Top Pence Aide Schools CNN's Tapper on the Real History of SCOTUS Appointments
For CNN and its liberal viewers, it was a lesson in the history and modern politics that they refuse to accept.
Marc Short, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, made an appearance on Sunday’s “State of the Union” where host Jake Tapper played his usual role as a mouthpiece for the Democratic establishment, and the media establishment that supports it.
But Short was more than up to handling it.
Marc Short takes Jake Tapper to school, then eats his lunch.https://t.co/0VKBMyOsan
— David J Harris Jr (@DavidJHarrisJr) September 21, 2020
The segment was focused, naturally, on Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death and President Donald Trump’s announced intention to nominate a replacement quickly.
For Tapper and Democrats, the only relevant precedent seems to be from 2016, when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell scotched then-President Barack Obama’s chances of naming a replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia after Scalia’s death in February of that year.
The problem for Obama then was that the political party that controlled the White House — his Democrats — did not control the Senate because voters had seen enough of Obama’s antics by 2014 to give control of both houses of Congress to Obama’s political opposition.
As Short made clear, the problem for Democrats now is that the party that controls the White House is the same as the one that controls the Senate. And since both were put there by American voters for their time in office, whether they should fill a vacant Supreme Court seat has already been decided:
That’s what voters elected them to do.
“When you have a party in power in the Senate whose job it is to advise and consent and confirm the president’s nominee, it continually has shown historically that that is the job of the Senate to confirm the president’s nomination, and history shows it’s the president’s obligation to make a nomination,” Short said, according to a CNN transcript.
That’s the constitutional reality — but as a Democratic shill, Tapper couldn’t let it go at that.
Instead, he brought up the 2016 controversy again, portraying an entirely different situation as though it were the same. He also launched the laughable charge of hypocrisy (coming from liberals) and cited statements by Senate Republicans supporting McConnell’s decision to stonewall an Obama SCOTUS nomination.
He also brought up the looming November election and how the SCOTUS fight might affect the fortunes of Senate Republicans in tough re-election races, like Susan Collins of Maine or Cory Gardner of Colorado.
“I guess the bigger question I have is, is there not a risk that this obvious hypocrisy may cost Republicans in competitive races their seats, being associated with it?” Tapper asked, according to a CNN transcript. Might you be putting, say, Senator Susan Collins or Senator Cory Gardner, who are in very tough reelection fights, at risk?”
Again, Short was ready.
Marc Short, chief of staff to VP Pence: “I reject the notion as hypocrisy … Historical precedent is when your party’s in power … consistently going back to George Washington, the party has continued to confirm those nominees.”
Wait for Tapper’s last comment at the end, btw. pic.twitter.com/We1WvBUoj6
— The Recount (@therecount) September 20, 2020
“Jake, I, I reject the notion there’s hypocrisy,” Short said.
“As I said, historical precedent is, when your party is in power, and the president nominates consistently — going back to George Washington, the party has continued to confirm those nominees. So, I don’t think there’s hypocrisy.
“Regarding the politics of this, again, the people of America elected Donald Trump president in 2016 in large part because he was so transparent and put forward a list and say, here’s who I’m — here’s who I would nominate.
“We still haven’t seen a list from Joe Biden. We would welcome a list from Joe Biden that would show the American people, if he’s elected, here’s who I would appoint to the Supreme Court.
“But, as far as the politics of it, I think the American people wanted Donald Trump to be in a position to make these nominations. And it’s his obligation to do so.”
Tapper really let his liberal flag fly with that, dropping a snarky, unrelated comment about wanting to see President Trump’s tax returns, too.
“I would love to see a list from Joe Biden,” he said. “I’d also love to see President Trump’s tax returns, as long as we’re talking about precedents along those lines.”
It was a non sequitur a child could see through and Short didn’t bite.
“Well, you know, that’s clever, Jake, but the reality is that we know that the president has gone through multiple financial disclosures that are more revealing than the tax returns,” Short said.
If Tapper’s network hadn’t spent four years prostituting itself and lying to its audience in its antagonism to the White House, Tapper’s question would have been almost shockingly partisan.
As it was, it was standard CNN fare in the age of Trump, and just another day in the disgrace of American journalism.
The reality is that, whether liberals like it or not, whether Democrats despise it or not, Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016 — a term in office that will last until Jan. 20, 2021, because that’s what the Constitution says. (The document remains silent on presidential tax returns, which tells anyone sane how important that issue is.)
The reality is that as president, Trump has not just the right but the duty to appoint a Supreme Court nominee, and with the duly elected senators of his party in power in the Senate, it’s a good possibility (though not certain) that that nominee will be approved.
American history is much longer than the four years Trump has been in office, even if liberal CNN viewers may not be able to grasp that. And history is firmly on the Trump side on this one.
That’s a lesson Democrats refuse to accept.
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