Transcripts For CNNW Wolf 20170201

Hello, im wolf blitzer. Wherever youre watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. We begin with breaking news this hour at the white house and up on capitol hill. Take a look at live pictures coming in from inside the White House Briefing room. Just a little while from now, the press Secretary Sean Spicer will be taking reporters questions again. Well bring it to you live as soon as it begins. The Trump Administration is celebrating the announcement of the president S Supreme Court nominee, neil gorsuch. The president said he told Mitch Mcconnell to invoke the socalled Nuclear Option if necessary, allowing it to be approved by a simple Senate Majority. We end up with that, good luck. If you can, mitch, go nuclear because that would be an absolute shame if a man of this quality was caught up in the web. So i would say, its up to mitch but i would say go for it. Were also following dramatic developments on capitol hill after a fiery hearing. The Senate Judiciary voting for favor for congressman sessions. Minnesota senator al franken accused senator sessions of misrepresenting his record on civil rights cases. Some of President Trumps other nominees also made it through Committee Even though democrats boycotting those nominees werent in the room and say they didnt know the vote was even coming. Lets get some smr on all of this from our reporters. Sara murray is outside the white house on the north lawn. Senior congressional reporter manu raju is up on capitol hill. Sara, first to you, tell us more. The president was blubt saying if necessary to the Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell, go for whats called the Nuclear Option. Reporter thats right. This is an awfully big stick from President Trump. Essentially, encouraging Mitch Mcconnell if theres gridlock coming to the Supreme Court pick to go with the Nuclear Option to force an up or down vote rather than allowing democrats to filibuster this. Theres work going on behind the scenes that could potentially move things before Mitch Mcconnell got to this moment, had to make this decision. We know the white house is also working with the Republican National committee, the nrse, to try to put pressure particularly on red state democrats, democrats up in 2018, not to filibuster this pick but go for an up or down vote and it is telling that President Trump is coming out of there early forcefully saying, look, if we need the Nuclear Option to get my guy on the Supreme Court well do it. I want to go up to capitol hill. Manu, the Senate Judiciary Committee Advances the nomination of Jeff Sessions to be attorney general but not before things got very heated. How did it all play out . Reporter it was intense, wolf. This after coming a long time. Democrats delayed a vote for a couple of weeks including yesterday. They delayed it additional day to have more time to assess this nominee. And also drag out the process because theyre strongly opposed to Jeff Sessions views on a number offishes. They do not believe he should be confirmed even though they have served alongside here with him in the senate for some time. Al franken, the minnesota democratic senator, who serves on the committee, laid in to Jeff Sessions, raised a lot of concerns and got a lot of pushback from republicans. Heres a taste of how it went down. Now, after i questioned senator sessions about his claim of personally handling these four civil rights cases, senator cruz decided to weigh in on my line of questioning. He said that i intended that i had intended to undermine the nominees character. And integrity. And that my questioning was, quote, not backed by the facts. I object to the senator disparaging of a fellow member of the committee in the absence. He should be here, first of all. Secondly, he disparaged me, senator. To his face. The fact of the matter is senator sessions misrepresented his record. By claiming to have personally handled cases that he simply did not handle. And the supplement he filed doesnt explain that misrepresentation away. It lays it bare for all to see. Senator sessions would not have tolerated that kind of misrepresentation from a nominee before this committee. Nonetheless speez it up, please. Okay. Its important to know whether senator sessions is able or willing to separate fact from fiction. And speak truth to power. I am not confident that he is and i will be voting against him. Reporter now, sessions likely to be confirmed by the full senate later this week. Also, republicans taking matters into their own hands and for two other nominees, thats tom price, lead health and Human Services and steven mnuchin. Democrats boycotted the Committee Votes and the Senate Republicans changing the rules of those committees to allow them to advance those nominations to the floor of the senate, a dramatic move to ensure donald trump gets his choice and that Judiciary Committee to consider the nomination of neil gorsuch and i had a chance to talk to a number of democrats on the committee and off the committee and divided about how hard to go after gorsuchs nomination, whether or not to filibuster him. Thats a big question Going Forward. Dianne feinstein, the top democrat on the committee, said she is not decided and opened question about whether she joins the liberal members to do everything they can to stop him from getting that seat, wolf. Very quickly, i take it the Senate Parliamentarian approved a change in the rules allowing that vote to go forward without any democrats present . Is that right . Reporter thats what the republicans are saying. They consulted with the parliamentarian behind the scenes to allow it to happen and now watch for other Republican Committee chairmen to take similar tactics if they end up boycotting other committees. They did that today for scott pruitt. And democrats didnt show up and republicans warning finding a way to get that nomination confirmed so tensions really intensifying but donald trump likely to get the picks confirmed even as democrats try to drag out the process, wolf. All right. Manu, thanks very much. Sara murray, at the white house, thanks to you, as well. Well stand by for live coverage of the White House Press secretarys briefing coming up. I want to go to jon thune of south dakota, third ranking republican in the senate, a member of the finance committee. Senator, thanks very much for joining us. Thanks, wolf. Good to be with you. Democrats say they boycotted the votes because mnuchin and price misrepresented the senate during their hearings. Listen to ron wyden. The basic proposition of breaking the rules so that you can in effect look the other way in the face of strong evidence of serious ethical problems for two nominees is exceptionally troubling. Senator, he also said he didnt get a heads up about the republicans doing this. Your colleague senator hatch said, and quoting him now, i dont care what they want at this point. Do you agree with that . I think we did what needed to be done to be able to move the process forward, wolf. All the democrats would have had to do to raise the issues was show up. They didnt show up yesterday or again today. And obviously, that prevents us from being able to move now. If they had showed up and made the concerns, the place to do that would have been at the finance Committee Hearing room where we had the markup. But they didnt do that. And so, senator hatch worked with the parliamentarian to find a way for us to be able to discharge the two nominees, get them the full senate for a vote. But you realize this was a change, very dramatic change in the rules. Until now, you needed at least one democrat, run member of the opposition party, at least present in order to go forward. There were no democrats there. This was a pretty dramatic change in the rules. Well, all it would have taken is for one democrat to be there and objected to that. You cant change the rules without you fan mouse consent or have them, you know super majority there and wasnt there but if one democrat shows up, they prevent it from happening. They made a decision. They didnt want to participate. And, you know, you cant just because you didnt like the election outcome burn this place down. These people, the department of treasury, the department of health and Human Services are incredibly important positions and need to be filled and, you know, theres a process we all have to go through. They answer questions. They respond and then you vote. And the democrats didnt want to allow that process to move forward. We need to get the two nominees reported to the floor where we can get them voted on. As you know, the Judiciary Committee approved the attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions this morning despite democrats raising lots of concerns and including a concern of senator sessions too close to President Trump. Listen to this. On the campaign trail, the American People witnessed donald trump glorify sexual misconduct, mock a disabled reporter and make disparaging remarks of immigrants and minorities, all with no pushback from senator sessions. We all witnessed chants of lock her up and senator sessions did not push back against and excused in the hearing humorously done. Senator whitehouse make a fair point . I think a lot of things get said in the course of a campaign that obviously are in a heated environment. But Jeff Sessions helped donald trump. I think advised him on some of the issues in the course of the campaign. But all we know him here as is someone that we served with. Hes a colleague. Hes somebody who has absolute integrity. And has been elected i think three times to the United States senate and attorney general by the people of alabama. So, we have high confidence that he will get over to the Attorney Generals Office and have the highest levels of integrity and respect for the rule of law which is what we want to see in our attorney general. Let me turn quickly, senator, the president s nomination of neil gorsuch to become united stateS Supreme Court justice. Some democrats in the Senate Already signaled to fight to block him. So sort of a payback for the way you guys the republicans objected president obamas pick merritt garland. Let me read to you a statement of jeff merkley. This is the stolen seat being filled by an illegitimate and extreme nominee and ill do everything in my power the stand up against this assault on the court. Can you understand why at least some of the democrats feel that way . Well, i think its really, though, wolf, an apples and oranges comparison. That is the middle of a president ial election. People already voted. We wanted the people to decide who the next nominee on the Supreme Court should be. We had that election. President trumps made the nomination. The more important parallel is first term of president clinton getting justices without a filibuster or the first term of president obama when he got justices sotomayor and kagan without a filibuster. This is the beginning of a full fouryear term of a president. We intend to move this nomination forward in a way hopefully that allows a democrats to participate in the process because, clearly, thiss the tradition and the precedent here in the senate. Supreme Court Nominees in the path just have not been filibustered with one recent exception and that was president obama filibustering just alito in 2006. Thats not normal. We want to be we want this nominee treated the same way that other nominees were treated. Do you agree with President Trump that if necessary that so calmed Nuclear Option should be used eliminating a filibuster if you will, the need for 60 votes and simply bringing it down to a majority vote, 51. Thats not my preference. My hope is for cooperation of democrats. Allow the nominee to be voted on in an up and down way and preserve what i think is a long tradition in the senate with the exception, of course, democrats a few years ago changed the rules to allow lower court and appellate Court Nominees considered at 51 votes but the best way is regular order the way its always done and done for president clinton and president obama. And i hope the democrats will work with us to make that happen. One final question, senator, before i let you go. The white house as you know is pushing back against reports calling what the president announced a travel ban. Affecting the seven muslim majority countries. Even though thats a word they themselves used. The president tweeted this today. Ill put it up on the screen. Everybodys arguing whether or not its a ban. Call it what you want. It is about keeping bad people with bad intentions out of the country. Do you believe, senator, the white house needs to do a better job with its messaging . Sure they do. I think this was unnecessarily confusing and the way that it was rolled out and they deserve to give more clarity to the American People on a big decision like this. But the end of the day its a security test. This is not a religious test. And we do have a responsibility to make sure people coming into this country are carefully vetted so were not allowing those who come in from terrorist areas of the world where terrorists are operating to come in here to do harm to americans so but yes. Theyll i hope next time do a much better job to present it to the American People. Im sure they hope so, as well. Knorr thu senator thune, thank you for being with us. Thanks, wolf. A Senate Member says the pick for justice would be, quote, a rubber stamp for the president s radical agenda. Will democrats go ahead and filibuster . And later this hour, the White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer will take questions about the president S Supreme Court announcement, kill battles, over the president s cabinet nominees. A live picture. So far, the room is fairly empty. Its going to get crowded. Very crowded. Momentarily as soon as the white house announces the press secretary is only moments away from that briefing. Well be right back. It could. Its time to shake things up. With the capital one venture card, you get double miles on everything you buy, not just airline purchases. Seriously, think of all the things you buy. Great. Is this why you asked me to coffee . Well yeah. But also to catchup. Whats in your wallet . [he has a new business teaching lessons. 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Visit saveonsymbicort. Com today to learn more. We have live pictures coming in from the white house. Any moment now the White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer will go into that room. Theyll take reporters questions. We will have live coverage of that as soon as it begins. Stand by for the White House Press briefing. Meantime, President TrumpS Supreme Court Justice Nominee neil gorsuch is making the rounds up on capitol hill. Already the Vice President mike pence, the former New Hampshire republican senator ayotte, theyre escorting gorsuch from office to office, they met with Mitch Mcconnell, majority leader, earlier this morning. We have also learned that after President Trump announced gorsuch, the nominees first call was to president obamas choice for the seat, judge merritt garland. I want to bring in senator mazie hirono. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Hello, wolf. Aloha to you, as well. When the president announced the Supreme Court nominee, you tweeted this. Ill put it up on the screen. Im deeply concerned that the pick for scot us is a rubber stamp. Would you support a filibuster if necessary to block the confirmation . Before we get to a filibuster decision, i want to make sure i spend the time with other members of the committee to very closely look at judge gorsuchs record and his attitudes toward issues such as a womans right to choose, civil rights, voting rights, it set are. All right. I want you to listen to what your fellow democrat joe manchin of West Virginia said about all of this, about the nominee earlier this morning. Listen to this. I think republicans had enough votes to basically block merritt garland. But they should have at least given him a vote. Now they think thats how we were treated so we treat them the same. Thats whatnot what im sent here to do. Im anxious to sit down with the new nominee to find out more about him. I assume, senator, youre also anxious to sit down with judge gorsuch and learn more about him. Certainly. I have a responsibility to the public to question his record, his attitude, how he would go about making decisions. And with thiS Supreme Court nomination, you know, theres no appeal from the Supreme Court. I know that he sits on the 10th circuit. You can appeal from that. And thats why we have to very, very closely and seriously consider when judge gorsuch is coming from and of course President Trump has already shown he doesnt like people who disagree with him. He fired the acting attorney general over her disagreement so thats why i said that i would be very concerned of independence of this judge because, after all, the Supreme Court is an independent part of government. Its another branch of government. I also want to point out that im very searched about the tendency of thiS Supreme Court to really put corporate interests over individual rights and id say that a prime example of that is Citizens United which opened the door for dark money to influence political elections. Well, have you seen anything in the record, judge gorsuch, that jumps out at you that potentially could result in an nay vote as far as confirmation on your part . I havent gotten to the point where there would be, you know, im contemplating a vote. As i said im vetting him closely and looking at the record but, of course, i know he wrote an opinion on hobby lobby and could be characterized as another decision to put corporate interests over individual rights. On paper, though, im sure you agree his academic background, judicial background, his reputation even among those who disagree with his philosophy, shall we say, legal decisions, is first class. Right . So thats why im going to give him every opportunity to explain and to reiterate where he would be coming from. But as i said, im very concerned about the tendency of thiS Supreme Court to put corporate interests over individual rights and so you can name any number of decisions that reflect that kind of leaning. So id be interested to know and a womens right to choose, a constitutionally based right, i would be interested to know where he would come from on those kind of individual rights decisions. Senator hirono, lets talk a little bit about the Judiciary Committee. You are a member. Yes. The committee voted to send the nomination of Jeff Sessions to the fum senate floor as the nominee of the attorney general of the United States. Yes. You voted against senator sessions. Tell us why. I expressed Major Concerns about how the attorney general, he as an attorney general to exercise his pros cue taylor s discretion to support a womens right to choose and i did not get very reassuring answers from him on those points. Of course, im also very concerned about his independence as attorney general since the attorney general is the peoples attorney. Not the president s. And he was so much an integral part of President Trumps campaign, not to mention that his fingerprints are on the recent executive order that targets muslims. And i have been a very strong voice against this executive order. Joined, by the way, by a number of republicans such as senators graham and mccain who also have issued a statement very much questioning President Trumps executive order on immigration targeting muslims. As an immigrant myself, immigration issues are at the forefront. Im aware that immigrants are a particularly vulnerable group. And so, im going to do everything i can to make sure that immigrants in our country are not targeted and every time we target minority groups, american indians, slavery, the chinese exclusion act and more recently the internment of 120,000 japaneseamericans in world war ii, history shows that we have been very, very deeply wrong. The white house denies theyre targeting muslims. We dont have to get into that right now. In effect it does. Lets talk about what happens in an hour or so. The full senate will convene to decide whether to confirm the former exxonmobil Ceo Rex Tillerson as secretary of state. How will you vote . I will be voting no because, again, i question very much tillersons connections to russia. We know that russia sought to influence the outcome of our elections. He was not a supporter of sanctions on russia regarding their activities and actions in the ukraine so his very, very close ties to russia makes me question what kind of a job he would do on behalf of america as secretary of state. He was chairman and ceo of exxonmobil making those decisions and repeatedly said as secretary of state he wont worry about a company like exxonmobil. Hes going to worry about the National Interests of the United States. I take it that was not good enough for you. Definitely not because he continued to really espouse i would say President Trumps perspective regarding russia which is that i to pull back on the sanctions and i dont think he shows a kind of independence and the severance of the kind of guys that exxon had to russia as secretary of state. Senator hirono, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. All right. Take a look once again. We have live pictures coming in from the White House Briefing room. Momentarily well go there live as soon as the press Secretary Sean Spicer arrives and open with a statement, answer reporters questions. Well have live coverage. Up next, could democrat senators be key to confirming the Supreme Court nominee . Ten senators will be up. Democratic senators up for reelection in 2018. And states that voted to put donald trump in the white house, where will their loyalties lie . With constituencies, party, all in a rough spot right now. Well assess right after this. O achoo snap snap achoo achoo feel a cold coming on . Zicam cold remedy nasal swabs shorten colds with a snap, and reduce symptom severity by 45 . Shorten your cold with a snap, with zicam. These numbers are off the charts. This . Sir whats the status . Theres a meteor hurtling towards earth. How long until impact . Less than a minute. What do you want to do, sir . Listen carefully. If we all switch to geico we could save 15 or more on Car Insurance. I like the sound of that. Geico. 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Some are already signaling the lotter and heres why. All of these Democratic Senators, a lot of them, a third of the senate is up for reelection in 2018. Next year, they represent many of them states that went for President Trump in the 2016 election. At least five are giving the impression they at least want to hear gorsuch out, many more are saying the same thing, as well. Lets bring in the panel. With us, pam will brown, Supreme Court correspondent, ryan lizza, washington correspondent for the new yorker, dana bash and gloria borger. About ten democrats up for reelection next year in states that donald trump won and they have a delicate balancing act right now. How far do they go in opposing, for example, judge gorsuch. Chuck schumer, their leader, has a delicate balancing act, as well, to decide the strategy and the question is, does he take the long view and does he say, you know what . Were not going to filibuster this time, endanger the seats because after all the ideological balance in the Supreme Court is not at stake right now. Youre essentially subbing scalia for somebody very much like scalia. And that was part of the brilliance of the choice in a way. And next time if there is a next time when the balance of the court is really at stake, that is when you use the filibuster and that is when you force your democrats there to really go out on the line because he also would like in his dreams to gain back control of the senate so he cant afford to lose any of these people. Next time, if there is a next time, dana, what stop it is republicans are using the socalled Nuclear Option and going ahead and changing the rules to require a simple majority opposed to 60 . They absolutely could but if youre a democrat taking the long view, better to wait for that than force the republicans to do it now. Meaning, if the democrats somehow figure out a way to coordinate the members, to keep it under 60 votes, meaning, to block this nominee, then that will force Mitch Mcconnell, the Senate Republican majority leader to use the Nuclear Option, changing the senate rules to give it a simple 51vote majority. Once the rules are changed, theyre changed. The means cant go back and that means you know, they wont go back and this means that for the next vacancy if there is a next vacancy its guaranteed a simple majority and they will have no leverage whatsoever to try to moderate the kind of person that donald trump tries to put on the bench. There are 52 republicans. Presumably to vote for judge gorsuch. In order to break that filibuster, hed need eight democrats. Yeah. A bunch of democrats right now already signaling theyd probably go ahead and support this nominee. You think that the filibuster would actually work . It may not be an issue, right . Looks like you have enough on the record right now who said theyll support him or signaling theyre not interested in a filibuster and moot. The filibuster long term for Supreme Court nominees goes away one way or another and will have some democrats argue if they have the opportunity to do it this time, why not . One argument is, they want mcconnell to own they want him to be the one that detonates the Nuclear Option. Just like harry reid to eliminate filibuster for cabinet appointees. Thats why all of the President Trumps nominees need a simple majority and not 60 votes. Democrats did that. Paying the price for that right now. Long term, on the filibuster, for nominees it is gone. For Supreme Court nominees lets be honest. It will be gone in a few years if it is not gone with this gorsuch and then for legislation and as donald trump in the white house, you have already signaled you want it gone for the Supreme Court nominees, what would stop trump from having a campaign against the filibuster for legislation . And that would be incredibly dramatic. He already said this morning he said im in favor. Do the Nuclear Option. Get rid of that filibuster for the Supreme Court. It is dominos. If you ask me, im for it he said. A slippery slope. Pamela, listen to what the president has said about Supreme Court nominees, what he said recently over this campaign. Listen to this. Our beloved justice scalia. He was great. We are going to get somebody as close to him as his views and philosophy as possible. Are you saying you might try to appoint justices to overrule the decision on samesex marriage . I would strongly consider that, yes. The justices that im going to appoint will be prolife, a conservative bent. Do you want to see the court overturn roe v. Wade . Thats really whats going to be happening. All right. So does judge gorsuch fit the bill as described by President Trump during the campaign . In some ways, yes. Some ways its still unclear because he hasnt ruled on abortion or gay marriage. With scalia, he does fit the mold in many ways. A similar writing style, shares a similar judicial philosophy, a strict constitutionalist. He looks at the literal interpretation of the constitution. The two were friends and went on fishing trips together. So there was a relationship behind all of this. When you look at his views on abortion, never ruled on it and did write a book arguing against assisted suicide and something that activists like. It gives them hope. Last night they said they were thrilled with his nomination. And when it comes to gay marriage he has not ruled on that specifically but wrote an article in 2005 saying that in his words the liberals were using the court system too much to push their agenda on gay marriage so some of this is yet to be seen, wolf. So basically, a lot of questions, though, where he stands on some of the very, very sensitive issues that President Trump spoke about, roe v. Wade, samesex marriage. On those issues and other issues like religious liblt, it is clear. He stands with hobby lobby against the contraceptive mandate in obamacare and makes it clear of separation of powers case and he hasnt ruled on other issues. Dont expect him to show his hand. Right. In these hearings. Democrats try to get him to show the hand and maybe conservatives will, as well. But, you know, past is prologue. He is going to stick to more general answers about his judicial philosophy, his approach to the law, the bench. And certainly, not a quote of trump to say, hey, donald trump said he would appoint somebody to think about overturning the gay marriage decision. What do you think of that, right . John roberts said its settled law. But i think, you know, in a way he is such an intellectual. He may be a little bit less predictable than we think. You know . He wrote something and i was reading it the other day, quoted in the times, i believe. If youre a good judge sometimes the decisions wind up in places youre not happy about and so we there are a lot of issues that remain unexplored with him. Right. It is a little bit of a immigration issue, i mean, i imagine thats going to come up, as well. Exactly. Chief Justice Roberts saved obamacare in his decision. Thats right. A lot of people were surprised by this. Conservatives are always sort of on edge about the idea of another suter. Has a conservative track record but theres always that concern. Even roberts, disappointment of roberts within a nfew years f obamacare and other issues. Another subject im sure to come up in the briefing and standing by for sean spicer to walk into the Briefing Room, this tweet from the president this morning on the travel ban that he announced a few days ago. Everybodys arguing whether or not it is a ban. Call it what you want. It is about keeping bad people with bad intentions out of the country. Dana, youre doing a lot of reporting on whats going on behind the scenes. First of all, i would just say before i answer that, way to step on your message. They had a beautiful rollout last night. Continued this morning with the conservative groups who are, you know, have been helping him and get the nominee through and then remind people about the sloppy rollout on a completely different, obviously, smaller scale situation. Having said that, im told that there are changes that are happening in place inside the white house, namely, making sure that the white house chief of staff Reince Priebus to do his job which is to make sure that executive orders Going Forward are done with the proper communication to the agencies, proper communication to capitol hill. And so forth so that this kind of thing doesnt happen again and then Kellyanne Con way, a counselor, trying to make a more robust roll in dealing with communications strategies. Sean spicers coming out in a minute, hes the press secretary and the Communications Director because the person they had for the job quit. Thats a lot for one person. Aides are now in the White House Press Briefing Room. Thats a sign hes about to walk out, as well. Here he comes, in fact. So lets listen in. Good afternoon, everybody. Thanks for coming. Last night the president was honored to announce judge neil gorsuch as nominee to serve as the next justice of the Supreme Court. It was an unbelievably phenomenal evening. Immediately judge gorsuch honored to meet with maureen and father scalia. As some of you reported his first call was to merritt garland who has come out to say that judge gorsuch deserves a fairing hearing. Less than 24 hours, the judge already received a widespread praise of across the political spectrum as an inspired choice, a brilliant legal mind and a steadfast commitment to constitutional principles. During his long career in public service, judge gorsuch has enjoyed bipartisan approval for the 10th circuit. In fact, 12 current Democratic Senators including minority leader Chuck Schumer, senator dianne feinstein, senator leahy, were all in office when he was first confirmed without opposition in 2006. With as many as eight democrats like senators blumenthal already supporting a full hearing and vote for judge gorsuch there is no question that hes a widely respected jurist who deserves to have his nomination fairly decided upon by the United States senate. Now that judge gorsuch is officially named, i hope you all allow me to talk about how qualified he is to succeed the late, great antonin scalia. His academic record is impeccable and as he said last night, the president holds education in the highest regard. Judge gorsuchs graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Harvard Law School and oxford as a recipient of the marshall scholarship. Like justice scalia, the cornerstone of the judicial philosophy is fidelity to the text. He believes what judges should not base their decisions solely on the law and the constitution he believes sorry. I screwed that up. His decision should be based on the law and the constitution not on their own policy preferences or personal feelings. He will be a reliable and principled voice on the bench preserving equal justice under the law regardless of background. And i would note i think i always caveat this but to my understanding the first justice to serve with a with the as someone he clerked for on the bench and sort of a first when he is confirmed by the senate. Now on to the issues of the day. Todays february 1st which means we are kicking off black History Month. The president has events planned throughout the month starting today with a listening session of this morning with africanamerican leaders in the roosevelt room. The meeting including the administrations africanamerican appointees. Today, the president will issue a proclamation, the u. S. Postal service kicked off the month issuing the Dorothy Height forever stamp. The 40th in the series. Height was awarded the president ial medal of freedom by president bill clinton in 1994 and the congressional medal of freedom by president george w. Bush in 2004. Excuse me. 1994 and 2004. President obama delivered her eulogy in 2010 and President Trump is proud that the post office is honoring her incredible legacy as an icon. At events this month, well celebrate the contributions of courageous African Leaders of Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas to clarence thomas. AfricanAmerican History is American History and this month is a great reminder of that. Continuing with todays schedule, the Vice President went to the hill with judge gorsuch to meet with lawmakers for the First Time Since being named last night. On the hill, the Vice President met with majority leader mcconnell and the staff spearheading the nomination will also meet with senators cornyn, grassley, hatch and garner. With him on capitol hill i think its a good time to talk about the confirmation process. Neither of the justices that president obama nominated were subject to the 60vote threshold of the filibuster. They received support because republicans despite political and philosophical differences viewed them at qualified and judge gorsuch should receive the same fair treatment. Also this morning, the president met in the roosevelt room with representatives of outside groups to discuss judge gorsuchs nomination, including david osteen, paula white, wayne laperriere, penny nance, shar mean yost, with a knee that dougan, tom collimore, overnorquist, leonard leo of the federalist society, marjorie dancefelder and morton blackwell. President trump told the group that his decision on the Supreme Court is among the most important decisions to ever make at president. He praised judge gorsuch for his professional achievements and his lifelong devotion to the law. They thanked the president for making such an inspired choice and delivering what was for many of them their number one issue in the campaign. Their committed vocally to supporting the judge throughout the process and expressed their ze sire for the senate to move swiftly for a fair hearing and vote. The president closed by the president then had lunch with tillerson. Mr. Tillersons tenacity and deep understanding of the geo politics are going to make him an outstanding chief diplomat for the United States and the president is looking forward to the full vote of the senate on his nomination. Later this evening, the president will participate in a standing legislative Affairs Strategy meeting with his team who have been working closely with congress to enact the president s agenda. So far between the Vice President and both parties and both chambers on a variety of issues from trade to members of the cabinet now to Supreme Court. Will also conduct excessive outreach. Clearly this administration has made reaching out to congress a top priority but you know where im going with that. Democrats in the Senate Continue to use every tool at their disposal to try to get away at the president s attempts to make America Great again today democrats refused to participate in senate votes who were moved out of the finance committee with zero democrats present. Also boycotted pruitts hearing. They are doing our country a disservice by resorting though these childish tactics. In other cabinet News Attorney general designee Jeff Sessions was held. Rex tillerson is expected to receive a vote by the full nat this afternoon and finally Veterans Administration designee shulkin will go on veterans of affairs at 2 30 this afternoon. The president will attend the National Prayer breakfast tomorrow and have lunch with Harley Davidson executives here at the white house, also meet with senator hatch widen and brady, further information will be coming soon. A few other announcements rachel l. Brand of iowa to be attorney general engle to be assistant attorney general. We talked about recent reporting about the president s executive order protecting the nation from foreign terrorist entry. For all the hysteria about the implementation of this order the americans as a whole are supportive. A ras musen poll support it. Until the government can do a better job of keeping these individuals out who pose a threat. A reuters poll found 66 of americans believe the United States should limit the number of refugees into the country and safety of the American People and security of the homeland are the president s Top Priorities and most americans agree with the steps taken to keep the country the safe. And the arab Prime Minister voiced his support. He also added he believes the restrictions are not based on the religion, but quote structural problems faced by the nation. I know there was a question on an attack on a navy vessel. I would like to produce Michael Flynn to provide a quick update. General flynn. Good afternoon, everyone. Recent iranian actions ininvolving a provocative ballistic launch conducted by a iran supported militants which should have been clear to the International Community all along and irans destabilizing behavior across the middle east, it is also in defiance of u. N. Security Council Resolution 2231 which calls upon iran not underta undertake any activity, including such Ballistic Missile technology, these are a latest of series of sdipincidents in t past six months which has struck iran a irani vessels and continues to threaten allies in the region, the Obama Administration failed to respond adequately to tehrans actions including weapons transfers, support for terrorism and violations of other international norms, the Trump Administration condemns actions that condemn prosperity and stability throughout the middle east and which places american lives at risk, President Trump has criticized the various agreements reached between the Obama Administration and the United States as being weak and ineffective. As of today we are officially putting iran on notice. Thank you. Thanks, general. We are going to have a background briefing with nsa staff nsc staff rather at 4 00 in the Briefing Room. Further details will be provided on that subject. Thank you general with that. As we start off i mentioned yesterday im pleased that we have expanded the Briefing Room at least virtually, with that im pleased to offer the first skyped question to kim from rhode island. Thank you can you hear me okay . We can. Just this week the mayor of Providence Rhode island began calling our city a sanctuary city, it says the white house will be publicizing a weekly list and pledges with to withdraw federal grant a money from them how soon can we expect to see the list and how soon should cities like providence see their federal funding cut . Thanks, kim. I think the president s goal in ending sanctuary cities is pretty clear. We want to with the other actions keep america safe. The goal on two fronts one we are doing everything we can to protect american institutions and ending sanctuary cities is one way to do that and furthermore the president has been clear through the executive order that federal funds paid for by Hardworking Taxpayers should not be funded by them. We have the list and i look forward to following up on that. With that, david jackson. David is not here but i have a question. Go for it. The president s Daily Briefing has been named the daily intelligence briefing. Can you tell me how that differs at all from the db . Director pompeo was here, general flynn, his briefer, so he receives an intelligence briefing and the pbd every day. Is there any sense we should get out of renaming it . We went through this during the transition period, right, theres the difference between the sbintelligence and the raw analysis but every day he does receive the pbd and on top of that hes receiving Intelligence Briefings from his team. Oral briefing does not happen every single day. I can get back to you on that, on a daily basis meets with his intelligence team, hunter. On two quick questions, on black History Month is president obama being invited to any of the black History Month celebrations . Not that im aware of its day one, well have to get back to you on further details theres a lot of activities as i mentioned the president is going to do to celebrate and honor this month and this was just the first day of the month. Today he made the comment about Frederick Douglas being recognized more and more. Do you have any idea specifically what he was referring to . I think he wants to highlight the contributions that he as made and i think through a lot of the actions and statements that hes going to make i think the contributions of Frederick Douglas will become more and more, kristen. Very quickly can you clarify what was meant by were putting iran on notice. I think general flynn and the staff will have a briefing at 4 00. We want to make very clear that we felt as though their actions were both provocative and in violation and making sure they understood we werent going to sit by and not act on those actions. Are you building the case to im not going to go any further than that, kristen. And the confirmation hearinginhearings how does the president plan to get schumer on board when he has accused him as being a clown and fake tears . You look at the widespread support that came out for judge gorsuch last night across the spectrum no matter your philosophical view of the court i think his qualifications for the court [ inaudible ] hes more interested in politics than moving the government along. I would ask you that i think the question needs to be asked to Chuck Schumer why are you stalling all of these nominees, why are you insisting on