Vice President Joe Biden implored his former Democratic colleagues in the Senate to wait until President-elect Trump nominates a Supreme Court justice before saying they may copy Republicans and refuse to hold a confirmation hearing.
“I think the Democrats should not take up what I think is a fundamentally unconstitutional notion that the Republicans initiated 10 months ago,” Biden told PBS Newshour host Judy Woodruff on Thursday. “I think they should see who they nominate and vote on them.”
Instead, Biden said Democrats should practice their constitutional right to vote against the nominee once Trump selects a name from his list of proposed replacements for the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
“The Constitution says the president shall nominate — not maybe, could, maybe, can’t he — shall nominate,” Biden added. “No one is required to vote for the nominee, but they, in my view, are required to give the nominee a hearing and a vote.”
The outgoing Senate president said in his six terms of being in the upper chamber, he encountered nominees he did not like, but never denied one a hearing, as Republicans did to President Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland.
