Monday on MSNBC, former comedian and senator Al Franken labeled Judge Amy Coney Barrett “completely hypocritical” for supporting Republicans not taking up Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination in an election year.
“She did an interview right after Scalia died, with CBS, and in that interview, she said, well, you know, this is very different from Kennedy being seated because she was taking the place of Powell, who left in June, this is very different,” Franken said. “She’s a hypocrite too. And that needs to be raised in her questioning.”
Panelist Rich Lowry responded, “What you said, the crux of her remarks in that interview was that under our constitutional system, the president has the power to nominate, and the Senate has the power to confirm or not. And both of them can act or not in keeping with their own prerogatives. So the idea that she was hypocritical is a gross misreading of what she said.”
“That’s one of the things she said, but she went to great lengths to explain why it was proper to seat Justice Kennedy in ’88, but not to take up Merrick Garland and she went out of her way to say, ‘Oh, they’re already casting primary votes.’ That’s what she said…” Franken insisted. “And why would she say that if it doesn’t—if it didn’t matter? And this is completely hypocritical, go back and look at that interview.”
Lowry was right. Franken and his fellow Democrats opposing Barrett’s nomination are the hypocrites.