(dramatic music)

- Welcome to "The 700 Club".

The battle is on as Republicans rush

to confirm a new Supreme Court Justice

in the wake of the death ofJustice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The president pledged this morning

to name a nominee on Friday or Saturday.

The question is, canthe Senate get it done

before the end of the year?

- Well, even if they succeedthe battle's not over.

What overwhelming oppositionare the Democrats planning?

Paul Strand reports.

- Democrats are doing all theycan to stop President Trump

and the Republican-controlled Senate

confirming a replacement forJustice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

- We have arrows in our quiver

that I'm not about to discuss right now.

- [Paul] They're chargingthe GOP with hypocrisy

because Senate leaderMitch McConnell has pledged

to bring the nominee to a vote

even though he wouldn'tact on Barack Obama's

final Supreme Courtnomination in his last year.

- Please, follow your conscience.

Don't vote to confirm anyone nominated

under the circumstances President Trump

and Senator McConnell have created.

- But Republican SenatorTed Cruz said the precedent

has always been if the White House

and Senate are controlledby the same party,

the confirmation process goes forward.

He insisted that'sparticularly important now

because the court reallyneeds nine justices

who might end up picking the winner

in this hotly contestedpresidential election year.

- We need a full court on Election Day

given the very high likelihood

that we're gonna see litigationthat goes to the Court.

We need a Supreme Court

that can give a definitiveanswer for the country.

- This battle though, could all be moot,

if four Republican senators refuse to vote

for a nominee before the election,

and two have already taken that position,

Maine's Susan Collins andAlaska's Lisa Murkowski.

If a majority will vote, though,the question still remains,

can the Senate get thisconfirmation done in time?

- The average is probablyin the 60s and 70s

in terms of number of days but certainly

there's well more than that amount

of time before the end of the year.

And that's what leaderMcConnell has committed to.

He said we're gonna have a votebefore the end of the year.

- [Paul] PresidentTrump said this weekend,

he'll move quickly on a nominee.

- We will uphold equaljustice under the law

for citizens of every race,color, religion, and creed.

I will be putting fortha nominee next week.

It will be a woman.

(crowd cheering)

It will be a woman.

- [Paul] Everyone expects a nasty battle

because if Trump nominatesa solid conservative,

it will tilt the courtin their favor, 6-3.

- I think that this isgoing to make the Kavanaugh

confirmation hearingseem like a dust stop.

Because if President Trump is the person

who will appoint JusticeGinsburg's replacement,

you're going to bereplacing a liberal icon.

- Two candidates at the topof the president's list,

Barbara Lagoa, a Cuban Americanon the 11th Circuit Court,

and Seventh CircuitJudge, Amy Coney Barrett,

a runner up to BrettKavanaugh's last go around.

Americans United For Life'sCatherine Glenn Foster

says Barrett's a solid constitutionalist.

- She is not someone who is going

to act as a judicial activist,

who is going to substituteher own personal preferences

for our nation's founding principles.

- [Paul] Ginsburg spentmuch of her life fighting

for the equal treatment of women.

Foster says Barrett may be conservative,

but her balancing of work and family honor

what Ginsburg wanted for women.

- It would be verybeneficial to all Americans,

to all women, and really be an honor

to the legacy of Justice Ginsburg

to have a young mother onthe Court, a mother of seven.

- [Paul] The third rankingRepublican Senator,

the Democrats will take vengeance

if this nomination goes throughand then they take power.

- Chuck Schumer's been very clear.

The Democrats have been very clear.

If they win the White House andthe Senate all bets are off.

They are going to blow up the filibuster.

They are going to use the nuclear option.

They are going to stack the Supreme Court.

- The President has said he'llpick a nominee this week.

Paul Strand, CBN News, reportingfrom the Supreme Court.

- Well, CBN Chief Political Analyst

David Brody is joining us.

And David, it sounds like the battle's on.

If we got a taste of it with Kavanaugh,

what are you expecting to happen on this?

- Yeah, Gordon, BrettKavanaugh may look like

child's play after all ofthis and that's not good

'cause we know how bad it got,

really bad with Brett Kavanaugh.

Nancy Pelosi says she's gotsome quivers in the arrow.

We're about to find out,

but here's the truth of the matter.

Procedurally, Democrats can't do a thing.

Their strategy at this pointis called scared straight

and basically trying to get Republicans,

a few of them, a handfulto get scared straight

to say if you do this, we're going to blow

up the Senate nextyear, if we get control.

And so that's what they're trying to do,

persuade their colleagues.

How would they blow it up, Gordon?

Lots of different ways.

You heard a little bit of that at the end,

as it relates to maybeeliminating the legislative

filibuster that takes 60 votes.

Of course we've heardabout packing the court,

adding as much as up to13 Supreme Court justices.

And then don't forgetstatehood on the table

for DC and Puerto Rico.

That would be potentiallyfour, two and two,

four new senators, mostlikely Democrat senators.

And so this is the roadthat we could be going down

according to Democrats, ifRepublicans go with this move.

- Aren't they all just sort ofnuclear options, aren't they?

FDR was the last one thattried to pack the court

and as popular as he was as a president,

he found out he couldn't do it

and it actually cost him politically.

He wasn't able to get legislation through

because he attempted to pack the court.

Aren't they at all afraid there

could be a backlash if they do that?

- Sure, you're absolutely right.

But let's also remember this all started,

if you think about it, back in 2013,

and we remember thosestories, I was reporting on it

and we were covering ithere at "The 700 Club"

when Harry Reid and the Democrats decided

to eliminate the filibuster

on federal appeals courtjudges, that was at 60.

They said, no, we wantthese federal appeals

court judges confirmed so we're going down

to 50 and then McConnell, Mitch McConnell,

when the Republicans gained control,

eliminated the filibusterfor Supreme Court nominees.

And so if Republicans goahead and take this step,

that's the third of thepotential fourth step,

because the fourth step couldbe Democrats doing everything

we just talked about.

- All right, well, theRepublicans have to hold together.

And two Republican senators,

one from Maine and one from Alaska,

have already said they're against it.

Are there any others who are on the fence?

- Well, everybody'slooking at Mitt Romney.

Just so we can do the quick math

and I wasn't a big math fan,but I think I can do this.

53 Republican senators.

You can only lose threebecause if you get to 50,

Mike Pence, the Republicanvice-president would break a tie.

So you're okay there, soyou can only lose three.

You're going to lose Lisa Murkowski.

You're going to lose Susan Collins.

You probably will lose Mitt Romney.

That's my sense of it,that takes you to 50.

You cannot lose onemore Republican senator.

Everybody's looking atCory Gardner in Colorado.

He's the wild card, he'sthe one to watch, Gordon.

He's in a very tough battle against

John Hickenlooper out inColorado for the Senate seat.

And so the question is, whatis Corey Gardner going to do?

I don't want to get intoall of the politics here,

but I'll just say this,

that the concern with Cory Gardner is that

he wants to kind of break away from Trump.

This would be a good way to do that

to break away from Trump.

At the same time, heneeds the Republican base

to win a second term.

So all lies on Cory GardnerI think going forward.

- Let's get into thepolitics 'cause I think

this is ultimately is whatit's going to come down to.

This is an election year.

The Senate is at stake, it'snot just the executive branch.

If the Republicans don't hold together

and don't get this done,

isn't there going to be a backlash

from the base against anyone that defects?

- Oh, 100%, Gordon,you're absolutely right.

And so then it kind ofbrings up this big question

of when do Republicans move on this?

There's no question they'regoing to move on it.

As a matter of fact, thepresident most likely

will be nominating a Supreme Court justice

here in the next dayor two later this week.

The question is, does MitchMcConnell have the vote

before the election or after?

Of course, a lot depends on Cory Gardner

and all the politics involved,

but there's a political calculation too,

about if you hold thevote before or after.

The sense, at least from mypolitical analysis standpoint,

I think you have to hold the vote before.

If you hold the vote after,you really are rolling the dice

and what if Donald Trump doesn't win?

What if the election isn't,there is no certain outcome.

Then you're really, talk about politics,

then you're really looking political.

You're already looking political,

but you'll even look more political

if you do it in a lame duck session.

(Gordon laughs)

- Any insight on the nominees?

We've heard about two prominent ones.

Any others in the mix thatwe we should know about?

- I'll go out on a limb and say,

I think the pick's goingto be a Andy Coney Barrett.

She's the consensus pick,

I think overall inside the White House

and quite frankly,outside the White House,

there's finally a kind of at the end here,

a new push for Barbara Lagoa.

She's got a great story.

Her parents came over from Cuba.

You'll know more of thatstory if indeed she's picked.

And Donald Trump loves a good story.

But Amy Coney Barrett checksway too many of the boxes

that Donald Trump would probably enjoy.

Number one, she's beloved byevangelicals in legal circles,

conservatives love her, sheclerked for Antonin Scalia.

She is a known commodity.

Barbara Lagoa is not a known commodity,

especially on the abortion issue.

I think that ultimately maybe the deciding factor here.

And so I know there's been a lot of talk

about Barbara Lagoa being from Florida

and Trump could maybe win Floridaif he picks Barbara Lagoa.

And yes, politics is involved.

But the truth of the matter is

I think he'll go with Amy Coney Barrett.

Remember, she was a runner up last time.

Brett Kavanaugh was a runner up

to Neil Gorsuch last time as well.

So I think this is the standard play.

That's my expectation is what you'll see.

By the way, she's got a greatstory too, Amy Coney Barrett.

Mother of seven children,pro-life Roman Catholic,

she'll be the first to admit it.

And one of her children has down syndrome.

And actually she found out thatthe child had down syndrome

while she was pregnant, hadthe child, obviously, anyhow,

and she has also adoptedtwo children from Haiti.

So she's got a great story to tell too.

- All right, well,you've got a great story

to tell too, David.

This is going to be afull contact politics.

This is blood sport timeand I think they're going

to be casualties in the wake of it.

David, thanks for the insight

and we look forward to future reports.

- Thanks, Gordon.

Gulf Coast residents arebracing for another storm.

Tropical Storm Beta is set

to hit the Texas coast this evening.

Heavy rain is expected tobring flooding on the coast

in parts of Louisiana still recovering

from Hurricane Laura three weeks ago.

This hurricane comes in just after

Hurricane Sally dumped massive amounts

of rain on Florida bringingdevastating floods.

And then right after Sally moved out,

Operation Blessing moved in.

This truck full of aid is making delivery

to Liberty Church inPensacola with food, water,

and Home Depot relief bucketsfull of cleaning supplies.

As a line of cars camethe church parking lot,

volunteers handed out themuch needed assistance

to help residents in their time of need.

- We've seen smiles on people's faces

that probably haven't smiled in days,

and it probably meets her a bigger need

than we can even possibly imagine.

So from the bottom of our hearts,

we're grateful to Operation Blessing

and the individualsthat make this possible

for us to serve the peoplethat we love in our community.

- Well, if you want to be a part

of the relief actionsof Operation Blessing,

all you have to do iscall us, 1-800-700-7000.

Just say I want to give tothe Disaster Relief Fund,

the CBN Center, VirginiaBeach, Virginia, 23463

or you can go to CBN.com.

There are multiple ways where you can give

and you can be a part ofhelping those in need.