Pro Forma Sessions News Today

Public. >> red line for republicans in the senate is firing mueller, theyre holding whats called pro forma sessions. that means the president cannot make a recess appointment if he decides to make some move on this. lets talk about the president. last night in west virginia in front of his base, this is his oxygen. and it felt like a campaign rally. and even a campaign rally theme returned last night, "lock her up." listen -- >> it just makes them feel better when they have nothing else to talk ...

Forma sessions. just to keep the appearance of being open. so a recess appointment, the two to be long -- the too long not to read version, would be difficult to do. you asked about the end game. its not clear to me that there is an end game. you know, one of our colleagues wrote about how as much as hes known for saying "youre fired," president trump doesnt really like to directly fire people. >> its true. hes a people pleaser. the people around him, he is a people pleaser personally when hes i...

Obama administration. it was a unanimous decision, etch wi even with the liberal justices, etch with this presidents former solicitor general. i dont think theres any way around that. but, you know in a larger sense, i think that the president does make a fair point in saying you dont want me to take executive action? how about you guys take some legislative action. >> angela, go ahead. >> theres a couple things. one is were back to this recess appointment point, but we were on the executive ord...

Said we dont see any business going on, so we have decided that you are in resent when, in fact, the senate was not. under senate rules, they were still conducting business, pro forma sessions. this has gone on under both democratic and republican leadership. so what was at issue here was the white house does not get to dictate to the senate. we dont see people giving speeches on the senate floor. therefore youre not in session. therefore well make recess appointments. >> dana i think that was y...

Business, could have passed system other unanimous consent agreement. the court wont -- let me skip some of the technical, what happened here because this session was in session during its pro forma sessions, the president made the recess appointments during a three-day recess. three days is too short a time to bring a recess within the scope of the clause, that appointments clause, so the president lacked the authority to make those appointments. so while recognizing a broad power for the presi...

The question was, were we in recess? and we said we were not in recess, and the president said in effect, i get to decide when youre in recess. and one of the justices made that point today. i dont think theyre going to be persuaded the president, the head of the executive branch gets to determine for the legislative branch when were in session. we know when we were in recess, we were not in recess, he decided to declare us in recess and make the appointments anyway. >> the democrats came up wit...

>> republican leadership does not want a fight over the debt limit heading into the election. remember, thats what got us out of the government shutdown was the fear of a possible default. so when were heading into an election, you can see them trying to take that off the table if the conservatives listen to them. does that open up possibility of doing a farm bill? yes. potentially. because remember last year, last election cycle, house republicans didnt even take up the farm bill. they got kill...

About the pro forma sessions, the only problem with the analysis hes making, congress was conducting business during the sessions and number one. and number two, the court decided what their view of the constitution. so, what other people did for the last hundred years doesnt mean that that was correct. there were distinctions between what president bush did and what president obama did, actual business going on, including debt ceiling negotiations and removing the debt ceiling issues, so that t...

Compared to ronald reagan who made 243. the president has exercised his recess appointment authority very conservatively. >> there is a big difference. when president bush made recess appointments the senate was in actual recess it was president bush who stopped making recess appointments during these so-called pro forma sessions. during these sessions major pieces of legislation were agreed on including the budget that kept the government operating. megyn: that will play out in the courtroom. j...

Technically in session. senator mcconnell suggesting the president violated the constitution. the lawsuit was filed by a company that god an adverse ruling. now the senate republicans have jumped in on the action. joining me to discuss it, julian epstein, former legal counsel for the judiciary committee and the essential complaints of the republicans is the senate was not in recess. so you cant make a recess appoints in the nlrb. >> this is the typical checks and balances. this what is the const...