my remarks today are to focus on the power of rural voters the role of two bakers no relation howard baker, the senator from tennessee and charles baker who was a key figure in the most important u.s. supreme court case decided during the tenure of chief justice earl warren. the story raises questions about who holds power both temporarily and spatially. and how such relationships can be shifted. as many of you may know. howard baker was born in huntsville tennessee. and spent much of his life in scott county just north of here. he was the son of a congressman. as a young man they have political ambitions. they have others' plans. by the time he reached the registration desk at the university of tennessee all of the courses for engineering were full. frustrated and driving home. he noticed the lights were still on at the law school. he went in and was able to immediately enroll in law school at the university of tennessee. while a student he ran for president of the uc student body. to represent all students. in graduated from law school in 1949. after graduation he practiced law for the n

they're not howard baker. we know that. >> thank you.ing up, the justice department is preparing to criminally charge wikileaks leader julian assange. could this help prove the conspiracy to get trump elected in 2016? i think so. and in california, the wildfires continue to devastate the state. the president blamed the fires on gross mism managmanagement a threatened to withhold money. what message will he have for them tomorrow? >> plus, she's in it to win it. let me finnish tonight with trup watch. this is "hardbal"hardball." s "h. darrell's family uses gain flings now, so their laundry smells more amazing than ever. [darrell's wife] isn't that the dog's towel? [dog sfx] hey, mi towel, su towel. more scent plus oxi boost and febreze in every gain fling. ♪ traders -- they're always looking for advantages. the smart ones look to fidelity to find them. we give you research and data-visualization tools to help identify potential opportunities. so, you can do it this way... or get everything you need to help capture investment ideas and mak

we need howard baker's in the republican party to stand up and put party over country. i thought i heard lindsey graham say that. i hope he says it again. >> ruth bader ginsburg had an accident, why is the supreme court more of a message for democrats? could it be that the president >> more opportunities you go we talk about it all the time. elections have consequences. [inaudible conversation] >> the miami herald and other allies reporting that florida secretary of state is ordering recounts in the u.s. senate and governors races, an unprecedented review of two major races in a state that took the weeks to decide presidential election. he issued the order a short time ago after the unofficial results in both races fell within a margin that by law prompts a recount. show --ficial results led democratic mayor by less than a half of percentage point, which will require a machine recount of ballots. republican governor rick scott's lead over bill nelson is less than a quarter of a percentage point, which will require a hand recount of ballots from tabulation machines that

back in the watergate era eventually there were people like howard baker who said this is wrong. i am first and foremost an american. what i hope is going to happen in the weeks, days, months ahead is that democrats and republicans will come forward and say this investigation needs to continue to its conclusion. is investigation needs to continue to be independent. stay out of his way. that is what needs to happen, and it needs to happen on a bipartisan basis. if it doesn't, democrats will continue to call for that. now that we have the majority in the house, and i think the american people elected a democratic house because they recognize we need guardrails in washington. we need oversight in washington. we need accountability and we will offer that. will we have to do first is allow the investigation to -- what we have to do now is a levy investigation to be completed. the second question on the fundraising, if you look at fundraising going back to 2000, in 2006, the rnc outraised the one.wo to in 2010, the democrats outraised the republicans considerab ly. way to what happened

i come from a state where we have always had liberal senators , howard baker, lamar alexander. bob corker didn't know what he was doing. obviously, your pitch about the party i think is wrong. i think you need to go back and stay away from those evangelicals. they are the most dangerous part of our party. host: mr. blackwell. guest: look, let me take a step back. i have had the privilege of ,eing the mayor of my hometown so i have had the opportunity to walk the streets, talk with folks, be very much a part of their lives. but i have also been blessed to have the opportunity to represent our nation at the united nations as the u.s. ambassador to the united nations in charge of human rights. so i had the opportunity to interact with representatives from 193 other nations. i have always been clear on a couple of things, and i don't think this is extreme -- and i can bring it down to a current challenge. nations of the united nations, they are all defined by a nationstate by their borders. their borders to find them. as a consequence, all of those 193 nations work to control their

. >> when you look at tennessee republicans, they mention bob corker, lamar alexander, howard baker, conservative, but moderate. what is it about tennessee republicans that separates you from other members of the the gop? sen. corker: you say moderate, but we just look at it stylistically as a way of bringing people together. meaning that on fiscal issues, i would never take a backseat to anyone on fiscal issues. at the same time, i think it is the way that you approach people that you deal with. in this committee, we never start a single legislative item without it being bipartisan. we start trying to solve a problem. i think something has been in the water in tennessee. we have been able to have people who try to bring out the best. we try to solve problems. people who end up being national figures. we just have that in tennessee, and hope it continues. >> what motivates your politics? sen. corker: a desire to solve problems, to affect people, in a positive way. there is no place like the public arena to be able to do that. i did that in business in my companies, hopefully, and it

alexander: well, i guess pay listening to others, i came to washington with a senator named howard bakerwho was a wonderful man. he had a phrase that said "the other fellow might be right," which is applicable to this discussion. i have learned from other campuses more how to do with this and i understood what i was president of the university of tennessee. for example, the president of the university of chicago and his senior faculty have adopted the chicago principles. it's a restatement of they have always believed. they basically say free speech is a part of the university of chicago. the president of princeton says as a tactic, he tries to make having controversial speakers so routine that it is not an event. if someone is looking around to stir trouble, they will have to come every three days because it happens. those are tactics that i have learned from. adopting the chicago principles, vetoing the hecklers' veto and making your campus one where there are many points of view is routine. those are to diffuse the possibility of a big explosion over free speech. mr. rosenstein: i hav

great people like fred thompson, howard baker, and at the end of the day, like barry goldwater, who told president nixon, you don't have even a dozen votes in the senate and i am not with you anymore mister president, once the tapes came out. it only takes a simple majority of the house, but it takes two thirds of the senate, and in today's world, that will mean a buy-in from both parties. >> something like a consensus is required from the senate. >> and i think it is abusive for the house to begin a process and partisan ways because you will not be able to get a conviction. now clinton, democrats never bought into the impeachment in the house, so very addictively, you did get anything close to two thirds in the senate. so i am a faux! not for partisan impeachment unless members of the own party of this president was on board, they take an oath to do impartial judgment and justice. actually in the clinton experience, i reinterpret that as impartial. try to imagine to what you would do if the political shoe was on the other foot. it is not an ordinary, and perfect ordinary to say that is

great people like fred thompson, howard baker -- at the end of the day, like mr. republican barry goldwater, who told president nixon, "you don't have even a dozen votes in the senate and i am not with you anymore, mr. president," once the smoking gun tapes came out -- it only takes a simple majority in the house, but it takes two thirds of the senate and in today's world, that will mean a buy-in from both parties. and i think it is abusive for the house to begin a process in hyper partisan ways because you will not be about to get a conviction. now clinton, democrats never bought into the impeachment in the house, so very predictably, you didn't get anything close to two thirds in the senate. so i am a foe of partisan impeachment. i would be a foe of partisan impeachment for this president and i voted against this president. senators take an oath to do impartial justice. i actually in the clinton that --ce, reinterpret try to imagine if the political shoe were on the other foot, which is a deep theme of charles black's book. it is ordinary to say well, that is my

so statewide has often sent people like howard baker or the gores or jim sasser, people who are not anxtreme side of one or the other. senator blackburn, whether you agree or disagree with her, is very much a fox news conservative, comes straight from that tradition, and we've sent more moderate folks in the past. and now in the culture of trump, we've sent someone who is more sulfurous. >> phil bredesen was a very popular governor. when he was re-elected, it was with 70% of the vote. they picked the right kind of candidate for the state, did the democrats. >> and he ran the right kind of campaign too. he really did a beautiful political balancing act of saying that he would be separate from the national democratic party, that he wasn't going to just necessarily knee-jerk oppose trump just because he was donald trump, and he really was on a pretty good path, i think. >> he even supported kavanaugh. >> he did. kavanaugh was really where it all went off the rails for him that is when i feel like tennessee voters remembered their tribal designs a little more. >> yeah. >> because i had bee

. >> i remember when i was younger, senators like howard baker from tennessee, daniel patrick moynihannew york, others who were mavericks. that was the word that people used, and it was a compliment, and even if their party leaders were frustrated by them, and their party activists were pissed off they couldn't count on their votes, there was a grudging respect and sometimes of a deep respect for those two senators, and people like them, and now, you know f there's someone analogous t might be jeff flake of arizona. >> frustrated republicans and who democrats believe does not work for them. >> if you're jeff flake you can give a speech, write a book, denouncing the republican party, saying things any liberal democrat would be cheering, it's not enough, because he still votes for tax cuts and to repeal obamacare and for brett kavanaugh, and so for democrats, it's just words. for republicans, he's a traitor and his approval ratings are i think close to the single digits, and he had to retire because donald trump and the party base went after him. so he, too, is a nearly extinct republica

there's not that howard baker. we shouldn't expect that from today's republican party, we know that. >> thank you, all. >>> coming up, the justice department is preparing to criminally charge wikileaks founder julian assange. could this help prove the extent of russia's conspiracy to get trump elected in '16? i think so. >>> and dozens are dead and more than 600 are now missing out there in california as those wildfires continue to devastate the state. the president blamed the fires on gross mismanagement and threatened to withhold federal money. what message will the president have when he visits the state tomorrow? >>> plus she's in it to win it. facing opposition within her party, nancy pelosi is launching an intense battle on capitol hill as we speak to regain and hold her speakership. >>> let me finish tonight trump watch. this is "hardball" where the action is. hey, no big deal. you've got a good record and liberty mutual won't hold a grudge by raising your rates over one mistake. you hear that, karen? libert

senator howard baker told me at one point that he thought the televising of the senate proceedings -- he used a strong word. i'm sure it's not right, whether it's "ruined" -- certainly hurt the proceedings. people have an absolute right to know what we're doing, and that's true in courts around the country. we have an open courtroom. i think it is to a certain extent unfortunate that we are not televised, because i think most people would be pleased with what they saw in terms of how seriously we take our work and the high level at which the exchange is conducted, but i do think it would have an adverse affect on our job under the constitution, and that has to come first. prof. stein: you release your oral recordings the next week after the argument? justice roberts: right. transcript is available within an hour and the oral recordings within the week. prof. stein: the opinions of the court receive a great deal of comment, some favorable, some extremely critical, but the justices let their opinions speak for their decision. are you ever tempted to respond to a criticism that you think

so i come from a state that we have always had liberal senators, from howard baker and lamar alexander and one we did have who didn't know what he was doing is bob corker. obviously your pitch about the party, i think, is wrong. i think you need to go back to the evangelicals because they are the most dangerous part of our party. >> mr. blackwell? >> look, let me take a step back. i have had the privilege of being the mayor of my hometown and so i have had the opportunity to walk the streets, to talk with folks, to be very much a part of their lives. but i also have been blessed to have had the opportunity to represent our nation at the united nations as the u.s. ambassador to the united nations in charge of human rights, and so i had the opportunity to interact with representatives from 193 other nations, and i have always been clear on a couple of things. and i don't think that this is extreme, and i can bring it down to a current challenge. in the 193 nations of the united nations, they are all defined as a nation state by their borders. their borders define them. as a consequence,

i come from a state where we have always had liberal senators , howard baker, lamar alexander.ob corker didn't know what he was doing. obviously, your pitch about the party i think is wrong. i think you need to go back and stay away from those evangelicals. they are the most dangerous part of our party. host: mr. blackwell. guest: look, let me take a step back. i have had the privilege of ,eing the mayor of my hometown so i have had the opportunity to walk the streets, talk with folks, be very much a part of their lives. but i have also been blessed to have the opportunity to represent our nation at the united nations as the u.s. ambassador to the united nations in charge of human rights. so i had the opportunity to interact with representatives from 193 other nations. i have always been clear on a couple of things, and i don't think this is extreme -- and i can bring it down to a current challenge. nations of the united nations, they are all defined by a nationstate by their borders. their borders to find them. as a consequence, all of those 193 nations work to control their b