[BEGIN VIDEO]

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): The Republicans in the Senate have been building this for a long time, because they have truly given in to the extremists in the party. When the whole animating energy of the United States Senate is, in effect, to try to deny the legitimacy of the president who was democratically elected, the legitimacy of what's called for in the Constitution,means they really have just gone the extremist route. And, let's face it, [Donald] Trump is the natural consequence of that.

[END VIDEO]

MIKA BRZEZINSKI (CO-HOST): That was Senator Elizabeth Warren last night speaking with MSNBC's Chris Hayes. I couldn't agree with her more.

JOE SCARBOROUGH (CO-HOST): Of course.

BRZEZINSKI: Does anyone here disagree?

SCARBOROUGH: No, you're --

BRZEZINSKI: I think you would blame the Obama administration and -- everyone blames everything for Trump, but that's a big part of it. From the get-go, the Republicans have been saying no before they even knew what it was the president was going to put out. And you see it now in the the Supreme Court nominee, again. Did you see Senator Kelly Ayotte [(R-NH)]? “I'll meet with him, but we're going to just, you know, I'm going to make it very clear to him that we don't think he should nominate someone.” They're still doing it. They're still doing it.

SCARBOROUGH: I guess [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell called [Judge Merrick Garland] and said we're not going to have a vote on you.

BRZEZINSKI: What's wrong with them?

SCARBOROUGH: I'm just curious, has nobody in Washington, D.C., on the Republican side ever heard of the slow roll? Yes, let me check my calendar. I'll call you back and we will get you before the Judiciary Committee some time this summer, sir.

BRZEZINSKI: Rude.

SCARBOROUGH:  Instead they're like, no. Why?

BRZEZINSKI: Why?

SCARBOROUGH: Are they so scared of their base that they can't at least play this out?

BRZEZINSKI: Tell me one thing about this nominee that is offensive to the Republican Party.

MARK HALPERIN: The key is going to be [Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Chuck] Grassley [(R-IA)]. There are those who say Chairman Grassley will never have a hearing unless McConnell goes for it. There's going to be a lot of pressure on him in Iowa and he cares a lot about what Iowans think about him. If Grassley decides he wants to have a hearing, the whole thing changes. But until Grassley schedules a hearing, obviously he can't be confirmed.

WILLIE GEIST (CO-HOST): And this nominee makes President Obama's eight-year point for him, which is that he's putting out somebody eminently qualified --

BRZEZINSKI: Trying to be president.

GEIST: That many Republicans have voted for the past for his current job. And now he can say if they obstruct him, if they won't even talk to him, they're just doing it because of me, to defy me.

BRZEZINSKI: As they have time and time again.

SCARBOROUGH: Isn't there an [Sen.] Orrin Hatch [(R-UT)] quote out there where Orrin Hatch said, Alex, at an earlier nomination that if they had put him up, there wouldn't be a fight?

GEIST: No, he said it about this one.

SCARBOROUGH: No that's what I'm saying, when there was a fight in the past --

HALPERIN: I think he said it about this vacancy, I believe.

[...]

GEIST: Orrin Hatch last week--

BRZEZINSKI: Oh, just last week.

GEIST: Said “President Obama could easily name Merrick Garland, who is a fine man, but he probably won't do that because this appointment is about the election. I'm pretty sure he'll name someone the liberal Democratic base wants.” President Obama yesterday nominated --

CHRIS JANSING: And the White House did one of these calls yesterday and the mood was, I don't want to call it gleeful, but they started going through his resume. And he tutors third, fourth, and fifth graders. I mean, from his judicial expertise to the quotes that Republicans have said about him over the years, they feel like they've got, look, this was completely designed by the White House to give Republicans agita, to re-, sort of punctuate the point that Washington is broken and it's the Republicans who have made it broken.

Previously:

Media Highlight Judge Merrick Garland's Credentials And His History Of GOP Support

Conservatives Have Been Praising Merrick Garland For Years

Myths And Facts On The Nomination Of Judge Merrick Garland To The Supreme Court