Sen. Chuck Grassley accused Harry Reid of throwing a “childish tantrum” for political gain after the Democratic minority leader vowed earlier this week to jam up work in the Senate until the Republicans agreed to consider President Obama’s Supreme Court pick.
“He made personal insults and threats, as he tends to do, but political stunts and childish tantrums aside, the minority leader knows that the American people deserve to have their voices heard on the future of the Supreme Court,” the Iowan Republican senator said on the Senate floor Thursday. “We’ve made the decision that the next president will select the next justice of the Supreme Court.”
“Our explanation is all the more true as we find ourselves just two months away from the presidential election this fall,” said Grassley.
Grassley compared this presidential election cycle to the turbulent 1968, noting that in that year the Senate decided to delay a nomination until the election of a new president “because that course was best for the country during a politically charged election year.”
He also said claims that this is the longest vacancy in history are “just plain false,” a response to Democratic claims that Republicans have deployed an unprecedented delay tactic. Grassley said there were longer waits for a Supreme Court confirmation in the 1800s.
Despite Grassley’s complaints, Reid backed down on his threat to slow down Senate business on Wednesday, when he told reporters that his threat “had the intended effect ― it got McConnell’s attention and McConnell is now offering us paths forward on our priorities. We’ll take it on a case by case basis moving forward.”
