i want to get your response to what then senator joe biden had to say about 1992, and this is from the c-span archives. [video clip] my view that if a supreme court justice resigns tomorrow or within the next several weeks or resigns at the end of the summer, president bush should consider following the practice of the majority of his predecessors and not, and not, name a nominee until after the november election is completed. president, too, mr. must consider how it would respond to a supreme court vacancy that would occur in the full throes of an election year. it is my view that if the president goes the way of presidents fillmore and johnson and presents an election year nomination, the senate judiciary committee should seriously consider not scheduling confirmation hearings on the nomination until after the political campaign season is over. host: a lot of "nots" in there. guest: a lot of "should seriously considers" in there. we should consider the contest. that was the summer, not the end of winter, in an election year. it was totally hypothetical. and he was saying we should co

that's the biden benchmark. the reid rule, the schumer standard, the biden benchmark. now i read a statement from the vice president where -- that he issued after he saw that this old news clip and his statement had been made public. he quite conveniently said this is not an accurate view -- this is not an accurate description of my views on the subject. well, i think the words are pretty clear. i think what he might have said is that these are no longer my views on the subject because, of course, he would like president obama to be able to make that nomination. so i want to reject this myth that many of our democratic colleagues are spreading that what we are doing here and now is somehow unprecedented. quite the clear, what we are doing is what the democrats' top leadership has advocated in the past. what do they think we are? they think we're going to abide by a different set of rules than they themselves advocated? how ridiculous would that be? i could not explain that to my constituents back home in texas. if i was going to say well, the democrats can apply one se

that's the biden benchmark. i read a statement from the vice afterent that he issued he saw this old news clip. this is not an accurate view, not an accurate description of my views on the subject. think the words are pretty clear. what he might've said is that these are no longer my views on the subject because he would like president obama to be able to make that nomination. i want to reject this myth. that many of our democratic thatagues are spreading what we're doing here and now is somehow unprecedented. what we're are doing is what the democrats top leadership has abdicated in the past. who do they think we are? that we are going to abide by a different set of rules? how ridiculous would that be. i could not explain that to my constituents back home. the democrats can apply one set of rules, but republicans must apply a different set of rules? burned byok has been the democrats. and what we are operating under is the status quo that they advocated back in 1992, 2005, and 2007. they have every right under

as senator biden actually did. that is what we are counting on republicans in the u.s. senate to do. they should not do it because they are forced into a position based on awkward quotes that they themselves have given. goodness knows, there are plenty of them. we could discuss those as well. in some ways, the most important element of this is they have a constitutional duty. they swore to uphold an oath, and fulfill the responsibility that the institution of the u.s. senate has to consider the president's nominee, to give them a fair hearing and give that person a yes or no vote. i know there are at least two senate republicans yesterday he would knowledge that oath and acknowledged that if the president, when the president nominates someone, the hearings should go forward. senator kirk himself specifically referenced the oath he took, not just as a member of the united states senate, but also as a member of the armed forces. he takes that oath seriously, and recognizes that giving the president's nominee affair h

there was nothing that senator biden said that prevented the senate from fulfilling its constitutional duty. reporter: mr. earnest: i wasn't there in 1992. i was a senior in high school. so it's hard for many to assess with a lot of clarity exactly what the dynamics were. but what is clear is that there was no vacancy at the time, there's nothing here that he said that prevented the senate from fulfilling its constitutional duty. and in fact in the same speech then senator biden made clear that he would be open to consultation with the white house, that was controlled by the other party, and fair consideration of the thomny that was put forward by the president -- nominee that was put forward by the president of the other party. reporter: could you tell us a little bit more about the president's -- mr. earnest: that's right. the president periodically has con -- convenes meetings with his national security team to discuss the ongoing effort to degrade and ultimately destroy isil. the president will convene the meeting or the next meeting on thursday at the state department. over the la

biden: mr. president, why don't you just assign the congress to them? [laughter] pres. obama: just assign the congress to them generally? v.p. biden: congress to the governor. [laughter] pres. obama: well, they've got their own legislatures. i know that they enjoy those interactions tremendously. [laughter] next, terry mcauliffe. where is terry? here he is. gov. mcauliffe: thank you, mr. president. let me first -- great night last night. thank you on behalf of all the governors. [applause] gov. mcauliffe: chaka khan. i've been listening to her for 40 years. pres. obama: that was michelle, basically, that put that together. i tried to take credit last night, and nobody believed me. [laughter] and rightly so. gov. mcauliffe: let me just say that we just finished, mr. president, four great days of the governors association with the great leadership of gary. but we met -- gary and i -- met with your team, jerry, about six weeks ago when valerie -- we laid out what we needed. your administration gave us everything we needed. we had the secure briefing at the fbi. so let me j

johnson and did sometime on capitol hill early on serving for the home state senator and then senator joe biden. and more recently and where i got to know him, he served as senior counsel to former senator the deceased senator frank lautenberg from new jersey. so mark is a terrific political mind. he is a first rate lawyer and a friend and i am thrilled to have him join my office and the agency. >> wonderful. welcome, mark. commissioner pai? >> just two sad notes and two bittersweet notes. first diane douglas recently passed away. diane joined in 1985 as a clerk typist. in 1986, she moved to omb and then spent 18 years in the finance department. and in 2004, went to cgb first in the reference information center and then to the consumer inquiries and complaints division. according to her supervisor eric, he always told me that she wanted to make sure that she had work to do, didn't want to be sitting around with nothing to do. that was the mark she left for over three decades at this agency and all of us are grateful for her work both as a co-worker and american citizens. secondly, i wanted to n

we are very honored to have vice president joe biden. the president we had a great opportunity last night to associate with has broken barriers for his country. night, thened last realization and resolution of our founding fathers that all men are created equal and we see the diversification that has come in our country and we appreciate the opportunity to be with the president and for his service and dedication. welcome theet's vice president, joe biden and the president of the united states. barack obama. [applause] >> thank you. thank you, everybody. please have a seat. thank you, so much. please, have a seatthank you. please have a seat, everybody. it is wonderful to see all of you. i hope you had just the right amount of fun last night and not too much fun. believe, it is hard to that was the final dinner michelle and i get to host for you. like me, some of you might be in the final year of your last term , working as hard as you can, to get as much done as possible for the folks that you represent. fixing roads, educating our child

vice president joe biden will be among those in attendance, beginning 11:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. tomorrow night, live road to the white house coverage at the nevada democrat caucus primary. the results and candidates's speeches. taking your phone calls and tweets live at 7:30 p.m. on c-span. next, a look at some of the people that came today to the supreme court to pay their respects to justice scalia .live 11:00 p.m. eastern, bernie sanders holding a rally in henderson, nevada. flag drapedia's casket was taken to the supreme court. during the casket of the marble steps into the court's hall. the procession passed between 2 clerksf his former law that stretch from the plaza to the main entrance. justice scalia's son is a catholic preach. he presided the additional prayers -- the traditional prayers over his casket. passersby. respects, among them, the president and mrs. obama. >>> in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy conspiracy gsh spirit, my brothers and sisters, jesus says come to me all you who labor and are burdened and i will give you rest. take my yoke u

obviously vice president biden has a unique perspective on this situation. presidedeone who has over the hearings of, i believe, for different supreme court justices. he has his own unique insight into the kind of criteria that a president can and should use when choosing a supreme court justice. president obama has drawn on that expertise and experience from vice president biden in announcing his nomination of the elena kagan to the supreme court, and i am confident that president obama will be drawing on vice president biden's knowledge in making this decision as well. what president obama is focused personchoosing the best and the united states of america to fill this job. again, i'm not going to get ahead of the process. i do not know if the the p has expressed interest in this job -- the vp has expressed interest in this job. but he has pointed out that there is a number of senior level judges, judges that serve on the appellate courts, who have actually gotten strong bipartisan support in the senate. there is a track record that the president has of ap

this is a republican presidential candidate who has given money to jimmy carter, to joe biden, to hillary clinton, to tom daschle, to ted kennedy, , to chuck schumer to charlie rangel to anthony weiner to john kerry. you're seeing a panoply of pro abortion democrats. that donald has supported not just once but for decades. devoting his own money to helping elect and reelect those candidates. now, for anyone in south carolina who cares about conservative supreme court justices, we know as a fact that donald trump does not care about conservative supreme court justices. why do we know that? because nobody who compared about conservative supreme court justices would make contributions to these democrats. that is fundamentally incompatible. you cannot be funding the democrats that are fighting for liberal judicial activists on the court and claim that you actually care about having conservative supreme court justices. so the people of south carolina should know. if donald trump ever became resident we would see justices consistent with his lifelong pattern of who he supported. consistent with

they ran them by joe biden's people and senator biden said we could go along with these names but not this name. one of the names they said don't go with was robert bork. one of the names they would go along with was anthony kennedy. and reagan nominated kennedy and 97-0 in a democratic senate. so advise and consent means a process like that where the president and the senators have some consultation and discussion about who would be a good choice. host: the current chairman is chuck grassley and he has said he is open to hearings. guest: i think that's what he said. originally come he seemed to say, shortly after justice scalia's death, that this should be reserved to the next president. and then he had an interview with radio reporters in iowa where he seemed to say, we will take it one step at a time. he seemed to say he was open to holding a hearing. and i don't have inside knowledge on this but my belief ofn this is that because public pressure and whatnot, the senate will at least hold a hearing and consider the president's nominee assuming it's not somebody who they think is si

have come a long way in seven years and we should be proud of the accomplishments of the obama and biden administration. [applause] but, we have got to be honest, and acknowledge we still have a long way to go to create the nation that i know all of us believe we can create. [applause] i have been all over this country talking literally to hundreds of thousands of people. nobody i know thinks that it is acceptable, that it is moral, think that it is sustainable that in the united states of america we have more income and wealth inequality than any other major country on earth, that it is worth -- worse here here today then 1928. that is not acceptable. it is not acceptable to me the owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%. it is not acceptable the 20 wealthiest people in this country own more wealth than the million americans. it is not acceptable that one owns more wealth than the bottom 40% of the american people. when we talk about the economy -- it's not just well. it is income. , we have many people, millions throughout our country working not one job but to jobs and three jobs

the cancer part is associated with vice president biden's moonshot initiative. that is another thing that they are in be budget within the white house said that they hope they can work its republicans on. here,o give an idea usually, they tried to call target initiatives like this rifle shots. these are arguably even tinier than rifle shots in terms of trying to find common ground. let's turn to war funding. something we heard in the past budgets, the overseas contingency operations budget, you tweeted about this. $73white house budget keeps billion in the oco. what's going on here? jonathan: right now, house leadership wants to put together their own budget revolution. that is sort of the way to set the stage for the appropriations process. but they are having some pushback from members in their own caucus who are upset at the overall spending levels, that were negotiated in last fall's budget deal. -- and itsibility happened last year -- is they may try to increase defense help buy votes, for lack of a better term, from members concerned about defense spending

a solution on vice president biden quest on how to produce a which won'thighway deteriorate. who are you supporting in the 2016 campaign? caller: you donate politicians. what you need is me. i am the one -- i'm the one who produces the solutions. midland, texas. he brings up a couple issues that are being talked about right now. specifically the flint water crisis if you could jump in on that and how that has changed the tone of the debate and how in places is playing where you are seeing candidates gather and voters gather in new hampshire. it is certainly a serious issue. not one has, p or because it is in michigan, but i think there is an understanding on the part of folks here that watch what is going on in michigan that this is a failure of government. because itnment that promised to much, not in the case of providing water, but in city areas, it caused the to go bankrupt because it promised to much. it lost its ability to meet its core functions. in many ways, it is an early warning example of where we are going as a country unless we draw back from excessive we bring

you remember when senator -- then senator biden said we ought to provide $1 billion for georgia? well, in the bush administration we grabbed that and said one, he's right. and two, he's just depoliticized it. so we embraced it and we ran with it. so even in the middle of a heated political campaign, a republican administration was capable of seeing a good idea from the democratic president -- vice presidential challenger and making it real. i wanted to give the vice president credit for that for some time. so i appreciate you giving me the opportunity. but we knew what he was doing. he knew it too. he was taking it out of partisanship and doing the right thing. there was no political profit. he was doing it because it was right and we knew it. and we said, bang, go for it. so i'm not saying the bush administration walked away from georgia after the war. we helped stabilize the economy. i'm proud of that. but the obama administration went further in pushing back on the russians and not accepting it. which means that the -- let us say formulaic diplomatic process in geneva about re

united states senate and the i eign relations committee, was privileged to join with, and vice president biden to d and others and working put together plan colombia. late 1990s, colombia was becoming a e of failed state, sieged by difficulties, guerilla movements. remember reacting to the news almost the entire supreme assassinated in colombia. responded and passed plan question midst big marks, as you know well. come to us at a as anhere colombia stands example of possibilities and, privileged to now visit twice as secretary of transformation that one witnesses is absolutely rema remarkable. violence is at the economy is cades, growing. this is one of the strongest partnerships in the hemisphere. colombia, under the president's reached aadership, has pivotal stage in the effort to try to end the war with the fark.group, i'm grateful that the united states has been able to support step in this by historic process. went to colombia three ago, he asked for our help. because of our early engagement, would sayy natural we of course. we were pleased to be able to help. negotiations are always diff

staff director of the senate caucus on international narcotics control working for then senator joe biden. i'd also like to welcome senator cruz to join us. for our panel. we are so excited. we are going to have brief remarks from all of our stakeholders and our panelists followed by a little bit of "q&a." >> thank you so much for taking the time for us. chief, did you want to start us off and give us a little bit of a sense of what you're seeing here in hooksett, new hampshire? >> i'm the chief of police here in hooksett. i thank you for inviting me here. it's a very important topic. we have been hearing a lot about it. i'd like to give a little perspective of the local law enforcement. although hooksett is a small community here in new hampshire, we are not immune from this plague. what we are seeing on the frontlines in a small community such as hooksett is families that are being destroyed by overdose and addiction. in 2015, the fire and rescue used narcan 31 times. we responded to a drug overdose deaths in the last two years just under 10. those are astounding numbers for a small com

to bring new leadership forward and build upon the good work that president obama and vice president biden have done. and in my own state i had the backbone to take on the nra and i will do it again to pass comprehensive gun safety legislation. i'm running for president to bring new leadership to our country and build on president obama's progress. i need your help. thanks a lot. inside the exhibit, first in the nation, shaping presidential

to bring new leadership forward and build upon the good work that president obama and vice president biden have done. and in my own state i had the backbone to take on the nra and i will do it again to pass comprehensive gun safety legislation. i'm running for president to bring new leadership to our country and build on president obama's progress. i need your help. thanks a lot. inside the exhibit, first in the nation, shaping presidential politics since 1992. lena landis. you began in 1992. >> that's correct. the senator from maine was the presumed democratic favorite. senator george mcgovern does better than expected. even at that time iowa was shaping presidential politics. >> well-known campaigns and some less well known. >> in 2008, representative john cox from illinois keeping to iowa -- came to iraq hoping to catch fire. he would hand out bags of potato chips with his sticker on them. >> how did you get some of these ? the story behind them? >> a lot of them come from every day iowans. people also donate them to us. was active in the jesse jackson campaign. signed fora caucus jesse