Transcript for On Court, Trump 'has a good cop, bad cop approach & he's both cops'

The latest dividing line in American politics will likely galvanize members of both parties to head to the pls in November, but until then president trump isn't wasting any time, moving forward to quickly select justice Kennedy's replacement. For the latest on the search, let's bring in Terry Moran who covers the supreme court for ABC news. Good morning, Terry. The president says he'll nominate justice Kennedy's reacement a week from tomorrow. What do we know about how he's narrowing that down? Well, he sa he's got six or seven candidates that he's looking at. First he said five. He might a a couple. He's interviewing them over the next several ds. This is a process he knows. He went through it with Neil Gorsuch, and that he seems T like. He's looking for what he says are sterling credentials, that means Harvard and Yale who are alreadyretty well represented on the court. The president is looking for reliable conservative but also the personal quality like other presidents. What he wants is somebody that as people who are in the process say somebody who's not weak, somebody who's tough. He wants to ma sure that his pick will be able stand up to pressure. Ou know, we think of justice Kennedy as the swing vote on the court, but on many issues he certainly sided with the conservatives, the travel ban, so this is really about social issues if the court really moves to the right. That's where it will be most noticeable. Aborti for Sures up for grabs and target by conservatives. The place of relign in public life anrelation to secular law. We'll see more cases like that, the baker who didn't want to bake the wedding cake.but there were other cases. It wasn't just on social issues. On criminal law and prison reform Kennedy was unpredicble. He wrote the opinion holding that foreign terrorist suspects in Guantanamo Bay wi a constitutional right to make a case in American court. So he had a big imct across the law and more thaanything it was his appach. He was a case-by-case judge. These days it's much more idlogical. We've seen republics nominate justices for the supreme court in the past they thought were conservative, John Paul Stevens, David souter, but you think that's not going to happen this time? No, those days are gone. The conservatives of the past 20, 30 years in part because of that have developed a kind of farm team system. They groomed candidates for judges and those candidates themselves, people who want to make an impact in the world that way, they see what happened to Robert bork. They see what happened to other idealogical judges. So they keep their heads dn. It's about methodology, it out participating in those networks where conservatives know that if they come to be nominated, they're reliable. Okay, theote is going to come down to a handful of modern setors on both sides of the aisle, the left and the right, including Republican senator Susan Collins who we're speaking to in a moment. What do you think the esident is doing to secure their votes? So he's taking a kind of good cop bad cop approach and he's both cops. He is trying on one hand at his raises and on Twitter, he's calling out these crucial votes. The Democrats ined states, senator Heidi itkamp when he was in North Dakota, her state, he called her out. Then he turned around two days later and had a nice cozy meeting in the white house with the Democrats and these crucial Republican pro-choice women, Lisa murkowski and sus Collins of Maine who you're going to be talking to. There's so much pressure on em. You can see it in the headlines out there. Their loyalties will be tested in many, many directions. So this is arocess in which the president is getting personally involved in. He seems to enjoy it and no question he's in charge of this and trying to already get those crucial votes on both sides of the aisle in his corral. Thanks so much, Terry. Really look forward to your coverage. You bet.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.