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Joining us now for more here in balance of Power is Democratic Senator of Illinois Dick Dervitt, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator, Happy election day, Thank you so much for joining us. I'm not sure your degree of confidence at this hour of Kamala Harris's ability to win this election. But if she does so, to what extent do you think the Dobbs decision and the Supreme Court will have played a role in that.
I think it's a major factor. I can just tell you. It motivates not just women to vote for Kamala, but a lot of men are joining in the ranks. And I see it with younger voters too. They look at the actual cases of these women facing miscarriages, trying to find competent physicians, and states where their criminal penalty is being threatened, and they understand that they don't want to be in that position. It doesn't sound like America to them, and it doesn't sound like it to me either.
Well, how you feel about things going into this election day, Senator, You've had a couple of them in your career. Illinois is not a swing state. It's not going to be one of the states likely to decide the balance of power in Washington on Capitol Hill or the next president. So where are you looking.
Well, I'll tell you what I'm looking for, and I've seen it this last weekend and before. We have literally hundreds, if not thousands of Illinois volunteers who are going into Wisconsin to help Tammy Baldwin in the Michigan to help olssa slutkin, into Pennsylvania, to help Bob Casey in the bottom line, to make sure that Kamala is elected president. These are real volunteers who care and are making personal sacrifices to help. I don't know what's going on the
other side. There's no evidence of this similar and undertaking. And you can't buy this kind of support. It's like comparing mom's apple pie is something you bought at a store. It just isn't the same thing. These folks really care, and if we do well in the blue arrange the blue wall that they talk about here, I think it'll be because of this factor.
Well, as you raise the likes of incumbent Senators Tammy Baldwin and others who are facing tough re election fights today as well, Senator It raises the question of even if Kamala Harris is able to pull off this victory, the prevailing wisdom is that you will become a member of the minority, that the Republicans will be able to flip the Senate as they only need to pick up net two seats. How would Washington work in that scenario. Where are the areas for cooperation?
That's a very good question, But I'm not going to concede your point that it's going to be a Republican Senate. We need one or two breakthrough and I can point to the states you can too that are possibilities. If God forbid, the Republicans take control of the Senate and Kamala is our president, it's going to be a matter of negotiating questions like filling vacancies and judge ships and working together. I hope we can find that common ground.
Well how much, Senator, then, will the top of the ticket help to determine the balance of power in the US Senate? When we look at some of the Senate races in the Blue Wall states, for instance, how close they are Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin. Will the presidency help to decide the balance of power in your chamber.
Well, I think you addressed that earlier in the program. In some years, it appears that it helps, in some it hurts. I will just tell you that those three senatorial candidates and many others we talked about, certainly have a strong record and a strong message to bring to
the voters. Kamala is put together an amazing campaign in a little over one hundred days that she's been the nominee, and I think the fact that she's inspired so many volunteers to go door to door in these states going to make a definitive difference in the Senate races as well.
Well. As we watched all of this and the issues voters will be considering as they make their choices up and down the ballot, Senator, do you feel that the Harris campaign has done an adequate job addressing all of them? We obviously have heard a lot of her argument around reproductive freedom, especially casting Trump as a threat to democracy.
Talking about the economy, Yes, but so too has Donald Trump, who has cast a lot of blame for the last four years, and the inflation people have experienced on her in this administration. Seeing goes for the border. Are those the issues that she risks losing on if that's how it turns out tonight.
I don't think so, and I'll tell you why. From the beginning, Kamala has made the economy the issue. That's what the voters are saying, and she's backing them up by saying that'll be a high priority in her administration. But I'll also tell you when she talks about the management style of Donald Trump, the question about the future of our democracy is at stake here. He's a candidate who's running and basically says, if I lose, it means that there is cheating and somebody stole it from me.
He's stuck with that story for four years, the big lie. This is an even bigger lie if he does. And that's similar circumstance. So I think she's talking about our democracy, which is a fundamental issue at stake in this election.
Well, with that said, Senator, and based on your perch on the Judiciary Committee, Donald Trump appointed over two hundred federal judges in his term.
What would a.
Trump two point oh mean for the US judiiary.
Well, that's a good question. Under the rules of the Senate, for example, we have something called a blue slit, which means that both parties and their senators have quite a bit of a say as to whether a nominee is going to move forward, So there has to be compromise in that regard. But I will tell you that Donald Trump, with the help of Democrats, had two hundred and thirty
four nominations filled in his four years. We have filled two hundred and thirteen under President Biden and have another twenty plus on the calendar for the remainder of the year. So we can matching. I hope we do well.
If we consider as well the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court. Senator there is a chance the next president will have some vacancies to fill. Would a President Harris have difficulty doing so depending on what the Senate majority looks like.
Well, it is a simple majority in the Senate when he comes to filling the Supreme Court vacancies, and that's why Trump was able to put three anti choice justices on the Court. If we're going to move forward and the circumstances you're describing with President Harris and a Republican Senate, there will have to be compromises made. The only way we can pass something, even by majority in the Senate Senator.
The last time we sat down with you was in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. One of the big storylines going into the DNC it was the protest vote that we saw materialize in the primaries, the uncommitted vote that Joe Biden withstood and faced in many cases from Arab American voters and others who were not happy with
many progressives not happy with the policy in Israel. Expectations for widespread protests that the DNC never materialized, though, And I wonder if you see that being a risk tonight for Kamala Harris or if this is a media narrative.
There are so many elements go into this decision making process, but the fear at the outset was that there would be a boycott support of Democratic candidates over Middle Eastern issues. I think once Donald Trump was articulate in his own way as to where he stood, people realize there's too much at stake to lose this series over that issue.
It will affect some voters, for sure, but I think by and large we understand that Kamala Harris as a rational, thoughtful approach to this which wants to end the conflict soon and help on a humanitarian side as quickly as possible.
Any election day rituals, superstitions you want to share with us.
Senator, there's a great delicatessen in Chicago called Manny's, and I'm on our way there now. Every election day for the last twenty plus years, I've gone there and I'm looking forward to Cornby sandwiches.
That sounds good. I hope you have a great lunch, Sir, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois. We thank you.