Chuck Todd: Judge Brett Kavanaugh ‘Very Confirmable Pick’

MSNBC host Chuck Todd called Judge Brett Kavanaugh a “very confirmable pick” during NBC’s coverage of President Donald Trump’s second Supreme Court nominee Monday evening.

Transcript is as follows:

PETE WILLIAMS: Last year, President Trump chose a former law clerk of Anthony Kennedy, in Neil Gorsuch. This year he chose a former law clerk to Justice Kennedy in Brett Kavanaugh. Brett Kavanaugh was a law clerk the same year as Neil Gorsuch. I don’t think that’s ever happened in Supreme Court history. The two former clerks who served at the same time have been nominated to the Supreme Court. One now on, one now hoping to be on. Judge Kavanaugh has been an Appeals Court judge for twelve years here. Service in the George W. Bush administration. Service with Ken Starr. The Senate has hoped that Trump would choose someone else but obviously, the president thought otherwise, Lester.”

LESTER HOLT: All right, Pete. Let me go to Chuck Todd. He has been described as a man with clear, conservative credentials and has spoken out on the issue of whether a president should be distracted by investigations. I’m going to go out on a limb here and think Democrats are going to seize on that very quickly.

CHUCK TODD: Lester, I think they are. Look, I think in his confirmation hearings you are going to hear a lot about that. You’re going to hear a lot about some of the work he did in his political background — his sort of pre-legal background on that front. Yes, I think the idea of whether a sitting president can be subject to criminal inquiry. Judge Kavanaugh worked for Ken Starr and has written a review article that basically says in hindsight we distracted President Clinton too much and he should have been able to focus on getting, for instance, Osama bin Laden at the time.

Let me tell you this — overall, Lester, I think this is a pick that is a very confirmable pick. Brett Kavanaugh has already got the support once of the two moderate Republican Senators Murkowski and Collins. He’ll likely get it again.