12 Republican senators statement on 2016 SC pick.

[LizBeth]

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): “It has been 80 years since a Supreme Court vacancy was nominated and confirmed in an election year. There is a long tradition that you don’t do this in an election year.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL): “I don’t think we should be moving on a nominee in the last year of this president’s term - I would say that if it was a Republican president.”

Sen. David Perdue (R-GA): “The very balance of our nation’s highest court is in serious jeopardy. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I will do everything in my power to encourage the president and Senate leadership not to start this process until we hear from the American people.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA): “A lifetime appointment that could dramatically impact individual freedoms and change the direction of the court for at least a generation is too important to get bogged down in politics. The American people shouldn’t be denied a voice.”

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC): “The campaign is already under way. It is essential to the institution of the Senate and to the very health of our republic to not launch our nation into a partisan, divisive confirmation battle during the very same time the American people are casting their ballots to elect our next president.”

Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC.): “In this election year, the American people will have an opportunity to have their say in the future direction of our country. For this reason, I believe the vacancy left open by Justice Antonin Scalia should not be filled until there is a new president.”

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO): “The Senate should not confirm a new Supreme Court justice until we have a new president.”

Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO): “I think we’re too close to the election. The president who is elected in November should be the one who makes this decision.”

Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH): “I believe the best thing for the country is to trust the American people to weigh in on who should make a lifetime appointment that could reshape the Supreme Court for generations. This wouldn’t be unusual. It is common practice for the Senate to stop acting on lifetime appointments during the last year of a presidential term, and it’s been nearly 80 years since any president was permitted to immediately fill a vacancy that arose in a presidential election year.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): “I strongly agree that the American people should decide the future direction of the Supreme Court by their votes for president and the majority party in the U.S. Senate.”

Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY): “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC): “If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump’s term, and the primary process has started, we’ll wait to the next election.”

[BainsBane]

1. the problem is

they have no problem showing themselves as complete hypocrites. Republicans have no principles.

[LizBeth]

2. Right. I have been sick with this all day.

[BainsBane]

3. Me too

every since last night. I've been on edge the whole time.

[LizBeth]

4. It has been like being kicked back to 2016 and the loss. I went after an old friend that put up a

Michael Moore post. I cannot even look at my family, their hypocrisy.

[BainsBane]

5. They put up a Moore post today?

What did it say?

[LizBeth]

6. I didn't go in and read the article. About how Biden is handling Michigan worse than HRC.

I am so tired of the supposed "progressive" that is suppose to be on our side, working against the Dems and trying to undercut us. We are up average of the recent polls by ten points and there is Moore, on tv, whining about Biden. How does that help? He actively worked at cutting HRC down and has been a punk ass this election. So done with these people.

[BainsBane]

7. I hear you

[TwilightZone]

12. And their voters don't care.

This is how they want them to act. That fact doesn't always get through to people.

[BainsBane]

13. Their voters

Are worse than they are.

[TwilightZone]

15. Agreed.

My partner and I occasionally talk about which is worse: Trump or his enablers, supporters, and others who still buy his nonsense and support his reprehensible behavior. We usually conclude that it's the latter.

[Qutzupalotl]

8. Man. Their arguments sucked even back then.

Seriously, there is not one valid point in the batch.

How about this: when all this is over, and we have the Senate, House and White House, we make a “new rule.” We have one president at a time, and their term ends when their term ends. They can nominate a judge up until noon of their last day. The Senate can vote it up or down. The election argument is a red herring.

[SunSeeker]

9. Hypocrites.

[BigmanPigman]

10. My dad stated it simply when I asked him

what GOP stands for. His answer was "greedy hypocrites".

[BlancheSplanchnik]

11. Disgusting lying self seeking SCUM!

[brer cat]

14. And they will all take it back.

F'ing hypocrites. Thanks for compiling this, LizBeth.

[Tommymac]

16. Bookmarked. Thanks! n/t

[Shermann]

17. The 2016 play was interesting

They could have said, hey the people elected a Republican Senate majority in order to push a Republican agenda. We're going to delay until 2017 because we have the right and we have the duty. Basically, say then what they are saying now.

But they didn't. They manufactured this new precedent out of thin air. Why? Did they feel they needed to justify this action with the voters? Perhaps for the Republicans in vulnerable positions? Or did they fear retaliation by the Democrats for playing brazenly hardball politics? Did they do the math and determine this had less of a chance of coming back to haunt them?

Regardless, they formed a kind of verbal contract that they are now breaking.

[dalton99a]

18. Traitors and thieves.

[malaise]

19. Most of them also said they defended the Constitution

and separation of powers

[crickets]

20. What a collection of self-serving lies of the moment. nt