Late in the 1 p.m. ET hour on MSNBC, anchor Chris Jansing was moderating a segment about whether the high court might soon get a vacancy, and what happens if it does.
One of Jansing’s guests, Christian author and journalist Stephen Strang, said the issue of the Supreme Court was “huge” for a block of Trump voters “who didn’t like Donald Trump personally, who didn’t like his tweets, didn’t like his background.”
A few minutes after that segment, the news broke that Kennedy had sent a letter to President Trump announcing his retirement effective July 31.
On cable TV, Bloomberg reported the news at 2 p.m., CNN and CNBC at 2:03, Fox News at 2:04, FBN at 2:05 and MSNBC at 2:07. ABC News broke into programming with a special report at 2:09. NBC News broke in at 2:16. At 2:37 NBC broke in again with President Trump’s first comments.
President @realDonaldTrump on Justice Kennedy retiring: "We will begin our search for a new justice of the United States Supreme Court. That will begin immediately." pic.twitter.com/UqpvWm0BEd
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 27, 2018
November 11, 1987: President Reagan announces the nomination of Judge Anthony Kennedy to the U.S. Supreme Court. https://t.co/NCfetBEUk6 #SCOTUS pic.twitter.com/04F8snHoTl
— CSPAN (@cspan) June 27, 2018
The Associated Press was perhaps too quick in sending out this tweet this morning:
BREAKING: Supreme Court ends term without any justice announcing retirement.
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) June 27, 2018