If a Supreme Court vacancy should open up this year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) refuses to let the American people decide who will fill it, a complete reversal of his position in 2016 when he blocked former President Obama from filling a vacancy.
McConnell’s excuse four years ago was that 2016 was an election year, therefore it would be inappropriate to confirm a new justice. He insisted that the American people should decide based on which candidate won the presidency that November, blocking Obama’s choice of centrist Judge Merrick Garland to the point he never even received a confirmation hearing.
Once Trump took office, he filled the vacancy by confirming Neil Gorsuch.
And because Trump is president, McConnell now says he will ram any nominee through confirmation this year should a vacancy occur even though it’s an election year.
McConnell made the hypocritical admission during an interview on Fox News.
“If you’re asking me a hypothetical about whether this Republican Senate would confirm a member of the Supreme Court due to a vacancy created this year — yeah, we would fill it,” McConnell said Thursday night, going on to excuse his hypocrisy because the president and Senate majority belong to the same party.
“The Senate is of the same party as the president of the United States and in that situation, we would confirm,” he said.
Mitch McConnell said that the GOP-led Senate would confirm a nominee to any vacancy that occurred this election year, despite his move to hold open the seat in 2016 when Barack Obama was president.
“If you’re asking me a hypothetical…. we would fill it,” McConnell said on Fox.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 13, 2020
McConnell continues to argue that the situation is different than the Merrick Garland case because in 2016, the Senate and the White House were controlled by different parties.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 13, 2020
In an addition to those enraging remarks, McConnell would go on to admit that Democrats are right about there being 395 bills sitting on his desk, and crowed about having no intention of bringing any of them up for a vote, let alone passing them.
“Democrats say there are 395 House bills sitting in the senate… Is that true? Bret Baier asked.
“It is true,” McConnell confirmed. “They’re right, we’re not going to pass those.”
Here’s the video via Twitter:
Bret: Democrats say there are 395 House bills sitting in the senate… Is that true?
Mitch McConnell: It is true… They’re right, we’re not going to pass thosepic.twitter.com/d2SyTS5ZqA— Holly Lee (@LeeHolly81) February 14, 2020
For months, Trump and his Republican allies have been accusing House Democrats of not getting anything done. But McConnell just admitted that’s a total lie.
This and his Supreme Court hypocrisy are more enough reasons for the American people to vote against him on Election Day.
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