10.29.20

McConnell on The Guy Benson Show

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) joined Guy Benson this afternoon to discuss Justice Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. See below for highlights or click here to listen to the full interview.

On the Democrats’ Radical Agenda:

“Well, number one they were talking about that all year long. It didn’t just begin with the Barrett nomination. They’ve been talking about getting rid of the filibuster, admitting D.C. and Puerto Rico as states, and packing the Supreme Court all year long. All they did was ratchet up the decimal level and one thing you can tell about the Democrats is the louder they are the more you know the facts are not on their side.”

 

On Court-packing Threats Surrounding Justice Barrett’s Nomination:

“We didn’t have to change any rule or change the Constitution to do what we did. What they’re basically saying is: if we don’t get our way, we’re going to change the rules of the game. I’d like to quote Justice Ginsberg who said a year ago that ‘nine is the right number.’ It’s been nine since 1869.

 

“We didn’t have to change a law, we didn’t have to change a rule, we didn’t have to change anything.”

 

On Following Precedents:

“Let me start with the Democratic nominee for President of the United States, who in 1992 when he was the Chairman of the Judiciary committee and there was a Republican president, helpfully offered the opinion that if there was a vacancy they would not fill it.

 

“Let me follow that up with Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer who said 18 months before the end of Bush 43 -- eight years in the White House -- that if there were a vacancy they would not fill it. Then let me follow that up with historical precedent. You have to go back to 1888 to find the last time a president of a different party confirmed a Supreme Court nominee to a vacancy occurring in the middle of the presidential year.

 

“So they choose to ignore what I said in 2016, when I pointed out that this is what happens in divided government. And they chose to ignore that we don’t have divided government right now, we have a Republican president and a Republican Senate and in those situations, seven out of eight times, the Senate of the same party confirms the nominee.”