Today Vice President Kamala Harris said in an interview that she had concerns about the judical activism of the Supreme Court. John Roberts responded by saying he didn't understand how anyone could say that, that disagreeing with a decision wasn't a reason to question the court's legitimacy. (Are you kidding me?)
So Al Franken was talking about it with Jim Acosta on CNN this afternoon and he really got into it with wingnut commentator Alice Stewart.
"I disagree with what the chief justice said, the legitimacy of the court was undermined when they wouldn't take up Merrick Garland and McConnell said it was because it was an election year and Lindsey Graham pledged that if a vacancy came open during an election year in '20 that he wouldn't vote for -- they wouldn't take up a nominee," Franken said.
"They've stolen two seats: the one that Merrick Garland wasn't given a hearing for, and the one that Coney Barrett, where she was seated a week before the election. That destroyed the legitimacy of the court."
So CNN talking hack Alice Stewart (who worked as campaign comms director for Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann, and was a surrogate for the RNC) thought she could bring a couple of talking points to a gunfight with Al Franken. Boy, was she wrong!
Acosta asked what she thought. "Did Chief Justice Roberts sort of -- he sort of ignored some of what Al is talking about there in that. There is a tremendous amount of controversy as to how the court got tilted to the far right."
"To throw some accuracy in what Al said there, Merrick Garland was held up because we had divided government, a Democrat in the White House, and Republicans in control --" she began.
"That's not what McConnell said."
"But that's the way historically this has been. When you're in close to an election year and you have divided government....
"No, that's not the way it's been historically done."
"When you have divided government, there typically is inclination to --"
"Tell me when this happened before. Tell me when it happened before."
"Well, Merrick Garland is certainly one. When there's a --"
"No, before Merrick Garland."
"They're moving -- they're not moving --"
"Tell me when this happened before."
"Al, I'm telling you, this is what the --"
"Tell me when it happened before. You said this is what happened historically. Tell me when it happened before."
"Look, this is the way that Republicans --"
"When?"
"I can't give you an exact example when this happened in the past."
"You know why you can't? Because it hasn't happened before."
She tried changing the subject. Al was having none of it. "Look, the basis for not appointing him was because of that specific reason. But moving forward --"
"No, it wasn't," Franken said.
"And McConnell explicitly said that it was the, quote, Biden rule and quoted a piece of a speech that Biden had given in june of '80, and he -- Biden said they wouldn't take up, if they weren't consulted and if -- this was about someone resigning in june after a term of the court, which is very different than someone dying. Scalia died in February. And you saw -- you guys, if you can find the tape, you can find Lindsey Graham saying I -- keep the tape, we will not take up a judge if someone dies, a nominee if someone dies in an election year. And the next election. This is total hypocrisy. And actually, I'm surprised that you're claiming this, and you can't come up with an example because there is none."
"To get back to the point of the conversation here..."
"No. This is the point."
