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Personal polling service. >> reporter: the president has often relied on twitter to share his grievances and announce major decision. but those who study him say more and more, he seems to be using twitter to gauge the reaction of his base over the advice of his administration. a far cry, historians say from presidents who relied on polls, intelligence briefings and background documents. >> donald trump gives us the impression that he doesn't really use any of the work, or not much of the work that the institutions provide him. and seems to rely on twitter. not only for a sense of how well his...

Media. >> i think the thing that matters most to the president is he be affirmed by the people who love him, the people on twitter who follow him and respond every time he says something. he uses twitter almost as a personal polling service. >> reporter: the president has often relied on twitter to share his grievances and announce major decisions, but those who study him say more and more, he seems to be using twitter to gauge the reaction of his base over the advice of his administration. a far cry, historians say, from presidents who relied on polling, intelligence briefings, and background...

Polling, intelligence briefings and background documents. >> donald trump gives us the impression that she doesn't really use any of the work or not much of the work that the institutions provide him and seems to rely on twitter. not only for a sense of how well his policies are doing but for what those policies ought to be and that's unprecedented. twitter is where the president goes to take the pulse of his base before he makes a decision. it's also a vehicle to validate his viewpoints. >> he has all the power that comes with the office and yet he's insecure. he's so insecure that he's going...

Available to us. let me just -- i want to really reinforce this incredibly important point. we have a confirmation process in which that has been extraordinary from the beginning. this is only the latest and very explosive nature of how extraordinary it's been. for example, the fact that the democrats only have had 7% of the documents, background documents on judge kavanaugh, is not a small thing. particularly when he has had credibility issues raised even before these allegations. you know, we could talk about his role in, you know, confirmations of previous nominees when he worked for the bu...

>> -- that is no longer true. judge kavanaugh has a very broad view of presidential powers. for example, he would have the congress immunize sitting presidents from both civil and criminal liability. under judge kavanaugh's recommendation, if a president shot somebody in cold blood on fifth avenue, that president could not be prosecuted while in office. also it is not clear to me listening to the testimony that he really believes nixon -- u.s. versus nixon was correctly decided. a second general point from my submission, a very vital i think process point, ranking member dianne feinstein state...