Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) reminded Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) that he once refused to give Merrick Garland's Supreme Court nomination a hearing after the Kentucky lawmaker suggested Republicans were being treated unfairly with current judicial nominations.
During a Senate floor session on Monday, McConnell said he was alarmed after hearing that two judges might not follow through with plans to retire in light of Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election.
"This sort of partisan behavior undermines the integrity of the judiciary," McConnell said. "Never, never before has a circuit judge unretired after a presidential election. It's literally unprecedented."
"These vacancies now properly belong to the next president," he insisted. "As I repeatedly warned the judiciary in other matters, if you play political games, expect political prizes."
Durbin responded by reminding McConnell that he had refused to allow former President Barack Obama to appoint Merrick Garland as a Supreme Court justice following the death of Antonin Scalia in 2016.
"I listened carefully to my colleague from Kentucky explain his concerns about the filling of four circuit court vacancies," Durbin said. "And he raises a question about whether that's fair."
"Well, I'd like to call the Senate's attention to the fact that there was a moment in time when we were shocked to learn that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had died while on a hunting trip," he continued. "And the decision was made almost instantly by the Senator from Kentucky, the same Senator who just talked about delaying and filling vacancies."
"The decision was made by him not to fill the Supreme Court vacancy."
ALSO READ: Will Trump back the FBI’s battle against domestic extremists? He won’t say.
Durbin noted that McConnell refused to give Garland a hearing "so that Donald Trump was able to fill that vacancy, and not a situation where... President Obama would have that option."
"So when I hear the Senator come to the floor from Kentucky and talk about whether there's any gamesmanship going on, I don't know," he added. "But I will tell you that we saw it at the highest possible level in filling the vacancy on the Supreme Court when Anton Scalia passed away."
Watch the video below from C-SPAN or at this link.
