When something becomes this much of a soap opera in the space of a morning, you have to wonder what is really going on here? Even ABC calls it "The Shiny Story":

THE SHINY STORY: This is a new one. Barely a week since being tapped by President Trump for the Supreme Court, Judge Neil Gorsuch is calling the president’s comments on the judiciary “demoralizing” and “disheartening,” in quotes reported by a Democratic senator and confirmed by a Gorsuch spokesman. This is not normal: Supreme Court nominees typically go out of their way to be uninteresting during their Capitol courtesy calls. They never – ever – distance themselves from the public statements of the president who chose them before confirmation hearings, much less before swearing-in. Shocking as this is, it may be less than meets pundits’ eyes. The Trump team has been forgiving of Cabinet nominees’ breaks with the president. Gorsuch disliking attacks on a federal judge make sense, since he is also a federal judge. More importantly, what Gorsuch is saying now could ease his confirmation, while not binding him to any particular predispositions on the high court. The only person who looks worse for this exchange may be the president. And since he can’t avoid Tweeting about it, he may not like it, of course.

TLDR: ...Judge Neil Gorsuch called the president’s comments on the judiciary “demoralizing” and “disheartening." It's a shocking distancing from the man who nominated him, but the president has already tweeted he believes Gorsuch's comments are being misrepresented. Of course, Gorsuch's spokesman already confirmed them on the record.

THIS MORNING'S TRUMP TWEETS:

6:57 AM: Sen.Richard Blumenthal, who never fought in Vietnam when he said for years he had (major lie),now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him? 8:19 AM: Chris Cuomo, in his interview with Sen. Blumenthal, never asked him about his long-term lie about his brave "service" in Vietnam. FAKE NEWS!

But actually, that was the first question Cuomo asked -- it's that Blumenthal didn't respond to the charge.

And after that interview, Chris Cuomo appeared on the Michael Smerconish radio program with some tough words about "fake news":

CHRIS CUOMO: I see being called "fake news," as the equivalent of the N-word for journalists--the equivalent of calling an Italian any of the ugly words that people have for that ethnicity. That's what "fake news" is to a journalist. It's an ugly insult, and you'd better be right, if you're going to charge a journalist with lying on purpose. And the president was not right here, and he's not been right in the past."

And several are pointing out that this is all a fake, Bannon directed, scripted drama to make Neil Gorsuch appear "independent" of Trump.

Maybe we just KEEP THAT SEAT OPEN until a new president wins the popular vote. Hashtag Merrick Garland.