vivek murphy is not a gun control activist. he's not an activist on gun issues. there's no reason, substantively, that his nomination could be seen as a win for the gun reform side. except for the political fact that in order to get him as surgeon general, you had to beat the nra. and you know what? they beat the nra. the nra lost this one tonight when he was confirmed. and that comes as the country marks two years since the elementary school massacre at sandy hook elementary school in december 2012. it's been two years. and today, the families of anyone kids and adults who were killed that day, and one of the adults that was shot that day but survived, two years on after the sandy hook elementary school massacre, those families did something that, if it works, wouldn't be just a political threat to the nra and its reputation, like vivek murphy was. but an existential threat to the nra. in 2004, the family members of the people killed by the d.c. sniper filed a lawsuit from a gun store. the store said he shoplifted it. he never paid for the gun. they had to take

vivek murphy was nominated by president obama over a year ago and has faced steep opposition from republicansnamely because the nra opposed his nomination. murthy has been confirmed now. we'll have more on this. and ted cruz's role in his nomination ahead. murthy confirmed. >>> also ahead, dick cheney's explosive comments about torture, innocent people, and whether he's do it all over again. >>> plus, oprah winfrey's powerful interview with the policing protests sweeping the country. >>> and what president obama says is so hard about buying christmas presents for the first lady. good morning everybody. we are about to make more deliveries to more places than anybody on earth. we have the speed. we have the technology. and we have the team. we made over 15 billion successful deliveries last year. 15 billion! football has a season. baseball has a season. this is our season. [ inhales deeply ] [ sighs ] [ inhales ] [ male announcer ] at cvs health, we took a deep breath... [ inhales, exhales ] [ male announcer ] and made the decision to quit selling cigarettes in our cvs pharmacies. now we invit

vivek murphy, pet obama's nominee for more than a year now to be surgeon general of the united states. dr. murphy's nomination had been stalled for more than a year. the nra decided they were going to make an example of out him. make a big show out of opposing his nomination because of a couple times he expressed his opinion online about gun matters. they decided that was a bridge too far. they'd be e been fighting this nomination before today's vote. before today's vote, they announced that they would be scoring the vote on this nomination, meet e meaning voting for him would hurt nra lawmakers' rates. but even with that threat, the senate voted today to confirm him anyway. so finally, as a country, we're going to get a surgeon general. we haven't had one for a year and a half. but, to be clear, he's not an a activist on gun issues. no reason to be seen as a win for the gun reform side. kpept you had to beat the nra. and you know what, the nra lost this one tonight when he was confirmed. and that comes as the country marks two year s years since th elementary school massacre in 2012.

vivek murphy, president obama's surgeon general nominee and the head of customs enforcement. 12 of theeral district court judges. the associated press reports that the democratic-controlled in the will confirm 88 of president obama's judicial nominees this year, the highest single year total in two decades. by comparison, 43 were approved in 2013 and 49 were approved in 2012. in "the rewrite" tonight, the impact of rewriting the nat rules. and joining me now is senator jeff merkley of oregon, the leading advocate of filibuster reform. and it is that filibuster are eform that harry reid essentially did unilaterally that has enabled these confirmations. because they're all going through on votes like 52, 51, 53 votes. no one had to get to that 60-vote threshold to, as they say, invoke cloture and shut down the debate and go tlo though incredibly cumbersome procedure. >> in january of 2013, the senate agreed to shorten the number of hours to debate after cloture had been achieved. that helped a great deal. but the real change, as you point out, was to go to a simple majority. we did that