senator coons? senator coons: thank you, senator flake. i appreciate the ongoing working partnership i enjoy on the judiciary committee and public relations. we just called for a unanimous consent vote, the majority leader came out an objected. i appreciate that there are many colleagues, mostly in the other party who said there's nothing to worry about here, that there's no reason to be concerned but they support special counsel robert mueller being able to complete his investigation. as senator flake has said and i could not agree more, we need to the realize a week ago the president compelled the resignation of his attorney general. his closest ally in the early stages of his campaign. and the reason he fired attorney general jeff sessions is because he recused himself. the president just the same day that he compelled the resignation of the attorney general tweeted about the mueller investigation being a hoax. he has replaced the attorney general not with the deputy attorney general which would have been appropriate under the successio

senate. mitt romney will be the next united states senator from the state of utah. he beats jenny wilson. mitt romney, the former republican presidential nominee, the former governor of massachusetts. he will be the next u.s. senator from utah. in nevada, too early to call right now. a very competitive race between jacky rosen, the democrat, dean heller. in montana, similarly, too early to call. the incumbent democrat jon tester facing a very stiff challenge from the republican matt rosendale. too early to call in montana. let's take a look at the balance of power in the senate where things stand right now with these projections. 38 democrats. they will be in the senate. 45 republicans in the senate including one pickup. 17 seats right now remain outstanding in the u.s. senate. we're watching those 17 seats. democrats must pick up three republican seats and not lose any more of their own. three republican seats in order to get closer and closer to the majority. it's looking tough for the demo

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: reserving the right to object. i ask unanimous consent for two minutes to articulate the basis of my concern. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. lee: madam president, for reasons articulated by justice scalia in his classic opinion in morrison v. olson, this departments in the -- belongs in the department of justice. its principal officers consist of people serving at the pleasure of the president after being confirmed by the united states senate. this is a fundamental component of our liberty. the separation of powers protect us. that doesn't mean we're going to agree with what every president in every administration does. as justice scalia explains, we cannot convert an office like this one, an office like the previously existing office of independent counsel without creating a de facto fourth branch of government fundamentally undermining the principles of the separation of powers that is so core to our liberty. on that basis, madam president, i

[applause] >> thank you, senator. senator flake is one cool dude. i had no idea he was on survivor." to close out this dinner, please join me in welcoming rahm caan, abc news digital journalist and next chair of next year's dinner. [applause] >> all right. thank you to everyone for coming out tonight. thank you to senator jeff flake for your eloquent remarks as our keynote speaker and being a fierce defendant of the first amendment. thank you to enrique for keeping us entertained tonight. we would also like to give thanks to our generous support ponsors. iheartmedia and c-span. i want to especially thank the executive committee members for the service on their board during a very busy year on capitol hill to olga and mike and their hardworking house and senate gallery staff, to craig kaplan for organizing tonight's tremendous dinner. please join me in applauding their efforts. [applause] now please join us for a great after party hosted right here behind me by i heart media with our entertainment for the night, white ford bronco. we look for to seei

to help bolster their majority in the senate. but look at key races where the president endorsed and spent time campaigning for all the winning candidates. let's start in north dakota where republican representative kevin kramer ousted incumbent democratic senator heidi heitkamp a decisive victory, 9 point advantage, kramer with 55.2% of the vote and heitkamp with 44.8%. >> we made the decision to run for the senate and never once looked back. it is impossible for me to express the depth of my gratitude. >> reporter: next to utah where mitt romney easily defeated the democratic candidate, salt lake county councilwoman jenny wilson. romney had double the number of votes with 62.4% to wilkins's 31.5%. in his victory speech he called for civility regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race or place of birth. missouri, democratic incumbent senator claire mccaskill conceded earlier to the republican attorney general, josh holly, holly with a 6 point victory, 51.5% to mccaskill's 45-45%. the two were tied in several polls leading to

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. a senator: i would ask unanimous consent to speak up to 15 minutes. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. sanders: thank you. mr. president, later this afternoon, i believe we will be voting on one of the more important foreign policy issues that we have voted on in a very long time. this, of course, deals with the u.s. involvement in the war in yemen. mr. president, in march of 2015, under the leadership of mohammad bin solomon who was the saudi defense minute and is the crown prince, sawed rib and the united arab arab arab emirates interfered in the war. yemen is now experiencing the worst humanitarian disaster in the world. and it is absolutely imperative that we call attention to the inhumane and horrific situation that is now impacting the people of yemen, a small nation of 28 million people, one of the poorest countries on earth. according to the united nations, yemen is at risk of the most severe famine in more than 100 years, with some 14 million pe

we will be relentless here in the senate, in pressuring senator mcconnell and republicans in the senate to put them on the floor or pay the consequences. the american people voted for democrats last week on the strength of our ideas. senate democrats are committed to fighting to make those ideas a reality in this upcoming congress. reporter: senator schumer, with respect to florida, sir, i know yesterday you appeared with mr. nelson. can you share with us some of the conversations you had with him? what are his thoughts on this? senator schumer: well, bill nelson is strong as could be. he believes, i believe, he's won a majority of the votes. as long as they're counted, he will continue being senator from florida. the -- president trump and governor scott have just lied. they said there's fraud when their own republican officials in florida have said there's no fraud. they are trying to shut down the election because they're afraid of the consequences if they don't. in other words, a nelson victory. that's what bill believes. that's what i believe. reporter: do you believe the deadline

senate. 42 republicans. 23 senate seats remain outstanding right now. democrats must pick up two republican seats and not lose any of their own in order to get the majority of 51 they need. dana, you're eyeing contests very closely right now because they are tight. >> extremely tight. a lot of very exciting races that we're looking at across the battle ground states in the u.s. senate starting, of course, with texas. we keep watching this, and it is getting tighter, but beto o'roarke, the democrat, is still ahead by a little less than 4,000 votes right now. florida, it is so tight. the republican challenger rick scott is still ahead beating right now the democratic incumbent bill nelson. very close. less than 60,000 votes between them. indiana. this could be a heart break for the democrats because the republican challenger mike braun is ahead and has been all night long. about two-thirds of the vote in. joe donnelly is down significantly there. west virginia, a very different story. same in t

senator that's been in the senate. in all my years of being here, i have to say that i've -- that i have love for every one of the senators who served here. there were a couple i have less love for, but by and large i even have love for them. these folks in this senate are really good people. they care about the country. they care about trying to do what's right. they're willing to fight for their principles, and they can be worked with. and i challenge my colleagues to work together in the best interests of this country, and if you will, this country is going to go on and be a very, very happy, prosperous and successful country. having said that i'll end by saying i'm so grateful of the privilege of being in this body for 42 years and knowing all of you, our clerical workers, our stenographers, and of course the parliamentarians, secretaries, all of the people affiliated with the united states senate. no wonder it's the greatest deliberative body in the world. with that, mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quoru

senator mcconnell: no. reporter: in the past you said you don't think legislation to protect the special counsel is necessary. given what's happened over the past week, has your view changed? senator mcconnell: no. there's been no indication, as you can imagine. i talk to the president fairly often. no indication that the mueller investigation will not be allowed to finish and it should be allowed to finish. we know how the president feels about the mueller investigation, but he's never said he wants to shut it down. i never heard anybody down there say they want to shut it down. i think it's in no danger. i don't think any legislation is necessary. reporter: have you committed to bringing criminal justice reform to the floor in lame duck? what other items are on the lame-duck agenda? senator mcconnell: on criminal justice, what i said to the proponents is that we will -- first, we need a final agreement. there's been a lot of discussion, but we need an actual proposal. then, we would take a whip count. see

of any vote by the by the senate in a week from now. well i would anticipate the white house is going to try to work with some of these member offices to inform them of some of the implications if they do decide to rebuke saudi arabia on the republican side members like lindsey graham clearly is asking some very detailed questions but his state of south carolina actually receives because of some of the defense contractors like boeing a massive amount of money that will be you know that is being provided by the saudis and at the same time members like dianne feinstein and kamel harris from california that have silicon valley which has been largely bankrolled by saudi money over the last decade as the growth of the dot com sector has continued to increase again creates these uncomfortable questions while a lot of members of course would like to discuss the human rights issues and it's absolutely something that we should be focused on because what happened is completely unacceptable with the killing of a journalist upon the orders of of mo

senator manchin, you and republican senator susan collins for the last two senators to announce your votes whether to condition firm supreme court justice brett kavanaugh. senator collins announced on the senate floor at exactly 3:50 she would vote to confirm, becoming the 50th vote. your vote was announced on twitter four minutes later after onfirmation was already there. why did you wait so long and why shouldn't people believe that wasn't political expediency. mr. manchin: i'm the only democrat that voted for him. people were announcing immediately within 10 minute. the job that we do as senator is basically advise and consent. we went through every one of his cases. 300 cases. he had experience he had basically repertoire as far as his whole resume was great, as far as his education. his standing in the community. everything looked good he came in for a a two-hour confrontation with me, we went through his cases. after that we wait for the judiciary hearing. how can you announce the first 10 minutes or first day that a person is nominated without doing your job? then what we did

. -- wisconsin winning a senate seat, tammy baldwin winning the senate seat easily in wisconsin and beating scott walker. with walker, i have a theory that god didn't intend governors to serve more than two terms. [laughter] charlie: and there's a reason why a lot of states don't allow it, because it is unnatural. andrew cuomo is cheating the gods. he was able to do it and got away with it, but hey it's new york state. hard for a democrat to lose there. but whatever was the problem in wisconsin that led to republicans winning, donald trump winning wisconsin by 7/10 of one point, same thing. or pennsylvania, winning the governorship, holding onto the governorship easily and holding onto a senate seat very, very easily. and then you think of florida, coming up it looks like just short in both the senate and governors races, but very, very competitively. obama carried it by one point. trump carried it by 1.2 percentage points in both these races were really close. i mentioned ohio. what i meant was, that was one where normally, it is a purple state in presidential elections, but democrats just

bill nelson is a terrible senator. never once called and asked for something for the people of florida, rex forgot, all he does is call. look at the great job he did with the hurricane. i have to say ron desantis has to be governor. there's an electricity that feels like 2016. there is something going on. reminds me of two years ago. i know something is going on. i love what we are doing for the country. jillian: polls will begin to open on the east coast in an hour. the turnout is expected to be historic. rob: as for what is at stake, control of congress, democrats need to flip 24 seats to take the house but in the senate it appears republicans could actually add to their slim 51 seat majority. jillian: fox news team coverage and we begin with griff jenkins in florida where the sunshine state will soon pick its next governor and senator. >> reporter: good morning. remember what they said in 2016, florida florida florida. buckle up because we are about to get this going. already 5 million floridians have cast their vot

senator schumer: thank you, senator nelson and thank everybody for joining us today, as senator nelson mentioned, we will be making a statement at this point while the legal proceedings are ongoing. the more time that passes since election day, the better things keep looking for democrats. a few hours ago i met with senators-elect jackie rosen and kyrsten sinema. senator nelson briefed me with how things are going with the florida vote count. i want to make three simple points. first, it is a bedrock principle of our democracy that every vote is counted and the senate election in florida must abide by that rule. every single florida voter, whether they mailed in their ballot, whether they showed up at the polls on election day to vote, no matter for whom they legally cast their vote, must have their vote counted. the hallmark of our democracy is simple. every vote must count. that's what democrats believe. and that's what we are trying to get done. president trump and governor scott seem dead set against counting every vote. why? because they are worried that if every vote is counted,

senate. he was beaten by a democrat named jacky rosen, who was a democratic member of congress who had to give up her seat to run against dean heller. that was a good bargain for her. she'll be coming back to washington as a u.s. senator instead as a member of congress. because she had to leave her seat in congress in order to run for the senate, that left her congressional seat open. and this is where the trump genius came in. having advised danny tarkanian that he wasn't allowed to run in the senate primary against dean heller to ensure that heller would hold on to his seat, and trump then promoted the hack out of dan yeah tarkanian to be the republican nominee for that house seat, for the one that was vacated by congresswoman jacky rosen. last night, that trump candidate, he lost that race, too. he lost that house seat to a democrat named suzy lee. but the president believes he has real political genius when he comes to these things and he's not shy about doing this anywhere in the country

senate seat. i'm chris, joined by political reporter, michael mahoney and the two leading candidates in this race. democratic senator claire mccaskill and republican attorney general josh hawley. each campaign has ruled on the rules and each candidate gets 90 seconds to answer each question with a 62nd bottle. follow-ups are at the discretion of the moderated josh hawley get the first question based on the drive. one week ago, like money has a question. >> candidate, at times his campaign for the u.s. senate has affected tribal nature of the national campaign especially in the last couple of days at that. you're called each other's names and folded each other at times and neither of you started this tribal politics but your campaigns have also joined in on it. is this what voters deserve? don't we expect better? >> thank you, mike for that question and thank you for hosting us. i want to start by saying i am delighted to my wife, aaron, with me. sitting right over there and we got two little boys

senate. this is over an hour. >> thank you very much steve for that nice introduction. i'm very honored to be here with you. i'm going to use -- i'm a little apprehensive about this i'm going to use a lot of numbers and here i am in front of a group of people that's what you do is numbers. but i was actually the other thing i was thinking is i've lost over 100 pounds in the last 17 months and i was wondering if you guys could figure out -- [applause] -- i had told my wife you know i hope you like me i'm going to be a lot longer than she had barpgened for. some of you could probably tell me what i'm more likely to be around. but anyway, thank you very much for having me here. here we go, we're about 25 million people have already voted in this election, voted early. it's a 61 -- the experts say it's a 61% increase since this point back in 2014. the last midterm election, and you know we don't know necessarily how to vault that because how much of this is intensity and enthusiasm from specific

it would have a chance in a bipartisan senate for passing. there are a bunch of things i would want to get done on infrastructure. >> what do you think about his language question mark mr. schumer: i answered that question. >> what do you think about the map in 2020? senator schumer: the map looks much better. we will have a very good shot in 2020. i think republicans thought they could hold us down to 40 or 41. this will ensure that in 2020 our map is better and in 2020 to our map is better still. >> bill nelson in florida, do you think you could win there? mr. schumer: there are a lot of ballots that have not been counted from what i have been told, in the hundreds of thousands. this election is not a foregone conclusion. we are in the recount stage because it's below .5% i believe. there are a lot of votes that have not been counted and a lot of them come from counties that are democrat. upwith republicans picking senate seats has anything , changed with regard to the border wall? would you still do a daca fix in exchange for a border wall

senator mccain, senator murkowski and senator colin voted against repeal of the affordable care act. republican, moderate republicans understand that it might get they didn't repeal the affordable care act. the most important problem is while the campaign -- >> the reason democrats want to make an issue here. the reason democrats want to make an issue here. >> at the 302nd. in fairness i went to get josh the final 30 seconds because david you had your turn. >> the reason democrats try to fear monger about health care is because the economy is booming. americans are siding with the president and republicans on border security and a new "washington post" poll came out today. americans are more optimistic about the economy. people are worried about border security. these are shooters favoring republicans. >> i was going to get to those other points but unfortunately amount of time. sorry about that. thank you both in good luck to everybody. >> thank you. transducer to have the russians attack us during the presidential election. you think enough is being done to protect the integrity of

senator. i hope you continue to allow me the privilege of serving you. , senatorrst question hyde-smith. evening, senator hyde-smith. pettyf us own agricultural exports. how long can mississippi farmers ffs,omically cope with tari and would there be a point where you would try to step in to protect farmers and asked the president to reconsider? sen. hyde-smith: as commissioner of agriculture and commerce in this great state, i am well aware of the challenges. i have met with the president in i proudly support him negotiating these trades. all mississippi farmers want a fair deal, and i'm excited the president has stepped up to renegotiate these deals so congress can level the playing field that we have the advantage, and not the imbalance of every other country having a bigger advantage than we do. >> rebuttal? sec. espy: this is a policy by this administration, something i worried about in march, in an article called "be careful what you ask for." curryesident tried to favor by putting tariff

the senate, because each senate has two senators... we will hold you there. we have a five minute window with a line to nevada and we want to go there. we will speak with cbs news, our partner organisation, jamie yukka in nevada, things haven't done well for the democrats so far, how is it looking in nevada?” well for the democrats so far, how is it looking in nevada? i can tell you i'm at the democratic headquarters in nevada, polls closed 40 minutes ago and you can see the room is empty, this was a strategy to keep as many volunteers out at the polls as possible because even though polls close, as long as people were in line at the 172 statewide precincts they will get to vote if they were in line at closing time. so it is anybody‘s guess as to how that will turn. it has been a very contentious race here. one that people across america have been watching very closely. democrat jackie rosen is the democrat here who has been out campaigning, the last couple of days she has been on a non—stop tear trying to get the youth vote, the union vote, taking on t

there is a competitive senate race, senator nelson chart -- challenged by rick scott. how will you vote? caller: i voted all republican. i'm not letting no democrat step in to do nothing. i tell you what and trumpeter stay there another for years and stomp them out. i am there with him. host: thank you for the call. now from ohio. caller: this will be my first year of voting and i excited to vote for republicans and i look forward to be voting for president trump or mike transit he choosespence if to run in 2020. host: i assume you will vote republican. caller: i am excited to be voting this year. host: former president -- vice president joe biden was in scranton. .e will go to roy next in fort wayne, indiana, how will you vote tomorrow? definitely democrat. i have already voted. host: what do you expect the outcome to be? joe donnelly seeking a spec and -- second turn. caller: i am hoping joe donnelly wins but my number one issue is definitely health care. i believe that for the affordable care act not one rib -- republican voted for the forrdable care act and now pre

have democratic senators. but the republicans slowly and patiently made their inroads over a number of decades in some cases before they finally started to lock down republican seats in states that democrats have since almost forgotten about until this time when democrats went back to georgia and texas and places like mississippi and alabama and said, we're going to fight here, we're going to compete. >> and what is interesting about this is some old school politics in terms of the racial divide, and it's about whether or not democrats can succeed in states when the path to succeeding is about ensuring that african-americans are not only motivated to vote but they're allowed to vote. in the deep south that's hugely an issue in terms of the partisan divide but also an issue whether they can persuade to show they've actually got a fighting chance. and every time a mike espy gets close or a doug jones wins or a beto o'rourke gets close, that makes that argument that much easier. >> and it's a very good thing for

senator harris? senator harris? >> no, senator hour ahno. -- hurano. and i would like to yield to senator booker before i make my statement. senator grassley: we're here to have a hearing, not a debate. senator booker: i want to make a point, our staffs are so burdened and busy and i can imagine your staff sass a chairman staff is probably beyond my imagination and you have such good people that work for you. i want you to know, sir, i think some of the information you said is not right and i say this with all due respect and really asking for just maybe some deference or grace from you as chairman. the first communication that came from your staff informing us about the scheduling of this hearing happened about a week ago. and it was after -- i'm sorry, telling us about your understanding about that we were consulted. i know your staff is probably telling you the date now. if i understand right and i can look at your staff, it was wednesday of last week when you all sent us that letter. after this hearing had already been scheduled, sir. if you or any

and the matter would've gone to the senate. most senators would have voted to convict. nixon was told shortly by barry goldwater before he resigned. goldwater was such a loyal republican and when he told nixon he did not think you would get more than 10 or 12 votes, nixon knew the game was up. more than two thirds would vote to convict. so he knew he would have to resign or and at being impeached. brian: how much did chapter eight in your book on impeachment drive you to write the book? the title of the chapter is " will donald trump be impeached?" mr. gerhardt: it is a topic a lot of people talk about. what i tried to do in the chapter is clean up misconceptions about legal issues and constitutional issues. i try to work through the different subjects that can come up with trump. it is a subject that interests me as someone who studies impeachment and as an american. that was an important chapter. brian: do you have a gut instinct as to whether or not there will be an attempt to impeach him at any point? mr. gerhardt: it is likely there will be an attempt to impeach hi

senator. he is a relative political newcomer. the biggest event was the ten years he spent on the jasper indiana school board. he spent four years in the indiana house. and during that time he actually developed a really close relationship in a group of individuals who are very focused on good fiscal policy. and good relations. mike pence is very much involved in it. it's a major area of focus. the broader theme of workforce development. the ability to in packed that. they outsource a real political hot button issue in indiana. he is made most of his money and the company called myron distributing. focus on auto parts. i will talk about that a little bit more. in many cases are some of the business of mega- donors and those strong he felt. at the national level i think it's a little bit of a question mark. he has shown a lot of support from washington. their relationship has been rocky at times. his brother actually served in mike pence administration. but he is not close with that brother. on

senator manchin, you and republican senator susan collins for the last two senators to announce your vote whether to confirm brett kavanaugh. senator collins announced at exactly 3:50 p.m. she would vote to confirm, become the 50th vote. your vote was announced on twitter at 3:54 p.m., four, four minutes later after confirmation was assured he goes vice president and could invoke the type required to do wait to announce your support and why shouldn't the people of west virginia believe you did that out of political expediency? manchin: on the only democrat voted for judge kavanaugh. people were announcing immediately such as attorney general patrick morrisey year was announcing me to within ten minutes. the job we do as senator is basically advice and consent. we went through every one of his cases, 300. he had basically repertoire as far as his whole resume was great, as far as his education. his den in the community compare the things look good. he came in for a qr confrontation with me. we went through all the cases after that we wait for the judicial hearing. how can your notes i

senate. the president last night finished a series of campaign appearances and warned a blue wave could wipe out what he calls "fragile republican victory," and we're watching governor's races that could make history and give us clues about 2020. we have live coverage across america. >> now "shepard smith reporting" live from the fox news desk. >> shepard: u.s. senate, republicans have thin majority campaigned to hold or increase. democrats need to hold on to all of their seats and flip two to take control. several senate democrats campaigned for re-election in states that voted for president trump in 2016. one analyst says today, more than 38 million americans voted early. election officials say that is nearly twice as many as voted before election day in the past mid-terms. there are reports of long lines and scattered glitchs at some polling places. some candidates had to wait their turn. here is democratic senator claire mccaskill of missouri, stand nothing line with other voters. we have

the yeas are sixty three the nays are thirty seven this was the senate and good fourteen republican senators joined all forty nine democrats in recommending that the bull should be discussed on the senate floor in all probability a debate that will happen next week it's a direct repudiation of the white house which it sent both the secretary of state and the secretary of defense to persuade senators to vote against the proposal the united states should not be supporting a catastrophic war led by a despotic regime with a dangerous and irresponsible military policy senators furious to a reports that the white house had instructed the cia director not to attend the classified briefing this despite repeated demands that gina has pulled brief the senate on the khashoggi killing and the level of involvement of the saudi crown prince mohammed bin solomon as to whether the crown prince was involved in this killing it's my belief that he was it's my belief that he ordered it i don't have a smoking gun. but what i do know is that he is responsible for this agency that carried out the killing he has do

outgoing republican senator jeff flake whose senate seat in arizona was just won by kyrsten sinema, senator flake pushed a bipartisan bill to try to protect special counsel robert mueller from getting fired. republican senate leadership quickly blocked the bill. senator flake then announced that his fellow republicans can't count on his vote for any more judges or anything else until they pass the protect mueller bill. >> i would like to take this opportunity to say a few words about what special counsel mueller and his team have been investigating and why. as the point of this vital investigation seems to have been purposely confused and maligned by the white house in a rather alarming way. this bill was designed to do one thing, protect the integrity of the special counsel's investigation and spare it of any influence and interference from the executive branch, including from those who may themselves be the subjects of that investigation. this special counsel was appointed to thoroughly investigate the attacks on our electoral system by elements of the russian government during the lead-u

senate in the. kellyanne conway the counselor to president trump speaking to report says it's very late in washington d.c. there is a very positive spin on the night saying it was a great result donald trump a reflection of his policies let's go to a white house correspondent kimberly halakhah also she was saying that trump the first lady and the family is still up in the white house watching these results just behind way you are and we have been hearing from president trump which is one tweet. less than his usual average but still. that's right the president did tweet i think this we're getting a bit of a pattern now in terms of the talking points from this white house because not only did kellyanne conway speak and that went on for about twenty five minutes sensually the president capping all of that in a tweet tremendous success thank you all but we know that the night doesn't appear to be a complete success because the republicans have lost it appears the control of the house of representatives

thank you mister president. >> the senator from delaware and the senator from new jerses jersey, senator booker for doing this with us to make sure we have this bipartisan piece of legislation here on the senate floor it is not unremarkable that you have such a bipartisan piece of legislation passed out of the judiciary committee we don't have very many pieces coming of the senate judiciary committee but this one was 14 / seven including the chairman. there is no reason why it should not be brought to the floor it was passed as the judiciary committee april 26 i should note that have been busy sending things to the floor in the meantime in fact, since april 26 when the bill passed the judiciary committee we have sent 49 nominations through to the floor that we have confirmed here on the floor actually they voted on 50 and one was already appealed so on the floor since the bill passed the judiciaryhej committee we had voted on 50 confirmations of the president's nominees many were loose lipped we have been able to move on all of them there is no reason we should not move on this final pie

he is tried by the senate, and he is a presiding officer of the senate. and of course, it cannot be the case that the vice president presides at his own impeachment trial. it was so obvious that it went without saying, or they didn't say it. here is what they said, when a president is tried, the chief justice presides. why? because who otherwise would have presided, it would've been the vice president who stood to gain. that you get to be said. it wasn't entirely clear. you would have this insurmountable conflict of interest. but because it was slightly different than presiding in your own case, that needed to be said. but nobody thought it needed to be said that you could not presiding own case, of course you can't. that is what the essence of the rule of law his. goes all the way back to cicero in roman times. if you cannot be a judge in your own case, you cannot be a pardoner and your own case either. it is the first principle of the rule of law. benno: the framers and ratifiers did not specify some of these bars because they thought better of us. [lau

a few of us remember senator joseph mccarthy and his craziness in the senate. his lawyer was roy cohn. guess what? 1973, hees this guy in is trump's mentor, or was. he died in 1989 or 1986. teaching was -- host: how does he relate to yesterday's events? caller: it is trump's style. he lies. he dispels fear in people. he attacks, the exploits and instills fear. he attacks and counterattacks and never apologizes. him.s what cohn taught think god for the american women -- thank god for the american women who took positions in our politics. the kids out there are upset. the one gentleman was talking about his family, they are tired of lying. host: here is more on the florida senate. >> breaking news out of the florida senate race. let me take you to the race board. governor rick scott looking to knock off senator bill nelson votes.ith 4,073,835 about 34,500gin of votes separating the two. now, it appears to be going to a recount. said they are planning for a recount in the florida senate race. he has enlisted the help of mark alias. we will continue to update you o

mississippi deserves a senator who shares your values and will fight for your values, and that senator is cindy hyde-smith. [applause] also at stake in tomorrow's election or your medicare benefits. that is a big deal. democrats want to raid medicare to find socialism. -- to fund socialism. it won't last long. republicans will protect medicare for our great seniors who have earned it, and by the way, who have paid for it, just in case we forget. and republicans will always protect americans with pre-existing conditions. democrats will also destroy your health care by inviting caravan after caravan after caravan of illegal aliens to violate our borders, overwhelming our communities, and bankrupting our treasury. you look at what is happening on our border and you see people coming up by the thousands. and frankly, if we didn't show them strength and a strong border, and nobody has shown a stronger border. if we didn't do that, you would have hundreds of thousands of people pouring into our country. we are doing a job, and we will continue to do a job. we are doing what is right. [applau

senate. i believe it's a call for greater dignity and respect. >> reporter: democrats did manage to knock off one republican senator, nevada's dean heller, who concede to do his challenger jackie rosen early this morning. and we're still waiting for a winner declared in louisiana and montana. it's looking like republicans will be adding to their majority by two, possibly three, seats. >> thank you very much, nancy. always good to have you here. >>> president trump is highlighting his role in the republican victories last night. he also thanked his supporters for a, quote, tremendous success in spite of democrats taking control of the house. major garrett is at the white house where the president will hold a news conference in about 90 minutes from now. major, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. we expect president trump to talk about more wins than losses and a protected senate majority. at that press conference we're also going to press the president on possible cabinet changes, maybe c

senate. today they were gone )-right-parenthesis policy, a final passage on a bill for policy and programs in about 15 or 20 minutes we are told. after that they move on to a nomination for the federal reserve board of governors. also we have heard word that senators jeff flake and chris coons might seek a floor vote this afternoon on their legislation that would protect the special counsel heading the russian investigation from being fired. live coverage of the u.s. senate here on c-span2. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chaplain dr. barry black will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. eternal god, thank you for the gift of fruitful labor. forgive us for the help we might have given someone in need and did not give. use our lawmakers for your glory. may they not thoughtlessly think, speak or act in ways that wound or harm. grant that they will do nothing that would bring shame to themselves, grief to their families, or sorrow to you. thank you for

senator harris? >> senator harris? >> senator horonno. >> i would like to yield some time to senator booker. >> we are here to have a hearing not to have a debate. >> i'm just trying to make a factual -- >> our staff is overburdened and i can only imagine your staff, is beyond my imagination, i think some of the information you just said is not right, and i say this with all due respect and really asking for maybe some deference or grace from your chairman -- you as chairman. the first communication that came from your staff informing us about the scheduling of this hearing happened about a week ago, and it was after -- i'm sorry, telling us about your understanding about that we were consulted. >> i know your staff is telling you the date now and wednesday of last week was when you all sent us that letter. after this hearing had already been scheduled, sir. if you or anybody from the staff had come and alerted me, i would have at least asked to meet with this judge. you characterized earlier that mr. chairman, you cha

the next senator from utah. can he do what i do? probably not because i have been how long enough and i have chaired three major committees and the most viable committee in the congress right now, the finance committee. that takes seniority to get there and an awful lot of hard work. he will still be effective because of who he is and his reputation. and how hard i think he will work. think he given, but i has a really good chance of becoming the next senator from utah. your 1970 six campaign, your first one. your campaign slogan was, what do you call a senator who has been in washington for 18 years? you call him home. who came up with that? sen. hatch: i think i did. it could have been some of our advisors. senator moss was a nice man but he was a total liberal. he was not acting in the best interest of utah, or really the country in my opinion. that is why i felt he needed to be called on. .> here you are 42 years later at the time, when you came up with that, how one to you think you might serve? sen. hatch:

senator kelly, another emotional issue. do you think diversity is enough to affect students with come to state the marks and initiatives directed at that issue? >> let me say to clarify here. today i have four children. my husband and i have seven grandchildren. when my children went to school i never worried about them as to whether they be affected with gun violence. i worry everything they about my seven grandchildren and will not wait as governor to wait for a tragedy in the state. we do need to do more about common sense gun safety and i disagree with my opponent. as governor we need to put forth and i will universal background checks as well in red flag to keep guns in the hands of children and the mystic abusers in the first bill that my opponent signed into law was to allow anyone to carry a concealed weapon without a permit and i would repeal that? we need to keep our daughter safe in school and they look to us and trust us and they expect us to make them safe and as governor i will work to be able to do that. >> g

the senate and democrats still in the house. that's how that looks now at the stage and what we can tell, bret and martha, what is the trump effect here? what is the effect of the lake camping. i remember vividly because the covered the white house at the time bill clinton campaign he went after it in 1994 to say that congress for his party and he campaigned as vigorously as the president has and was off or not. here we were on election night having watched the president campaign so hard and getting these crowds that he boasted about and we said they knew the crowd size is not an indicator but boy, were we wrong. we don't really know. we may be in a new time and this man may have a full we can't quite measure by the usual metrics. martha: that is the question. what is the trump effect. in 2016 we all sat in his room and watched something that was so remarkable take place in so here we are two years later with the pent up energy of people who have been resisting this president and people who have been supporting this president an

of the senate. senator, the snow is going to be a tough year for democrats defending 26 seats this year in the midterms while republicans will have nine senate seats up and 10 senate democrats are running in the states president trump won in 2016. many by 20 or 30 points. realistically, don't republicans have a better chance of not only holding the joy by adding to it than you do flipping the senate? >> you're absolutely right. this is the toughest political map anyone party has faced in 60 years and if you have asked people a year and and a half ago where we would be, you would not even be asking the question about whether or not we have a path to senate democratic majority. the answer is, it is a very narrow path as you indicate. but the fact that we are as competitive as we are, is a real testament to our senators and candidates who have always said the north star standing up for the people of their state. that is the first and foremost priority. that is what they've been doing. >> give me your t

ky tell you three democratic senators suing to block this appointment, including senator richard blumenthal who joins me in a moment. his effort zeros in on a technicality. but the larger battle is over. matt whitaker's criticisms of this mueller probe, which trump claims he didn't know about despite donald trump's habit of watching tv news and yes, fixating on criticism of bob mueller. >> did you know before you appointed him that he had that record that was so critical of robert mueller? >> i dd not know that. i did not know he took views on the mueller investigation as such. >> if mueller decides to limit or curtail the mueller investigation, are you okay with that in >> look, it's going to be up to him. he's going to do what's right. >> but you want overrule him if he decides to curtail -- >> i would not get involved. >> that may sound like another typical denial, but it's important, because that's the same tactic that richard nixon used to shut down a probe into his white house. when watergate got hot, and people started getting indicted, nixon put a new attorney general in and publicl