NBC: ‘Hard Line’ GOP Against Any Obama Court Pick ‘No Matter How Moderate’

GUTHRIE: "And now to our nation’s capital, where the heated debate rages on over who should replace Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell has more on that looming battle. Andrea, good morning."
MITCHELL: "Good morning, Savannah. The battle to replace Antonin Scalia is reshaping that 2016 campaign, with the Republican presidential candidates taking a hard line against confirming anyone that President Obama nominates, no matter how moderate."
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MITCHELL (voice-over): "It is the one issue on which all the Republican candidates agree – no one nominated by Barack Obama should be considered for the Supreme Court."
RUBIO: "The balance of the Constitution is at stake."
TRUMP: "Republicans should not allow it to happen."
CRUZ: "We are one justice away from a radical five-justice, left-wing majority."
MITCHELL (voice-over): "For Ted Cruz, it’s personal. He clerked for the high court, has argued before it, and knew Scalia well. Within hours of the Justice’s death, the battle lines were drawn. Republican Senate leaders saying they won’t confirm any Obama nominee to the high court. Democrats firing back."
LEAHY: "It’s unprecedented. It’s pure politics. And the Supreme Court, of all places, should not be tied up in politics."
MITCHELL (voice-over): "The President in California, hosting an Asian summit, signaling through aides he is not backing down."
SCHULTZ: "Those responsibilities described in the Constitution are ironclad. There are no caveats. The Constitution does not include exemptions for election years or for the President’s last term in office."
MITCHELL (voice-over): "And Hillary Clinton weighing in, unleashing a flurry of tweets overnight, aimed at GOP senators. Hillary tweeting, “Fill this vacancy. @POTUS will do his job. Do yours.” The Scalia succession fight now also a campaign issue for the Democrats."
CLINTON: "Now last time I looked, the Constitution did not have a parentheses. The President nominates (except in an election year). That’s not the way our system works."
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MITCHELL: "The President has a working list, including several candidates who have been supported unanimously for lower courts by Republicans. But if the Republicans refuse to even consider moderate choices, well, the President could then well decide to fire up his own Democratic base, nominating a minority candidate or another woman, a liberal, in a deliberate contrast to the majority of the Republicans who are opposing this in the Senate. Savannah and Carson? "
GUTHRIE: "A lot of political strategy going into this decision. Andrea, thank you very much."