Candidates dive into fight over Scalia’s Supreme Court vacancy

Read the Full Transcript

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  So, less than 48 hours after the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, his vacant seat was already an issue on the campaign trail.

  Today, Republican candidates said President Obama shouldn't be the person to chose the next Supreme Court justice, while former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insisted Scalia's seat must be filled immediately.

• HILLARY CLINTON, Democratic Presidential Candidate:

  If the Republicans in the Senate act as if though have no responsibility to work with the president to fill that vacant position because they want to wait to see how the election comes out, the people of this country should send a very clear message. That is not the way our Constitution works. You have a duty. We expect you to fulfill it.

• SEN. MARCO RUBIO, Republican Presidential Candidate:

  I can tell you, if Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders wins, they are not going to nominate people that look or act or behave or believe any way like Justice Scalia. That's not what they're going to nominate. They are going to nominate people that want to expand the Constitution in a way that goes well beyond its original meaning. And so we can't afford that as a country.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  And to dissect all that, we turn to Politics Monday with Tamara Keith of NPR and Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report.

  Tamara, how does this change the presidential race?

• TAMARA KEITH, NPR:

  The stakes were already very high for this presidential race. And everyone agreed on that.

  And candidates were already talking about the Supreme Court. But it was in the abstract. It was the next president could name some Supreme Court justices. Well, now it's not abstract anymore, it's very real. And once President Obama nominates someone, there will even be a face for this fight.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  How do you see it, Amy?

• AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report:

  I absolutely agree with that, and I also recognize that it is just one piece of what we know is going to be a very big, complicated election coming up.

  I still think issues like the economy and what's happening in Syria, those are events that are really going to drive this election, the role of America in the world. But this is going to be an important sort of milestone for these candidates, again, as a way, especially in the primaries, to rev up their base.

  This is right now about taking advantage of the very polarized partisan environment for Democrats to get their side excited about this, Republicans to get their side excited, especially because the controversial issues in front of the Supreme Court today include abortion, labor rights, immigration.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  All those issues that are right — that are before this very court.

• AMY WALTER:

  Right.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Tamara, is one side advantaged more than the other, or is it just about the same?

• TAMARA KEITH:

  Well, typically, the Supreme Court has motivated conservatives more, people who are worried about gun rights and concerned about abortion.

  But, right now, as Amy said, there are all of these things that are part of President Obama's agenda, that — part of his legacy that are before the Supreme Court, now a 4-4 Supreme Court. And so it is possible that this could motivate Democrats in a way that they haven't always been motivated before.

  Another thing, President Obama could nominate an African-American, or an Asian-American, and that could add to the identity politics and motivate Democratic voters who see themselves in that nominee.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  What would you add? Amy, one side or another get potentially — get more of a boost from this?

• AMY WALTER:

  Get more of a bump out of this?

  Look, we have only seen in the Republican debate the other night that a Supreme Court justice who was named by a Republican was controversial in John Roberts, right, where there is debate over whether he was conservative enough.

  This issue certainly resonating with Republicans. And, again, I think it just still speaks to the audience that all of these candidates are speaking to, which is very narrow, very polarized, very partisan.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Very quickly, there's already some talk about the Republican senators who are saying they won't — they don't want to see anybody confirmed. Any risk for them, Amy?

• AMY WALTER:

  Democrats are hoping the risk is that these — most of these senators are in swing states that are up in 2016, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania.

  They have all come out, agreed with Senator Mitch McConnell that the president shouldn't nominate somebody, this should go to the next president. The Democrats are thinking this is going to turn off swing voters in these states.

  But, quite frankly, they have a balancing act here. One is, they're worried about a primary, so they can't upset their conservative base. And, number two, I don't know that this is going to be an issue that is going to be front and center burning in the fall of 2016 as it is at this moment.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Meantime, Tamara, you have of course the South Carolina primary coming up this Saturday. The Republican race has gotten even more caustic, if that was possible since…

• TAMARA KEITH:

  Yes.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  I want to show everybody right now Donald Trump, how he has reacted to a TV spot that Ted Cruz has started to run.

  But, first, let's see the TV spot itself.

• NARRATOR:

  Life, marriage, religious liberty, the Second Amendment, we're just one Supreme Court justice away from losing them all.

• QUESTION:

  Would President Trump ban partial-birth abortions?

• DONALD TRUMP, Republican Presidential Candidate:

  Well, look, I'm very pro-choice.

• QUESTION:

  But you wouldn't ban it?

• DONALD TRUMP:

  No.

• QUESTION:

  Or ban partial-birth abortion?

• DONALD TRUMP:

  No, I would — I am pro-choice in every respect.

• NARRATOR:

  We cannot trust Donald Trump with these serious decisions.

• DONALD TRUMP:

  I think he's a very unstable guy.

  And I must tell you one thing about Ted Cruz that I can say, only to a minor extent by comparison for the other politicians. I haven't been doing this long. I have been in it since June 16. But I will tell you, I have never, ever met a person that lies more than Ted Cruz.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  So, Tamara, is this squabble, this heightened squabble between Trump and Cruz now the main act in the Republican side, or just one of several?

• TAMARA KEITH:

  Oh, it's one of several.

  And it is not going anywhere. Ted Cruz responded to Donald Trump, saying, you can't just say liar, liar, pants on fire, and not respond to the direct charges. And it goes on and on and on. Trump is also going after Jeb Bush. He's still hitting George W. Bush on the Iraq War.

  And it's kind of remarkable. This is a Republican primary. And there is a candidate in the Republican primary who is very openly criticizing the last Republican president. And it is unclear whether that is even a problem.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  And, Amy, George W. Bush, for the first time, is hitting the trail tonight right now in South Carolina for his brother.

  (CROSSTALK)

• AMY WALTER:

  That's right.

  The Bush name obviously is as much of an albatross for Jeb Bush than it is benefit. And you could see in his polling the challenge for Jeb Bush in figuring out what to do with that name, right, because so many people saying, even Republicans, we don't want a dynasty candidate.

  But that doesn't mean they don't like George W. Bush. And, in fact, with South Carolina, what Jeb Bush is hoping is to focus on the fact this is a very military-heavy state. This is a very conservative state. This is a state that gave his brother a very important victory in 2000.

  But I think, to the point about the Iraq War, it's not also clear that this division isn't important within the Republican primary. Remember, this is the lane that Rand Paul was in for a while, a libertarian sort of point of view that said the Republican Party and neoconservatives got ahead of themselves on this war and on our foreign policy in general.

  So, there is a segment of the Republican electorate that does think that the Iraq War was actually a mistake and don't want to see that replicated.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Just a little more than a minute. We don't want to neglect the Democrats.

  The focus for them, Tamara, is Nevada. They have got the causes coming up, Democratic caucuses, this weekend. It seems to be tightening there, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders both focusing on Nevada. What does it look like?

• TAMARA KEITH:

  Yes. This was supposed to be the beginning of Hillary Clinton's firewall. It's not so clear that it is the beginning of the firewall anymore.

  It's hard to poll in Nevada, but the sense is, the way she's running that campaign now, she stayed an extra day. There is a sense that this is close. And her campaign has been downplaying expectations. Meanwhile, Sanders' campaign shipped in a bunch of people from Iowa and New Hampshire, and they're playing up expectations.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Looks like more pressure on her.

• AMY WALTER:

  More pressure on her, which is why we're going to hear a lot more from her about South Carolina, which will be in another week from now, than we are on Nevada.

• TAMARA KEITH:

  And then she goes to Texas the night of the Nevada caucuses.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Because then we get into the bigger states.

• TAMARA KEITH:

  Yes.

• AMY WALTER:

  Correct, and the African-American votes, which is what she is really counting on to be that firewall. And that's in South Carolina.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  But she would like to have a win.

• AMY WALTER:

  Oh, yes, she would.

• TAMARA KEITH:

  Oh, yes, like a resounding one, instead of a near tie.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Tamara Keith, Amy Walter, watching it all, thank you both.

• TAMARA KEITH:

  You're welcome.