Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Thursday while he “strongly” supports President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, he would ask Obama to withdraw his nominee so he could make his own pick if he were elected.
If Sanders prevails in November, he told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow he would ask Obama to withdraw Garland’s nomination.
“I’m 100 percent prepared to support Judge Garland. I think he’s clearly very knowledgable and can serve ably on the Supreme Court, but between you and me, I think there are some more progressive judges out there.”
Sanders said Garland, who has served on the D.C. Court of Appeals for 19 years, is “probably not the most progressive” choice “but I will strongly support the president’s selection.”
He called the response from his Republican colleagues “obstructionism” and predicted Republicans will “pay a very heavy political price” for their actions.
“The idea that the president should not be able to make a nomination is totally absurd, Republican obstructionism,” Sanders said. “I will do everything I can to see that there is hearings and a vote takes place and that Garland becomes seated on the Supreme Court.”
Sanders repeated that his litmus test for Supreme Court nominees is a “loud and clear” declaration that the jurist would vote to overturn Citizens United decision from 2010.
h/t The Hill
I love Senator Sanders and agree with here. My question to the GOP: Still wanna risk it, boys?
Well, I think Obama as President, or any President for that matter, should be able to nominate and have a hearing from him/her up until the last practical day of his term. But I would like to see some more progressive judges nominated to the court. It seems like all of Obama’s have been middle of the road. I understand the practical argument, but still…
It’s not about Bernie anymore. He’s not ever going to be in the position of nominating anyone. The question is who would Clinton nominate? I can easily see her nominating Garland.
I’m one of the people who likes Bernie’s positions but doesn’t think he’d be the strongest candidate in an election the good guys cannot afford to lose, and this is one example why. It’s like he doesn’t get the joke, somehow. Obama’s in a situation where he has relatively little actual power over the situation, and yet he’s outfoxed the radicals once again, he’s wrongfooted them, put them on the defensive and shown them to be asinine hypocrites, and picking a relative moderate was the key to the ploy. If Bernie would at least acknowledge that rather than be sniffily superior in his purity I’d think better of him.
This is Bernie is a nutshell. He continues to take veiled shots on the president. He can say anything he wants because he has no accountability.
President Obama, otoh, has a constitutional duty. So he made the best choice he could in a hostile, hyper-partisan environment in order to put maximum political pressure on the Repugs so that there is even a small chance of actually filling a USSC vacancy.