Sanders: I’d Ask Obama To Withdraw SCOTUS Pick If I’m Elected

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at a campaign rally at the Twin Arrows Navajo Casino Resort in Flagstaff, Ariz., Thursday, March 17, 2016. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)
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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

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