Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 11:22 am
Republicans have been hiding behind a fictional “Biden Rule” to justify their SCOTUS nominee obstruction but today Vice President Joe Biden blew up that whole mess of lies.
Republicans based this fictional Biden Rule on a then Senator Biden speech they cherry picked from 1992, in which they conveniently left off the end. Biden delivered the speech in June of that year and he was saying, of a hypothetical Bush nominee, send us someone we can agree on, send us a moderate, not a wild partisan.
Today, Biden humiliated Senate Republicans by giving remarks intending to set the record straight and to teach them about the most basic part of their jobs.
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Biden, who was in the Senate for 36 years, told them, “I handled eight Justices and SCOTUS nominations, more than anyone alive.” And, he pointed out, every nominee” got meetings, a hearing and an up and down vote, election year or not.
Senator Orrin Hatch tried to escape the wrath of Joe’s truth telling by moving the goal posts in a whine to end all whines:
President Obama: first President to have filibustered #SCOTUS nominee. VP Biden: refused to hold hearings for over 50 Bush nominees. #Rich
— Senator Hatch Office (@SenOrrinHatch) March 24, 2016
Which led to a simple request for a list of SCOTUS nominees that Joe Biden allegedly refused to consider:
Quick question, @SenOrrinHatch: can you just just send a list of the SCOTUS nominees that @VP refused to consider? https://t.co/IaJodOgXHF
— WeNeedNine (@WeNeedNine) March 24, 2016
LOL. There won’t be a list because there isn’t a list. All they had was a cherry picked speech made over a non-existent nominee in which Biden urged the President to offer up a moderate.
Here’s the part Republicans leave out of the speech: Biden concluded his speech with, “I believe that so long as the public continues to split its confidence between the branches, compromise is the responsible course both for the White House and for the Senate. Therefore I stand by my position, Mr. President, if the President consults and cooperates with the Senate or moderates his selections absent consultation, then his nominees may enjoy my support as did Justices Kennedy and Souter.”
Poof, there goes the fictional “Biden Rule”.
There is no Biden Rule. It was, at best, a cherry picked bunker Republicans were hiding under, but now it’s nothing but a shriveling mass of more lies. What Senate Republicans are doing is unprecedented and Smoking Joe isn’t gonna take it lying down.
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