Lindsey Graham, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is under pressure to reject any Supreme Court nominee put forward by Donald Trump to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg – as he himself has repeatedly promised to do.
The South Carolina senator, who is currently fighting his most competitive Democratic challenger since he was elected to the chamber in 2002, has previously voted for nominees put forward by presidents of both parties.
However, in 2016, he joined the Republican boycott of Merrick Garland, the man Barack Obama nominated to replace Antonin Scalia. The Republican senate leadership justified their refusal to take up the nomination on the basis that in an election year, it should be for the next president to decide who to pick.
Many of them referred to this as the “Biden rule”, invoking a 1992 floor speech by then-senator Joe Biden in which he said that because of the intense acrimony that had erupted around several of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush’s nominees, the Senate should wait until after that year’s election to take up any nominations.
There was no Supreme Court vacancy to be filled when Mr Biden spoke; the so-called Biden rule has no basis in written law or codified Senate procedure, and until 2016, the circumstances Mr Biden described did not arise until 2016.
At that point, facing the possibility of a relatively liberal justice filling the seat left by the hardline conservative Scalia, Republicans cited Mr Biden’s informal precedent to hold out until after the election, and Mr Garland’s nomination was scotched.
At a meeting of the Republican-controlled judiciary committee, Mr Graham spoke at length about the Republicans’ pretext for obstructing the president.
“Why do I feel comfortable doing this? The history of the Senate is pretty clear here. [Mr Biden] in 1992 argued for what we’re doing. [Mr Obama] filibustered two Republican Supreme Court justices ...This is the last year of a lame duck president. And if Ted Cruz or Donald Trump get to be president, they’ve all asked us not to confirm or take up a selection by president Obama.
“So if a vacancy occurs in their last year of their first term, guess what? You will use their words against them. I want you to use my words against me. If there’s a Republican senator in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say, ‘Lindsey Graham said let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination, and you can use my words against me and you’d be absolutely right.
“We’re setting a precedent here today, Republicans are, that in the last year – at least of a lame duck eight-year term, I would say it’s gonna be a four-year term – that you’re not gonna fill a vacant seat of the Supreme Court based on what we’re doing here today. That’s gonna be the new rule.”
He also recorded a video for Twitter in which he described telling Mr Garland personally that the next president should be allowed to fill the seat.
Even since Mr Trump was elected and Mr Graham metamorphosed from one of the president’s harshest critics into one of his most caustic and dogged allies, the senator has reiterated that the last year of a president’s term is no time to take up a Supreme Court nomination.
During a public discussion with the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg in 2018, he described why he had voted for Mr Obama’s nominees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan but not Mr Garland, explaining that he was doing what he thought was the “traditional” thing to do
“Justice Scalia dies in 2016. The primary process is ongoing. And if you look back at 100 years, no one has been replaced under that circumstance. If you listen to what Joe Biden said in Bush 41, you should hold it over to the next election. Joe is right a lot. So I felt like I was doing the traditional thing when it came to Sotomayor and Kagan, I thought I did the traditional thing.
“Now I’ll tell you this. This may make you feel better but I really don’t care. If an opening comes in the last year of president Trump's term and the primary process is started, we will wait to the next election. And I’ve got a pretty good chance of being the judiciary –”
“And you’re on the record?” asked Mr Goldberg.
“Hold the tape,” Mr Graham replied.
That exchange has already been turned into an ad by LindseyMustGo, a campaign group working to unseat Mr Graham in his race against Democrat Jaime Harrison. The group’s videos have often focused on Mr Graham’s changing positions, particularly on Mr Trump, whom he once called “a race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot”.
Sol_leks on September 19th, 2020 at 17:02 UTC »
Sources: https://www.motherjones.com/2020-elections/2020/09/a-long-list-of-gop-senators-who-promised-not-to-confirm-a-supreme-court-nominee-during-an-election-year/
Note: Mother Jones has links to the fact-checking source of each so you don't have to rely on that singular article as evidence
“2016, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas): “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.”
2018, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.): “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.”
2016, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.): “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.”
2016, 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.”
2016, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa): “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.”
2016, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.): “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.”
2016, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.): “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.”
2016, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.): “The Senate should not confirm a new Supreme Court justice until we have a new president.”
2016, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Col.): “I think we’re too close to the election. The president who is elected in November should be the one who makes this decision.”
2016, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio): “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.”
2016, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.): “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.”
fffsdsdfg3354 on September 19th, 2020 at 16:23 UTC »
They played grahams quotes from the bill Clinton impeachment which directly contradicted his stances during the trump impeachment and it had zero effect on anything. Don't hold your breath that he will be consistent.
hubbardcustarded on September 19th, 2020 at 15:21 UTC »
as if you can shame a Republican