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CBS News Anchor Gets Testy With McConnell, Cites False Stat About Supreme Court Appointments

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CBS News’ John Dickerson peppered Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday’s “Face the Nation” over the senator’s decision not to consider Obama Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland and made a false claim, twice, about precedent concerning presidential election year appointments.

“In the history of partisanship on the Supreme Court, your decision to block Merrick Garland (in 2016) is something (Democrats) see as having kicked off a new stage in the partisanship associated with the Supreme Court nominees,” Dickerson said.

If it was supposed to be a baited question, McConnell didn’t take it.

“Yeah, they don’t know much history,” McConnell replied. “You have to go all the way back to 1880 to find the last time a Senate controlled by a different party from the president confirmed a Supreme Court justice to a vacancy created in the middle of a presidential election.”

The Kentucky Republican continued: “They’ve also conveniently forgotten that Joe Biden said in 1992, when he was chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the Democrats control the Senate, Republican in the White House. If a vacancy occurred they wouldn’t fill it.

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“They also conveniently forgot that Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid, 18 months before the end of Bush 43, said if a Supreme Court vacancy occurred they wouldn’t fill it,” McConnell said.

Dickerson interjected saying, “I don’t think that’s right.”

“In 1956, Eisenhower nominated (William) Brennan, the 84th Congress was a Democrat-controlled. And also on the Biden rule, Joe Biden was talking in the abstract,” Dickerson said. “There was no nominee, no nominee was blocked and he said to not have the nomination come up before the election, but that it could come up after the election.”

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The anchor further suggested that McConnell’s action “hurts democracy.”

McConnell fired back, arguing that Dickerson had his history wrong, and the 1880 statistic he gave was accurate.

Dickerson once again cited the 1956 Brennan example, and then pointed to 1968 when then-President Lyndon Johnson nominated associate Justice Abe Fortas to be chief justice. Fortas failed to gain enough support to end debate for his nomination, and Johnson’s successor, Richard Nixon, ultimately filled the position with Warren Burger months after winning the presidency.

In his 1992 Senate speech, Biden offered the Fortas example as a reason not to consider nominations during the height of a presidential campaign.

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In response to Dickerson’s bickering, McConnell noted that Johnson’s attempted appointment of Fortas came while the Democrats controlled both the Senate and the White House, therefore was not the same as the Garland nomination.

“The history is exactly as I told you,” McConnell said, standing firm on his 1880 stat.

Dickerson replied, “Well, we have a disagreement about the history.”

Later in the day, the newsman conceded that McConnell was correct about Brennan.

Dickerson tweeted, “The @senatemajldr &I had a disagreement about 1956. He said, since 1880, no SCOTUS nominee had been named & confirmed in an election year when the president and Congress were in opposite parties. I said in 1956 Ike (R) nominated Brennan. Democrats controlled the Senate.”

The difference is that Brennan was first named to the court as a recess appointment on Sept. 29, 1956, according to The Washington Post. He was not confirmed by the Senate until 1957, after voters had a chance to elect a new president in November 1956. They did not, and Eisenhower remained in the White House.

“But Brennan was a recess appointment (by Eisenhower) ‘56 not confirmed by Democrats ‘till ‘57,” Dickerson wrote. “McConnell: correct! But: recess appointment & confirmations in election years undermine idea it was Sen. norm justices coldn’t (sic) be confirmed b/c voters had to have their say— the Garland rationale.”

A recess appointment is only temporary, lasting generally until the beginning of the next session of Congress.

If Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson had defeated Eisenhower in ’56, he would have been able to choose whomever he wanted to fill the Supreme Court seat Brennan temporarily held.

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Randy DeSoto has written more than 2,000 articles for The Western Journal since he joined the company in 2015. He is a graduate of West Point and Regent University School of Law. He is the author of the book "We Hold These Truths" and screenwriter of the political documentary "I Want Your Money."
Randy DeSoto is the senior staff writer for The Western Journal. He wrote and was the assistant producer of the documentary film "I Want Your Money" about the perils of Big Government, comparing the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. Randy is the author of the book "We Hold These Truths," which addresses how leaders have appealed to beliefs found in the Declaration of Independence at defining moments in our nation's history. He has been published in several political sites and newspapers.

Randy graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a BS in political science and Regent University School of Law with a juris doctorate.
Birthplace
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Nationality
American
Honors/Awards
Graduated dean's list from West Point
Education
United States Military Academy at West Point, Regent University School of Law
Books Written
We Hold These Truths
Professional Memberships
Virginia and Pennsylvania state bars
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Politics, Entertainment, Faith




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