Clinton Defends Vote Against Alito: What GOP Is Doing Now Is ‘Very Different’

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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the Senate GOP leadership’s insistence that it will not consider a Supreme Court nominee until the next president takes office is “very different” than her vote against President George W. Bush’s Supreme Court nominees when she was in the Senate.

“I did oppose Justice Alito and as you say Chief Justice Roberts,” Clinton said, adding that after “after meeting with them, listening to them,” she did not think their approach “would be the best for the country.”

“I voted against [Alito]. We had a process. The nomination was made and we went through the process,” Clinton said. “What the Republicans today are saying is you can’t vote on anything. We don’t want the president to send us a nominee. I think that is very different.”

She was pressed on the fact that she supported a filibuster of Justice Alito, which would have robbed him of a formal vote.

“That’s the way the Senate operates,” she said, before praising Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who was present at the town hall being held in his home state.

“Once a nominee goes to the Senate, then you go through the process. There should be hearings both from the nominee and other witnesses, then it should be presented to the floor and then you use the procedures that are available and eventually, as you know, Justice Alito was confirmed,” she said.

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