MSNBC still promoting Kamala Harris’s fabricated story about Abraham Lincoln and court-packing

Last week, during the vice presidential debate, Harris dodged a direct question about whether she and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden support packing the Supreme Court. In the course of doing so, the California senator fabricated a story about America’s 16th president.

“In 1864, … Abraham Lincoln was up for reelection, and it was 27 days before the election, and a seat became open on the United States Supreme Court,” Harris said. “Abraham Lincoln’s party was in charge, not only in the White House but the Senate.”

She added, “But Honest Abe said, ‘It’s not the right thing to do. The American people deserve to make the decision about who will be the next president of the United States, and then that person can select who will serve for a lifetime on the highest court of our land.’”

That is not quite what happened.

First, that quote appears to be a total fabrication. Second, as for the details of the 1864 vacancy, it is true that Lincoln postponed a Supreme Court nomination just before the election that year. But that was not because he believed it was “the right thing to do,” as the Federalist helpfully reminds us.

For starters, the Senate was out of session when the court vacancy opened. Lincoln could not have seated a new justice permanently even if he had wanted to. Also, it turned out to be more politically expedient for Lincoln, whose reelection was not in question, to delay the nomination of Salmon Chase to the Supreme Court for later.

“As ever, Lincoln was the shrewd politician and in October of 1864 he saw no profit in alienating any of the factions of his political support by making a selection before the election,” the historical preservation group President Lincoln’s Cottage noted.

The group added, “Lincoln was not above using the enticement of the office to encourage campaigning on his behalf. Lincoln, from the time of his first election, adopted the strategy of attempting to harness and co-opt Chase’s political and personal power to use in his own causes.”

After Chief Justice Roger Taney’s death in October 1864, “Chase took the ‘cue’ and stumped for Lincoln throughout the Midwest in marked contrast to his earlier maneuverings in 1864 to replace Lincoln as President. (Of course, Chase’s unusual behavior did not go unnoticed and rumors of a bargain surfaced),” according to President Lincoln’s Cottage.

The gambit worked. Lincoln won reelection. The Senate reconvened on Dec. 5 of that year. Lincoln nominated Chase on Dec. 6, and the former governor of Ohio was confirmed to the Supreme Court that same day.

So, take your pick: The actual historical account of what happened in 1864 or Harris’s politically convenient historical revisionism, which MSNBC, a supposed news network, is all too happy to promote.