Tom Brokaw advises Democrats not to block Gorsuch: ‘Why pick that as a fight?’

Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw advised the Democratic Party on Friday against trying to block President Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, U.S. Circuit Court Judge Neil Gorsuch.

During during a panel discussion on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” about recent violent protests at the University of California, Berkeley, Brokaw noted that “rage is not a policy.”

“You’ve got to figure out what you want to do,” Brokaw said. “For example, there is going to be a big pushback about Judge Gorsuch on the part of the Democrats, they’re going to make that one of their testing places for them.”

He said that Gorsuch “has a very distinguished background in the judicial world.”

“I have friends in the federal judiciary who don’t agree with his philosophy but say there is not a better judge in the federal circuit right now than him, so why pick that as a fight?” Brokaw said. “Because who are you going to get next?”

NBC’s Katy Tur concurred, saying that the party should choose its battles more “wisely” rather than opposing “anything” Republicans do.

Brokaw said the party should re-evaluate its strategy:

The other thing is the Democrats have a lot of reconstruction to do of their own party, and that is what they ought to be thinking about, and that is where they should be beginning. They should be out in the middle of America saying ‘what do we need to know from you?’ rather than sitting in Washington reelecting Nancy Pelosi after they lost the House three different times.