title:  WATCH: Chuck Todd Puts The Screws To Mitch McConnell For Not Giving Merrick Garland A Chance
text: Mitch McConnell is still making ridiculous excuses to justify what Senate Republicans did to Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.When Antonin Scalia passed away in February 2016, his body was not even cold before Republicans declared that they would refuse to hold hearings to confirm any replacement chosen by President Obama.And so, when President Obama selected a centrist judge named Merrick Garland to be the next Supreme Court Justice, Republicans immediately refused to do their job as outlined by the Constitution.Republicans tried to excuse their behavior by claiming that Democrats would have done the same thing even though Democrats have never once refused to grant a nominee a confirmation hearing. Furthermore, Republicans claimed that no Supreme Court nominee has ever been approved by the Senate in an election year.McConnell made the same claim on Sunday after Chuck Todd grilled him in response to Republican insistence that Donald Trump s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch be confirmed immediately. The tradition had been not to confirm vacancies in the middle of a presidential [election] year,  McConnell said.  You d have to go back 80 years to find the last time it happened. Everyone knew, including President Obama s former White House counsel, that if the shoe had been on the other foot, [Democrats] wouldn t have filled a Republican president s vacancy in the middle of a presidential election. Again, Democrats have never refused to hold a confirmation hearing for a Supreme Court nominee.Also, Mitch McConnell is ignorant of Senate history.As it turns out, there have been several election year confirmations of Supreme Court nominees and we don t have to go back 80 years to find one.In fact, the last one occurred only 29 years ago when the Senate confirmed Justice Anthony Kennedy in 1988 during Ronald Reagan s last year in office.It also happened in 1956 when Dwight Eisenhower nominated William Brennan. The Senate confirmed him despite it being an election year.In 1940, also an election year, Franklin Roosevelt nominated Frank Murphy to the Supreme Court and the Senate confirmed him.So contrary to what Mitch McConnell says, there is plenty of precedent in our history proving that the Senate has no such  tradition  of not confirming Supreme Court nominees during an election year.Todd challenged McConnell for not simply holding a confirmation hearing and giving Garland an up or down vote. Why not put him up for a vote?  Todd asked.  Any senator can have a rationale to not vote for a confirmation. Why not put Merrick Garland on the floor and if the rationale is,  You know what? Too close to an election,  then vote no? Look, we litigated that last year,  a flustered McConnell replied.  The American people decided that they wanted Donald Trump to make the nomination, not Hillary Clinton. Actually, the American people voted for Hillary Clinton. She won the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes.McConnell then claimed that there s  no rational reason  to not vote to confirm Gorsuch. But that s not true either. You see, by refusing to grant Garland a confirmation hearing, Republicans set a precedent and gave Democrats all the reasons they need to block Gorsuch at all costs.Plus, Gorsuch has a terrible record and he was nominated by Trump, which is all the more reason for Democrats to block him.If Senate Republicans had not acted like petulant children in response to Merrick Garland, perhaps Democrats would have been more open. But the way Republicans treated Garland was un-American and totally outrageous. They disgraced the Senate with their conduct and Democrats now have precedent to respond in kind.But McConnell balked when Todd challenged him to take up a resolution that says Supreme Court vacancies won t be filled during an election year. In short, McConnell knows that if a Republican had been president in 2016, Senate Republicans would have rushed any Supreme Court nomination through. Because in the end, Republicans are hypocrites.Here s the video via YouTube.There is no excuse for Democrats to not block Neil Gorsuch from becoming a Supreme Curt Justice. In fact, if Republicans somehow get him confirmed, Democrats should impeach him as soon as they take back control of the Senate. This Supreme Court seat rightfully belongs to Merrick Garland. He deserves a fair confirmation hearing before Republicans are ever able to nominate someone to the Supreme Court again. Until then, Republican nominees should be the same and worse than the way Republicans treated Merrick Garland.And Republicans only have themselves to blame.Featured Image: Screenshot