spent on trying to make sure that those billionaire succeeded. >> joining us now is senator sheldon whitehousef rhode island, a member of the senate judiciary committee. and he's chair of the senate subcommittee on federal courts. he's also the host of the podcast making the case. senator whitehouse, congratulations on getting your bill to a vote and winning that vote. but let me ask you about we just heard senator graham say. he said that this bill would destroy a conservative court. why would ethics destroy a conservative court? >> maybe if they are not hanging out with their pet billionaires they would know what to do, just make an expense. it doesn't make any sense at all, i'm afraid. >> as you went through the process today in dealing with other amendments and that -- it turns out that the democrats on the committee want to see some kind of workable ethics arrangement at the supreme court. and republicans simply don't. they don't want anything. >> yeah, they don't even want the provision that is the first provision of the bill that says, okay, supreme court, you've got 180 days to do it y

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senator sheldon whitehouse, and the senate judiciary committee say yes.mmittee advanced would mean for private flights and luxury vacations. >>> and the latest on u.s. serviceman, travis king, what north korea is saying about the u.s. soldier who bolted across its border on tuesday. bolted as its border on tuesday. we moved out of the city so our little sophie could appreciate nature. but then he got us t-mobile home internet. i was just trying to improve our signal, so some of the trees had to go. i might've taken it a step too far. (chainsaw revs) (tree crashes) (chainsaw continues) (daughter screams) let's pretend for a second that you didn't let down your entire family. what would that reality look like? well i guess i would've gotten us xfinity... and we'd have a better view. do you need mulch? what, we have a ton of mulch. ethics for the supreme court? the senate judiciary committee says yes, and it voted to advance the bill that would impose one. that bill will head to the full senate, but it will only become law if enough republicans support it. j

. >> dana: where is sheldon whitehouse on this? whitehouse, clarence thomas, he thinks things are corrupt, you have seen hunter's art, okay? is it worth $1.3 million? to a major democratic donor who wants to be appointed to a board, and might be worth $1.3 million and got away with that. >> greg: jesse, as you know, i am your rich friend but you will get nothing from me. does it bother you that painters, the great painters of the world, like van gogh, renoit, bob ross, they die broke. >> jesse: the only person i know who you just named was bob ross. it's renoir. >> greg: van gogh. >> jesse: the guy that lost the ear. nailed it. don't ask me any other questions, please. now you know there's a way for the donor, you have to donate to the campaign, just pay the family directly. what a workaround. i had to write this down because this is so important i didn't want to miss a line. >> greg: just like hunter. [laughter] >> jesse: put simply, this is the business they were in. this is a dirty, foreign lobbying shop. joe was the chief and t

. >> this legislation is meant to -- >> the bill's lead sponsor, senator sheldon whitehouse said this is just round one, telling "politico," think of a boxing match, if you don't fight the first round, you can't win the match. i want to bring in ali vitali, msnbc legal analyst, lisa rubin, former senior adviser, alencia johnson. senate democrats scored a win, they had a razor thin margin, 11-10, voting along party lines to advance the bill. then what chance does it have? >> reporter: very minimal. you don't get to round two before going through round one. this is a win notched by senate democrats. we expected that was going to be the margin because that's the partisan break down. when you take this to the full floor of the senate, it would need 60 votes to pass and avoid a filibuster. that's the magic number around here, not 51. it would require a bipartisan effort, and frankly, listen to the way republicans were talking about this, it's clear there's not a ton of willingness on the part of senate republicans, and house republicans have made clear they don't want to touch this issue.

we have sheldon whitehouse joining us today on the day that his lonely crusade for supreme court ethicse senate this judiciary committee, and ethics one won. -- >> i will take one for ethics -- sheldon whitehouse -- one of the most pressing issues and not just the american court system but in american society given the role of the courts. >> and alex, i'm going to get into something later in the hour and i'm very specifically avoiding and that is commenting on robert kennedy jr.. i have reasons for my reluctance, including my experience with him in my college class, which i will a

sheldon whitehouse is leading the charge on this, and i'm eager to hear what he has to say about it.

senator sheldon whitehouse, thank, you sir. that is tonight's reidout.hris hayes starts right now. ♪ ♪ ♪ ith >> good evening from washington. i am mehdi hasan in for chris hayes. donald trump could end up behind bars and next year for conspiracy to obstruct justice. and if he does, it may very well be because of a new testimony by someone identified by the justice department, only as trump employee 4. now that we have had all weekend to digest the new superseding indictment for donald trump from doj special counsel jack smith and the classified documents case, employee number

dick durbin and sheldon whitehouse are with us. thank you for taking the time. question i have had throughout the course of the debate, we saw the news reports and public response, we have seen no movement from republican senators on this issue. have you behind the scenes had any engagement about a way to try to bring republicans onboard? >> well, i'm surprised, in fact disappointed, because ethical issues involving the supreme court have been bipartisan in the recent past whether it's an issue of declaring stock ownership in making it a public disclosure or cameras in the courtroom. these have always been bipartisan issues. but yet, when it comes to the supreme court apparently the republicans in the senate are taking the same position as the supreme court. it's none of our business and we want nothing to do with it. the public knows better. that's why the opinion of the public on the court itself has plummeted. chief justice roberts has the power and opportunity now to take control of the situation. he has failed to do that. i hope he changes his mind soon. bu

democratic senator sheldon whitehouse says congress has an obligation to step in the highest court in the land. >> has the lowest standard of ethics anywhere in the federal government. >> the bill would require supreme court justices to adopt a code of conduct and create new methods to investigate alleged violations. the bill is not expected to go far because republicans are staunchly opposed and call it. >> a political weapon. this legislation is meant to be. a court killing machine during thursday's hearing republican senators john kennedy and chuck grassley accuse democrats of trying to punish the conservative-leaning court. this could be abused. >> to disqualify justices. what could possibly go wrong? chief justice john roberts acknowledged the court can do more to comply with its current ethics code. and in a letter to senators all 9 justices reaffirmed their commitment to those rules. however, democrats say that's simply not enough. >> the bill will next head to the floor for a full senate vote in washington. raquel martin. >> in alabama, police say they have no evidence to supp

sheldon whitehouse and -- burger. there was a sham hearing on so called ethics reform in early may. logical conclusion after 6-3 decisions last week. there are a few things worth bearing in mind. first, this term actually fewer 6-3, quote, unquote, ideological splits than last term where we had the dobbs abortion case and other major rulings like that. another data point worth bearing in minted, for all of the talk of the right wing reactionary court, the two justices who found themselves in the majority least often according to the data this past weekend after the term completed that i saw, those would be the two most reliable conservative justices on the court. there was a case called allen versus miligan out of alabama, a readies stricting case that went -- redistricting case that went heavily to the left. there were three 6-3 ideological cases last week, affirmative action, the case out of colorado on free speech and the biden student loan case. it's all part of a sustained systemic effort to delegitimize the one major institution that is not totally dominated by leftists. chery

today sheldon whitehouse reminds us about our obligation to the oceans. before that it was lowell weicker who was down here talking about our obligation to the oceans. but i remember lowell weicker when he became governor. he ran as an independent for governor. he won a three-way race, and he was facing a state crisis -- a fiscal crisis of epic proportions. he didn't like of idea of a state income tax. he opposed the idea earlier in his career, but he surveyed every other option necessary to rescue connecticut from its political and fiscal crisis and he judged that an income tax was the only path forward. so he took a step that he knew would mean he could only serve one term in office. he stood up and said, the only way for connecticut to be fiscally stable was toss have an income tax. he fought to get that done and he got it done. i was 17 years old when he became governor and made that proposal. i don't think i had any thoughts on whether an income tax was the right or wrong thing. but what i saw for the first time was a political leader standing up and

rhode island democratic senator sheldon whitehouse says he has a bill that would help save social security. the bill would remove the current cap and require people making over $400,000 to contribute more into the program. iowa republican senator chuck grassley says democrats are taking the wrong approach here. >> social security is the bedrock of retirement. security in the nation's most effective antipoverty program, new taxes on family farms and small businesses aren't the answer on. fortunately, president biden has refused to provide any leadership on this issue. >> both democrats and republicans believe that social security must be saved, but they so far have not been able to find a bipartisan approach. there are more bay area tech layoffs on the way. microsoft, intel and sumo logic among the local companies that have submitted notices to the california employment development department signaling that they were cutting or had already cut jobs. we know that intel will cut 21 jobs and sumo will cut 79. all the companies have indicated that the layoffs will be permanent based on the fili

senator sheldon whitehouse of rhode island, the senate judiciary chairman are going to vote on a bill this week, the supreme court ethics recusal and transparency act. talk about this real quickly, the importance of this bill and why it should be passed. >> the supreme court should have a code of ethics applicable, just like every other federal judge, not to mention members of congress. what's happening is that people of america are seeing very clearly that the winding and dining of supreme court justices by billionaires, i think it definitely puts into question how they're deciding the cases that comes before them. are they being fair and objective? are they being swayed by the ideological perspectives of these multi billionaire, millionaires they're winding in dining? i would say with the recent decisions on affirmative action, on other issues -- >> dogs. >> dogs, yes, gun issues, environmental issues, i think it's not wrong to conclude that these billionaires who have spent decades, by the way, getting these people on to the core, that they are getting their way and that the suprem

guys like senator sheldon whitehouse and dick durbin, the attacks that that have been lodged by the press the sitting justices claiming them of ethics abuse when there's, in fact, no ethical violations whatsoever. and this is designed to put the court on the defensive, as allysia noted, hopefully to try to get them to back off taking certain cases or to rule in a more, different way. but it's also designed to lay the groundwork to say exactly what they're publicly saying, that this court is illegitimate and so, therefore, the only way to fix it is to radically restructure it. and, by the way, if that just happens to be in a manner that a gives us the majority on the court again, yea, that's what we're going to do. paul: and the court would, presto, no longer be illegitimate. [laughter] >> overnight. paul: dan, how seriously should we take the threats of a court packing, 13 justices is one proposal, there's also one for term limits of 18 years on the justices. could that really happen? >> i think it's unlikely unless the democrats gain control of the senate in the next election. and let us

judiciary committee will vote on whether to advance the supreme court ethics bill led by senator sheldon whitehousethe supreme court ethics recusal and transparency act would give the court 180 days to adopt a code of conduct, allow the public to submit their complaints, establish new rules for disclosure of gifts and travel, and impose recusal rules. this of course, coming on the heels of damning reports, many from propublica that found justices clarence thomas and samuel alito received gifts from conservative -- and luxury trips, and even tuition payments and real estate deals in thomas's case. this might come as no surprise that someone on the right are already opposed to this legislation, like mitch mcconnell, who thinks the democrats are just complaining, trying to undermine the courts independents with this move. let's put this in perspective. there is no indication that justice thomas and alito ever ruled differently because of these gifts. that does not mean that they should not be held to a code of ethics, to be held accountable. roberts will not take action on the matter. guess what? cong

democratic senator sheldon whitehouse says congress has an obligation to step in the highest court inhe land. >> has the lowest standard of ethics anywhere in the federal government. >> the bill would require supreme court justices to adopt a code of conduct and create new methods to investigate alleged violations. the bill is not expected to go far because republicans are staunchly opposed and call it a political weapon. this legislation is meant to be. a court killing machine during thursday's hearing republican senators john kennedy and chuck grassley accuse democrats of trying to punish the conservative-leaning court. this could be abused. >> to disqualify justices. what could possibly go wrong? chief justice john roberts acknowledged the court can do more to comply with its current ethics code. and in a letter to senators all 9 justices reaffirmed their commitment to those rules. however, democrats say that's simply not enough. >> the bill will next head to the floor for a full senate vote in washington. raquel martin. >> a legal setback. this afternoon for former president donal

why don't we have senator dick durbin of illinois and sheldon whitehouse of rhode island. it seems to me if propublica is showing that justice thomas and his wife got hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts, that neil gorsuch is trying to sell a house for two years and then magically a couple of weeks after he becomes a justice, it sells two weeks later to a law firm that has business before that committee and you got justice alito going on trips and not disclosing it. i'm serious here. who could be against a set of rules just making sure these justices lay out to the american people, the billionaires who are funding them? >> joe, let me tell you something. this bill senator whitehouse has worked on for a long time that gets down to the basics. do the nine members of the supreme court deserve special treatment, treatment not given to any other judge? i think the american people get this loud and clear. i think that's why the opinion of the court and its integrity is at an all time low. we tried to reach out to the chief justice and say take the leadership, resolve

another person on the subject for many years is the chairman of the court subcommittee, sheldon whitehouse. i recognize him now. >> thank, you chairman were here today because the supreme court is playing out of bounds of the ethics rules for federal judges. justices read, the ethic -- eccentric ways. and when they're caught out of bound, they refused to allow any investigation of the fact. the personal hospitality problem, pursuant again with justice scalia, took more than seven dozen undisclosed vacations. most people know of two, one where he was on the air force to manifest with cheney, and the one where he died. there were 70 plus more. it was systematized. some intermediary would ask the owner of an expensive resort, often a commercial property, to extend to the scalia a personal invitation to the resort. even where the owner was someone he never, met scalia treated as personal hospitality because of the personal invitation. failed to disclose the vacation. gun industry advocates, also feel folks, and republican political figures often tagged along. civil reading of the -- would cove

this bill introduced by senator sheldon whitehouse of rhode island would require the supreme court to adopt an enforceable code of conduct. it would add new recusal and transparency requirements under federal law. the legislation does not distinguish between justices appointed by a democratic president or a republican president. it requires a code of conduct enforceable against all justices. i was disappointed to learn today that one of the republican leaders has come out in opposition to any enforceable code of ethics established by the judiciary committee on the u.s. supreme court. what is he thinking? we live by standards of disclosure and limitation and think about if this congress lived by the lack of standards in the supreme court by making sure the highest court in the land doesn't have the lowest standards our legislation would be the key first step in restoring confidence in the supreme court. the markup will be next week. i sincerely hope before that time chief justice roberts will step up and accept the responsibility for his supreme court to establish credible standards of