CBS News posted this excerpt from an interview Judge Amy Coney Barrett did in February 2016 and attempted to spin it as “cautioning” a president on replacing a Justice in an election year with “someone who could dramatically flip the balance of power on the court.”
Amy Coney Barrett, one of Trump’s frontrunners for replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg, spoke with CBSN in February 2016 after Antonin Scalia’s death.
She cautioned about replacing Scalia in an election year with “someone who could dramatically flip the balance of power on the court." pic.twitter.com/Uyyh3iWXM9
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 23, 2020
But CBS left out the part where she didn’t “caution” anyone about this. She was describing the multiple scenarios throughout history where a SCOTUS vacancy comes up in an election year and she noted that confirmation hearings where a nominee like a Scalia or a Ginsburg gets approved by an overwhelming majority in the Senate are in the past.
Here are her full remarks, which end with her saying the “president has the power to nominate and the Senate has the power to act or not”:
Shocker: #ACB did NOT, in fact, "caution" against replacing Scalia in an election year. She defaulted to the Constitution. "POTUS has the power to nominate and the Senate has the power to act or not."
Bad-faith framing with the stink of suppressive intent. #FakeNews https://t.co/iGZpuZIjz0 pic.twitter.com/89TmcZNHDZ— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) September 23, 2020
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Also from the interview:
"It shouldn't be a a surprise that the Senate is willing to push a president's nominee through in an election year when they share the same political affiliation." https://t.co/3b64154zhC
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) September 23, 2020
And that’s exactly what happened in 2016 and is what’s about to happen now.
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