Starting with the Supreme Court retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network is correct when he said that the fight for the replacement is now. However, it's a fight that the Democrats have already lost, as the Boston Herald's Kimberly Atkins pointed out. To think that Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) would be bothered by being called a hypocrite for denying a vote on then President Obama's replacement pick, Merrick Garland, and is now pushing a vote through before the election is just plain stupid. If being hypocritical is what it takes to win, Mr. McConnell will go there anytime, every time. To that point it doesn't inspire confidence is Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) citing this hypocrisy as the reason to delay the vote.
Here's the other rub, the Democrats are not going to flip the Senate majority in the fall - just not going to happen. That's just being real about it, and it's an uphill climb for the three Democratic senators in North Dakota, Indiana and West Virginia to keep their seats. With this said, Democrats still need to fight on this Supreme Court front and make it known to the American people where they stand on what kind of pick they feel it should be. They shouldn't do it like Senator Maria Cantwell did today with an at-best muddled message. Though she and Senator Lindsey Graham both said that precedent matters, referring to the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion rights. Stand until they drop is what they should in fact do. Senate Democrats need to filibuster the vote for as many days as possible - so many that the news media puts it on a counter. Delay the vote, as Ms. Ocasio-Cortez stated (more about her win in a moment).
In terms of Roe v. Wade, overturning this decision, especially if Mr. Trump nominates a white male justice, will lose the vast majority of women voters for generations. If you think about only in terms of legislating control over what a person can do with her body, that's completely unacceptable - something this column could never endorse. Women have the unalienable right to have control over their own bodies, period - hard stop.
And in disagreement with Mr. Brody, ultimately Mr. Trump is not going to care about the optics. This president has decided to lead 35 percent of the country and alienate the other 65 percent. This has been the case from day one, and he galvanizes opposition every day he goes forward with decisions outside of the mainstream in America.
What was really frightening was Mr. Brody's commentary about evangelicals and him assessing that this constituency sees Mr. Trump as "God's chosen candidate" at this time. In this is really the case, evangelicals are the most deeply hypocritical constituency in the United States of America, making their holier than thou status holier than nothing. They've sold their souls for Supreme Court picks, which is just sad.
Democratic senators should put maximum pressure on Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to withhold their votes for extreme right candidates, make the public argument and case to them in full. Also, Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) said that the Senate should deny the president's court nominations because of the tariffs the president is instituting, which should include the Supreme Court. Give reasonable senators a moment of pause in their votes to try and prevent them from rolling over.
It's simply incredible that the Democrats do not have a more coordinated message, not only on the Supreme Court issue, but in general and this is where they should take their example for the new Democratic nominee from New York's 14th congressional district, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Joe Crowley deserved to lose his seat. He sent a campaign surrogate to debate Ms. Ocasio-Cortez; he didn't even go himself. He didn't show up in his district and for that, he shouldn't represent that district. Mr. Todd questioned Ms. Ocasio-Cortez on the Democratic Socialist label, to which she answered that it is only a part of who she is, in terms of her politics. What she sees is what many people in this country, left and right, see and that is basics of adequate housing, education and health care becoming unattainable. This is because of Republican policies like the tax-cut giveaway and all-too-willing Democratic congresspeople like Joe Crowley to bend on such issues.
Lastly on foreign policy, this president is a joke.
Mr. Trump believes Russia over his own intelligence agencies that there was no meddling in the 2016 presidential election. For that matter, given the Judiciary Committee House Republicans' display this week during hearing with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, you would think they believe the same. Yes, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) should be concerned.
And now, NBC and other media outlets are reporting that North Korea is accelerating its enrichment of uranium and looking for ways to conceal its nuclear program. Way to go Mr. Trump, you go played.
We surely have to make America great again, once this president is out of office.
Panel: Hallie Jackson, NBC News; Kimberly Atkins, The Boston Herald; Cornell Belcher, NBC News Analyst; David Brody, Christian Broadcast Network
One more thing...
Some I noticed that I would offer to Mr. Belcher as advice. Try to stop saying right after every statement you make. It's distracting and diminishes you point.
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