During an appearance on CNN Saturday, Republican analyst Margaret Hoover compared the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to “manna from heaven”, describing her passing as a “gift” to Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
Speaking with host Anderson Cooper and former White House counsel John Dean, Hoover first stated that Republican voters won’t care that GOP lawmakers once stated they would not agree to confirm a Supreme Court nominee in an election year, before admitting the Republicans would take full advantage of the opportunity with the passing of Ginsburg.
That was when things got awkward.
“There’s no way to argue that it isn’t hypocrisy but there’s no way to argue that many of the senators whose seats are up and the Senate itself, which is highly contested at this moment,” Hoover said of Republicans.
“Republicans are quite worried about losing the Senate,” she continued. “Many of their voters aren’t going to care that they said that four years ago under entirely different circumstances. Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump know that this is manna from heaven — this is a gift.”
Hoover quickly tried to backpedal and asserted it was a “political gift” instead.
“By the way,” she quickly backtracked. “No passing of a Supreme Court justice or American hero like Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a gift to anybody. It is a mournful and sorrowful moment for the country where we should reflect. To the extent this now becomes about politics, this is a political gift for Donald Trump. And make no mistake about it, Republican voters are not going to hold any of their previous statements from Lindsey Graham or Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio or otherwise if it means they can secure the Senate moving forward.”
Watch the video below: