Fill the vacancy. By the way, we have plenty of time. Let me be clear, that the voters should pick the president and the president should pick the justice for the senate to consider. The question of whether or not the republican leader of the Senate Mitch Mcconnell will act hypocritically here. The issue of senator mcconnell hypocrisys is settled. Donald trump at the end of first term in office could have put 3 justices on the court. If the republicans jam through a second nominee in a second seat that Many Democrats believe have been stolen, the democrats if they control the presidency, the house and the senate can increase the number of justices. The fear for everyone is that the kind of mob violence weve been living through for the past 3 months will accelerate. Howie joining us ben domenech, Susan Ferrechio and ray suarez. Ben, its been nice to see many on the right praising ginsburg career and took about 10 seconds for journalists to accuse Mitch Mcconnell of hypocrisy for saying she will push through a Trump Nominee after declineing obamas nominee a hearing Merrick Garland. Ben this is a situation that whoever is the president s nominee will face a media storm that was indicated by the quotes that was just given there. I think youre feeling a level of desperation there. Just this morning George George stephanopoulos and the media frame for the story is going to be that republicans even though they are the same party in charge of the senate and in charge of the white house that they are engaging in hypocrisy here and pushing someone through who doesnt have the actual backing constitutionally but i think thats going to be a difficult argument to make at the same time that so many on the left have been saying that the court needs to be expanded, need to be packed because they view the seats as jeffrey said stolen from them and rightfully theirs. Howie some democrats are suggesting that. Susan, Mitch Mcconnell has never made any pretense on the fact that he would never push through Supreme Court even if the opportunity rose, here he is with bret baier back in february. If youre asking me a hypothetical about whether this Republican Senate would confirm a member of the Supreme Court to a vacancy that created this year before november. Yeah, we would fill it. Howie does senator mcconnell care that a bunch of journalists are calling him hypocrite . The larger question is how should the media care. The courts are biggest part of Mitch Mcconnells legacy. Hes not going pass this up. But we in the media should also be reporting accurately that theres nothing irregular, unconstitutional or unprecedented about what Mitch Mcconnell is doing. The reporting i see is not just taking sides but missing the Historical Context here which is that its the same Party President as the senate and in those instances they do move nominees through even right before an election. So its nothing unusual about that, but the way the reporting is unfolding makes it looks like something its highly irregular and prompting a lot of outrage and its incumbent upon the media right now to add context, accuracy and historical background to all of this and i think that would probably cool things off at least a little bit. Howie right, the president by the way saying last night he plans to pick a female justice or nominee i should say. Look, 16 different ways you can argue this. The core to have media argument is that in 2016 when garland was anonymous nominated with 9 months to go he couldnt get a hearing and now mcconnell with 6 weeks ago happy to forge ahead. Thats the media argument. Why not . It creates the fire storm and we are a lot closer to election day. Heck, we are only a little week away from president ial debate. The garland story didnt happen 20 years ago or 30 years ago. It happened within the service of most sitting member it was senate, they are on the record about the propriety of feeling a seat during Election Year. Of course, reporters are going to hold up the the senators, the quotes that they made to justify stopping Merrick Garland from proceeding in 2016. That happens so close to election, of course, its going to set up a fire storm. Howie ben, with media focusing on defectors, Lisa Murkowski or collins, they dont want to vote. Do you see Media Campaign of possibly wavering senators . Its going to be a frenzy. Its an absolute frenzy, howie. I think its unavoidable. You will see a massive crush of people. You see the threats on social media and the like of riots and things along those lines. I think it creates real difficulty when it comes to narrative moving forward. The Biden Campaign has based much of their spin about this election on the idea of a return to normalcy and yet when you see this kind of push for, you know, aggressive behavior, riots in the street and the like, that doesnt seem like normalcy to people and neither getting rid packing the court and getting rid of Electoral College or filibuster or anything like that and i think thats going to create a real problem in terms of the narratives that are taking place within this campaign. Howie right, susan Senate Judiciary chairman Lindsay Graham will preside over hearings, back in 2018 talking to editor about the atlantic of what he would do if theres an Election Year nomination to the Supreme Court. I really dont care if an opening comes in the last year of President Trumps term and the primary process has started, we will wait till the next election. Howie Lindsay Graham says, you have it on tape, use my words against me. Well, the media are and they are saying hes not standing on principle. Susan thats because saying that a year ago is much different than saying it right now when, in fact, he will have to act, he will have to vote and chair the committee, this is an extremely important vote for all republicans in the senate. Theres probably no more of an important vote than Supreme Court nominee. Each senator will have to decide for their own legacy, for their own political future, do they want to be the ones to block another republican choice to get onto the Supreme Court and dont forget, Lindsay Graham is also running for reelection in a republicanlean district but polls show race a tossup. Its critical for lawmakers on how they decide on this. I think thats going to be the overall, overarching theme when we figure out if Mitch Mcconnell has the 51 votes. Its based on the senator and not based on what they said on the past. Everybody does that, republicans an democrats. Its going to be about the vim senator and their own political fortunes and thats going to help decide whether or not this passes. Howie but when you do it on video tape and say use my words against you, of course, that may happen. Reporters told him and called her an amazing woman. Would the media be so hyperfocus on the scotus battle that the covid pandemic which has claimed almost 200,000 lives become secondary . Ray no, the west is on fire. Most 200,000 people died of Coronavirus Infection and theres a campaign on and some really this is going to be a big washington story, the drama of the Supreme Court and will interrupt some of the campaigns in some of these very tight states with key senators who are going to be called on the carpet about their vote and about their future. So the story only gets more intense, more interesting, but i dont think itll crowd out the other things. They are real and really happening and they will impinge like the western fires on election day. Howie yeah, good point. Ben, the emerging media debate is whether or not this helps the trump campaign, the president got very little press attention when he released a list a couple of weeks ago of possible Supreme Court nominees because obviously strict shift the high court to the right and would it help Biden Campaign because liberal voters are upset . Ben two reasons it helps Donald Trumps campaign. Its a choice of ideology as opposed review, choices he made in march or april regarding the coronavirus. I think thats important and helps the president. I also think to a certain degree as you look at this, its very difficult for the media to manage these multiple narratives at all once and whenever weve seen court fights like this play out in the past, in the recent past, theyve tend today help the republican candidates in part because cultural war issues animate a lot of folks who are on the right especially issues of abortion, gun rights and the like to a very intense degree. Howie right. Notorious big was part of washington establishment. Well, she married me and my husband alan greenspan. She wrote ginsburg wrote a note. My fervent wish not replaced until new president is installed. Nice touching note for the press but obviously it hasnt had any impact. Susan no, its not up to the media to play pr for for the late justice. Its its up to us to report accurately what the next steps are. I dont it is troubling that, you know, some of the main media people seem to really be siding with the democrats on this. Thats not our role. Our role is to look at it very objectively and fairly and when you dont do that, i think you contribute to some of the things we are seeing now. Its really kind of scary, people are talking about burning down congress if they dont get their way on this. Howie okay. Im fervently oppose today that. Quick final thought, ray, the media are openly siding with the democrats on the battle. Ray what is media in 2020 there are reporters with conventional job on trying to tell the audience what happened and whats happening and then theres a vast ocean of people giving their opinions and urging one outcome or another. We talk easily and fluidly as if theyre one thing and they are not and we should keep in mind. Howie its a big ocean, indeed, Mike Huckabee joins the program. When we come back the media eruption over President Trump clashing with the cdc over a covid vaccine. The big events are back. Xfinity is your home for the return of live sports. Howie journalists have been hammering President Trump with questions of the coronavirus especially since the head of the cdc testified on the hill about a possibly vaccine and the president told reporters that Robert Redfield was wrong. If youre asking me when is it going to be generally available to the American Public so we can begin to take advantage of vaccines to give back to our regular life, i think we are probably looking at third, late second quarter, Third Quarter 2021. I know i think he made a mistake when he said that. Thats just incorrect information, and i called him and he didnt tell me that and i think he got the message maybe confused, maybe it was stated incorrectly. What we just saw and heard from the president of the United States was propaganda. He wants things to be a certain way for his own political agenda and he is saying science be damn. Make no mistake the vaccine is not a political ploy by the trump campaign. Theres no ulterior motive here. Thats operation warp speed put in by donald trump. Howie media indictment and president anxious to announce vaccine that hes con other contradicting government scientists, is the coverage unfair . Ben i think its somewhat unfair and the idea what the president has engaged here is propaganda that antiscience is unfair. I do think scaling up a vaccine of this type to the levels where it would be widely available to americans, to the level that i think people would like to see is going to take more time than what the president is acknowledging here, at the same time i dont think its propaganda in any way to say, look, we are doing this faster than weve ever done anything like this before. Scaling it up is enormous achievement and we have a lot of Different Companies and Government Entities that have worked very hard to make sure that this can be achieved. Thats not something thats an election ploy, thats something that we should feel good about and praised by people, you know, of all sides politically in order to have that kind of level of achievement. Howie Susan Ferrechio, dr. Redfield did not back off, the president criticizeing fauci or hydroxychloroquine, having indoor rallies or many people dont wear masks susan its unfortunate. I think the media can do a much better job when controversies come up. I got the sense really he was talking about how quickly the vaccine could be available to everybody and its different of when it comes available and available to most vulnerable populations. Weve already heard dr. Fauci, weve heard the Vaccine Developers talk about a much earlier release date for the vaccine, certainly not Third Quarter 2021. So thats not, you know, i think the media could be more careful about talking about what President Trump meant, what dr. Redfield meant instead of always jumping to the conclusion that the president is a cynical uncaring politically motivating head of state that does not care about the American People. Thats the whole narrative of the coronavirus. That hes just done a terrible job because he doesnt care. Thats that just doesnt seem accurate to me and i think its unfortunate that the press has just followed that narrative without doing a more careful job of trying to break down what the nuances of what each person was trying to say in this instance. Howie ray suarez, redfield wasnt going out on a limb here. The president says, look, im the one who got elected, im in charge, scientists are sometimes wrong. Is the press giving fairway to his side of the argument . Ray his side of the argument gets broadcast and quoted in print. What his side of the argument is hard to say. Simply saying his own expert is wrong. Its not the first time the president has been messaging very differently of his own experts over the course of the coronavirus pandemic. Hes been at odds with Anthony Fauci over timing to have vaccine and the wide availability of a vaccine earlier in this whole experience. This is not a new story. There have been many times when the president messaging has been different of that of government scientists and experts in the field. Dr. Redfield knows more about this than the president. The president i wish we had asked him another question, why he knows dr. Redfield was wrong, maybe he was asked that, i wasnt there. Howie ben, the president has drawn a lot of media flak for saying this about the u. S. Death rate from covid19, take a quick look. If you take the blue states out, we are at a level that i dont think anybody in the world would be at. We are at a very low level. Howie the president is entitled to criticize state with democratic governors but the media interpretation is he doesnt seem to care as much of people who die in blue states . Ben i think its fair critique to said that phrase shows some callusness. The graph frankly resembles the kind of thing we were worried about in the country. The level to which particularly cnn has engaged in the behavior as it relates to Governor Cuomo in new york is just absurd, at the same time that they are saying things like the president s speech outside accepting the republican nomination was going to be a superspreader event and covering the accords saying it was a superspreader event. They pretend that these results are not snag we can question. Howie florida and texas among the highest death rates, your reaction to the controversy over the president s remarks of blue states . Ray well, its an odd thing to break down the country that way and you can look and find president drawing political differences in states where the suffering was greater and lesser. It happens to be a chronology thing. A lot of blue states got this first and had to manage it first and if you get it today, if you catch it today you have a better chance of living than if you did in march. Simple as that. Howie i have a hard break. The maneuver of Supreme Court vacancy all under way after Justice Ruth Bader ginsburgs passing. We will get a capitol hill perspective in just a its about getting more than Health Insurance and a partner who listens and acts. Moment. When i noticed my sister moving differently, she said it was like someone else was controlling her mouth. Her doctor said she has tardive dyskinesia, which may be related to important medication she takes for her depression. Td can affect different parts of the body. [narrator] in todays trying times, were here to help you manage td. Visit talkabouttd. Com for a doctor discussion guide to prep for your next appointment in person, over the phone, or online. We were so relieved to learn there are treatments for td. Howie live picture outside of the Supreme Court. With washington reeling over death of Ruth Bader Ginsbur