"The stakes are as high as possible" in President Trump's rush to install a Supreme Court justice, but "Republicans probably do have the votes to do this," Chris Hayes conceded on MSNBC Tuesday night. "There is no magic trick, right? No procedural thing you can do as Democrats to stop them. I mean, you can delay, you can make it difficult, and obviously they should do that," but "what is the plan? Because if they are willing to pay any price for this seat, because it is so valuable to them, then the only option left is to make the price as high as possible. And that means you focus on what Donald Trump's nominee on the court could mean."

Democrats need to make the loss of health care for tens of millions of Americans, the squelching of "reproductive freedom," and the judicial assault on clean air and water and climate legislation "stick to the Republicans who are responsible for putting that person on the court," especially the vulnerable incumbents facing tough re-election battles, Hayes argued. "What you do not do — and I strongly believe this — is focus on the actual nominee."