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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMcConnell: Americans 'Will Not Tolerate' Dems Blocking SCOTUS Nom
Seriesle? I wonder if he said this with a straight face.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/mcconnell-schumer-supreme-court-response
McConnell: Americans 'Will Not Tolerate' Dems Blocking SCOTUS Nom
By Tierney Sneed
Published January 4, 2017, 3:20 PM EDT
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) fired back at Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for his vow that Democrats will fight to keep the Supreme Court vacancy open if President-elect Donald Trump selects a nominee from out of the mainstream.
At a press conference Wednesday, McConnell mocked Schumer for expanding what Republicans labeled the "Biden rule'"-- referring to a 1992 speech given by then Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) discouraging the appointment of a Supreme Court nominee close to an election -- while arguing that "the American people simply will not tolerate" Democratic efforts to obstruct Trump's eventual nominee.
Last year, McConnell led a Republican blockade against even considering Merrick Garland, President Obama's nominee to fill the late Justice Antonin Scalia's seat, securing the vacancy for Trump.
"I noticed my counterpart Sen. Schumer announced yesterday that their goal was to apparently never fill the Supreme Court vacancy. That's kind of an expansion of the Biden rule," McConnell said, before reiterating his definition of the Biden rule.
(When GOPers cited the "rule" to block Garland last year, Democrats pointed out that Biden's speech was about a hypothetical scenario and in the same speech he said he would be willing to consider a compromise moderate nominee.)
"Sen. Schumer said in the second Bush Administration he would not confirm the Supreme Court nominee in the last 18 months of President George Bush 43s tenure. Apparently there is yet a new standard now, which is, to not confirm Supreme Court nominee at all," McConnell said.
Tuesday evening, Schumer said on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show that Democrats are "not going to settle on a Supreme Court nominee."
"If they dont appoint someone whos really good, were gonna oppose him tooth and nail," Schumer told "They wont have 60 votes to put in an out-of-the-mainstream nominee and then theyll have to make a choice: change the rules."
He added that it was hard for him "to imagine a nominee that Donald Trump would choose that would get Republican support that we could support" and when asked if he would do his best to hold the seat open, Schumer said, "absolutely."
As a minority in the Senate, Democrats will not have much leverage in blocking Trump's nominee, beyond filibustering the nominee in a floor vote. Republicans last year refused to even hold hearings on Garland -- many declining to meet him in person, as is typically part of the process of a Supreme Court nomination -- on the basis that the vacancy should be filled by Obama's successor.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,711 posts)ailsagirl
(22,885 posts)Warpy
(111,124 posts)crawl back into the Kentucky woods, and die in well deserved obscurity.
I don't know why Obama didn't fight him harder on this. He's usurped the power of the presidency and deserves to be ousted for this, alone, not to mention his other crimes against this country and its people.
LisaM
(27,792 posts)Don't understand it.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,517 posts)After all your obstructionism, and you DARE say this?
Fuck off.
muntrv
(14,505 posts)spanone
(135,781 posts)they tolerated it when you assholes did it.
LenaBaby61
(6,972 posts)Let's hope Dems stand strong and MEAN IT this time.
We'll see.
Freethinker65
(9,999 posts)MadamPresident
(70 posts)How do you like that?
They're just going to go nuclear on everything. I think November was a death blow to the country.
TheCowsCameHome
(40,167 posts)Lord, how I loathe that useless heap of scum.
Vinca
(50,236 posts)It's mind boggling he actually uttered this statement.
hollowdweller
(4,229 posts)Now if 2 openings happen let the GOP have one, only fair, but keep the other one open till we can fill it.
If they let them fill it then they are rewarding bad behavior. However if 2 positions open and they block both then they are doing it themselves.
DinahMoeHum
(21,771 posts)gratuitous
(82,849 posts)McConnell said the Senate wasn't bound to consider a Supreme Court nominee who didn't represent the will of the American people (whatever that means). The next Supreme Court nominee will be named by a man who didn't even win a plurality of the popular vote, let alone a majority as his predecessor did. Therefore, the Senate doesn't have to consider any nominee from a President Trump because of the new standard Sen. McConnell himself articulated in 2016.
Easy for everyone to understand, fits the template the popular media adopted when McConnell proposed this nonsense, and shove old Mitch's own words right up his poop chute. Win-win-win.
malaise
(268,674 posts)He said what?
SammyWinstonJack
(44,129 posts)Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)Hekate
(90,538 posts)uponit7771
(90,301 posts)progressoid
(49,934 posts)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appointment_and_confirmation_to_the_Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States
uponit7771
(90,301 posts)WhiteTara
(29,692 posts)You should be banned from the US.
longship
(40,416 posts)And Scalia's vacancy do so also.
Fuck Mitch McTurtle!
pansypoo53219
(20,952 posts)roamer65
(36,744 posts)flamingdem
(39,308 posts)They aren't even sure what the Supreme Court does..
Initech
(100,029 posts)When I was in 8th grade they made us take a CA mandated constitution comprehension class, and I'm sure most of us who passed it are liberal, and those who failed it are conservative. But in a world where facts don't matter anymore, I'm pretty sure the constiution doesn't either.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)TheFrenchRazor
(2,116 posts)guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)The same political hack that has done nothing but obstruct for 8 years.
Turbineguy
(37,285 posts)when it comes to not governing Americans only tolerate republicans.
Calculating
(2,955 posts)No scotus nominees for the man who didn't even win the popular vote. The republicans refused to let Obama appoint somebody and he freaking crushed Romney.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)flamingdem
(39,308 posts)muntrv
(14,505 posts)coco22
(1,258 posts)many a good man
(5,997 posts)They will vote on Garland or nobody else.
tritsofme
(17,367 posts)He can't be serious.
AgadorSparticus
(7,963 posts)forgotmylogin
(7,519 posts)So back in your face, Tippy.