“The View” co-host Joy Behar asked famed lawyer Alan Dershowitz on Tuesday why Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was not in jail after he blocked the consideration of former President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee in 2016.
“Well, how come Mitch McConnell is not in jail?” Behar asked Dershowitz on the ABC daytime talk show after Dershowitz said Senate Republicans “stole” President Trump’s first opportunity to appoint a justice to the country’s highest court.
Harvard Law prof. Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) discusses Pres. Trump’s #SCOTUS pick Brett Kavanaugh — and criticizes the GOP for refusing to consider Obama’s 2016 nominee Merrick Garland: “They stole the first nomination to the Supreme Court — absolute theft, unconstitutional.” pic.twitter.com/UQjGMlZqlo
— The View (@TheView) July 10, 2018
Dershowitz pushed back on Behar’s assertion, saying he only supported prison time for people who had “actually committed crimes.”
But he was adamant Obama should have played hardball when Senate GOP members refused to hold a hearing or a vote on federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland, Obama’s pick to replace Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia after he died.
“He should have nominated Merrick Garland, and should have sworn him in, and should have dared the Republicans to say kick him out of office,” Dershowitz continued. “The constitution says advise and consent; it doesn’t say delay and postpone.”
Trump on Monday announced his intention to nominate Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to take the place of Justice Kennedy after Kennedy announced he would retire from the Supreme Court effective July 31.
Dershowitz added that as a self-described liberal Democrat, he would not have chosen Kavanaugh, but said Kavanaugh was the “least worst” option on Trump’s shortlist.
[More: Joy Behar rants ‘how dare’ Trump pick a Supreme Court justice]
