WEBVTT 00:01.870 --> 00:06.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% ♪ ♪ 00:15.370 --> 00:17.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I will nominate Judge Brett Kavanaugh... 00:17.970 --> 00:19.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: A Supreme Court face-off 00:19.800 --> 00:21.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% 30 years in the making... 00:21.270 --> 00:24.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It is a system that has become toxic... 00:24.670 --> 00:27.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> When Bork got taken down, they promised never to forget. 00:27.800 --> 00:29.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It was raw politics. And it was war. 00:29.530 --> 00:30.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: And behind the scenes, 00:30.930 --> 00:33.370 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% one powerful Republican senator. 00:33.370 --> 00:35.400 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Mitch McConnell is a tactical genius. 00:35.400 --> 00:37.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...not giving a lifetime appointment to this president 00:37.200 --> 00:38.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% on the way out the door... >> Unprecedented. 00:38.830 --> 00:40.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Democrats are outraged... 00:40.270 --> 00:41.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Tonight on "Frontline"... 00:41.800 --> 00:43.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> We're living in the era of the McConnell Court. 00:43.300 --> 00:44.600 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: "Supreme Revenge." 00:46.030 --> 00:49.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% ♪ ♪ 01:08.300 --> 01:11.030 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It is my honor and privilege to announce 01:11.030 --> 01:13.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that I will nominate Judge Brett Kavanaugh 01:13.930 --> 01:16.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to the United States Supreme Court. 01:16.000 --> 01:17.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (applause) 01:17.330 --> 01:19.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Supreme Court showdown as Democrats are promising 01:19.700 --> 01:20.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to fight President Trump... 01:20.930 --> 01:22.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The battle is on-- 01:22.430 --> 01:24.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh made the rounds... 01:24.100 --> 01:27.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Now is the time to fight. 01:27.100 --> 01:30.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Democrats have already come out in total opposition to... 01:30.900 --> 01:34.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> You don't belong in this building as a justice. 01:34.470 --> 01:36.170 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Pay attention to this, guys. 01:36.170 --> 01:38.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Pay attention. 01:38.300 --> 01:42.430 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> If he's confirmed, he'll be on the court for 25 to 30 years. 01:42.430 --> 01:44.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% That's six presidential terms. 01:44.770 --> 01:47.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% ♪ ♪ 01:47.470 --> 01:51.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> People on both sides of the aisle very quickly 01:51.330 --> 01:54.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% took positions on Judge Kavanaugh 01:54.830 --> 01:58.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% before they knew anything about him. 01:58.700 --> 02:00.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (cameras clicking) 02:00.100 --> 02:02.070 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I tell you, it was big drama. 02:02.070 --> 02:04.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% That room, there were more cameras, 02:04.070 --> 02:05.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% you could barely hear for the clicking 02:05.870 --> 02:07.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% whenever the judge would turn his head 02:07.870 --> 02:10.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% or, or make a motion that they wanted to capture. 02:10.870 --> 02:12.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (cameras clicking) 02:12.730 --> 02:14.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Good morning. 02:14.000 --> 02:17.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I welcome everyone to this confirmation hearing 02:17.000 --> 02:20.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% on the nomination of Judge... >> Mr. Chairman. 02:20.330 --> 02:22.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...Brett Kavanaugh... >> Mr. Chairman. 02:22.370 --> 02:24.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...to serve as associate justice... 02:24.130 --> 02:25.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Mr. Chairman... 02:25.530 --> 02:28.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Grassley is, like, 13 words into his remarks 02:28.430 --> 02:30.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% when they start badgering him. 02:30.700 --> 02:33.370 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> You are out... you are out of order, I'll proceed. 02:33.370 --> 02:35.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> We cannot possibly move forward, Mr. Chairman, 02:35.700 --> 02:36.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% with this hearing... 02:36.900 --> 02:38.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I extend a very warm welcome... 02:38.600 --> 02:39.830 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> We have not been given an... 02:39.830 --> 02:41.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The Democrats had agreed that weekend 02:41.600 --> 02:43.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that they should do this. 02:43.100 --> 02:44.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Mr. Chairman, I appeal to the chair 02:44.600 --> 02:46.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to recognize myself or one of my colleagues... 02:46.830 --> 02:48.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (gavel banging) 02:48.700 --> 02:50.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> You're out of order. >> Mr. Chairman, I, I appeal 02:50.300 --> 02:53.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to be recognized on your sense of decency and integrity... 02:53.030 --> 02:55.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Mr. Chairman, if, if we cannot be recognized, 02:55.730 --> 02:58.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I move to adjourn. >> The American people... 02:58.030 --> 03:00.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Mr. Chairman, I move to adjourn. 03:00.270 --> 03:02.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (protesters shouting) 03:02.430 --> 03:03.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ... travesty of justice. 03:03.630 --> 03:05.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% This is a travesty of justice. 03:05.370 --> 03:06.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% We will not go back. 03:06.670 --> 03:11.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Cancel Brett Kavanaugh, adjourn the hearing. 03:11.400 --> 03:13.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> We're here to say to be a hero! 03:13.130 --> 03:15.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Be a hero... (inaudible) 03:15.400 --> 03:19.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (protesters continue shouting) 03:19.900 --> 03:23.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> That's no way to conduct a hearing. 03:23.000 --> 03:25.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I think that the process was not becoming 03:25.130 --> 03:28.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of the United States Senate. 03:28.770 --> 03:30.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> But this is the first confirmation hearing 03:30.230 --> 03:32.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% for a Supreme Court justice I've seen 03:32.200 --> 03:34.870 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% basically according to mob rule. 03:34.870 --> 03:37.870 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> This is shaping up to be the hypocrisy hearing, 03:37.870 --> 03:40.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and that's hard to do in the Senate. 03:40.670 --> 03:43.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (protesters shouting) 03:43.400 --> 03:45.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: It was only the first day 03:45.100 --> 03:47.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of the Kavanaugh hearings. 03:47.130 --> 03:52.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It was the epitome of a totally broken system. 03:52.730 --> 03:57.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% If Kennedy had been alive, or Heflin, 03:57.300 --> 04:02.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% or Specter had been watching the Kavanaugh hearings, 04:02.200 --> 04:04.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% we would have puked. 04:04.400 --> 04:06.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> A circus of protesters welcomed into the hearing room 04:06.970 --> 04:08.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% by the Democratic Party... 04:08.530 --> 04:10.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: It looked like a product of the deep divisions 04:10.230 --> 04:11.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% in Washington today. 04:11.730 --> 04:14.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Destroying civility and sowing chaos... 04:14.130 --> 04:15.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: But it had been decades in the making. 04:15.670 --> 04:18.570 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Senators who disrupt Supreme Court hearings? 04:18.570 --> 04:20.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% They might as well be in the audience with the protesters. 04:20.630 --> 04:22.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: And behind the scenes, 04:22.400 --> 04:28.300 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% one powerful Republican senator, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. 04:28.300 --> 04:29.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> McConnell knows the game plan. 04:29.670 --> 04:32.130 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% One of the reasons he's as good at his job as it is 04:32.130 --> 04:34.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% is because he can play his own hand at cards 04:34.630 --> 04:36.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and he can also play his opponent's hand at cards. 04:36.030 --> 04:38.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He knows exactly what they're trying to do. 04:38.900 --> 04:40.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Out-maneuvering Democrats, 04:40.830 --> 04:44.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% confirming conservative judges were McConnell's specialties. 04:44.730 --> 04:47.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Brett Kavanaugh would be his crowning achievement. 04:47.370 --> 04:48.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (camera clicks) 04:48.600 --> 04:50.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It's moving the court 04:50.430 --> 04:54.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to a really very, very conservative court. 04:54.400 --> 04:56.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% That's McConnell's dream from the time 04:56.870 --> 04:58.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% he was first in the Senate, 04:58.370 --> 05:02.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and maybe his dream when he went into politics. 05:02.270 --> 05:04.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> This is going to be a rough battle on Capitol Hill... 05:04.830 --> 05:08.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Mitch McConnell's determination to transform 05:08.070 --> 05:10.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% the Supreme Court had been his life's work. 05:10.800 --> 05:12.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...the dismay of several senators, 05:12.300 --> 05:14.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas managed to... 05:14.870 --> 05:16.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Potentially ensuring a conservative majority 05:16.700 --> 05:18.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% for decades... 05:18.170 --> 05:19.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Through bruising confirmation battles... 05:19.900 --> 05:21.500 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...Democrats to keep an open mind about Kavanaugh... 05:21.500 --> 05:22.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: A struggle over ideology and power... 05:22.870 --> 05:24.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...White House has been packaging Clarence Thomas 05:24.070 --> 05:25.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% like a political candidate... 05:25.600 --> 05:27.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...expected to be one of the most contentious 05:27.370 --> 05:28.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% confirmation hearings in memory... 05:28.670 --> 05:30.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Ignited by a devastating defeat... 05:30.470 --> 05:32.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...rejecting the nomination of Judge Bork... 05:32.230 --> 05:34.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...Judge Bork, the long public ordeal... 05:34.500 --> 05:37.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: And a promise to retaliate. 05:39.500 --> 05:41.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The administration is marshaling all its resources 05:41.530 --> 05:44.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% for what may be the last great ideological battle 05:44.670 --> 05:46.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of the Reagan presidency... 05:46.270 --> 05:47.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...of what could be one the great Supreme Court nomination 05:47.500 --> 05:49.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% fights of the century... 05:49.000 --> 05:51.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: It started at the Reagan White House. 05:51.230 --> 05:53.200 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...conservative Judge Robert Bork... 05:53.200 --> 05:55.270 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Some friends of mine from the White House Counsel's office 05:55.270 --> 05:57.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% called me and said, "It's happening now." 05:57.870 --> 06:00.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% So I jumped in a cab and came running over 06:00.330 --> 06:02.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and managed to get through security 06:02.400 --> 06:04.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and into the White House. 06:04.430 --> 06:07.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% It's very exciting, it was wonderful, I was, uh, uh... 06:07.530 --> 06:08.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% very proud of him. 06:08.430 --> 06:11.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% It was kind of, kind of moving to see that. 06:11.970 --> 06:13.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It is with great pleasure and deep respect 06:13.770 --> 06:16.730 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% for his extraordinary abilities that I today announce 06:16.730 --> 06:18.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% my intention to nominate 06:18.700 --> 06:22.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% United States Court of Appeals Judge Robert H. Bork 06:22.300 --> 06:25.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court. 06:25.300 --> 06:28.530 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I thought, "Well, this man is an ideal person 06:28.530 --> 06:30.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to be on the Supreme Court." 06:30.700 --> 06:33.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Judge Bork, widely regarded as the most prominent 06:33.030 --> 06:34.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and intellectually powerful advocate 06:34.570 --> 06:36.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of judicial restraint... 06:36.270 --> 06:38.330 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Bork was sort of the hallmark 06:38.330 --> 06:40.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of ultra-conservative legal thought. 06:40.700 --> 06:43.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% This was going to dramatically change the court. 06:43.000 --> 06:47.270 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% It was going to change it in a far more conservative direction. 06:47.270 --> 06:49.600 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Reagan had already successfully appointed 06:49.600 --> 06:53.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% conservatives to a court he considered too liberal: 06:53.230 --> 06:55.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Sandra Day O'Connor, William Rehnquist 06:55.530 --> 06:59.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% elevated to chief justice, Antonin Scalia. 06:59.970 --> 07:03.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And now, with the retirement of Lewis Powell, 07:03.030 --> 07:07.300 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Reagan could secure conservative control of the court. 07:07.300 --> 07:10.900 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> So this was an opportunity to really change the direction, 07:10.900 --> 07:14.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% not just for the next four years, 07:14.530 --> 07:19.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% but Republicans were hoping for the next 40 years. 07:19.770 --> 07:21.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Reagan's attorney general made a phone call 07:21.830 --> 07:23.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to Capitol Hill. 07:23.800 --> 07:28.070 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He wanted to alert one powerful Democratic senator. 07:28.070 --> 07:30.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Senator Kennedy got a note 07:30.730 --> 07:34.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that Attorney General Meese was calling for him. 07:34.630 --> 07:37.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And he stepped out of the hearing into a phone booth 07:37.170 --> 07:39.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and took the call. 07:39.470 --> 07:42.770 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And, and Meese told him that it was going to be Bork. 07:42.770 --> 07:45.230 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Kennedy headed for the Senate chamber. 07:45.230 --> 07:46.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% To the liberal senator from Massachusetts, 07:46.670 --> 07:50.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Bork was a dire threat. 07:50.500 --> 07:53.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Everything that Bork had written and stood for 07:53.670 --> 07:58.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% meant that the civil rights and affirmative action push 07:58.570 --> 08:02.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of the civil rights movement was in danger. 08:02.300 --> 08:04.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...and the senator from Massachusetts is recognized... 08:04.670 --> 08:06.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: It had only been an hour 08:06.100 --> 08:07.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% since Reagan's announcement. 08:07.930 --> 08:09.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Kennedy let the president and Bork know 08:09.670 --> 08:11.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% they were in for a fight. 08:11.100 --> 08:13.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Mr. President, I oppose the nomination of Robert Bork 08:13.700 --> 08:18.130 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to the Supreme Court, and I urge the Senate to reject it. 08:18.130 --> 08:25.000 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> And our staff said, "Hey, go hear what Kennedy is saying." 08:25.000 --> 08:27.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% So I went over. 08:27.300 --> 08:30.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Robert Bork's America is a land in which women 08:30.500 --> 08:33.500 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% would be forced into back-alley abortions, 08:33.500 --> 08:36.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, 08:36.530 --> 08:39.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% rogue police could break down citizens' doors 08:39.070 --> 08:40.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% in midnight raids. 08:40.700 --> 08:43.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Whoa, this sounds a little over the top. 08:43.600 --> 08:45.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I knew Robert Bork, he'd been a professor of mine, 08:45.530 --> 08:49.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and I liked the guy, 08:49.600 --> 08:53.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% but certainly my journalistic instinct was, 08:53.030 --> 08:55.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% "Okay, the fight's on, the fat's in the fire. 08:55.600 --> 08:58.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% This is really going to be something." 08:58.470 --> 09:01.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> No justice would be better than this injustice. 09:01.030 --> 09:04.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I yield back the balance of my time. 09:04.370 --> 09:07.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> When he finished, there was just silence. 09:07.300 --> 09:09.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I said, "What is all this (bleep)? 09:09.600 --> 09:11.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% What, what are you doing?" 09:11.100 --> 09:15.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He said, "Just know that we'll have to destroy him." 09:17.400 --> 09:19.330 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> And we were watching this on TV 09:19.330 --> 09:21.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% as we were drinking champagne in the counsel's office. 09:21.670 --> 09:23.770 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And I said, "Are you guys ready for this?" 09:23.770 --> 09:25.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And they said, "Oh, yeah, don't worry about it." 09:25.930 --> 09:27.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Well, they weren't ready. 09:27.500 --> 09:29.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Nobody was ready. 09:29.700 --> 09:32.470 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I don't think they had any clue what was coming. 09:32.470 --> 09:34.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (protesters shouting) 09:34.800 --> 09:38.200 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: What was coming was a full-on political assault 09:38.200 --> 09:39.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% led by liberal Democrats, 09:39.730 --> 09:45.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% with protests, phone banks, and attack ads. 09:45.130 --> 09:49.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> So you're using every technique and every tool 09:49.270 --> 09:50.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% at your disposal. 09:50.900 --> 09:52.800 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And we'd never seen that before. 09:52.800 --> 09:54.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> This is Gregory Peck. 09:54.600 --> 09:56.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Please, urge your senators to vote against 09:56.030 --> 09:57.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% the Bork nomination, 09:57.930 --> 10:01.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% because if Robert Bork wins a seat on the Supreme Court, 10:01.070 --> 10:03.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% it will be for life-- his life and yours. 10:03.700 --> 10:08.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It was the first moment that you saw all-out war 10:08.870 --> 10:11.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% over a Supreme Court nominee. 10:11.230 --> 10:13.530 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% It was the first example of the politics of destruction 10:13.530 --> 10:15.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of the modern era. 10:15.800 --> 10:18.130 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The name and future of Robert Bork tops the agenda 10:18.130 --> 10:19.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% in Washington this morning. 10:19.600 --> 10:21.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> And nowhere is the debate hotter 10:21.400 --> 10:22.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% than at the confirmation hearings 10:22.700 --> 10:24.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% for Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork... 10:24.630 --> 10:26.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> This is a NBC News Special Report... 10:26.100 --> 10:28.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: The judiciary committee hearings, 10:28.570 --> 10:30.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% led by the Democrats, 10:30.000 --> 10:31.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% were broadcast on national television. 10:31.900 --> 10:34.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It is a momentous day in Washington D.C.... 10:34.400 --> 10:37.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Judge Robert Bork began his battle for confirmation 10:37.470 --> 10:38.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to the Supreme Court today. 10:38.870 --> 10:40.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It was kind of tense. 10:40.270 --> 10:44.730 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% It was tense, it was TV lights-- very hot TV lights. 10:44.730 --> 10:49.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% There's a certain sense, when you're the family member, 10:49.070 --> 10:51.600 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that there's absolutely nothing you can do. 10:54.930 --> 10:56.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: It was a cast designed 10:56.670 --> 10:59.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% for classic television drama-- 10:59.030 --> 11:03.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% the attackers: Biden, Heflin, Metzenbaum, 11:03.630 --> 11:07.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Leahy, and Kennedy. 11:07.370 --> 11:09.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Judge Bork looks at Senator Kennedy 11:09.100 --> 11:11.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and Senator Kennedy now recognizes him. 11:11.870 --> 11:14.500 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I was glued to the television like everybody else. 11:14.500 --> 11:19.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I was as smitten by all the television theatrical drama 11:19.030 --> 11:21.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that, that everybody else was. 11:21.430 --> 11:22.700 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: And there were the defenders-- 11:22.700 --> 11:26.800 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% conservative Republicans Simpson and Grassley. 11:26.800 --> 11:29.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> So the question was, "Okay, how is this guy 11:29.530 --> 11:30.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% going to present himself? 11:30.900 --> 11:32.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% What's going to be the drill?" 11:32.270 --> 11:35.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...many controversial statements he has made 11:35.470 --> 11:37.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% as a professor and a judge I've compiled... 11:37.100 --> 11:39.030 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: For five days they clashed. 11:39.030 --> 11:42.630 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Can you derive a right to an abortion from the Constitution? 11:42.630 --> 11:44.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: They challenged Bork's views 11:44.670 --> 11:46.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% on controversial issues. 11:46.330 --> 11:49.100 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Yesterday you said women and blacks who know your record 11:49.100 --> 11:50.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% do fear you. 11:50.230 --> 11:51.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It was epic. 11:51.900 --> 11:53.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I mean, they were discussing very serious things. 11:53.800 --> 11:57.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Do we have a Constitutional right to speak recklessly? 11:57.370 --> 11:59.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Busing and... >> ...were made in busing... 11:59.570 --> 12:01.400 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...law and order, privacy... 12:01.400 --> 12:02.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Would we allow the police to search 12:02.900 --> 12:04.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% the sacred precincts of... 12:04.330 --> 12:05.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...abortion rights... 12:05.430 --> 12:06.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...the human rights bill, 12:06.700 --> 12:08.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% which would have changed Roe against Wade... 12:08.370 --> 12:10.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...rights to determine all kinds of personal autonomy. 12:10.800 --> 12:14.430 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> You do not believe that there is a general right of privacy 12:14.430 --> 12:16.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that is in the Constitution? 12:16.030 --> 12:17.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Not one derived in that... 12:17.530 --> 12:20.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Bork's advisers told him to be succinct, 12:20.170 --> 12:21.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% not lecture the senators. 12:21.670 --> 12:24.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I'll be happy to answer the committee's questions. 12:24.030 --> 12:26.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: He did not follow their instructions. 12:26.200 --> 12:27.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Oh, no, oh, no, Senator. 12:27.230 --> 12:29.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Well, let me, let me pick that strain up. 12:29.030 --> 12:30.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> All right, but I... but I'd like to get 12:30.430 --> 12:32.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% on the record right now that I don't feel very free 12:32.030 --> 12:34.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to disregard what Congress decided, 12:34.470 --> 12:36.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that the mere fact that a law is outrageous 12:36.630 --> 12:39.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% is not enough to make it unconstitutional. 12:39.170 --> 12:41.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I didn't think it was going well. 12:41.200 --> 12:43.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I just thought it was torture. 12:43.630 --> 12:46.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% You want to tap your dad on the shoulder and say, 12:46.670 --> 12:48.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% "I would say it this way." 12:48.100 --> 12:49.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Um, can't do that. 12:49.570 --> 12:53.170 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> They have been hammering you with that thing for five days. 12:53.170 --> 12:55.670 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Near the end, in an effort to save him, 12:55.670 --> 12:59.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Bork supporter Wyoming senator Alan Simpson asked him 12:59.070 --> 13:01.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% one last question. 13:01.730 --> 13:06.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Why do you want to be an associate justice 13:06.700 --> 13:09.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of the United States Supreme Court? 13:09.100 --> 13:11.200 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Many believe Bork's answer 13:11.200 --> 13:13.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% was the death knell of his nomination. 13:13.800 --> 13:17.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I think it would be an intellectual feast. 13:17.300 --> 13:18.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Some more bad news 13:18.630 --> 13:20.970 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% for Supreme Court nominee Judge Robert Bork... 13:20.970 --> 13:22.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...by telling the senators the first attraction 13:22.930 --> 13:25.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of the Supreme Court is the intellectual pleasure of it. 13:25.800 --> 13:29.370 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> That seemed to be a big thing, "Oh, intellectual feast." 13:29.370 --> 13:34.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Oh, well, what the hell, you know, but that's Washington. 13:34.730 --> 13:36.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> And instead of saying, "I want to do justice 13:36.230 --> 13:41.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and show mercy and protect the rights of individuals," 13:41.030 --> 13:43.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% he says, "It'll be an intellectual feast." 13:43.030 --> 13:46.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And most people said, "Who's the dinner? " 13:46.370 --> 13:48.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (chuckles) 13:48.300 --> 13:50.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Regular order will be followed. 13:50.670 --> 13:52.770 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% The clerk will continue calling the roll. 13:52.770 --> 13:54.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Mr. Bumpers, no. 13:54.070 --> 13:56.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Mr. Burdick. 13:56.330 --> 13:58.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Bork's candor had become a liability... 13:58.470 --> 13:59.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Mr. Chaffee. 13:59.930 --> 14:01.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: ...for Democrats 14:01.270 --> 14:03.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and even some liberal Republicans. 14:03.670 --> 14:06.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% It was a resounding defeat for Bork 14:06.300 --> 14:10.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and the conservative Republicans, 42 to 58. 14:10.170 --> 14:11.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Mr. Cranston, no. 14:11.900 --> 14:13.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Mr. Kennedy. 14:13.570 --> 14:16.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Mr. Kennedy, no. 14:16.930 --> 14:19.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The job was to cut this guy down. 14:19.800 --> 14:21.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Get Bork. 14:21.530 --> 14:24.830 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% It's now in the dictionaries of the United States 14:24.830 --> 14:28.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and, and the world, it's called "getting borked." 14:34.370 --> 14:36.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...senator from Kentucky. 14:36.430 --> 14:38.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: It was a searing experience 14:38.430 --> 14:41.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% for first-term senator Mitch McConnell. 14:41.030 --> 14:45.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Enraged, he took to the Senate floor. 14:45.030 --> 14:47.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> And so to Robert Bork, you happened to be the one 14:47.700 --> 14:51.330 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% who set the new Senate standard that will be applied, 14:51.330 --> 14:56.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% in my judgment, by a majority of the Senate prospectively. 14:56.000 --> 14:58.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Unfortunately, it got set over your dead body, 14:58.770 --> 15:01.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% so to speak, politically. 15:01.930 --> 15:03.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: McConnell threatened that he 15:03.700 --> 15:05.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and his Republican colleagues would use the same tactics 15:05.870 --> 15:08.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% when it mattered. 15:08.200 --> 15:10.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> We're going to do it when we want to. 15:10.630 --> 15:13.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And when we want to is going to be when the president, 15:13.670 --> 15:17.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% whoever he may be, sends up somebody we don't like. 15:17.300 --> 15:19.270 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> He'll be darned if he's going to allow them 15:19.270 --> 15:22.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to just get away with taking somebody out 15:22.470 --> 15:24.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% without paying a price for it later on down the road. 15:26.270 --> 15:28.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> And if we don't like the philosophical leaning 15:28.530 --> 15:29.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of the nominee... 15:29.970 --> 15:33.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: It was a promise of revenge, 15:33.030 --> 15:37.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% a warning of what could happen if Republicans took control. 15:37.570 --> 15:39.800 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The danger of that approach, of course... 15:39.800 --> 15:41.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% ♪ ♪ 15:44.330 --> 15:49.070 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (crowd cheering and applauding) 15:51.870 --> 15:53.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: The next year. 15:53.500 --> 15:55.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% The sustained applause is from members 15:55.700 --> 15:57.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of a new conservative legal group, 15:57.870 --> 15:59.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% the Federalist Society. 15:59.570 --> 16:02.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% It is for their hero, Robert Bork. 16:02.670 --> 16:06.830 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> When Bork got taken down, you know, their attitude, I think, 16:06.830 --> 16:09.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% became "never again." 16:09.270 --> 16:13.470 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And this was something that they promised never to forget, 16:13.470 --> 16:15.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% never to forgive. 16:15.870 --> 16:17.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Absolutely energizing. 16:19.630 --> 16:22.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I have known less friendly gatherings. 16:22.370 --> 16:24.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (audience laughs) 16:24.700 --> 16:27.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The forces for Bork who suffered 16:27.570 --> 16:32.830 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that very painful defeat didn't give up, didn't go home to sulk. 16:32.830 --> 16:36.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% They went underground and built an infrastructure 16:36.470 --> 16:41.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to create a new reality for our judicial politics. 16:41.070 --> 16:42.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The battle's not over. 16:42.500 --> 16:45.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I intend to be in it, and I know you do, too. 16:45.000 --> 16:46.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Thank you. 16:46.130 --> 16:47.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (audience applauds) 16:47.400 --> 16:49.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: The Federalist Society was started 16:49.400 --> 16:53.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% as a student group in 1981, with Bork at Yale 16:53.200 --> 16:55.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and Antonin Scalia at the University of Chicago 16:55.930 --> 16:58.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% as the faculty advisers. 16:58.470 --> 17:01.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Ted Olson spoke at their first convention. 17:01.900 --> 17:05.200 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> These were students that had been unhappy with the fact 17:05.200 --> 17:09.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that they felt that their law school education was tilted 17:09.730 --> 17:11.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% so strongly to the left, 17:11.930 --> 17:16.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that they were not hearing opposing views. 17:16.100 --> 17:18.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Abortion. Busing. 17:18.930 --> 17:22.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Protections for criminals. Gay rights. 17:22.100 --> 17:24.670 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% The Federalist Society founders thought the courts 17:24.670 --> 17:27.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% had gone too far to the left. 17:27.200 --> 17:30.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> For years, for decades, the left, as we call them, 17:30.430 --> 17:32.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% progressives, a lot in the Democrat Party, 17:32.570 --> 17:35.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% were getting a lot of their agenda passed 17:35.370 --> 17:37.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% through the courts. 17:37.670 --> 17:40.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: What began as a student group quickly grew, 17:40.670 --> 17:44.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% first as a job network, then a pool of prospective judges, 17:44.600 --> 17:47.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% supported by powerful conservative donors. 17:47.870 --> 17:50.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The Olin Foundation in particular, 17:50.770 --> 17:52.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% the Bradley Foundation. 17:52.830 --> 17:57.570 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% There's this handful, this cluster of far-right foundations 17:57.570 --> 17:59.370 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% with tons of old money in them. 17:59.370 --> 18:04.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And they start to nurture the Federalist Society. 18:04.270 --> 18:06.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...many members of the Federalist Society... 18:06.470 --> 18:07.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: During Reagan's presidency, 18:07.800 --> 18:09.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% more than half the political appointees 18:09.030 --> 18:14.030 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of the Justice Department had ties to the Federalist Society, 18:14.030 --> 18:18.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% as did all 12 assistant attorney generals. 18:18.070 --> 18:20.470 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I have an acronym that I use when I think 18:20.470 --> 18:22.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% about the Federalist Society. 18:22.600 --> 18:25.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% What's the main idea, M-A-I-N, right? 18:25.970 --> 18:29.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Money, access, ideas, and network. 18:29.800 --> 18:32.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And they were very successful on all those fronts. 18:32.930 --> 18:35.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (fife and drum music playing) 18:35.800 --> 18:39.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Within ten years, they had built 120 chapters, 18:39.670 --> 18:43.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% 3,000 members with a budget of $700,000. 18:43.670 --> 18:49.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (music continues) 18:49.130 --> 18:52.270 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Thurgood Marshall, a man who played a pivotal role 18:52.270 --> 18:55.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% in the redefinition of justice in America, is leaving... 18:55.730 --> 18:58.200 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: When the nation's first African-American justice, 18:58.200 --> 19:01.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Thurgood Marshall, retired, it was a pivotal moment 19:01.900 --> 19:05.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% for Senator Mitch McConnell and the Federalist Society, 19:05.730 --> 19:08.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% an opportunity to replace a liberal justice 19:08.630 --> 19:10.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% with a conservative. 19:10.230 --> 19:11.900 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...Washington rumor mill has gone into overdrive 19:11.900 --> 19:13.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% this morning... 19:13.170 --> 19:14.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Members of the Federalist Society 19:14.630 --> 19:17.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% had gone to work searching for a nominee, 19:17.630 --> 19:21.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% scouring lists of conservative lawyers, judges... 19:21.330 --> 19:25.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% One name stood out: Clarence Thomas, 19:25.570 --> 19:27.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% an African-American appeals court judge. 19:27.930 --> 19:30.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...that I will nominate Judge Clarence Thomas 19:30.270 --> 19:33.970 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to serve as associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. 19:33.970 --> 19:36.530 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: The White House was determined 19:36.530 --> 19:39.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that Clarence Thomas was not going to be borked. 19:39.900 --> 19:45.500 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The individuals in the George H.W. Bush administration 19:45.500 --> 19:46.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% knew what was coming. 19:46.970 --> 19:50.870 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% They remembered vividly what had happened with Robert Bork. 19:52.330 --> 19:54.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Clarence Thomas could not have been prepared 19:54.630 --> 19:56.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% for the mob of still photographers... 19:56.670 --> 19:59.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: The Republicans built a war room. 19:59.100 --> 20:00.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% They prepped Thomas. 20:00.430 --> 20:03.370 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Senate hearings began on the Supreme Court nomination of... 20:03.370 --> 20:05.370 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: They warned him it could get ugly. 20:05.370 --> 20:07.900 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Clarence Thomas, a black conservative originally from... 20:07.900 --> 20:08.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Once again, the proceedings would be 20:08.630 --> 20:12.370 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% a television event, here in the room where the Bork hearings 20:12.370 --> 20:14.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% captivated Americans. 20:14.030 --> 20:16.430 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...see Judge Thomas now with 20:16.430 --> 20:18.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% the chairman of the Judiciary Committee... 20:18.530 --> 20:21.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: The cast was familiar-- Biden, Kennedy, 20:21.800 --> 20:24.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Simpson, Metzenbaum, Heflin. 20:24.900 --> 20:27.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> But we don't know how he's going to comport himself... 20:27.470 --> 20:30.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: This time, the Republicans had an advantage. 20:30.130 --> 20:32.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% It would be hard for the Democrats 20:32.130 --> 20:36.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to forcefully take on an African-American nominee. 20:36.400 --> 20:38.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Politically, they were in a very difficult position. 20:38.870 --> 20:44.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% It's very difficult to attack an African-American judge, 20:44.030 --> 20:49.030 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and they wanted to befriend him, not attack him. 20:49.030 --> 20:50.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (gavel banging) 20:50.600 --> 20:52.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The hearing will come to order. 20:52.100 --> 20:53.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Good morning, Judge. 20:53.600 --> 20:57.300 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Welcome to the blinding lights. 20:57.300 --> 21:01.700 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% It's a pleasure to, to have you here. 21:01.700 --> 21:06.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Polls initially showed that most Americans wanted 21:06.030 --> 21:08.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court, 21:08.730 --> 21:10.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% which caused some of the senators, 21:10.130 --> 21:17.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% particularly the Democrats, to try to go easy initially. 21:17.370 --> 21:19.730 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Heck, you're six, seven years younger than... I'm 48. 21:19.730 --> 21:22.300 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% How old are you, Judge, 42, 43? 21:22.300 --> 21:25.030 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Well, I've aged over the last ten weeks, but, uh... 21:25.030 --> 21:27.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (audience laughing) 21:27.970 --> 21:29.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I'm 43. 21:29.400 --> 21:30.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> 43 years old. 21:30.730 --> 21:32.430 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Thomas' White House handlers, 21:32.430 --> 21:35.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% sitting behind him, waited for the Democrats' questions. 21:35.830 --> 21:37.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> He was advised-- I know this-- 21:37.330 --> 21:40.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to be very careful, to be very modest. 21:40.770 --> 21:44.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% They're going to ask you about every controversial issue 21:44.230 --> 21:47.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that has ever come before the Supreme Court. 21:47.270 --> 21:49.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...in the area of civil rights... 21:49.300 --> 21:51.370 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Unlike Bork, Thomas wouldn't be so candid. 21:51.370 --> 21:53.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...I don't remember or recall participating... 21:53.330 --> 21:55.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> He was like a steady brick wall. 21:55.400 --> 21:58.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He just wasn't going to answer anything, and, and he didn't. 21:58.870 --> 22:01.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I think that to take a position 22:01.530 --> 22:05.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% would undermine my ability to be impartial. 22:05.000 --> 22:06.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Say as little as possible. 22:06.600 --> 22:09.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Disavow any idea that you ever had. 22:09.630 --> 22:11.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Present yourself as a blank slate, 22:11.200 --> 22:15.800 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and that's the only way to win. 22:15.800 --> 22:17.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> What I am trying to do, Senator, 22:17.170 --> 22:19.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% is to respond to your question and at the same time 22:19.500 --> 22:22.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% not offer a particular view 22:22.300 --> 22:24.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% on this difficult issue of abortion... 22:24.230 --> 22:25.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It was going to work. 22:25.570 --> 22:27.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He was squeaking through. 22:27.200 --> 22:29.370 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> President Bush said he has no doubt Clarence Thomas 22:29.370 --> 22:31.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% will be confirmed... 22:31.000 --> 22:32.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Confirmation hearings continue this morning 22:32.900 --> 22:35.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% in Washington for Clarence Thomas... 22:35.030 --> 22:36.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: It had been eight days of hearings. 22:36.500 --> 22:38.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% The committee would soon vote. 22:38.230 --> 22:40.000 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> If Clarence Thomas is confirmed to the Supreme Court, 22:40.000 --> 22:42.000 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% his nomination is certainly the most controversial 22:42.000 --> 22:43.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% since Robert Bork's... 22:43.870 --> 22:46.370 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: But National Public Radio reporter Nina Totenberg 22:46.370 --> 22:48.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% heard something unusual. 22:48.530 --> 22:52.870 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Biden says something about, "People have tried to smear you 22:52.870 --> 22:54.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% with personal allegations." 22:54.700 --> 22:57.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I believe there are certain things that are not 22:57.170 --> 22:59.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% at issue at all. 22:59.730 --> 23:03.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And that is his character, 23:03.100 --> 23:06.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% or characterization of his character. 23:06.000 --> 23:08.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Totenberg was surprised. 23:08.130 --> 23:11.830 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% No issues of character had been raised during the hearings. 23:11.830 --> 23:13.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> And so I just started kicking tires, 23:13.730 --> 23:18.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and I managed to get stuff. 23:18.730 --> 23:20.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: She discovered a secret-- 23:20.870 --> 23:24.530 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% allegations of sexual harassment by Clarence Thomas. 23:24.530 --> 23:27.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> And pretty soon, I had Anita Hill's name, 23:27.830 --> 23:31.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and I called her up. 23:31.770 --> 23:33.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Anita Hill had worked with Thomas 23:33.600 --> 23:36.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 23:36.870 --> 23:38.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> According to Hill's affidavit, 23:38.600 --> 23:40.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Thomas talked about pornographic materials 23:40.570 --> 23:44.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% depicting individuals with large penises or breasts 23:44.200 --> 23:45.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% involved in various sex acts. 23:45.930 --> 23:47.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Here is a person who is in charge 23:47.970 --> 23:50.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of protecting rights of women. 23:50.500 --> 23:57.230 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He is also really violating the laws that he's there to enforce. 23:57.230 --> 23:59.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It was just a giant explosion. 23:59.670 --> 24:02.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I, I... (laughs) 24:02.170 --> 24:04.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I mean, I walked up to Capitol Hill... 24:04.400 --> 24:06.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (makes explosion sound) 24:06.670 --> 24:08.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% It was like a mushroom cloud. 24:08.430 --> 24:10.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Good evening. We begin tonight 24:10.230 --> 24:13.100 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% with the potential for political explosion on Capitol Hill. 24:13.100 --> 24:15.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Clarence Thomas ran into trouble today... 24:15.400 --> 24:17.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Questions are growing over charges 24:17.800 --> 24:19.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of sexual harassment against Thomas... 24:19.700 --> 24:21.570 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: As the story broke, 24:21.570 --> 24:24.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Senator Mitch McConnell rushed to the Senate floor. 24:24.630 --> 24:26.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> As soon as the president announced his choice, 24:26.770 --> 24:29.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% the special interest groups lined up their firing squad 24:29.170 --> 24:32.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and vowed to bork him and to kill him politically. 24:32.630 --> 24:34.630 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% The process is being hijacked... 24:34.630 --> 24:36.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: McConnell saw the allegations against Thomas 24:36.400 --> 24:38.700 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% as yet another liberal takedown. 24:38.700 --> 24:42.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> McConnell understands implication and consequence 24:42.800 --> 24:45.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% better than any United States senator. 24:45.600 --> 24:48.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% When you vote on legislation in the House and Senate, 24:48.330 --> 24:50.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% you're playing for the next election. 24:50.130 --> 24:55.230 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% When you put in a judge, you're playing for the next generation. 24:55.230 --> 24:58.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The sexual harassment storm around Clarence Thomas 24:58.430 --> 24:59.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% is intensifying. 24:59.900 --> 25:02.470 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Now McConnell would watch as Anita Hill threatened 25:02.470 --> 25:04.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to derail Thomas' nomination. 25:04.500 --> 25:06.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Tom, the stage is set for what everyone anticipates 25:06.530 --> 25:07.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% will be a brutal hearing. 25:07.970 --> 25:11.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (gavel banging) 25:11.330 --> 25:13.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Professor, do you swear to tell the whole truth 25:13.070 --> 25:15.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and nothing but the truth, so help you God? 25:15.230 --> 25:17.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I do. >> Thank you. 25:17.330 --> 25:21.230 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It was incredibly compelling television. 25:21.230 --> 25:24.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% You know, she was gorgeous, composed, 25:24.530 --> 25:30.200 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% obviously projecting sincerity. 25:30.200 --> 25:32.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> On other occasions, he referred to the size 25:32.500 --> 25:36.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of his own penis as being larger than normal 25:36.170 --> 25:38.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and he also spoke on some occasions 25:38.600 --> 25:42.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of the pleasures he had given to women... 25:42.870 --> 25:45.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% with oral sex. 25:45.230 --> 25:48.000 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> You could not take your eyes off this thing. 25:48.000 --> 25:51.000 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% You couldn't believe that people were accusing each other 25:51.000 --> 25:52.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of these things. 25:52.830 --> 25:55.800 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And, and the Senate had probably never heard language 25:55.800 --> 25:57.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% like this before. 25:57.970 --> 25:59.900 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: The Republicans had watched Bork attacked 25:59.900 --> 26:02.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% for his ideology. 26:02.000 --> 26:05.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Now it was Thomas's character that was under assault, 26:05.530 --> 26:08.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and they would go all out to defend their nominee. 26:08.330 --> 26:11.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> My purpose is to find out what happened. 26:11.570 --> 26:14.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Senator Arlen Specter led the charge. 26:14.230 --> 26:17.500 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I find the references to the alleged sexual harassment 26:17.500 --> 26:20.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% not only unbelievable, but preposterous. 26:20.730 --> 26:22.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: He cast doubt on her memory. 26:22.930 --> 26:26.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> How reliable is your testimony on events 26:26.330 --> 26:28.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that occurred eight, ten years ago... 26:28.200 --> 26:30.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: He suggested she was exaggerating. 26:30.470 --> 26:33.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> You took it to mean that Judge Thomas wanted 26:33.870 --> 26:36.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to have sex with you, but in fact, 26:36.230 --> 26:38.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% he never did ask you to have sex, correct? 26:38.300 --> 26:40.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> No, he did not ask me to have sex. 26:40.700 --> 26:43.000 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> So that was an inference that you drew? 26:43.000 --> 26:46.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Yes, yes. 26:46.200 --> 26:51.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> She stood between Clarence Thomas and the Supreme Court. 26:51.030 --> 26:54.900 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% They had to destroy her in order to get him confirmed. 26:54.900 --> 26:59.430 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% If what she was saying was true, he had lied under oath. 26:59.430 --> 27:01.670 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Without objection, it will be placed in the record. 27:01.670 --> 27:03.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Again, I thank your family, thank you. 27:03.800 --> 27:04.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Adjourned until 9:00. 27:04.930 --> 27:06.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (gavel bangs) 27:06.300 --> 27:08.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> All America had its television sets 27:08.330 --> 27:10.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% tuned to the U.S. Senate... 27:10.600 --> 27:13.330 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Nothing like what happened today has ever happened before. 27:13.330 --> 27:17.230 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Washington, DC, a city disgusted by the gutter politics 27:17.230 --> 27:19.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% played out on Capitol Hill. 27:19.330 --> 27:21.270 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: But it wasn't over. 27:21.270 --> 27:24.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Inside the Senate offices, Clarence Thomas prepared 27:24.630 --> 27:28.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to answer Anita Hill's allegations. 27:28.000 --> 27:30.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Senator Alan Simpson was in the room. 27:30.730 --> 27:32.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> We, we sat with Thomas. 27:32.570 --> 27:34.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And I told him my theory of political life: 27:34.230 --> 27:37.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% an attack unanswered is an attack believed. 27:37.770 --> 27:39.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Not only that, but agreed to. 27:39.930 --> 27:42.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And he was teary. 27:42.830 --> 27:47.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% But I said, "You must have something to say." 27:47.070 --> 27:49.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He said, "I do." 27:49.970 --> 27:54.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He said, "I really do have something to say." 27:54.170 --> 27:55.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> This is a circus. 27:55.370 --> 27:56.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% It's a national disgrace. 27:56.970 --> 28:01.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And as far as I'm concerned, it is a high-tech lynching 28:01.170 --> 28:06.700 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, 28:06.700 --> 28:11.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to do for themselves, to have different ideas. 28:11.200 --> 28:14.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I remember sitting behind a senator 28:14.700 --> 28:18.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and hearing that and just feeling like a bomb 28:18.100 --> 28:19.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% had gone off in the room. 28:19.670 --> 28:23.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And it sucked all the oxygen out of the room. 28:23.130 --> 28:25.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> And it is a message that unless you kowtow 28:25.930 --> 28:30.600 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to the old order, this is what will happen to you. 28:30.600 --> 28:36.970 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee 28:36.970 --> 28:40.630 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of the U.S., U.S. Senate rather than hung from a tree. 28:42.930 --> 28:44.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The question is on the confirmation 28:44.330 --> 28:46.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of the nomination of Clarence Thomas of Georgia. 28:46.500 --> 28:48.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% The clerk will call the roll. 28:48.370 --> 28:53.800 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Up to Robert Bork, there was a sense of civility to this, 28:53.800 --> 28:56.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that you could disagree without destroying. 28:59.170 --> 29:03.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Robert Bork changed that, and Clarence Thomas confirmed it. 29:03.970 --> 29:06.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And with the Clarence Thomas nomination, 29:06.130 --> 29:08.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% everybody was watching. 29:08.870 --> 29:12.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> This vote, the yeas are 52 and the nays are 48. 29:12.270 --> 29:14.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% The nomination of Clarence Thomas of Georgia 29:14.930 --> 29:17.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% is hereby confirmed. 29:17.230 --> 29:20.030 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Clarence Thomas was 43 years old. 29:20.030 --> 29:25.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He vowed to stay on the court for 43 more years. 29:25.870 --> 29:28.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% ♪ ♪ 29:32.170 --> 29:34.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% In the years after Thomas' confirmation, 29:34.800 --> 29:37.970 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% McConnell watched as Democratic and Republican presidents 29:37.970 --> 29:39.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% tried to tip the balance of the court. 29:39.930 --> 29:41.770 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> President Clinton today nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg... 29:41.770 --> 29:43.830 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: With Republicans in the minority, 29:43.830 --> 29:45.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Bill Clinton placed Ruth Bader Ginsburg 29:45.800 --> 29:47.800 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and Stephen Breyer on the bench. 29:47.800 --> 29:50.230 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...the president sent Congress the name of his nominee 29:50.230 --> 29:51.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to fill the seat... 29:51.670 --> 29:53.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: George W. Bush, with a Republican Senate, 29:53.730 --> 29:58.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% put John Roberts and Samuel Alito on the court. 29:58.000 --> 30:00.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Barack Obama is projected to be the next... 30:00.300 --> 30:02.230 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: With Democrats back in control, 30:02.230 --> 30:05.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Barack Obama appointed Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. 30:05.830 --> 30:07.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Still, many Republicans are asking 30:07.870 --> 30:09.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% if she's the right person for the job... 30:09.870 --> 30:12.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Through it all, McConnell had been climbing 30:12.430 --> 30:14.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to power inside the Senate. 30:14.500 --> 30:15.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Majority whip. 30:15.900 --> 30:17.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Republican leader. 30:17.070 --> 30:19.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And finally, majority leader. 30:19.330 --> 30:22.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> There's nobody who's more focused on political conquest 30:22.470 --> 30:24.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% than he is. 30:24.100 --> 30:25.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% There may not have ever been anybody 30:25.600 --> 30:28.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% who has spent his entire life calculating. 30:28.030 --> 30:30.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He knows more than everybody else. 30:30.700 --> 30:32.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% It was how much he could win 30:32.370 --> 30:34.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and how much power he could achieve. 30:34.970 --> 30:37.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: McConnell had real power, 30:37.430 --> 30:39.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and still holding on to that grievance 30:39.630 --> 30:42.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% about what happened to Robert Bork, 30:42.030 --> 30:45.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% he waited for the right moment to use it. 30:45.000 --> 30:46.730 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> This is CNN Breaking News... 30:46.730 --> 30:50.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Breaking news just in to us here at CNN. 30:50.330 --> 30:55.270 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died. 30:55.270 --> 30:58.370 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Scalia is found dead in his, in his bed one day. 30:58.370 --> 31:00.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And what to do in this... in this moment of crisis 31:00.770 --> 31:02.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% becomes probably the defining moment 31:02.830 --> 31:05.870 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of, of Mitch McConnell's career. 31:05.870 --> 31:08.170 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...and breaking news, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin... 31:08.170 --> 31:09.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: McConnell immediately understood 31:09.400 --> 31:12.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% the political implications of Scalia's death. 31:12.470 --> 31:16.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The stakes are enormous, because if you replace Scalia 31:16.870 --> 31:21.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% with a... an Obama appointee, 31:21.570 --> 31:25.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% then you probably have five justices on the court 31:25.600 --> 31:27.100 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that are going to move the court 31:27.100 --> 31:28.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% in a much more progressive direction. 31:28.500 --> 31:30.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> With that vacancy, the question is, 31:30.500 --> 31:32.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% will a Republican-controlled Senate... 31:32.600 --> 31:34.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: President Barack Obama's replacement 31:34.900 --> 31:37.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% would give Democrats a five-justice majority 31:37.400 --> 31:39.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% on the court. 31:39.570 --> 31:42.100 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Mitch McConnell doesn't even wait for the day to end 31:42.100 --> 31:45.900 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% after Antonin Scalia dies to put out a statement saying, 31:45.900 --> 31:48.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% in effect, "We're not going to let 31:48.500 --> 31:50.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% President Obama replace him." 31:50.570 --> 31:51.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Majority Leader Mitch McConnell 31:51.770 --> 31:53.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% just releasing a statement... 31:53.170 --> 31:54.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...this vacancy should not be filled 31:54.330 --> 31:56.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% until we have a new president. 31:56.170 --> 31:58.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> "It doesn't matter if you name anybody or not, I'm... 31:58.470 --> 32:00.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% We're not considering anybody 32:00.900 --> 32:03.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% because it's too close to the election." 32:03.630 --> 32:05.830 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> How shocking was that to you? 32:05.830 --> 32:07.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It was amazing to me. 32:07.200 --> 32:10.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I mean, they can say, "Oh there's precedent." 32:10.200 --> 32:13.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% This was unprecedented. 32:13.300 --> 32:15.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Four-and-a-half weeks after Justice Scalia died, 32:15.970 --> 32:17.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% today President Obama... 32:17.230 --> 32:18.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Friendly crowd in the Rose Garden there 32:18.530 --> 32:21.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% as President Obama nominates Merrick Garland... 32:21.130 --> 32:22.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Undeterred by McConnell, 32:22.300 --> 32:25.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% President Obama would forge ahead. 32:25.400 --> 32:29.670 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Today, I am nominating Chief Judge Merrick Brian Garland 32:29.670 --> 32:32.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to join the Supreme Court. (audience applauds) 32:32.130 --> 32:34.530 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> President Obama was trying to nominate somebody 32:34.530 --> 32:35.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% who was going to be confirmed. 32:35.830 --> 32:38.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I thought, you know, how could members of the Senate, 32:38.700 --> 32:42.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% with their bare faces hanging out, 32:42.500 --> 32:47.400 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% stop this very appealing nominee about whom, really, 32:47.400 --> 32:49.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% not a bad word could be said? 32:49.270 --> 32:51.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Thank you, Mr. President. 32:51.570 --> 32:55.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% This is the greatest honor of my life... 32:55.770 --> 32:57.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (voice breaking): Other than Lynn agreeing to marry me 32:57.530 --> 33:00.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% 28 years ago. 33:00.630 --> 33:03.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Here is a man of distinguished education, 33:03.870 --> 33:05.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% distinguished background. 33:05.830 --> 33:08.800 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% This is the kind of person that should be on the Supreme Court. 33:08.800 --> 33:11.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And if it's Obama who's president, 33:11.270 --> 33:13.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I was thrilled that he was appointing someone 33:13.800 --> 33:15.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% like Merrick Garland. 33:15.400 --> 33:18.000 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Five Republican senators have agreed to talk... 33:18.000 --> 33:20.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> A handful of Republicans to break ranks, 33:20.530 --> 33:22.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% including some facing tough re-election bids... 33:22.530 --> 33:25.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: McConnell had a mini-revolt on his hands. 33:25.530 --> 33:27.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I met with Merrick Garland. I liked him. 33:27.900 --> 33:31.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He's a person who would have gotten 98 votes or 100 votes 33:31.370 --> 33:34.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% in the 1990s, just a few years before. 33:34.700 --> 33:36.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...blasting his party's leadership for stonewalling 33:36.400 --> 33:38.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% the nomination process... 33:38.100 --> 33:40.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> To not even allow the Judiciary Committee 33:40.670 --> 33:44.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to hold a hearing on his nomination 33:44.100 --> 33:46.800 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% just did not sit right with me. 33:46.800 --> 33:49.200 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Mitch McConnell joins us now from Capitol Hill. 33:49.200 --> 33:50.400 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Senator, thanks for being here. 33:50.400 --> 33:52.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: He fought back, hitting the airwaves. 33:52.800 --> 33:55.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The right-of-center world does not want 33:55.300 --> 33:57.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% this vacancy filled by this president. 33:57.100 --> 34:00.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% We're not giving a lifetime appointment to this president 34:00.700 --> 34:03.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% on the way out the door, to change the Supreme Court 34:03.130 --> 34:05.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% for the next 25 or 30 years. 34:05.670 --> 34:08.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Senator Moran from Kansas said he thought maybe 34:08.700 --> 34:10.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% there should be a hearing. 34:10.900 --> 34:12.970 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And McConnell just said to him, 34:12.970 --> 34:14.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% "You keep talking like that, 34:14.400 --> 34:17.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and I'm running a primary opponent against you," 34:17.030 --> 34:18.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and Moran backed off. 34:18.770 --> 34:23.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% McConnell was ruthless and brilliant. 34:23.970 --> 34:26.730 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: McConnell kept the Republicans in line. 34:26.730 --> 34:29.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% There would be no hearings, no votes, 34:29.630 --> 34:32.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% no consideration of Judge Garland. 34:32.270 --> 34:33.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The one thing that I've learned about Mitch 34:33.870 --> 34:37.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% is if he says this is the way it is, that's the way it is. 34:37.530 --> 34:40.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> (chuckles) 34:40.030 --> 34:42.630 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I don't ever question McConnell. 34:42.630 --> 34:44.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I mean, I worked with him-- 34:44.530 --> 34:47.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% you don't want to mess with McConnell. 34:47.800 --> 34:50.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Democrats are outraged by Senate Majority Leader... 34:50.100 --> 34:52.800 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Mitch McConnell had done what had never been done-- 34:52.800 --> 34:57.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% he'd blocked any consideration of a Supreme Court nominee. 34:57.030 --> 34:59.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...said he didn't want to waste Garland's time, 34:59.030 --> 35:01.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% quote, with unnecessary political routines... 35:04.630 --> 35:07.730 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: In the years since Bork, McConnell's ally, 35:07.730 --> 35:09.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% the Federalist Society, had become 35:09.800 --> 35:13.630 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% one of the most powerful forces in Washington. 35:13.630 --> 35:15.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The scale and scope was fantastic. 35:15.470 --> 35:17.770 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% They get into more and more law schools 35:17.770 --> 35:20.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% until they have a chapter in every law school 35:20.100 --> 35:21.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% in the country. 35:21.800 --> 35:25.570 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% They have a lawyers' chapter in all the major cities. 35:25.570 --> 35:31.430 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% They're vetting all the nominees for federal judgeships. 35:31.430 --> 35:35.200 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Their revenue had grown to more than $26 million. 35:35.200 --> 35:38.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% There were now over 60,000 members. 35:38.400 --> 35:40.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The numbers are enormous. 35:40.130 --> 35:41.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% The money is enormous. 35:41.670 --> 35:45.270 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And every important conservative jurist is a member, 35:45.270 --> 35:48.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% all the conservative members of the Supreme Court 35:48.330 --> 35:52.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and the rest of the courts on down through America. 35:52.070 --> 35:54.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: But in 2016, as McConnell blocked 35:54.600 --> 35:56.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Merrick Garland, 35:56.400 --> 36:00.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% the Federalist Society and the Republicans had a problem. 36:00.200 --> 36:04.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> We are led by very, very stupid people. 36:04.300 --> 36:05.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: They were worried about 36:05.830 --> 36:08.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump. 36:08.470 --> 36:11.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Drain the swamp! Drain the swamp! 36:11.700 --> 36:13.470 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> But Donald Trump came out of nowhere to win the primary. 36:13.470 --> 36:15.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He beat me and everybody else. 36:15.030 --> 36:18.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% But he was not a Republican in the sense 36:18.170 --> 36:20.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that most of us understand the word to be. 36:20.330 --> 36:22.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Bottom line, his judicial philosophy, 36:22.930 --> 36:27.570 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% what he saw to be a conservative judge, was unknown. 36:27.570 --> 36:29.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: McConnell had a plan. 36:29.670 --> 36:31.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He knew a lawyer, Don McGahn, 36:31.630 --> 36:33.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% who was in the Federalist Society 36:33.470 --> 36:35.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and worked for the Trump campaign. 36:35.670 --> 36:37.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> He's known Don for many years. 36:37.700 --> 36:39.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And they had a mutual trust. 36:39.800 --> 36:41.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% They understand where each other are 36:41.930 --> 36:46.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% on issues that they are extremely concerned about. 36:46.000 --> 36:48.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: They told Trump that promising to appoint 36:48.500 --> 36:52.900 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Federalist judges would help him win over conservatives. 36:52.900 --> 36:55.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Leader McConnell asked the president at that point, 36:55.500 --> 36:58.800 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and I think Don McGahn was part of those conversations, 36:58.800 --> 37:02.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to begin putting out a list that he would make public. 37:02.430 --> 37:03.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (horn honks) 37:03.870 --> 37:06.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Candidate Trump liked the idea of a list. 37:06.500 --> 37:09.700 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He attended a meeting with the heads of the Federalist Society 37:09.700 --> 37:13.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and the conservative Heritage Foundation. 37:13.430 --> 37:15.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> He was very open about what he wanted to do. 37:15.600 --> 37:16.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And he said he wanted a list. 37:16.900 --> 37:19.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He said, "Can anyone get one?" 37:19.270 --> 37:23.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And I just raised my hand. "Yes, sir." 37:23.570 --> 37:25.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And he said, "Can you have it by Thursday?" 37:25.800 --> 37:27.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% We got the president a list of judges, 37:27.700 --> 37:32.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and that's the Federalist Society's business. 37:32.530 --> 37:35.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> He outsourced this, essentially, 37:35.000 --> 37:36.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to these two organizations. 37:36.530 --> 37:39.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He had no understanding of who these people were. 37:39.130 --> 37:42.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% But when presented with it and when made clear that, 37:42.300 --> 37:45.070 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% "This will help you politically, this will shore up your base," 37:45.070 --> 37:47.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% he said, "We got to do it." 37:47.470 --> 37:48.730 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> A lot of people are, like, a little bit worried 37:48.730 --> 37:49.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% about which judges. 37:49.930 --> 37:52.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I'm going to submit a list of justices 37:52.070 --> 37:53.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of the United States Supreme Court 37:53.700 --> 37:57.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that I will appoint from the list. 37:57.300 --> 37:59.070 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> That list, that was a massive seller, 37:59.070 --> 38:00.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% which is, hey, you may hate Trump, 38:00.570 --> 38:03.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% you may not trust him, but it's got to be this ten. 38:03.100 --> 38:06.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And I don't think he'd be president without that list. 38:06.600 --> 38:09.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: McConnell had helped Trump get elected 38:09.570 --> 38:12.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and he'd held open Scalia's seat, 38:12.500 --> 38:14.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% paving the way for the nomination 38:14.370 --> 38:19.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of Federalist Society favorite Neil Gorsuch. 38:19.070 --> 38:22.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Then, a year later, another opportunity. 38:22.170 --> 38:23.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...monumental moment... 38:23.530 --> 38:24.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Veteran Justice Anthony Kennedy 38:24.900 --> 38:27.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% unexpectedly resigned. 38:27.170 --> 38:29.600 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Kennedy really was the middle of the court. 38:29.600 --> 38:32.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% So it's, it's a really serious moment, 38:32.100 --> 38:35.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% the most serious moment in the balance of the court, 38:35.430 --> 38:38.600 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% really, since even before Bork. 38:40.000 --> 38:43.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Mitch McConnell understood the stakes. 38:43.030 --> 38:46.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Kennedy's replacement could lock up conservative control 38:46.270 --> 38:48.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of the court. 38:52.570 --> 38:54.530 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> President Trump's pick is in 38:54.530 --> 38:55.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% for the next Supreme Court nominee... 38:55.830 --> 38:57.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Brett Kavanaugh to replace retiring... 38:57.970 --> 38:59.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: McConnell, Trump, and the Federalist Society 38:59.470 --> 39:01.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% again swung into action. 39:01.730 --> 39:05.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% The president nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh, 39:05.200 --> 39:08.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% who had joined the Federalist Society at Yale Law School. 39:08.100 --> 39:10.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Kavanaugh is the perfect McConnell nominee. 39:10.930 --> 39:14.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He's very conservative on economic issues, 39:14.170 --> 39:16.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% on executive power issues. 39:16.270 --> 39:20.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He's the perfect blending of establishment 39:20.070 --> 39:24.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and sort of red-state-based politics. 39:24.300 --> 39:26.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (gavel banging) 39:26.570 --> 39:28.300 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: At the confirmation hearings, 39:28.300 --> 39:30.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% the Democrats immediately put up a fight. 39:30.670 --> 39:33.900 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Mr. Chairman, I'd like to be recognized to ask a question. 39:33.900 --> 39:36.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Mr. Chairman, it's a pending motion... 39:36.370 --> 39:38.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> If we don't even know what the rules are, how can we... 39:38.230 --> 39:40.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I'd like to respond to... >> Mr. Chairman... 39:40.600 --> 39:43.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Mr. Chairman, we waited for more than a year 39:43.670 --> 39:46.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% with a vacancy on the Supreme Court. 39:46.030 --> 39:48.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% The treatment was shabby of Merrick Garland, 39:48.000 --> 39:50.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% President Obama's nominee... 39:50.770 --> 39:53.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Democrats are really mad about Garland 39:53.930 --> 39:58.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that happened in 2016, very recent history. 39:58.930 --> 40:00.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> People see through this. 40:00.270 --> 40:02.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Republicans are still mad about Bork. 40:02.730 --> 40:05.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> To my friends on the other side, 40:05.030 --> 40:09.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% you can't lose the election and pick judges. 40:09.330 --> 40:12.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% If you want to pick judges, you better win. 40:12.200 --> 40:17.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> This stuff is now intensely polarized and super-partisan. 40:17.830 --> 40:19.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (gavel banging) 40:19.400 --> 40:21.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: And as the Republican-led hearings 40:21.570 --> 40:24.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% got under way, Brett Kavanaugh would follow 40:24.130 --> 40:25.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% the Clarence Thomas playbook. 40:25.900 --> 40:29.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I can't give you an answer on that hypothetical question. 40:29.730 --> 40:32.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Senator, that sounds like a hypothetical, I... 40:32.570 --> 40:34.030 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: He wouldn't engage. 40:34.030 --> 40:36.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> ...that's the hypothetical that you're asking me... 40:36.170 --> 40:38.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Senator, I think that hypothetical 40:38.100 --> 40:39.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that you're asking is... 40:39.700 --> 40:42.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% ...a hypothetical that, uh, about any statute 40:42.600 --> 40:44.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that you're asking me... 40:44.130 --> 40:47.100 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: From his office, McConnell watched the hearings. 40:47.100 --> 40:49.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% It all seemed to be going smoothly. 40:49.170 --> 40:50.900 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> What you fear is the unknown. 40:50.900 --> 40:52.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% You don't know what you don't know. 40:52.900 --> 40:55.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And if there is something out there, some bombshell to drop, 40:55.470 --> 40:58.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% or some way of captivating media attention, 40:58.200 --> 41:00.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% then you could have problems. 41:00.570 --> 41:02.800 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Dropping a bombshell exactly one week 41:02.800 --> 41:04.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% before the committee is set to vote... 41:04.670 --> 41:06.630 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> And then you begin to see the newspapers' vague references 41:06.630 --> 41:09.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to anonymous allegations that had been lodged 41:09.870 --> 41:12.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% against Brett Kavanaugh about his conduct. 41:12.770 --> 41:14.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> An allegation from his... 41:14.370 --> 41:17.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: The allegation-- sexual assault. 41:17.400 --> 41:20.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Word of her leaks out without her name at first, 41:20.730 --> 41:23.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and then when there's... the news breaks, 41:23.200 --> 41:25.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% just like with Anita Hill, her name is leaked. 41:25.970 --> 41:28.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Her name is Christine Blasey Ford. 41:28.170 --> 41:31.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The woman's name is Christine Blasey Ford. 41:31.300 --> 41:32.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Christine Blasey Ford... 41:32.900 --> 41:35.670 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: McConnell wouldn't back down from the coming fight. 41:35.670 --> 41:37.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I think he was furious. 41:37.970 --> 41:40.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% You know, this was the torpedo that he dreaded. 41:40.800 --> 41:43.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Christine Blasey Ford described Kavanaugh 41:43.330 --> 41:45.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% as stumbling drunk... 41:45.430 --> 41:46.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: He was worried about losing the Senate 41:46.570 --> 41:48.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% in the upcoming midterms. 41:48.470 --> 41:51.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He had to get Kavanaugh confirmed fast. 41:51.570 --> 41:54.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> You know, those words of McConnell, 41:54.970 --> 41:58.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% "You will rue the day," back in the Bork fight? 41:58.770 --> 42:03.500 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Those equally applied to him if he lost the Kavanaugh fight, 42:03.500 --> 42:05.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% because the Democrats, if they controlled the Senate 42:05.430 --> 42:08.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% after this election, 42:08.330 --> 42:12.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% he would rue the day of what he'd done in Garland. 42:12.400 --> 42:14.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Majority Leader is recognized. 42:14.170 --> 42:16.330 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: McConnell launched a counterattack. 42:16.330 --> 42:19.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Senate Democrats and their allies are trying 42:19.230 --> 42:23.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to destroy a man's personal and professional life 42:23.230 --> 42:27.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% on the basis of decades-old allegations... 42:27.000 --> 42:29.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Bork. Thomas. 42:29.200 --> 42:30.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Now Kavanaugh. 42:30.700 --> 42:33.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% The fight for the court had become personal. 42:33.500 --> 42:35.470 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% McConnell blamed the Democrats. 42:35.470 --> 42:39.270 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Democrats wouldn't let a few inconvenient things 42:39.270 --> 42:44.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% get between them and a good smear. 42:44.230 --> 42:46.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% It's despicable. 42:46.270 --> 42:48.600 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> He's never faced a fight like this. 42:48.600 --> 42:51.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He never faced one where he could go, go down like this. 42:51.730 --> 42:54.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And it was right there on the razor's edge. 42:54.500 --> 42:59.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% ♪ ♪ 42:59.200 --> 43:01.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Just moments away now from the historic testimony 43:01.830 --> 43:04.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of Christine Blasey Ford before the Senate. 43:04.600 --> 43:06.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Dr. Ford has arrived here on Capitol Hill 43:06.500 --> 43:09.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to testify in public for the first time. 43:09.870 --> 43:12.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It will certainly be an historic day on Capitol Hill. 43:12.670 --> 43:16.970 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Remember, nobody had seen her and nobody had heard from her. 43:16.970 --> 43:19.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Not even the senators. 43:19.270 --> 43:23.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% So it was a total surprise. 43:25.530 --> 43:28.470 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> (voice shaking): I am here today not because I want to be. 43:28.470 --> 43:30.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I am terrified. 43:30.270 --> 43:34.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you 43:34.200 --> 43:37.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I 43:37.130 --> 43:38.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% were in high school. 43:38.770 --> 43:41.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> When you realized how genuinely terrified she was 43:41.670 --> 43:43.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to be there, it shocked a lot 43:43.670 --> 43:47.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of the older, longer-serving senators, that once again 43:47.130 --> 43:51.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% this issue was being brought into the public sphere. 43:51.430 --> 43:54.570 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> (voice breaking): I believed he was going to rape me. 43:54.570 --> 43:57.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I tried to yell for help. 43:57.100 --> 44:00.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth 44:00.470 --> 44:02.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to stop me from yelling. 44:02.770 --> 44:05.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% This is what terrified me the most, 44:05.000 --> 44:08.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and has had the most lasting impact on my life. 44:08.030 --> 44:10.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% It was hard for me to breathe, 44:10.170 --> 44:15.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me. 44:15.200 --> 44:18.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It was, of course, a larger-than-life moment. 44:18.700 --> 44:23.630 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Christine Blasey Ford had to go before the eyes of a nation 44:23.630 --> 44:25.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and the world. 44:25.170 --> 44:27.800 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I thought she was enormously courageous, 44:27.800 --> 44:29.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% enormously persuasive. 44:29.870 --> 44:34.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> She was very polite and just looked dead honest. 44:34.200 --> 44:39.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It was a huge burden on her to come forward. 44:39.200 --> 44:42.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It was impossible not to be riveted with her testimony. 44:42.670 --> 44:44.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% She was compelling. 44:44.300 --> 44:46.370 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Some of the senators that day had also been 44:46.370 --> 44:48.570 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% at the Clarence Thomas hearings. 44:48.570 --> 44:50.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Patrick Leahy was one. 44:50.700 --> 44:53.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> When Dr. Ford testified, I asked her, 44:53.500 --> 44:55.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% "What do you remember of that incident?" 44:55.700 --> 44:57.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And I think everybody in that hearing 44:57.430 --> 44:59.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% remembers her answer. 44:59.970 --> 45:03.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The laughter, the laugh-- the uproarious laughter 45:03.930 --> 45:06.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% between the two, 45:06.030 --> 45:12.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and they're having fun at my expense. 45:12.600 --> 45:18.330 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I was, you know, underneath one of them while the two laughed, 45:18.330 --> 45:23.030 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% two friends having a really good time with one another. 45:23.030 --> 45:25.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: It looked bad for Brett Kavanaugh 45:25.330 --> 45:26.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and the Republicans. 45:26.630 --> 45:29.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> This is over, this was devastating. 45:29.570 --> 45:32.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I believe those who wanted to believe her did. 45:32.230 --> 45:35.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The mood among Republicans on the Hill was one of gloom. 45:35.000 --> 45:38.100 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> We had a meeting right after her testimony. 45:38.100 --> 45:40.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And I could tell that my colleagues were moved 45:40.930 --> 45:44.400 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and they were saying, you know, "He'd better be good. 45:44.400 --> 45:48.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He'd better have an answer, 45:48.300 --> 45:50.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% because she sounds very credible." 45:50.430 --> 45:52.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The worst-case scenario for Kavanaugh 45:52.930 --> 45:55.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and his defenders was what just transpired. 45:55.300 --> 45:57.130 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: At the White House, 45:57.130 --> 46:01.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% the president of the United States had also been watching. 46:01.300 --> 46:06.070 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Both the president and Leader McConnell found her testimony 46:06.070 --> 46:09.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to be incredibly compelling. 46:09.030 --> 46:10.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I was in the White House the entire day, 46:10.570 --> 46:16.600 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% including watching the testimony of both Ford and Kavanaugh. 46:16.600 --> 46:18.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% The president watched it live. 46:18.870 --> 46:20.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And the president and I have both said, 46:20.670 --> 46:22.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% each of us have said publicly, she gave... 46:22.800 --> 46:24.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% she rendered compelling testimony. 46:26.370 --> 46:28.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: The president picked up the phone. 46:28.500 --> 46:32.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% On the other end-- Mitch McConnell. 46:32.070 --> 46:33.870 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Both of them are kind of testing each other a little bit. 46:33.870 --> 46:35.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% "Where are you at on this?" 46:35.230 --> 46:36.500 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% You know, "How strong are you?" 46:36.500 --> 46:38.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And McConnell basically says to the president, 46:38.400 --> 46:39.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% "You don't worry about me. 46:39.800 --> 46:41.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I'm strong as mule piss." 46:41.470 --> 46:44.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% That's his quote. "I'm strong as mule piss." 46:44.000 --> 46:46.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% In other words, he's not going to let up, 46:46.200 --> 46:50.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% he's not going to give up, he's not going to surrender. 46:50.400 --> 46:52.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% ♪ ♪ 46:52.430 --> 46:55.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> To say that everything that could have gone wrong 46:55.030 --> 46:57.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% for Brett Kavanaugh has is an understatement. 46:57.470 --> 46:59.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The impetus is on Judge Kavanaugh. 46:59.230 --> 47:01.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% They did not have the votes in the Senate... 47:01.000 --> 47:02.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Do not underestimate the importance 47:02.500 --> 47:05.130 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of the next few hours for Brett Kavanaugh. 47:05.130 --> 47:09.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> At some point, if you poke a stick 47:09.000 --> 47:13.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and you torment that person and you attack that person, 47:13.070 --> 47:18.100 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% at some point, that individual's going to fight back. 47:18.100 --> 47:20.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I categorically and unequivocally deny 47:20.970 --> 47:24.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% the allegation against me by Dr. Ford. 47:24.100 --> 47:26.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I never had any sexual or physical encounter 47:26.970 --> 47:29.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of any kind with Dr. Ford. 47:29.000 --> 47:31.570 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It was like watching Clarence Thomas all over again. 47:31.570 --> 47:34.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% This was another version of the "high-tech lynching." 47:34.900 --> 47:40.000 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> This confirmation process has become a national disgrace. 47:40.000 --> 47:45.130 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% But you have replaced advice and consent with search and destroy. 47:45.130 --> 47:47.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Clarence Thomas had invoked race. 47:47.730 --> 47:50.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Now Brett Kavanaugh launched a partisan attack 47:50.570 --> 47:52.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% on the Democrats. 47:52.300 --> 47:55.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> This whole two-week effort has been a calculated 47:55.370 --> 47:58.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and orchestrated political hit 47:58.500 --> 48:02.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump, 48:02.700 --> 48:05.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% revenge on behalf of the Clintons, 48:05.870 --> 48:07.970 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and millions of dollars in money 48:07.970 --> 48:11.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% from outside left-wing opposition groups. 48:11.500 --> 48:15.200 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It has become this completely politicized drama. 48:15.200 --> 48:21.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He took the allegations away from Christine Blasey Ford 48:21.030 --> 48:23.630 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and turned it into a huge fight 48:23.630 --> 48:26.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% between Democrats and Republicans. 48:26.530 --> 48:29.770 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% He's trying to rally all the Republicans to his side. 48:29.770 --> 48:31.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Kavanaugh had become a combatant 48:31.870 --> 48:34.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% in the war between Republicans and Democrats. 48:34.630 --> 48:36.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Does this reflect what you are? 48:36.500 --> 48:39.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Does this yearbook reflect your focus on... 48:39.400 --> 48:42.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: They squared off over his high school yearbook. 48:42.000 --> 48:44.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> That's easy, yes or no, you don't have to filibuster... 48:44.200 --> 48:46.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: And his drinking. 48:46.730 --> 48:49.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Oh, no, no, no, no, no, you got this up, I'm going to, 48:49.170 --> 48:51.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I'm going to talk about my high school... 48:51.100 --> 48:53.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% No, no, I'm going to talk... >> Let him answer! 48:53.270 --> 48:54.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I'm going to talk about my high school record 48:54.730 --> 48:56.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% if you're going to sit here and mock me. 48:56.570 --> 48:58.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Did it relate to alcohol? 48:58.270 --> 49:00.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% You haven't answered that. >> I like beer, I like beer. 49:00.230 --> 49:02.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I don't know if you do... Do you like beer, Senator? 49:02.830 --> 49:04.700 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The quote that jumped out at me was, 49:04.700 --> 49:07.570 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% "Brett was a sloppy drunk, and I know because I drank with him." 49:07.570 --> 49:09.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> That July 1 reference to "skis," 49:09.870 --> 49:12.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% "Went over for skis," that's "brewskis," correct? 49:12.000 --> 49:13.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> And after Tobin... 49:13.600 --> 49:15.530 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Sir, sir, I just need a yes or no-- that, "brewskis," right? 49:15.530 --> 49:17.570 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Well, I need to explain context. 49:17.570 --> 49:19.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> You just said, sir, that you drank on weekdays. 49:19.470 --> 49:20.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% That's all I was looking for. 49:20.700 --> 49:22.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> You're saying there's never been a case 49:22.030 --> 49:24.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% where you drank so much that you didn't remember 49:24.700 --> 49:26.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% what happened the night before or part of what happened. 49:26.800 --> 49:28.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It's, you're asking about, yeah, blackout, 49:28.770 --> 49:32.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I don't know, have you? 49:32.000 --> 49:34.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Could you answer the question, Judge? 49:34.170 --> 49:38.070 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I just... so, you... that's not happened. 49:38.070 --> 49:39.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Is that your answer? 49:39.370 --> 49:41.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Yeah, and I'm curious if you have. 49:41.770 --> 49:43.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I have no drinking problem, Judge. 49:43.970 --> 49:46.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Yeah, nor do I. >> Okay, thank you. 49:46.630 --> 49:48.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Senator Graham. 49:48.530 --> 49:50.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: On the Republican side, 49:50.200 --> 49:52.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Lindsey Graham led the fight. 49:52.230 --> 49:56.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> This is the most unethical sham 49:56.470 --> 49:58.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% since I've been in politics. 49:58.970 --> 50:00.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Boy, you all want power. 50:00.230 --> 50:01.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% God, I hope you never get it. 50:01.900 --> 50:05.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% I hope the American people can see through this sham. 50:05.630 --> 50:09.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% God, I hate to say it because these have been my friends, 50:09.370 --> 50:12.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% but let me tell you, when it comes to this, 50:12.630 --> 50:14.970 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% you're looking for a fair process? 50:14.970 --> 50:19.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% You came to the wrong town at the wrong time, my friend. 50:19.700 --> 50:21.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% This is not a job interview. 50:21.930 --> 50:24.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% This is hell. >> Is this... 50:24.470 --> 50:28.700 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> This is going to destroy the ability of good people 50:28.700 --> 50:32.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% to come forward because of this crap. 50:32.230 --> 50:35.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Your high school yearbook! 50:35.700 --> 50:39.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It serves to rally Republicans 50:39.730 --> 50:42.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and make it an us-versus-them kind of issue. 50:42.270 --> 50:44.670 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And if it's an us-versus-them kind of issue, 50:44.670 --> 50:47.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% when you have the majority, that's what you want. 50:47.600 --> 50:49.200 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The clerk will call the roll. 50:49.200 --> 50:50.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Mr. Cruz. 50:50.930 --> 50:52.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Mrs. Ernst. 50:52.500 --> 50:55.000 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Mr. Flake. 50:55.000 --> 50:58.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Mr. Gardner. 50:58.270 --> 51:00.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Ms. Duckworth. 51:00.830 --> 51:02.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: With McConnell's Republicans 51:02.330 --> 51:05.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% almost entirely in line... >> Mr. Toomey. 51:05.230 --> 51:07.730 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed. 51:07.730 --> 51:10.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Mr. Udall. 51:10.900 --> 51:13.630 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Our friends in the United States Senate, on both sides, 51:13.630 --> 51:14.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% created that environment. 51:14.770 --> 51:16.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Mr. Warner. 51:16.800 --> 51:19.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> And now we have to live with it. 51:19.170 --> 51:21.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Ms. Warren. 51:21.100 --> 51:23.570 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> And the problem is, we can't. 51:23.570 --> 51:24.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Mr. Whitehouse. 51:24.770 --> 51:26.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> And the biggest tragedy 51:26.170 --> 51:29.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% is that we are now hopelessly divided on the last thing 51:29.200 --> 51:34.170 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% that used to unite us, which is our judicial system. 51:34.170 --> 51:37.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Now there's nothing that pulls us together. 51:37.300 --> 51:39.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Nothing. 51:42.530 --> 51:47.800 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Thomas, Alito, Roberts-- 51:47.800 --> 51:51.530 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% the Federalist Society and Mitch McConnell now dominate 51:51.530 --> 51:53.500 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% the Supreme Court. 51:53.500 --> 51:55.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> You talk about the Warren Court or the Burger Court 51:55.930 --> 51:57.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% or the Roberts Court, we're living in the era 51:57.430 --> 52:00.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of the McConnell Court now because he did what he did. 52:00.770 --> 52:02.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And it very well could be the McConnell Court 52:02.470 --> 52:06.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% for several decades to come. 52:06.230 --> 52:08.500 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Clarence Thomas doesn't want to serve 52:08.500 --> 52:09.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% on the High Court anymore. 52:09.700 --> 52:11.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Clarence Thomas comfortable retiring now, 52:11.200 --> 52:12.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and there's a couple of others... 52:12.700 --> 52:14.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Surgeons today removed two malignant nodules 52:14.770 --> 52:17.930 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's left lung. 52:17.930 --> 52:20.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> The 85 year old is said to have fractured three ribs... 52:20.700 --> 52:22.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> RBG's health has become the subject 52:22.370 --> 52:24.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% of much attention in recent years... 52:29.230 --> 52:31.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Go to pbs.org/frontline 52:31.900 --> 52:34.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% for "Frontline's" latest Transparency Project, 52:34.700 --> 52:36.330 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% and explore the dozens of interviews 52:36.330 --> 52:37.900 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% in "Supreme Revenge." 52:37.900 --> 52:39.870 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I mean walked up to Capitol Hill... 52:39.870 --> 52:41.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% (makes explosion sound) 52:41.800 --> 52:45.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It was the epitome of a totally broken system. 52:45.270 --> 52:47.570 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> I'm going to submit a list of justices... 52:47.570 --> 52:49.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> That list was a massive seller. 52:49.430 --> 52:52.200 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% And I don't think he'd be president without that list. 52:52.200 --> 52:54.030 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Connect to the "Frontline" community 52:54.030 --> 52:59.300 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% on Facebook and Twitter, and pbs.org/frontline. 52:59.300 --> 53:01.430 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: "Sex Trafficking in America." 53:01.430 --> 53:03.930 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> What happened to me could happen to anyone. 53:03.930 --> 53:05.830 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: For over two years, "Frontline" embedded 53:05.830 --> 53:07.600 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% with a special police unit. 53:07.600 --> 53:10.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Without customers, there's no girls out there. 53:10.530 --> 53:13.130 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% Our work is constantly evolving. 53:13.130 --> 53:15.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> Technology has given a superhighway 53:15.470 --> 53:17.800 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% for traffickers to vulnerable victims. 53:17.800 --> 53:19.570 align:left position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> NARRATOR: From the streets to the courts... 53:19.570 --> 53:20.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> It's difficult to think of something 53:20.830 --> 53:22.100 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% more despicable than that. 53:22.100 --> 53:24.470 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% You and your co-defendants preyed on a child. 53:30.500 --> 53:34.530 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% ♪ ♪ 53:55.770 --> 53:57.830 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% >> For more on this and other "Frontline" programs, 53:57.830 --> 54:01.370 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% visit our website at pbs.org/frontline. 54:05.770 --> 54:08.230 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% ♪ ♪ 54:12.070 --> 54:15.270 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% To order "Frontline's" "Supreme Revenge" on DVD, 54:15.270 --> 54:20.770 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% visit ShopPBS, or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS. 54:20.770 --> 54:24.400 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% This program is also available on Amazon Prime Video. 54:28.700 --> 54:31.700 position:10%,start line:85% size:80% ♪ ♪