Filling in for Craig Melvin during MSNBC’s 1:00 p.m. ET hour on Monday, anchor Chris Jansing recounted a recent exchange she had with a Democratic activist in California, who apparently became “literally physically ill” upon hearing the news that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy was retiring and President Trump would be nominating a replacement.
“I was just with several different groups of Democrats in California 25th, that’s one of those congressional district that’s heating up for the fall,” Jansing told ProPublica’s Alex MacGillis and political analyst Michael Steele. She added, “And I mean, this is – one woman actually told me that she was an activist in the ’60s and she had not been very active since then, and when she heard about Kennedy stepping down, she literally got physically ill.”
Jansing then wondered: “And so, is it possible to overstate how much this will change the way America is, the way laws are formed? Are we being a little hyperbolic or are we maybe even understating the possibility that you get a conservative jurist, and maybe even one more after that?”
Here is a transcript of her July 2 remarks:
1:45 PM ET
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CHRIS JANSING: I was just with several different groups of Democrats in California 25th, that’s one of those congressional district that’s heating up for the fall. And I mean, this is – one woman actually told me that she was an activist in the ’60s and she had not been very active since then, and when she heard about Kennedy stepping down, she literally got physically ill. And so, is it possible to overstate how much this will change the way America is, the way laws are formed? Are we being a little hyperbolic or are we maybe even understating the possibility that you get a conservative jurist, and maybe even one more after that?
(...)
