Fox News’s Chris Wallace pressed Sen. Tom Cotton on Sunday on whether there is “any hypocrisy” between the Arkansas Republican’s 2016 comments to avoid a Supreme Court justice confirmation ahead of an election and his current view to “move forward without delay.”
Cotton told “Fox News Sunday” that the GOP-led Senate has a “mandate to perform our constitutional duty” and fill the Supreme Court vacancy after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death on Friday.
Wallace then replayed Cotton’s remarks on the Senate floor in 2016 when the Arkansas senator asked: “Why would we squelch the voice of the people? Why would we deny the voters to weigh in on the makeup of the Supreme Court?”
The senator made the comments after Justice Anton Scalia died in February 2016 and President Obama nominated Merrick Garland nine months before the presidential election.
“You don’t see any hypocrisy between that position then and this position now?” Wallace asked.
“Chris, the Senate majority is performing our constitutional duty and fulfilling the mandate that the voters gave us in 2016 and especially in 2018,” he said, referring to the midterm elections after Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings.
Wallace also pushed Cotton asking if he would “still think it would be proper” for the Senate to confirm a Trump nominee to the court if the 2020 election resulted in a new president and Democratic majority in the upper chamber.
“Chris, as I said, we are going to move forward without delay and there will be a vote on this nominee,” the senator said.
“But to the point Donald Trump’s gonna win reelection, and I believe Senate Republicans will win our majority back because the American people know that Donald Trump is going to put nominees up for the federal courts who will apply the law, not make the law,” he added.
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Chris Wallace presses Cotton on "any hypocrisy" between comments on Supreme Court vacancy in 2016 and today https://t.co/9g7r2x7MbN pic.twitter.com/wnGGW28eAQ
— The Hill (@thehill) September 20, 2020
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