*By Carlo Versano*
Day one of Brett Kavanaugh's Senate confirmation hearings got off to a raucous start Tuesday: protesters interrupted the proceedings, Democrats called for an adjournment, and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said he'd never before seen a hearing "led by mob rule."
It took seven hours before the nominee could deliver his opening statement.
The tactics, while good fodder for television, are unlikely to be very effective for Democrats, said Erin Delmore, a senior political correspondent for Bustle. They also reveal the level of Democrats' desperation, she said Tuesday in an interview on Cheddar.
"It does show you how weak their hand is here," she said.
Democrats, in a futile effort to delay the hearing, were responding to growing frustrations from their base that the party has not been vocal enough in protesting the successor to Anthony Kennedy. If Kavanaugh, a staunch Republican, is confirmed, he may well tilt the court's ideology right-ward for at least a generation, as he'd replace a man who often acted as a swing vote on landmark decisions.
Justice Kennedy authored the majority opinions for [*Lawrence v. Texas*](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/539/558/), which lifted the state's ban on sodomy, and 2013's [*Windsor v. U.S.*](http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/windsor-v-united-states-2/), the landmark decision that granted same-sex couples the right to marry in certain states.
The ever-polarizing *Roe v. Wade* is among the cases Kavanaugh's vote could turn. He has been asked about where he stands on choice by several moderate female senators, including Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who both said Kavanaugh told them he considered Roe to be "settled law."
The key question is, "does he believe *Roe v. Wade* was settled correctly," said Delmore. That's one interrogative he's unlikely to answer in this hearing.
"If \[Collins and Murkowski\] seem like this is enough for them, then this is over," Delmore said, referring to the chance that Kavanaugh could not be confirmed.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-women-who-will-determine-brett-kavanaughs-fate).
Though FAANG stocks hit an all-time high last week, their gains could be undermined by the Trump administration's trade stand-off with China that could soon widen into the technology sector, says Jason Ware, chief investment officer at Albion Financial Group.
The country's highest court on Tuesday ruled in favor of the travel ban the Trump administration attempted to implement last year. The court rejected the argument that the policy exceeded the president's authority and that it discriminated against Muslims.
Letting women drive will make them "good workers and consumers," says Hiba Zayadin, the acting Saudi researcher at Human Rights Watch. But "the power structures and systems that keep women as second-class citizens" remain prevalent., she tells Cheddar.
Police shootings have persisted in America for the last several decades but now personal video footage is holding officers accountable, says O'Donnell. The MSNBC host is re-publishing his book "Deadly Force" that chronicles the 1975 police shooting of an unarmed black man that was criticized as "basically a murder".
The president's consistent attacks on media outlets like CNN is "very, very good for business." But Trump has avoided directing his wrath at MSNBC since taking the White House, because the network "is much higher rated" and "he would prefer people to watch CNN," which features many pro-Trump speakers, says O'Donnell.
The MSNBC host explains what happened leading up to the moment when his co-worker, Rachel Maddow, broke down in tears on air while covering the border crisis. O'Donnell tells Cheddar that if he had to report the story on tender age shelters, he might have cried too.
Markets plunged on Monday as President Trump escalated already-tense trade relations with China and investors saw the first sign of American manufacturers feeling the impact of the Trump administration’s increasingly protectionist stance.
Melania Trump received a lot of criticism for wearing a jacket with the phrase "I DON'T REALLY CARE, DO U?" scrawled across the back on her way to meet with migrant children at the Texas-Mexico border. The bizarre choice, at such a heated moment, may have been "a very calculated move," said Vox reporter Rebecca Jennings.
Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat weighs in on the backlash over family separation at the border and the need for immigration reform.
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The country's top court on Thursday ruled that states can force online retailers to charge sales taxes on purchases even if they don't have a physical presence in the state. D.A. Davidson's Tom Forte says Amazon may actually end up benefiting from that rule.
