conviction two weeks ago. the day after trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in his new york hush money case, eight republican senators vowed to oppose all biden nominees and all democratic legislation as retribution. today six republican senators led by trump vice presidential short lister j.d. vance put the oppose all biden nominees part of that vow into writing. senators explained that they would block nominees, including anyone who has suggested the trump prosecutions were reasonable, anyone who endorsed trump's guilt, anyone who supported organizations that celebrated the indictment of donald trump, and anyone who supported manhattan district attorney alvin bragg or supported lawfare or censorship in other way, which is just vague enough to include basically anyone president biden has nominated. now, these republican senators say that their blockade will last until election day. and in practical terms, that means the u.s. government will not be able to appoint representatives to things like the u.n. general assembly or the world health organization or even to the not particularly political seeming places like the international civil aviation organization and the public buildings reform board. what exactly did any of those organizations have to do with prosecuting donald trump? nothing. this isn't about policy. it is about retribution. you might remember that last year senator tommy tuberville pulled a similar sort of stunt. tuberville became the first u.s. senator in history to do a long-term blockade of u.s. military appointments. senator tuberville kept more than 400 qualified u.s. service members, 400, from being appointed or promoted for ten months all because of a department of defense abortion policy that had nothing to do with those service members. the blockade was such a blatant misuse of power it wasn't just democrats who were appalled by this. here were some of tuberville's fellow republican senators on month nine of his stunt. >> no matter whether you believe it or not, senator tuberville, this is doing great damage to our military. >> this power is extraordinary that we're gwynn as individual senators, but it's incumbent upon us to use it in a reasonable way. >> everybody uses holds, i certainly use holds, but the key is you put a hold on someone who typically has some kind of control over the issue that you're trying to fix. >> there's not one senator in here that could not find a reason to object to an administration policy in the military, none of us. we could all find something. i just hope we don't do this routinely. >> i just hope we don't do this routinely. does two times count as a routine? because if so, this makes it a routine. and this time it isn't even about a policy disagreement, however tangential, it's just so republicans can protest donald trump being found guilty by a jury of his peers. today we also saw 29 republican senators sign on to this letter disparaging the rule of law and saying that trump's conviction was nothing short of the evisceration of the american judicial process. so it is safe to say that from now until november the u.s. senate is effectively going to be at a standstill and unable to govern. not because of policy disagreements but so republicans can perform an act of retribution on donald trump's behalf. as for the house, where republicans actually hold the majority, well, things are looking even worse. politico is out with new reporting today saying that in the days after trump's conviction, trump made an f-bomb filled call to speaker of the house mike johnson. trump's message to johnson,we have to overturn this. and now a few weeks after that call, it looks like speaker johnson's mission is not just to grind the government to a halt like his republican colleagues in the senate, it is to actually use the power of the government to try and make trump's criminal concerns go away. by way of an example, yesterday house republican leaders spent the day whipping votes for a bill that would allow presidents charged at the state level to move those cases to federal court. let me just check my notes here, how many presidents have been criminally charged at the state level again? oh, only one. what an interesting use of congressional power. politico also reports that speaker johnson is in talks with house judiciary committee chairman jim jordan about using the appropriations process to target special counsel jack smith and to defund his investigation. now neither of those have the votes to pass yet, but that is the kind of stuff that republicans in congress are working on right now, which really helps put into context why donald trump went back to capitol hill today. it wasn't for any legitimate legislative concern, it was for what republican congressman matt gaetz called a pep rally for president trump. a pep rally complete with an early birthday party for donald trump himself. >> let me make a wish. and i can't say what the wish is, but it'll have something to do with this room. >> joining me now are dahlia lithwick, who covers the court, and phillip bump, columnist for "the washington post". phillip, the birthday cake, pardon the like culinary metaphor, but really is the icing on the proverbial cake of fealty, is that even a metaphor? are you surprised that the pledges of allegiance, as they are, are so explicit, so undisguised on capitol hill? >> i'm not surprised by it, right? i mean, this is something we've seen for years now. watching that package, the thing that struck me is the republicans are a little bit like parents on an airplane with a crying child, right? they have this source of noise and frustration, and everyone's sick of it and there's nothing they can do with it. they're stuck on this plane, they've got to figure out how to calm this kid down. and the kid here, of course, is donald trump. he's mad about having been convicted. he's mad about the fact he's not in power currently. don't worry, i'll talk to the supreme court. they're doing everything to keep him happy, to keep him quiet, keep him on their side, and most importantly, to keep him from lashing out at them. that's what you see with this demonstration with the house, the senate. they're all trying to keep him happy, quiet, and get through this until november. >> it is like parenthood. they're terrified of him and they adore him. he's the enter of their universe, and they can't control him at all and must cater to his every whim. i do wonder though, dahlia, as you see the republicans in the house and senate just openly trying to undermine the rule of law, does it not just throw out the notion of the justice system in america as we watch the legislative branch do this work? >> yeah, i think that's a feature not a bug, right? i mean, i think that we are seeing a systemized attack on the rule of law. i think even if we hadn't;t had the conviction in the new york trial we've seen a longstanding set of attacks on judge, on juries, on, you know, prosecutors, on witnesses. i mean, i think the whole site geist here -- and it's not a surprise, this is a classic authoritarian play, is just ferment doubt in institutions. and if you ferment enough doubt in institutions, people start to look really longingly at the strong man who's going to save them when institutions crumble. so no part of this is new or unfamiliar. i think what's interesting is seeing a lot of republicans who might have at one point, you know, felt hinky about donald trump but stood fast on the principle that judges and juries and statutes in the constitution actually have force and meaning. the degree to which they have abandoned that and see no value in that i think is the part that is new and chilling. >> yeah, i mean, to that point, philip, the idea they're going to withhold nominations across the government, right, the tuberville blockade wasn't great politics the for gop, and yet they survived it and they're replicating it. on a different level, it's not the u.s. military, and the w.h.o. and u.n. are not favorites of the republican party, but nonetheless, they're stymying the basic work of governance, and they think it's good politics for them? >> yeah, i think they do think it's good politics from the standpoint that the republican party's political focus at this point is retribution against joe biden and putting a middle finger up in the face of the elites. that's what they're focused on. mitch mcconnell doesn't wake up in the morning and say that's what he's going to do, but he understands that's what the base is doing. it's not only tuberville, it's mitch mcconnell in 2016 holding open the supreme court seat. we have seen this in the past from the rep party, and it is very anti-institutional, but it is fundamentally about sending a message to the american public that d.c. doesn't do what it's supposed to do, and we need to get trump in there to bring these cads to heel -- >> to make us do our work again. >> right, right, right. but you know, that is the singular focus, at least from now until election night. >> i do think, you know, republicans are betting that their electorate won't punish them for this and that the broader american electorate, dalia, isn't tuned in this. this is part of the swamp, part of the dysfunction of the capitol, and you make a really important point in one of your pieces for slate this week about our normalcy bias, right? americans have a normalcy bias. it leads them to believe anyone who tells them that everything is awesome and that a system is holding, it leads them to believe -- even as that system is hanging together by way of dental floss. you're talking about the system of justice here, but i think it's extended even to our dysfunctional government. people, because it still exist, because there's still a congress that occasionally passes law, people can sort of deride dysfunction nalty, but they don't think u.s. democracy is in danger of falling apart in the same way they hold up trump's criminal conviction as an example, our justice system does work. things aren't normal right now, dal ya, things are very, very abnormal. i wonder if you can talk about your level of panic in this moment. >> i try not to use the word panic, because it makes my parents super scared, alex, but i guess i would just say think about where we were in 2016, what was deemed disqualifying in that race. and think about the fact that in the intervening time we have civil conviction -- civil juries finding trump guilty of being a sexual abuser. we have these 34 felony convictions. we have january 6th. we have donald trump, who ran in 2016, we forget in the fog of memory, but as a family man, as a businessman who was going to, you know, drain the swamp. now he's just running as a straight up autocrat. he's running under the banner of violence of suppression of right, of suppression of speech, of deporting immigrants. it is really scary, and it seems people are less dialled up now than they were in 2016, when they were like that access hollywood tape sounds pretty bad. now every single day you get this drum beat of what i think is really distressing, distressing, you know, saying sort of the quiet parts loud about wanting to create a sort of authoritarian state, and i think that we've just normalized it because we just super have to get to cvs to raise our prescriptions, and we're raising our kids and we're tired. i think this normalcy bias allows us to wait until some adult says break the glass. i don't know when break the glass happen, alex, but i think that what we have metabolized as normal is deeply frightening. >> philip, you write about the way in which republicans were incensed -- pre-incensed about the trump conviction. democrats were not pre-incensed about hunter biden's conviction. republicans are up in arms, and democrats are largely accepting of the hunter biden conviction. i find a number particularly stallering around all of this is the number of people that knowledge that the donald trump conviction was the right call, it's not moving them at all in their support for trump, right? this is new monmouth polling out today. do you agree or disagree with the jury's verdict finding trump guilty? 47% agree, 34% disagree. and then you look at the numbers of people who were definitely or probably supporting each candidate. biden, 43%, trump, 44%. the numbers are not moving even in the face of people saying this was the right thing. >> it tell mess two things. we should have expected this, something like a fifth of trump supporters thought he committed a crime. they were already sold, he committed a crime, we're going to vote for him anyway. the second thing is donald trump did an effective job of inoculating his base against this. and it's not just when the indictment came down early last year, it was in 2016. as soon as the russia investigation came to the public consciousness he started saying it's a witch hunt, it's a hoax, it's the deep state out to get me, and that pattern has continued and continued and continued. and it really helped his base, you know, once they were bought in on that in december 2016, they were bought in, and that was it. so yeah, this indictment, they look at it and the conviction, they look at it like that's exactly what he said. at some point, rational people step back, well, it's hard to believe the deep state came up with all these crimes. >> they've been busy. >> they don't think about it. they're like, yeah, they're all out to get him. >> ironic for a group of people who are very skeptical of vaccines, but dahlia, because we had breaking news the vein of the abnormal tonight, i want to get your thoughts. clarence thomas, who is a key part of our system of justice and rule of law found to have three additional undisclosed trips that he took from his billionaire friend harlan crow. this is news from the judiciary committee in the senate. these are trips he did not disclose. this is on top of the hundreds of thousands if not millions of gifts he has taken thus far and only lately come clean about. what does this tell you about the danger we're in in terms of a completely corrupted high court and the lesson it sends to lower courts? >> i mean, i think i put this under the bucket of -- and it's the same bucket philip's just been talking about -- law is for suckers. law is for the little guy. you may have disclosure statutes, you may have ethics rules, you may have all sorts of obligations on the supreme court not to take gifts, but if you take gifts, to disclose it, this is not a surprise. and they're coming out in dribs and drabs. last week we got a partial disclosure of some of the trips that were paid for, so clarence thomas could go to bohemian grove, but not all of them. and here's three more trips that were never disclosed. so i think this is kind of of a piece with this larger trumpy theory, which is we have monarchic leader who ers who do not have to answer to the rule of law. when the little guy fails to get his death penalty paperwork, right, he goes to the death chamber. but when clarence thomas again and again, time after time after time doesn't file disclosures or amends disclosures but only partially, that's okay, because the law is for the little guy. i find it part of this systemic devaluation of the rules that everyone is supposed to abide by and it's a very systemic effort to, i think, normalize the notion that some people are just too cool and important to have to follow the rules. >> yeah, everyone's supposed to abide by the law, especially supreme court justices. dahlia lithwick and philip bump, thank you both for your time tonight. appreciate it. we have much more ahead tonight. do you have any summer travel plans? cross country road trip maybe? today former president donald trump singled out one, quote, horrible american city that at least he might recommend skipping. but first supreme court upheld access to the primary drug used in most abortions for now, but that doesn't mean the fight is over. not by a long shot. i'll talk to nancy nor thereupon at the center for productive rights coming up next. r for productive rights coming up next. when i was diagnosed with h-i-v, i didn't know who i would be. but here i am... being me. keep being you... and ask your healthcare provider about the number one prescribed h-i-v treatment, biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in many people whether you're 18 or 80. with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to undetectable—and stay there whether you're just starting or replacing your current treatment. research shows that taking h-i-v treatment as prescribed and getting to and staying undetectable prevents transmitting h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. if you have hepatitis b do not stop taking biktarvy without talking to your healthcare provider. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. no matter where life takes you, biktarvy can go with you. talk to your healthcare provider today. ( ♪ ♪ ) start your day with nature made. the #1 pharmacist recommended vitamin and supplement brand. in a unanimous decision today, the united states supreme court maintained access to the primary pill used in most abortions, mifepristone. the court rejected a bid to severely reject access to that drug on procedural grounds. writing for the court, justice brett kavanaugh claimed the plaintiffs calling themselveses the alliance for hippocratic medicine, kavanaugh said they had no legal standing to challenge the fda approval this. case is dead, but the group of lawyers representing them, they say they are not done. >> the court said that our clients don't have standing in this case. we're grateful the case will continue with three states working to hold the fda accountable for its reckless actions. >> today republican attorneys general in missouri, idaho, and kansas represented by the adf are continuing to challenge access to mifepristone using the same legal argument used in the case the court rejected today. this time, though, they are framing access to mifepristone as an infringement on state's rights. now, even if this new legal challenge fails in federal court, there are still restrictions on this pill at the state level. last month louisiana, where abortion is already banned, became the first state to classify both drugs used for medication abortion as controlled dangerous substances, effectively shutting down access to this pill, both pills, through the mail. joining me now is nancy northup, president and ceo of the center for reproductive rights. nancy, thank you for being here. first, i'd like your sort of general reaction to the supreme court ruling today. was it one of optimism, anxiety, pessimism, how did you see it? >> well, it was huge relief because if the supreme court had upheld the ruling of the u.s. court of appeals for the fifth circuit, than availability of medication abortion by telemedicine, receiving it by mail, things that have made it much easier for people to get access to medication abortion if they do not live near a clinic, if they can't take that time off, could have been taken away. so relief, but frankly, anger, because we shouldn't have been here to begin with, as you can tell with the fact that nine of these justices agreed with each other, this case had absolutely no merit. had no merit in the law and had no merit in fact. and so while breathing a sigh of relief today, really concerned, because we know -- and you just, you know, show