Is Biden a 'hypocrite' as he stops Trump from filling RBG spot? 2016 op-ed shows he called for fast nominations
Joe Biden is being criticised once again. Biden said that the nomination to fill the Supreme Court vacancy, created by Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death, should wait until after the election in 44 days. Trump hit back at Biden on Saturday, September 19 night, calling on the former vice president to release his own list of potential Supreme Court picks and accusing him of being afraid to alienate voters by releasing the names. Now, there are talks as some are highlighting a 2016 op-ed penned by the former VP, and saying it is probably hypocritical on his part in trying to stop Trump from nominating a candidate.
In his March 2016 op-ed with the New York Times, Biden had slammed Republicans for delaying a Supreme Court appointment, stating it is the 'constitutional duty' of a president to nominate whenever there is a vacancy. He had added that he was 'surprised and saddened' to hear Republican senators refuse to accept nominations because it was an election year. Shortly after Ginsburg's death, when Trump moved to nominate a candidate to fill the vacancy, Biden hit back saying they should wait until after the election on November 3. "Let me be clear: The voters should pick a President, and that President should select a successor to Justice Ginsburg," tweeted Biden shortly after the death of Ginsburg.
Let me be clear: The voters should pick a President, and that President should select a successor to Justice Ginsburg.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 19, 2020
This, however, contradicts his NYT op-ed, where he had written "The president has the constitutional duty to nominate; the Senate has the constitutional obligation to provide advice and consent."
Biden had added "It is written plainly in the Constitution that both presidents and senators swear an oath to uphold and defend. That’s why I was so surprised and saddened to see Republican leaders tell President Obama and me that they would not even consider a Supreme Court nominee this year." He continued: "No meetings. No hearings. No votes. Nothing. It is an unprecedented act of obstruction. And it risks a stain on the legacy of all those complicit in carrying out this plan."
The Republicans had refused to carry out the vetting process in 2016 following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Obama had nominated Merrick Garland who was never confirmed, and Trump's pick Neil Gorsuch was appointed to the court.
Trump claimed at a rally in North Carolina on Saturday, September 19 night that there is still enough time to effectively vet a nominee in the days leading to the election. While at that, he also slammed Biden for not wanting to risk losing his far-left voters, claiming if Biden released a list of names that were too moderate, he would lose 'the entire East Coast' and lose the election.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany also told Fox News on September 19 that Biden needs to release the list ot help his voters make up their minds. "The former vice president, in all due respect, instead of telling the current president what to do, he needs to tell voters where he stands," McEnany said, adding "We don't know who is on his Supreme Court list. We don't know what kind of justices he would nominate. We know very squarely this president's been very transparent putting forward two lists as to exactly not just what his justices would look like but what their names would be. This is paramount importance to the American voters,' she added.
Biden has previously said that should a vacancy open before summer in an election year, the president can pick nominees. But if it's just weeks from voters heading to the polls, he thinks they should be held off. This came to be known as the Biden Rule after the then-senator had made a speech in 1992, encouraging nominations for a Supreme Court vacancy to be pushed after elections are held.
In his speech, Biden had claimed it "would create immense political acrimony" to nominate too close to the election, after rumours of a Supreme Court vacancy circled. "So I called on the president to wait until after the election to submit a nomination if a sitting justice were to create a vacancy by retiring before November. And if the president declined to do that, I recommended that the Judiciary Committee not hold hearings “until after the political campaign season is over. I know there is an argument that no nominee should be voted on in the last year of a presidency. But there is nothing in the Constitution — or our history — to support this view," he added.
"Justice Anthony M Kennedy was confirmed in the last year of Ronald Reagan’s second term. I know. I was chairman of the Judiciary Committee at the time. And we promptly gave him a hearing, a vote in committee and a full vote on the floor," he had said at the time.
In a 2016 speech, Biden further elaborated "I would go forward with a confirmation process as chairman, even a few months before a presidential election if the nominee were chosen with the advice, and not merely the consent, of the Senate, just as the Constitution requires. My consistent advice to presidents of both parties, including this president [Obama] has been that we should engage fully in the constitutional process of advice and consent. And my consistent understanding of the constitution has been, the Senate must do so as well. Period. They have an obligation to do so."