supreme court. for 27 years, justice stephen breyer, is retiring, paving way for president biden s first supreme court appointment. and it couldn t have come at a better moment. liberals have been pushing hard for breyer to retire before the mid terms, to ensure biden would have the democratic votes in the senate to get a more liberal nominee through the process. breyer said in an bur view, it was on his mind. it was clear he wanted a successor to continue his legacy on the court. the white house said it had nor mo details to share, but during the campaign, one of the biggest promises biden made on the trail was on this very topic. we talked about the supreme court. i m looking forward to making
personalities. i m always fascinated when someone dies or something like this, they unlikely alliances get talked about. but, you know it s one of the reasons we all do what we do. we want to figure out to what extent does the character, the lay person intersect with these broad realities to shape a moment in the line of the country? and breyer has been really good. i suspect will continue to be. breyer unleashed will be going to be fun. there s going to be a jung jon meacham who gets the opportunity to help steven breyer with his payment, and i promise it would be a good career. thank you both, and before that, my incredible team. thank you all. i want to transition to a member
headlines that have not been favorable, whole numbers, high inflation, obviously we re carefully watching the situation with russia and ukraine which is still volatile and evolving. this is a moment where the president can be inserted into events and have a historic legacy opportunity that we didn t see coming, but is always within the pursue of the presidency, one where he has a chance to reconnect with his political base, and to have a chance to shape some of the national conversation in a way he s not been able to do because of the circumstances. so that s a real opportunity for the white house. to the extent that they have been prepared, i think it is fair to say they were not prepared for the public face of this today. so they re holding back, and dealing with other events, will choose timing of their own making. i think it would be fair to expect they will want to celebrate justice breyer in an
interests law professors and legal scholars, justice breyer was somebody who believes the court has to be practical. you have to look at the effects of the decision, that you look at sort of not that the constitution evolves, but time changes. you have to look at things through a contemporary lens. that s very different from the conservatives on the court who say, no, you interpret the constitution based on the words and what the found ersfounders was. he spent his early career with scalia with a doing-and-pony show, and debate this. he s an expert on administrative law. he didn t always vote with the conservatives. he was somewhat of a technician in interpreting the administrative state, but he was a dependable liberal vote, twice or three times bailing out the
he said, i taught it to myself. it s easy, he said. [ laughter ] i m going to miss professor breyer. he was constantly trying to explain what he was doing. that place is so opaque, he at least tried to make it a bit more transparent. anyway, pete, as always, sir, you re on top of this great scoop. let s now sort of break this down of a bit of what s next. kelly o donnell, as pete pointed out, it sounds like we got ahead of the white house a bait, but as i said at the top, i don t think this could have come at a before time politically. reporter: i love covers the white house this a single event can change the course of events. that s what this is today for the biden white house. after a successive series of