Former President Bill Clinton said Republicans are being hypocritical in their move to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the upcoming November election.
Clinton, who appointed Ginsburg to the high court in 1993, pointed to GOP refusal to hold a hearing or vote on President Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland in 2016 because it was 10 months out from the presidential election. Now, Democrats argue Republicans have changed their tune, aiming to move forward with President Trump’s next choice to put a potential third justice onto the high court. Ginsburg died Friday evening at the age of 87 after battling pancreatic cancer.
“It’s superficially hypocritical, isn’t it?” Clinton said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “I mean, Mitch McConnell wouldn’t give President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, a hearing 10 months before the president’s election. And that meant that we went a long time with eight judges on the court. This is what they do. I think that a vote for Senator McConnell and President Trump, their first value is power, and they’re trying to fill the court with as many ideological judges as they can.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that he will set up a floor vote for whatever nominee Trump brings forward, noting the difference between now and 2016 is which party controls the White House. “Since the 1880s, no Senate has confirmed an opposite-party president’s Supreme Court nominee in a presidential election year,” the Kentucky Republican said.
Clinton also said lawmakers who previously said they wouldn’t move forward with a vote if an opening on the court came open before the 2020 election should stick to their stance.
“Lindsey Graham said it shouldn’t happen. Let’s see how he votes,” he said. “Senator Grassley said it shouldn’t happen. Let’s see how he votes. I mean, this is a —it’s a power play, and they think they can do it.”
Clinton said that he believes lawmakers should be asked to maintain their original position on voting for a nominee to get on the court, adding that it would be something Ginsburg would have wanted. In fact, Ginsburg’s granddaughter said it was the justice’s dying wish that she not be replaced on the Supreme Court until a new president is in place.
“We’re honoring Justice Ginsburg today. I think that’s the main thing she would say,” he said. “Let’s all live under the same set of rules and do what’s fair for everybody.”
Republicans hold a narrow margin in the Senate, with only 53 of the Senate’s 100 votes. Depending on the result of a Senate special election in Arizona, the margin could get even thinner between Election Day and the inauguration in January. Vice President Mike Pence can also vote in the event of a tie. Maine Sen. Susan Collins became the first Republican on Saturday to say the winner of the 2020 election should pick the next Supreme Court justice.
Trump said on Saturday he expects to announce his nominee for the Supreme Court “next week” and will be picking a woman.
When asked on CBS’s Face the Nation if he thought Democrats would do the same if they controlled the White House, Clinton said he was unsure.
“I don’t know. There is a difference between what happened with Judge Garland,” Clinton said, referring to McConnell’s decision to punt on a nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in the final year of President Barack Obama’s second term. “That is, with Judge Garland, you’re talking about missing probably one and a half full terms of court. It was almost a year, but there is a tradition of the president foregoing an appointment when you’re closer to the election.”
