concerns the migration politics and this is not a way to a pole operate for elaborate and to come in counter to the other european countries but rather as a sign that they will try to confront those countries and be an element of history because there you have a very important point thank you very much and of course the votes of confidence will be taking place later on this evening it's expected to pass without any major surprises sorry many thanks are serious sunny very go there live in rome. just ahead here on the news in sports this swimmer sets off a record breaking attempt to cross the world's largest body of war s

mack to bork remained one of germany's most magnificent cities until its destruction in the thirty years war plan. after it's gone thick reconstruction of the cathedral was one of the largest in germany the in throne couple were chiseled into sandstone in around twelve forty one of the most beautiful sculptures of the german middle ages. it's believed to depict king auto and his first wife at eton when autos beloved wife died he married again. he chose adelaide of burgundy the widow of the italian king otto has a young son with her henrich. his son from his first marriage leo dauth who's long since grown up he was already there at the coronation are one up until now he was regarded as the rightful successor to his father's throne. well well with le tally and. stop it at once leave it all on and tell him to stop show respect for the future king. as artist did you say king yes. age being our league i am a legitimate heir. are you going to break it all for her. my father my father is silent. so i must answer nobody could know how far leo doff would go to assert his claim to the throne and w

the judicial nominee process drives me up the wall ever since robert bork, you can't ask the judge anything that means anything, then you read tea leaves based on their old decisions to determine how they will vote on particular issues. that holds true with conservatives, not true for the left, one thing amazing to note, and 1% of the people they nominated voted consistently on the left. 50% nominated to the high court. and one judicial pick means republicans to because it's and careful about who trump puts up. he should demand that person is fully committed to textualism and original is in. is originally constructed. heather: they want somebody who follows what they expect the. what do you think of this benefit in the midterms. and likely get someone confirmed before the midterms, and that will fire of the democratic base to say the midterms you don't want that to happen again, show up at the polls. >> the democratic base will be very fired up, they will be fired up anyway. what additional points are necessary to get them to the polls, extreme hatred of donald trump personally? turnout wil

table in this moment we have for example today also a meeting of the un trial ministers and looks and bork and mr selby who is the new interim minister of italy has said that you will go there because the well understandable because he is involved in the vote of confidence for his government today but also it is a sign in a certain sense because he said i don't i don't want to collaborate in a simple revision of the dublin agreement we want a completely new agreement ask concerns the migration politics and this is not a way to a collaborate for collaborate and to come in counter to the other european countries but rather as a sign that they will try to confront those countries and be an element of the strobes very yeah very important point peter thank you very much and of course the vote of confidence will be taking place later on this evening it's expected to pass without any major surprises so many thanks are serious sunny very go there live in rome just ahead here on the news in sports this swimmer sets off on a record breaking attempt to cross the world's largest body of war so far rig

he was talking about an extreme nominee, robert bork, and he said, i want to quote him. robert bork's america is a land in which women would be forced into back alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizen's doors in midnight raids, school children could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists would be censored at the whim of the federal government and the door would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens where the judiciary is often the only proctor of the individual rights that are at the heart of our democracy. unquote. mr. president, robert bork was rejected and justice kennedy took his place, and today we face similar stakes right now in this moment. voting rights are at stake, lgbtq right are at stakes, the right to organize collectively is at stake. those are just a few. there's a lot more. families across the country are paying attention and they are going to be watching what president trump and individual members of this united states senate do right now. they are going to -- they are go

that's bork somebody. i want to go deeper into the philosophy.bviously in separation of powers and co-equal branches of government and doesn't believe in citing foreign law. he obviously that justices should not legislate from the bench. that's for the legislative body to do-or-die. >> that's right. the foreign law application. i litigate courts in other countries. when the u.s. supreme court were to cite and they do from time to time cases from the european court of human rights. many of the governments that are part of this don't have constitutions let alone our constitution. i think it whole trend you have seen developed over the last 40 years -- this goes way back. i have been doing this for 30 years but this goes way back. i think this is where leonard is correct. i am optimistic if we see a nominee in the caliber of gorsuch that individual will get bipartisan support. that's because at the end of the day, the reality is that the president is the one that nominates with the advice and consent of the senate. but the president gets to make the

when they get a character assassination on justice bork, we just seeing this out there and politics. i think that set us down a different kind of path. host: mary on the line for republicans. go ahead. caller: i will start out to say i am a woman, this is to all males and females of the united states of america. babies.illing innocent all the time everybody was to talk about -- babies all the time. everybody wants to talk about immigration. it is murder when you take the life of a baby. you can call it a fetus or anything you want. once that baby is in your womb, you have no right. you talk about all the immigration that is run on. wake up, america. it is murder. murder. rep. rothfus: again, i think the caller reflect the passion a lot of folks have about this issue. the ghost of the supreme court that do not 93, and take a look at the 7-2 decision. justice white, president kennedy's appointee, talks about what they had done as rod judicial power -- as raw judicial power. pc states trying to respond to that and come up with even modest restrictions. we passed legislation out of the h

of appeals and intellectual heavy weights and the entire process drives me up a wall since robert borkean't ask a judge that means anything and ask vague questions and have to read the tea leaves -- leafs on how they'll vote. one thing amazing to note is the democrats whenever they nominate someone they've been literally 100% of the people nominated have vote the consistently to the left and 50% of the people the republicans have nominated to the high court have voted consistently on a textural ground and the republicans should be very cautious and careful about whom ever trump puts up and should demand that person is commit to the text of constitution as it was meant. >> shannon: they want someone who follows the philosophy they respect. who do you think benefits or hurts in the midterms. mcconnel likely gets someone confirmed before the midterms and they slidefy the seat but i think it will fire up the base saying you don't want that to happen again, show up to the polls. >> i think the democratic base is fired up but i think they will anyway. i wonder what else is needed. it depends

same tactics the left are used against president reagan and as i showed you last night, judge robert borkthe same smear campaign against clarence thomas and president trump hasn't nominated anybody yet. you better believe the tactics from the left are going to get much worse every day from now to election day. let me warn you, hold on tight, buckle up, and, yeah, your voice needs to be heard in november. we are going to tell you all the key races. without a doubt, this will be the most consequential midterm election in our lifetime. coming up, gregg jarrett, sara carter, later on, yes, he's here, and i will be a guest on his show sunday night, but the great one, mark levin, is in the house. stay with us. ♪ h us. my name is jeff sheldon, and i'm the founder of ugmonk. before shipstation it was crazy. it's great when you see a hundred orders come in, a hundred orders come in, but then you realize i've got a hundred orders i have to ship out. shipstation streamlined that wh the order data, the weights of , everything is seamlessly put into shipstation, so when we print the shipping ll ever

first was robert bork, and we all remember that sparked a brutal senate battle. he was defeated. his second pick was douglas ginsburg who withdrew after admitting he had smoked marijuana which obviously is no longer a benchmark for pretty much anything in the country, and then came kennedy who was viewed as the consensus nominee. >> justice kennedy's career has been marked by his devotion to a simple, straightforward and enduring principle that we are a government of the laws. not of men. our constitution, our form of government is built on a bedrock value. self-government yes, but self-government with a purpose which is individual liberty. >> martha: judge napolitano is our fox news senior judicial analyst. can you believe there was a time when you could get bumped from this whole process for smoking pot? and you look at what's going on now in the country? >> oh how the times have changed. >> martha: i know you have thought a lot about this process and the last time around you spoke to the president about the process. he shed some light on what his thinking is on how he approach

about quickly otherwise we will be sailing into the next really big crisis i have a reporting from bork thank you very much all right let's update you now on some of the other stories making news around the world. judges at the international criminal court have ordered the release of the former congolese vice president. the ruling comes after an appeals court overturned convictions for war crimes committed in two thousand and two and two thousand and three he has been imprisoned since his arrest a decade ago. at least twelve people including two were hundred muslims have been killed in southeast bangladesh after heavy rains triggered landslides international aid agencies are warning there is a risk that water borne diseases will break out makeshift camps house nearly a million ranges who have fled a military crackdown in the premium are. israeli police began evacuating jewish settlers from fifteen homes built illegally in the west bank two protesters were arrested after scuffles broke out during the operation israel supreme court ordered the victuals because the homes were built on priv

the senate had rejected the president's first pick, robert bork, in a famously bruising confirmation fight. the second choice, douglas ginsberg, withdrew after admitting to using mar as a younger man. kennedy had a relatively easyro confirmationss. >> the whole lesson of our haconstitutional experienc beenhat a people can rise above its own injustice, the people can rise about the inequities that prevailed at particular time. >> nawaz: in the end, he sailed through the senate by a vote of, 97 tnd was sworn in on february 18th, 1988. conservatives often counted on his vote. he was in the 5 to 4 majority that gave the 2000 presidential election to george w. bush. in "citizens united" from 2010, he supported loosening campaign spending restrictions on corporations. later, he voted to strike down key provisions of the voting rights act. and just yesterday, he sided with the majority upholding president trump's travel ban. but kennedy also shifted sides at times. in 1992, he voted to uphold the right to abortion. he backed affirmative action in a case from texas in 2016.in and he landmark

with the possible exception of bork which is too many decades ago, we do not see the democrats get riledthe 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 quee

clearly -- would want to put him in the moyer conservative box, whether that's along the box with robert bork or rush limbaugh issue don't know. but certainly his criminal justice jurisprudence, if we were push to define conservative jim, we would probably say he was conservative. i try in the book to use the term "libertarianism" to get away from the label "liberal" because it don't think that's label that accurately describes justice kennedy and i don't think the conservative label does either. libertarianism seems to me, if you think but the fundamental principles of libertarianism, that is probably an accurate tribal apply to his juris prudence. >> thank you, helen. should also mention that chapter one of the book is an excellent primmer on libertarianism, libertarian theory and the various strains of club tarean -- strains of libertarianism and she brings out it's not a theory but the relationship between the spread state. there are many strains of libertarianism and it's to her credit she brings this out in chapter one over the book. now let's turn it over to you folks and question that

it started with the character assassination of robert bork and and culminated with clarence thomas. tensions seemed to subside for a time but then came the unprecedented filibuster of samuel alito and the public flagellation of neil gorsuch. the nominee had -- but in every case my colleagues sought to drag these men into the partisan gutter, asking questions designed to parse their political positions rather than their legal philosophy. mr. president, in my 42 years of senate service, i have witnessed the gradual deterioration of the judicial confirmation process. as the former chairman of the judiciary committee and now its longer serving member, i have taken an active role of every justice currently sit og and the supreme court -- sitting on the supreme court and those who retired. i participated in half of all article three judges who have ever served. throughout the process i have met some of the brightest legal minds that they have to offer. i watched as the on the other side of the aisle looked to undo their gain. this is merely a symptom of a much larger problem, the politica

because ted kennedy went to the floor of the senate gave a speech that in robert bork's america there were segregated lunch counters and back-alley abortions. if you ask conservatives where did the hyperpartisan era begin, they would say it was ted kennedy. and democrats say it was newt gingrich. >> i still remember where i was when i heard ted kennedy's speech. and it was an offensive speech. it was so over the top. it was so hateful. and it did. it elevated supreme court picks on to a level they had never been elevated to before. and democrats followed up, then going after clarence thomas. and then we were off to the races. >> so kennedy of course was a deciding swing vote on the court when he voted with the four conservative justices, the court upheld the trump travel ban, gutted the voting rights act and allowed corporate money in politics. and he voted with progressives, also his 2015 decision striking down state bans against same-sex marriage. >> so, tom, what are the areas that we should expect to see the biggest shift? i read there were 50/51 decisions where kennedy went with

stuart: joining us now, the author of the borke, a world in disarray.ass, the president of the council on foreign relations. richard, you didn't like that bluster but the hard-line, would you agree, it did in the end work? >> we don't exactly know that. it is possible it worked. obviously the sanctions had a role. but also north korea got done with enough testing of its missiles and nuclear warheads it may have simply concluded it reached a point where it could safely and securely go to a summit with the united states. stuart: it seems like a real turnaround with america's diplomacy, vis-a-vis noh korea. you're not prepared to say trump pushed for it and trump got it? >> he talked tough. he got sanctions through the u.n. he is one of the reasons we got the where we were. my problem he talked a lot tougher than he negotiated. stuart, we haven't, how do you know what he is going to negotiate? he himself it will take years for the denuclearization process. how do you know how he is going to negotiate in the future? >> we don't. all i'm saying we left with

. >> think about had bork gotten on the court which is what probably should have happened, is what shouldhan kennedy being on the court, the course of th the last generation would have been markedly different than what it was. it really makes a big difference. maria: earlier i spoke with senator mike rounds. he made a pretty significant prediction. listen to what he told me a few minutes ago. >.he was talking about the ideaf making this appointment in short order and he said he believes they can get the replacement for kennedy in place before the midterm elections. >> i saw that and i think he's 100% right about that. i don't see why it gets any better for them after the election. i mean, the numbers may get better for them, but the fact of the matter is, this is a sheerly political argument, this is not about people's judicial philosophy. they have the numbers to get this done. the democrats chose to get rid of the filibuster. that was their call to make and they made it. and the way they fought the gorsuch appointment made this almost inevitable that this would happen if this came up ag