Welcome back to the Dershow before we get to the subject matter of today, which is the

constitutionality of the Biden executive order cancelling certain student loans. I want

to comment briefly on the life and death of Mikhail Gorbachev, who died today in his

early 90s. I got to know him met him on several occasions, two of them stand out. I was

invited to speak at the Kremlin in 1989 or 1990. I don't remember exactly just at the

end of the former Soviet Union as the Berlin Wall was beginning to crumble and Gorbachev's

hold on the Communist Party and on Russia was weakening, but he was there at the event.

It was a big event involving lots of people from around the world. I was one of the speakers

and they sat me at a table right near Gorbachev's table and I saw him and I took the opportunity

and went over to him. I said, Mr. Gorbachev, tomorrow is Russia-Shanada, the beginning of the

Jewish New Year and I'm in Moscow and I'm going to be going to the Coral Synagogue in Moscow,

the only really large, those days, state-sponsored synagogue to welcome the New Year. As you know,

there's been a flurry of anti-Semitism around the Soviet Union, particularly from an organization

called Pamyat and it would really do a great deal of good in stopping anti-Semitism if I

were able to take you with me to the Coral Synagogue, introduce you and have you just make

a statement in the synagogue condemning anti-Semitism. He looked at me and he smiled and he said,

I'm having enough trouble surviving in this atmosphere. You want to rush my demise. If I go to

a synagogue with you, it will mark the end of my leadership of the Soviet Union. But he said,

I will issue a statement condemning anti-Semitism and he did a couple of days later and I'm

very proud of my role in getting him to do that. Flash forward some years now. He's no longer

the head of the Soviet Union, but he's invited by Israel to participate in the celebration of

Israel's 50th anniversary or 60th. I don't remember what it was, which one. But it was in LaRoma,

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