Hillary Clinton made it clear she was disturbed by Trump's ceremonial swearing in of Brett Kavanaugh last night when speaking to Christiane Amanpour.
"What was done last night in the White House was a political rally. It further undermined the image and integrity of the Court. and that troubles me greatly. It saddens me, because our judicial system has been viewed as one of the main pillars of our constitutional government. so i don't know how people are going to react to it. I think, given our divides, it will pretty much fall predictably between those who are for and those who are against. But the president has been true to form. He has insulted, attacked, demeaned women throughout the campaign, really for many years leading up to the campaign, and he's continued to do that inside the white house."
Jeffrey Toobin said, "You know, I think the Supreme Court has a reputation for being less political than it always has been. You know, if you go through all of American history, it has always been at the fulcrum of American politics. There has been an effort over many years to try to insulate the court. and it is different. They don't run for office the way other politicians do, or the way politicians do.
"But Hillary Clinton is right, that this was -- he treated this as another way to appeal to his base. I mean, this remarkable national apology to Brett Kavanaugh was really something deeply astonishing. And the claim that he was found innocent by the Senate was so preposterously untrue. But it's in keeping with how Donald Trump has run his presidency and his life."
"This is the president again saying the quiet part loud," Abby Phillip said.
"He has been talking for days now about the fact that he thinks this is going to help them in November. He says something is going to happen. By that he means this is going to boost his supporters. But what I thought was the most striking last night was how the president was on a different page from his own nominee. Brett Kavanaugh is the person who is going to be on the court and understands that he needs to do something to change the -- to turn the page, to change the chapter. and he was trying to do that in his speech. And President Trump did the exact opposite by making this as political as it could possibly have been.
"That's to be expected though. I think Hillary Clinton was right in some ways, that where we are right now in this country is that when the president does things like that, people are no longer surprised by it. They acknowledge it as being what he does. He is not someone who typically will fall back to what we have come to believe are norms in recent history. Maybe not norms of the history of the court altogether. And President Trump is not bothered by that. He's concerned about November 6th. And that's what he said last night. And I think that that is where the White House is coming from."
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