Well, first of all, let me say that - let me remind your viewers that I am recused from this investigation, and what I said this weekend is not anything new.

In the job of a member of the Supreme Court of the United States, you're going to make decisions. You'll say things that some people are going to love them, some people are going to hate them. It's just part of the job. And so I respect the right of individuals to have strongly held opinions and to express those opinions in our country.

The nature of the new war places a high premium on other factors, such as the ability to quickly obtain information from captured terrorists and their sponsors in order to avoid further atrocities against American civilians.

Am I worried about additional attacks in this country? Of course I'm worried about it. We expect the American people to go on living their lives as normally as possible. But it is a post-9/11 world, and the United States government is doing everything we can do to ensure that another terrorist attack does not occur here in this country.

We respect the role of the Senate. We respect the authority of the Senate to look at the qualifications of Judge Roberts, and at the end of the day I'm optimistic that if given a fair hearing and a fair opportunity, that he will be confirmed.

We do have certain protocols in place with respect to doing the investigation by the FBI. And then prosecutors at the Department of Justice are the ones who ultimately make the decision as to whether or not to move forward with prosecution of a crime.

But the Congress has made the determination that certain kinds of information can be protected even though the American people may want to have access to information.