for clarence thomas, i think there's a kind of similar man in waiting on the fifth circuit. judge james hoe. he has taken the role of a kind of troll in robes. he often uses extremely provocative language in his opinions that seems designed to own the libs. he has developed a fan base among the conservative legal movement and trump's own community of, you know, someone who would not pull punches, who would join the court and very aggressively enact an agenda that perfectly aligns with, you know, project 2025 and everything trump has promised for his second term. >> what's on the agenda? what would be on the table? >> look, katy, sky's the limit. they have started a revolution. they're at the beginning of it. there are cases pending that would destroy a bunch of federal agencies, including the national labor board, make it impossible to make enforcement exist, test the existing limits of campaign finance restrictions to allow billionaires and corporations to donate unlimited amount of money to candidates. there are challenges to many of biden's signature achievements, includi

a judge named clarence thomas. contemporaneously, she talked about that harassment. i wantedhe to go on dates with r , talking about dirty things to her, she was raised rather to abound in oklahoma. she confessed to for their people about this at the time including joe paul. i don't know if you remember joe a legal scholar. who was a friend of hers at the time. a couple otherer people. she did not want to testify. the fbi, because of all these people coming out, decided, all right, please, will you testify. she ended up doing that. after that testimony which was riveting, everyone in the country who cared about these issues watched it. after that testimony, clarence thomas was sworn in as a member of the supreme court by a narrow margin. more people statistically believed him than her. and outraged w people that it became the year of the woman. entering the 1992 class of congress having 32 women in it. the biggest wave of women in congress ever. it sort of snowballed with a lot of other rights that followed that. similarly talking about the o.j. simpsonof case. but,

- she was, in my mind, crucified on national television. - [ethan] the senators gave clarence thomas six o'clock tonight, the 98 men and two women of the senate will have to decide who they believe. - when a woman at her age gets out in front of the public and get herself up like that, that man is guilty. - girl should keep her mouth shut, it's 10 years old, and she should just go away and leave the poor man alone. [crowd yelling] - [reporter] all day outside the capital, people on both sides of the issue staged demonstrations. - [man] the nomination of clarence thomas of georgia to be associate justice of the united states supreme court is hereby confirmed. (people cheering) - clarence thomas and president bush win, the united states senate has confirmed the nomination of thomas to the supreme court. - i don't think i had ever felt so incensed in my life. - a lot of them are claiming it's sexual harassment when it really isn't sexual harassment. the guy might be joking with them or something. - it's not like rape or anything, it's just women's lib, i think. - for black women, it was

she had been harassed in the 1980s by her boss, and a judge named clarence thomas. contemporaneously should talk about harassment by her boss in the workplace. i wanted to go on dates with her, talking about dirty things to her. she was raised quite rather devout in oklahoma. she confessed to four of the people about this at the time, including joel paul, i don't know if a a member joel who in amherst legal scholar, and was a friend of hers at the time, and a couple off other people. but she didn't want to testify. theut fbi, because of all these people come out, decided all right, please, we testify? she ended upt. doing that and after that testimony, which was riveting, everyone in the country who cared about these issues watched it, after that testimony,y, clarence thomas was nominated, was sworn in as a member of the supreme court by a narrow margin. and more people statistically can then delete her. and so outraged people that became what they called the year of the woman. and joined the 1992 classic cokes at three to women two women in it, it became the bigges

clarence thomas has more hubris and likes the job morement he want to hang on and won't leave unlessa pine box. but i think that trump will be able to do the charm offensive on clarence thomas he did on anthony kennedy. to wine and dine him. to pressure politely his wife and family. if trump can convince jenny to tell her husband to retire, i think justice thomas may well step down and be replaced by someone similarly extreme but much, much younger. >> well. we have a lot to look forward to. mark joseph stern, thank you for your thoughts and wisdom tonight. >> thanks so much. >>> still ahead this evening, who has more power? the boys or the new york times? what does the election mean for legacy media? that's next. legacy media? that's next. (tony hawk) i still love to surf, snowboard, and of course, skate, so i take qunol magnesium to support my muscle and bone health. qunol's high-absorption magnesium glycinate helps me get the full benefits of magnesium. qunol. the brand i trust. ♪ ♪ have you always had trouble with your weight? same. discover the power of wegovy®. with wegovy®, i

but what people do need to watch for, clarence thomas is 76. samuel alito is 74. one or both of them could well choose to retire. justice breyer retired so he could be replaced by a much younger ketanji brown jackson. but before that, anthony kennedy retired replaced by a much younger brett kavanaugh. so one or both of thomas or alito could be released by a 52-year- old -- >> 36. >> that seat will be owned for 20, 30 years. i have to say, clarence thomas, if he finishes out the next term, will become the number one all- time longest serving justice. >> so supreme court over there. attorney general is a place where donald trump will make a huge impact with this election in who he picks to nominate will tell elie. >> yes, he never forgave jeff sessions for recusing himself from the russia investigation. he never forgave bill barr for standing up at the end against his claims of election fraud. so i think donald trump is going to be looking for a loyalist. and the thing i'm looking for is, do we have somebody, "a," who's been a prosecutor, who understands the values

riveting, everyone in the country who about these issues watched it after you know, after that clarence thomas was nominated it was was sworn as this had as a member of the supreme court by a narrow margin and more people statistically believed him than believed her. and it so outraged that it became what they the year of the woman and then not entering 92 class of congress 32 women in it, we became the big, you know, the biggest wave of women's love of women in congress ever. and it sort of snowballed with a lot of other that followed. that was that when we similarly with when we talked about the oj simpson case. i hope we will but but this whole idea of sexual harassment of workplace harassment of gender equity of, domestic violence which was a big issue the old simpson case, there were a lot of issues had not been stated before date rape, other came to the fore and there were a lot of you know, pioneering women who were behind that. you you sort of indirectly touched on a subject that is sort of the what i do professionally as being immersed in the world misinformation and lies that what we

clarence thomas, samuel alito, i would not be surprised if they allowed him to fill the slot.t you don't want is a david souter who can't remember who put him on the bench. you don't want other federal judges who republicans put on the bench but have amnesia. so i think trump will get two but i don't think they will get -- sonia sotomayor has a job for life and she knows that. i don't think she is going anywhere. they can't get it done before the inauguration. they don't have the time to vet and nominate and confirm a supreme court justice. so it is wishful thinking. >> harris: trey gowdy, great to have you break it down for us. the harris and biden camps are trading blame for the vice president's devastating election loss and the white house is under pressure now to answer for any role joe biden may have played to her demise. >> does the president feel any responsibility for the outcome? >> does the president have any regrets? does he have any regrets? >> if you can or want to address the criticism that's being directed at him for this loss. >> harris: look, a lot of people s

so most of the eyes on the court are looking at clarence thomas, who is the older member of the courty alito. many justices will wait for a safe harbor period so their legacy is protected. >> john: thomas 76, alito 74. by supreme court standards, they are spring chickens. i mean, maybe they want to do some thing else. >> that's right. the thing is, they are both doing very well, intellectually as sharp as they have always been. thomas is more active in oral arguments than he has ever been in his career. there is no real burning need. there is a period of two years, a grace period where justice can make this move. when you're two years before the next election, that's the redline. and so if they are going to make this move, they have to think about doing it in the next year or so. >> sandra: that's great information and some thing to look for. while i put this up on the screen from our fox news boat analysis, jonathan, this is where voters stood in our survey on the supreme court. we asked do you approve or disapprove on the way the supreme court is handling its job? those that somewha

the opportunity may come in the potential retirements of 76-year-old clarence thomas, and 74-year-oldl allow donald trump to nominate much younger conservative justices to the country's highest court. nbc's sahil kapur has new reporting from capitol hill. julie and basil are with me here in studio. what are you hearing from republicans on the hill about the supreme court? >> reporter: hey, chris, well, we know that confirming judges is going to be a high priority for this new republican senate majority. they will have at least 52 seats. they might pad that a little bit, given some of the remaining races that are still too close to call, that we haven't projected yet. they only need a simple majority to confirm judges and justices. they are not going to be able to, or democrats are not going to be able to do anything to stop them. they'll have plenty of lower court vacancies to fill. naturally there's a lot of attention being paid to the supreme court, and rumor mill, specifically with justice clarence thomas, and samuel alito, the two conservative members of the court. some believe th

so it's potentially a very big thing to be looking forward to. >> we see that clarence thomas is 76,me democrats want one of the liberal justices, sonia sotomayor to retire now, while a democrat is still president. tell us about those conversations. >> this is something that came up earlier this year when some democrats were concerned by the fact that trump might win the election, and looking at justice sotomayor as the oldest member of the liberal minority on the court, and thinking maybe she should step aside so the democrats could replace her while they still control the senate. but nothing happened then, she obviously hasn't said anything about it. she hasn't stepped down, when there was ample time to replace her. now there's a very narrow window where the democrats have the senate for the next couple of months, that they could push through a successor. and unless she does something quickly, there's no real chance this could happen and there's some concern that they might not even be able to get it through. so it seems pretty unlikely that's going to happen. that's just turned 70

she had been harassed in the 1980s by her boss and then a judge name clarence thomas.n contemporaneously she would talk about thaten harassment by her boss in the workplace. wanted to go on dates with her comment talk to dirty things to her. she was raised rather devout and oklahoma. sheth confessed to four other people about this at the time including joe paul i don't if youremember joe he's an amorous legal scholar. who's a friend of hers at the time and a couple of other people. all these people coming out decided all right please you testify? after that testimony after that testimony as a member of the supreme court more people and entering 1992 class on congress had 32 women in it. it sort of snowballed with ever rights that follow that. this whole idea of sexual harassment, workplace harassment, gender equity of domesticue violence, there's a t of issues had not been stated before on a daybreak and other issues. what i do professionally being immersed in the world of misinformation. speak about the links you want to discern between the world of misstatements and

in terms of the high court, all eyes are on the two oldest conservative justices, clarence thomas ande, if they were tired donald trump would have the opportunity to nominate their successors making trump the first president since franklin roosevelt to have appointed a majority to the high court, the 74-year-old poured some cold water on the speculation this week when sources close to told the wall street journal he has no plans to retire. despite these disclaimers it seems like some of his hopefuls are polishing their resumes. in a recent interview with the conspiracy policy blog, the express skepticism of birth right citizenship. regardless of who sits on the high court, the change in the presidential election will certainly impact the cases presented to the court. under the new trump administration the federal government is likely to change its position on a number of cases that the court will hear this term. issues involving ghost guns and immigration. on thursday, donald trump announced that john sauer will be his choice for solicitor general, that is the lawyer who represents th

justice ginsburg died, they were looking at two of the elder conservatives on the court, justice clarence thomas, who was appointed in 1991 by president george hw bush. he is approaching the record ly for tenure on the court. he is 76 years old. justice samuel alito, 74 years old, appointed in 2006 by president george w. bush. these rumors began circulating, we saw articles about it, we al saw pundits talking about it. no senators explicitly asking for this, but the chatter certainly reached the supreme court, because we talked to people close to the justices and found they were annoyed -- maybe that is the word -- by this kind of speculation, and we reported, i think, fairly confidently, that neither justice sonia sotomayor nor l justice alito has plans to leave right now for purposes of political expediency. >> on alito, here is your headline, justice samuel alito plans to remain on the supreme court. let's talk about this current document, what cases they are looking at, can you describe, big picture, what will be presented before the high court? >> well, compared to the last term, where we s

number one, what is the risk that clarence thomas will follow through on what he said he would like to court ruling that made birth control legal? in other words returning that to the states so some could have birth control be illegal. what do you believe that no-fault divorce will also go away as a legal option for women? >> i think we can expect all the forces trying to impose religious belief on the bodies of women and girls to come hard for our rights. but here's the thing, whether or not we let them is the question. there are so many of us fighting to say no, you can't, no, you won't. states matter here. right now, we have a lot of states protecting rights. we need those states to continue not just aggressively protect women in those states but women in those states protecting the half of women who are latina for example or black, who are in states that do not. remember it's also coming for health care access. cutting medicaid, this is basic health care. if they keep going for the fundamental rights, basic things we've all come to expect, things that some of the people who voted f

then my mentor is one -- one of them is justice clarence thomas. justice thomas, his hero is frederick douglass. the embodiment of the freedom this award is talking about. thank you very much. >> it means a lot to us. i think we're off to a great start, between you, betsy devos and doug duecy. frederick douglass is an amazing guy. one of these years we have to do a special session about him because -- >> take a trip up to cedar hill if you haven't been to his house in anacostia, it's a national park, amazing thing to go to. >> he's almost like a 19th century founding father. he was that important to the republic. incredible guy. well, one thing i want to highlight before we get into the meat of our conversation here is, it's often seen as a cliche that there's a sacrifice involved in public service. but a guy like you, you are a very prominent pharmaceutical industry executive prior to serving as secretary, of course you've been deputy h.h.s. secretary under george w. bush. but you actually took a major financial hit to join the trump administratio

. >> weil, justice clarence thomas is 76 , justice sam alito is 74.y are two of the most conservative members of the court and at least arguably, they could retire , and my guess is there will be a great deal of pressure on them to retire. i suspect , at least --. i suspect they won't, but you never know. they have time to think about it. i mean the republicans majority in the senate will ensure that however donald trump would pick him if there is a vacancy, would get through quickly as we have seen. mitch mcconnell, when he was majority leader , he made sure that the opening created by the death of justice scalia was not failed for almost 10 months, and then when justice ginsburg died , he made sure that vacancy was filled within days a nomination was made and then within weeks it was filled. it depends a great deal who is in charge of the senate. the senate will be in republican hands for the next two years and if you look at the -- if you look at who is up, the likelihood is that the republicans will continue control of the senate, at least that is

in terms of the high court, all eyes are on the two oldest conservative justices, clarence thomas, and samuel alito. they are both septo genarians. and if they were to retire, donald trump would have opportunity to nominate their successor, making trump the first since roosevelt to have appointed the majority of the court. the 74-year-old alito poured cold water on this when he told the wall street journal he has no plans to retire. some seem to nonetheless, be polishing their resumes. in a recent issue, judge james of the fifth circuit, expressed skepticism television birth right citizenship, perhaps, looking to donald trump's campaign promise to end birth right citizenship. >>> the change will certainly impact the cases to the court. the federal government is likely to change its position on a number of cases that the court will hear this term, including cases involving the rights of transgender minors, issues involving ghost guns and immigration. and on thursday, donald trump announced that john sawer will be his choice for solicitor general. that's the lawier who represents the gov

if you remember, clearance cler clarence thomas and bret c kavanaugh, they are all rumors, we have to look at facts, we have to help president trump, he will not pick a criminal. he will i ha vet everyone, i long for look forward to working with them. and backing them as long as facts are there. larry: senator, will matt gaetz get a fair hearing, i know he will did office to office, as you know he served to judiciary commit first his many terms, he is a sharp tongue conservative, i don't know. allegations seem to crop up, the justice department the weaponized lawfare justice department, of joe biden and merrick garland, that originally put this stuff out, and sir, they koofn couldn't find anything they dropped changes that tells me there is something fishy, the question, does matt gaetz date get a fair hearing. >> i do, i may be more bullish on this i believe that president trump ran on idea that he and a band of disrupters would come to washington take on permanent washington and reforms we need are not just legislative, they have to come from you know change agents there are leading

now you have a little more breathing room for justices like clarence thomas who is getting older andito. they have a safe harbor period in which they can get a replacement who will be similar in terms of their jurisprudential views. many things they've done over the last few years are going to be cemented. stuart: interesting idea. the two elderly justices are indeed 75 years old. if they walked away now, trump could appoint two conservative judges in their place and as the attorney suggests, cement 30 years of a supreme court that is conservative. >> alito and thomas are the ideological bedrock over the court. strict constructionist rule of law conservative justices, i would expect donald trump, i don't speak for him but i would expect he would find two good replacements for those folks but they are really impressive, and they will have to choose a time that they will no longer be effective. stuart: donald trump's impact could be enormous. thanks for joining us. thank you very much indeed to. david, thank you for sticking around. i stole that from you. >> no problem at all. jonathan

right now so much attention on clarence thomas, who's 76 and sam alito 74 with people thinking will theyeave now that drnt is onald trump is in office? not eager to leave but might be enough pressure to go while a like- minded republican is there in office. >> and speaking of that, he may have opportunities to reshape the court even more to his liking than he already has. how could that impact the direction that the court takes for the next generation? >> everybody talking about how it could get even more conservative. it's hard to know how much more. given they've already reversed half a century of abortion rights when they reversed roe v. wade and enhanced gun rights. they've rolled back the authority of federal regulators. there's been so much happening. that's what the sixth justice serve kiv majority. making the difference, younger conservatives will come in. if indeed donald trump has an opportunity to fill more seats. that means that his legacy would continue for decade upon decade upon decade. i used to say our children will be living with a donald trump court, back in his first

right now the oldest justice on the conservative side is clarence thomas at 76 and samuel alito at 74too many of our beaters they think that is old near retirement age but not for supreme court justices and they usually don't go until their 80s. when you look back at the last dozen vacancies created, most of those were created either by death or serious illness and even if we go back just four, there were two deaths with ruth bader ginsburg and khalia and most justices in the modern era have left in their 80s so provide a little bit of a reality check for this part of the segment and even though donald trump has already had such a strong hand on the supreme court pointing people who enhance gun rights or diminished reproductive rights and federal regulatory power , we do have to wait and see if any justice actually does lead and gives him a chance to fill another seat. >> you have interesting new reporting on the youngest justice amy coney barrett. how is she being viewed by her colleagues ideologically? >> sure. when i talk about who has come on the court in recent decades, when you

you couple that with alito and clarence thomas , that means you go from a 6-3 court to 7-2 court in terms of conservative versus liberal. i hope joe biden makes the next 10 weeks as consequential as he can't be at i don't care about drawing outside the lines of what republicans may think, this is within your purview you can do it and you should do it. one more thing, you had a of a vice president who has a legal pedigree to sit on the supreme court and let republicans go crazy and even mentioning that option. >> are you floating this? 7:39 a.m. , you just floated molly harrises name as a potential supreme court nominee. >> not only am i floating at i want to stir up everything. i want people's heads to explode so we go into the weekend just knowing the chaos has not ended. >> shermichael, did it work what he just did? >> it is an idea that i have not heard anyone mention, best of luck getting around mitch mcconnell who is one of the most surgical individuals to ever lead or be in the minority position of the united states senate. i think if democrats were attempt to nominate the vice pres

make any difference and if you're a republican, you've got to fight your way through this and clarence thomas and brett cavanaugh, we're going to look at facts, not rumors. there's nor rumors going around about matt gaetz and pete hegseth and all will have a rumor when it comes down to it. we've got to look at facts and got to help president trump. he's not going to pick somebody that's a criminal. he's not going to do that . he's going to vet everybody and he's done that . i'm looking forward to working with all of them and backing all of them, as long as the facts are there. larry: yeah, senator schmidt, i mean will gaetz get a fare hearing? he'll go office to office? sir, he served on judiciary committee and going for many terms and he's a sharp term and he's the allegations going for the crop up and it's kind of thing and it's what happened and it's the jus dis-the president and it's the lawfare justice department and it's going to put this out and they dropped the charges and there's something fishy going on here and is gaetz going to fare? >> i'm more angry than others because i happen

the oldest one and the most right-leaning one, justice samuel alito is 74 years old and justice clarence thomasre wondering if they will see the next couple of years as the opportune moment to have their seats secured in conservative hands for 10, 20, 30 more years. it would not change the margin much but it would give them a much longer time and make it harder for democrats to cut into that margin. >> as you bring up the older justices, there is talk of justice sonia sotomayor, appointed by president obama. there are some republicans, i should say some democrats, who are wondering whether or not she should retire during president biden's remaining time in the white house. the theory is democrats could maybe replace her with the younger, more liberal judge. would not change the balance but it would ensure that democrats at least don't lose anything. this morning on "meet the press" senator bernie sanders was questioned about this very theory. listen to what he said. >> some democrats behind the scenes are quietly talking about the possibility should justice sotomayor step down to allow presiden

and then my my mentor is one of them is justice clarence thomas. and justice thomas, his hero is frederick douglass. just again, the embodiment of that spirit of freedom that that free up and this award you're talking about. so really means a lot. thank you very much. thank you very much. and it means a lot to us. and i think it's been i think we're off to a great start between you and betsy devos and doug ducey. i think we are really on track with with what we're trying to do with this award. and frederick douglass is a really amazing guy. one of the one of these years we have to do a special session about him because take a trip up to cedar hill if you haven't been to his house in anacostia, it's a it's a national park, really an amazing thing to go to. i mean, he's he's almost he's almost like a 19 century founding father. he was that he was that important to the republic. incredible guy. well, you know, one thing i want to highlight before we get into the to the to the meat of our conversation here is it's often it's seen as a cliche that there

i say take that sucker for a ride. [ laughter ] i would confiscate clarence thomas' rv and go on a little immunity road trip, if you know what i mean. [ cheers and applause ] the other good news for trump is trump might not even have to pardon himself. the department of justice is said to be winding down the multiple criminal cases they have against him because of the longstanding policy that says a sitting president can't be prosecuted. but don't worry, james comer, the chairman of the house oversight committee, is still on the important case of hunter biden. >> you're going to pursue more charges against hunter biden? >> we're going to see what the new trump department of justice wants to do. i fully expect joe biden to pardon his son. i think the most important thing for me, honestly, that is we hold people in the government accountable. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: with one notable exception. [ laughter ] poor hunter biden. is he in government? the saddest part is, his father isn't going to give him a pardon. if i were hunter biden, i'd start calling trump daddy to see if it sticks. the one

two-thirds of the majority on the supreme court if you include clarence thomas.ing happening with republicans where all the things that qanon claimed were true, right. they were saying that that was true about democrats. but here we are. what does this stay to women? >> yes. that's a good point. and i think, look, these people are in the highest levels of the law. like attorney general, you are setting the law. and on the federal level. and then you have someone who has numerous allegations and venmo and i think what's the most interesting in a weird way it seems clear at some point trump realized this wouldn't if go through because he had somebody else teed up. >> a woman all teed up. it's clear it was deliberate. he looked for another florida person, this time a woman. >> right. and i think ultimately, look, it's modeling a kind of bad behavior. part of trumpism is giving this permission that you don't have to care about people, right. that you can kind of do whatever you want. that owning -- >> your body, my choice. >> right, and a central tenet of this kind o

clarence thomas, i'm not sure he'll leave.n said he won't and won't leave unless it's in a pine box. but i think that trump will be able to do the charm offensive he did on kennedy to wine and dine him, to pressure politely his wife and family, you know, ginny thomas will be speaking with trump a great deal in the coming months and years, if she can convince her to tell her husband to retire, i think he may be replaced by someone similarly extreme but much, much younger. >> well, we have a lot to look forward to? mark joseph stern, thank you, my friend, for your thoughts and wisdom tonight. >> thanks so much. >>> still ahead this evening, who's got more power? the nelk boys or the new york times? the lessons of the 2024 election and what it means for legacy media. that is next. t means for legacy media. that is next other alice, and long-lasting gain scent beads. part of the irresistible scent collection from gain. now is the time to go back in time. and shine a light on the family journey that led to you. detailed dna results

school after october 7th, and harlan crow, close friend of conservative supreme court justice clarence thomas simply wearing the cloak of free speech. >> uatx has been called the anti-woke university. harvard is liberal, uatx is going to be conservative. >> politics should be studied at a university. it shouldn't be the operating system of the university. any university that is identifiably political is not fulfilling its highest mission. >> pushbag might be are you too dependent to donors. we've seen at some campuses, donors are dissatisfied. >> if donors are pushing us in that is not aliouned, someone will call us out. >> and the backers aren't solely from the right. a libual was president of the aclu for nearly 20 years. she's now an uatx adviser. >> the most important topics of public policy debate are not being candidly and frankly discussed on campus, including abortion, immigration, police practice, anything to do with race and gender. >> provided it comes with no serious harm, strossen argues all speech should be allowed. >> you think censorship leads to worse outcomes than allowing e

his close friends with justice clarence thomas cookies tweeted during the campaign the biden justiceartment invented crimes against president trump. there is serious evidence here of mishandling classified documents and january 6 he is very much a defender. he defended jenni thomas when she was asked to appear before the january 6 committee and has called justice thomas our greatest supreme court justice. and i think there's a lot of people, in part because of what trump has said, and others, who believe there is a deep state. they believe trump did win in 2020 and we saw this in the durham investigation. that was the special counsel who we term. they did not find these crimes. james comey was not indicted and jon burnett was not part of the secret cia conspiracy so we don't know what will happen here. they will investigate the biden family or maybe jack smith and merrick garland. will they bring cases? when durham brought cases, he lost. juries failed to convict everyone that john durham try to convict. >> it was largely believed, david, that a lot of these investigations, like jame

that there are two supreme court justices and you can see justice elito who is 74 years old and clarence thomasoming out and he can then move in the faces. >> things are so divisive and they are often sticking together and in recent years we've seen justice gorsuch going with the trail that's been the most conservative part of the court and they, listen, have given decades and the first two you've mentioned elito and thomas may be ready to move on and certainly not going to do that unless there was a republican president that replaced them and had health and more going and see in the next couple of years there's moves on that front and i would say that the court is viewed for businesses and it's seismic changes back to administrative agencies in their regulatory power just in the last term or two alone. there's going to be a lot for businesses going for them to read a pro business trend and critics don't like the pro business tend to like what they're going for them and it's the last couple years. liz: it's very pronounced and merger issue that's come about with the biden administration and how

with clarence thomas and sam alito being the most senior members on the court, it's possible they'ret important set of priorities for the senate, making sure we're able to shepherd through personnel appointments as quickly as possible. we'll see if we have the resistance movement we saw last time trump took office in 2017. i'm cautiously optimistic that we're not going to have that because as i said, the mandate has been given across the country. i think a lot of the democrats who were in vulnerable states will realize that being part of a resistance movement against a president who won the popular vote, electoral landslide and the american people gave us congressional mandate as well, maybe saying instead of resistance maybe i'll try be more productive. time will tell on that. we need to make sure we have senators and congressman in place in leadership position that's are ready to work with the trump administration and put america first and i think that's what we'll see as the top litmus activity for leadership on both sides of congress as people say who will be able and willing to

i worry that he is going to appoint more justices in the mold of clarence thomas and sam alito who will endanger the fundamental freedoms we enjoy as americans. i fear a second trump presidency as much as anyone else. >> you represent such a diverse district. such a melting pot. i know it well. i was born there. what do you make of the anti-semitic attacks against israeli soccer fans in amsterdam and the anti-arab chants bit israelis? >> i was appalled by what i saw in amsterdam. i never thought in my wildest nightmares that i would see this against jews in the 21st century. it makes me sick to my stomach. what is unfolding in amsterdam did not happen in a vacuum. it's happening in an age of amplified anti-semitism. since october 7th, we have seen volcanic eruptions of anti-semitism on college campuses and social media. we have seen people utter phrases like globalize the intifada, an open invitation to violence against jews. i'm concerned if we as a country do not stand up and speak against anti-semitism, then the nightmare could come here in the united states. we have to act with more

he's very close with both thomases, justice clarence thomas and ginni thomas who he represented in theanuary 6th investigation. he also served in the last trump administration and was general counsel at the office of management and budget. in so doing, he had some involvement in some of the allegations that led to the first trump impeachment. he's a trump loyalist, and yet he is much more familiar with how to use government and maybe how to navigate government than someone like matt gaetz. >> what do we know about what happened behind the scenes of matt gaetz. we know the names of those who weren't budging. do we know why? >> apparently the meetings on the hill didn't go well and people came out more concerned than reassured. gaetz told people according to my colleagues reporting that there were four hard nos against him already. he knew that. collins, murkowski and mitch mcconnell and newly elected senator from utah and he can't have those four, then there is no point in fighting to get the rest because you're not going to get confirmed. now, it is still a pretty quick thing to happen

caller: this goes back as far as clarence thomas. all of that with anita hill, and i think that was joe biden. they do it to all the republicans. we have very good up-and-coming politicians that would be great in congress but they stop them right in their tracks when they are young. we had it happen here in illinois. they always get them on campaign finance charges. he supposedly decorated his office and washington, d.c. like downton abbey and he didn't even know about it. he was getting tickets to his constituents for free ball games . how many people have done that? host: how does this all relate to the news of yesterday? caller: gaetz should have thought it but there is no way that his family, he could have went through this, his political career would have been finished. everybody knows it. i will tell you another one. host: we have to stop you there. thank you. let's go to robert in naples, florida. independent line. caller: i have a thing about pam bondi, when they were investigating trump university. she dropped charges immedi

number one, what is the risk that clarence thomas will follow through on what he said he would like tog that made birth control legal. in other words, returning that to the states so some states could have birth control legal, and what is the risk that no fault divorce will also go away as a legal option for women? >> look, i think what we can expect is all of the forces that are trying to impose religious belief on the bodies of women and girls to come hard for our rights. but i think here's the thing. whether or not we let them is the question, and there is so many of us who are fighting to say, no, you can't, no, you won't. remember, states matter here because right now we have a lot of states protecting rights. we need those states to continue not just to aggressively protect women in those states, but we need women in those states to protect the almost half of women who are latina, for example, or black who are in state that do not. and remember it's also coming for health care access. cutting medicaid. this is also about whether you get basic health care. so i just think if they

you know, clarence thomas and justice alito who both have indicated or at least alito indicated i'm not planning on going anywhere anytime soon but there's a little bit of a buzz and urgency to kind of move it along and then there's justice sotomayor and now my conversations about her health and concerns about her stepping down from the bench, what does that look like? what does that mean in terms -- if that happens, with two justices retiring from the conservative side and then for whatever reason, as some dems even ck before this point tried to marry up the conversation about justice sotomayor maybe considering retiring early because of health or whatever so joe biden could get that person on the bench. what will is your assessment of the supreme court and what it looks like over the next couple of years? with these issues kind of looming large in the makeup of what this court is going to be like for the next 50 years. >> yeah. critical questions. so there's a super conservative majority right now of six to three occasionally five to four. and with respect to justices alito and thomas

even i think they would argue the abortion rights movement that this was an argument made by clarence thomas in a 2019 supreme court decision and in a concurrence a essentially suggesting that the abortion rights movement had its roots in eugenics, an opinion that heavily featured margaret sanger. this is, of course, an argument to that. we in lots of anti-abortion, pro-life literature, we've seen republican politicians make it. so i guess i have two questions. one, what do you think some of our contemporary politics get wrong or right when they think about or talk about the connection between eugenics and actors like sanger or done it? and then also, how did you approach writing about a topic that is so politically fraught and that sometimes is so prone to presenting dissenters standing? it is this a very dark topic, and it's it can be really kind of hard to stick with subject to, you know, have immerse themselves or embraced eugenics to that extent. so, yeah, absolutely. margaret sanger, his name has been tied to the eugenics movement publicly and persistently. and i do think, you know, wh

if we see clarence thomas decide to retire and he is getting up there in age, trump will have the option to replace them with a much younger conservative judge and he now has the senate in his control to confirm those individuals. host: brian in albuquerque, new york. on the line for independents. caller: i am in new mexico, actually. i would like to focus once again on immigration. it will be interesting to see what trump and his companions actually come up with. birthright citizenship for example. i think we need to do away with that. i think that incentivizes all kinds of cheating and bad behavior. and then also the big ones. we never talk about visa overstay, and that is 50% of the problems. what are the republicans going to do about the ones who simply stay in america. and the big one is american employers that make millions of dollars by hiring the illegal immigrant. he is threatening to take away their workforce which will make a lot of very wealthy republicans mad. who is going to process all the cattle at the meatpacking houses when we start shipping illegal immigrants out of th

there's this specter that not only does trump have three supreme court justices but alito and clarence thomas might step down in the next four years allowing a very, you know, hard right justice to get in. the votes could be there in the senate to get that done. then you'd be dealing with the supreme court with five trump appointees. we can't pretend anymore that he's just an oddity, the orange man running wild. he's representing our country. you saw harris do the right thing, fold in. joe biden will try to be helpful. and there will be a boycott i think of his inaugural by some democrats. in 2016 john lewis and other groups of progressive democrats wouldn't engage in the trump -- or trump's first -- you know, the inaugural then. when trump first got inaugurated, you had a women's march. in january 2017. the largest public gathering in american history to protest trump's views on women. what's happened since that protest? well, the dobbs decision. kamala harris, we had our first woman vice president, but that issue on women's reproductive rights didn't put harris over the top. it kind of flat

he is close to justice clarence thomas. he is very conservative.ng the campaign that the biden justice department made up crimes committed by donald trump, a reference to january 6 and the classified documents case. democrats disagree. they say those were serious cases. as you said, a sitting president can't be prosecuted. these cases will go away. that's to let the president rule for his time in office. he has a mandate from the people. that's the system is set up this way. >> if you would, what are your thoughts on how walls and barriers that exist so that our system continues to exist, is that -- are those going to be able to withstand and withhold anything? >> hopefully. the problem is, the department of justice, the supreme court said the president has exclusive authority over the department of justice, investigations and prosecutions. hopefully, the new president will not use that as an opportunity to make up crimes or go for revenge. that would be unethical for any prosecutor to do that. they could loose their license. >> president biden was