Hypocrite would be the perfect word to use to describe Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. Last Friday, we heard of the tragic passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Many were wondering how Republicans would handle the situation, given that the election is a few weeks away.
One Republican in particular stood out, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
Back in 2016, Graham spoke about what would happen if a seat in the Supreme Court was vacant on the last year of a president’s term.
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“I want you to use my words against me. If there’s a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said, ‘Let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination,'” he said in 2016 shortly after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. “And you could use my words against me and you’d be absolutely right.”
Well, here we are and as many expected, Graham has decided to back out of those words and publicly announced that he would back Donald Trump if he decided to nominate a judge to fill the missing seat.
Graham, who as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee would oversee confirmation hearings, said Saturday that he would support President Trump “in any effort to move forward regarding the recent vacancy created by the passing of Justice Ginsburg.”
But it was already known that Graham would back away from his initial comments. Earlier this year, Graham tried to justify why he would be backing Trump judges on an election year.
Graham said circumstances had changed since Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., blocked the appointment of Merrick Garland during the last year of Barack Obama’s presidential term.
“Merrick Garland was a different situation,” Graham said on Full Court Press with Greta Van Susteren, as reported by The Hill. “You had the president of one party nominating, and you had the Senate in the hands of the other party. A situation where you’ve got them both would be different. I don’t want to speculate, but I think appointing judges is a high priority for me in 2020.”
Graham repeated his sentiment just last month, telling reporters that he was prepared to advance a nominee, even during this election year.
“Yeah. We’ll cross that bridge,” Graham said, NBC News reported. “After [Brett] Kavanaugh, the rules have changed as far as I’m concerned.”
It’s no surprise that Graham would back out of his statements in 2016. But just like he said, you can hold it against him and you’d be right.
