Political Quotes

“Mr. President, ``The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President''--Senator Mitch McConnell, February 13, 2016. I don't always agree with Senator McConnell, but I agree with him on that one. This is a violation of our rules, of our history. There have been 13 vacancies within the last 10 months of a Presidential election year in American history. Nine of them were before July 1. Of those nine, seven were confirmed by the Senate, two were not: one under President John Tyler and the other was Merrick Garland. There have been only four vacancies in the Supreme Court that have occurred after July 1 of an election year; zero of them have been confirmed: three in three cases, including Abraham Lincoln. They weren't even nominees; the President waited until after the election. In one, there was a nominee; the Senate tabled the nomination. So all of this talk that we have had about history and precedent, those are the facts: 13 in the last 10 months, 9 of them before July 1--all were confirmed except one 150 years ago and Merrick Garland. I agree with Mitch McConnell on the 13th of February 2016: ``The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President.'' He said that 8 months before the election.…”