The death of Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a shocking end to a week in what’s been the longest year on record, but for many, the battle over the coming days will feel even longer. That’s especially the case for Lindsey Graham, thanks to some protesters who wanted to make it clear that they remembered his words from the last time a Supreme Court seat was open during a presidential election year.
Ginsburg’s death from pancreatic cancer sets up a showdown in the United States government over what to do with her now-vacant seat on the Supreme Court. In 2016, Republicans famously did not allow then-president Barack Obama to fill the spot with his nominee, Merrick Garland, by not holding hearings for the seat until after the next election. Donald Trump was elected, of course, and he got to fill the seat with a conservative judge and further skew the court to the right.
At the time, South Carolina Congressmen Lindsey Graham was instrumental in pushing Congress to withhold hearings on the nomination, stating that it was necessary to let the next president decide who fills the seat. But over the weekend, Graham broke with that logic and said he was “dead set on confirming” whomever Trump nominated in the coming days. As Mediate pointed out, this directly conflicts with the logic laid out just four years ago:
Graham is especially under fire since he previously said on record that “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.”
In response, protesters held Wake Up Lindsey Graham demonstrations to send a message that his words will not be forgotten as Republicans gear up to nominate and appoint a judge before the November election.
Sunrise is giving Lindsey Graham the same treatment postmaster DeJoy got last month: Clanging pots and pans at his D.C. address. They've got his 2016 quote on blocking Merrick Garland looping through a speaker. https://t.co/LufFkz6Img
— Alejandro Alvarez 🫡 (@aletweetsnews) September 21, 2020
Protests continue outside Sen Lindsey Graham’s house this morning near the US Capitol regarding SCOTUS nomination process. Started at 6am pic.twitter.com/GS38uip8FE
— Steve Chenevey FOX5 (@stevechenevey) September 21, 2020
Activists Hold Early-Morning “Wake Up Lindsey Graham” Protest Outside Senator’s House https://t.co/gZnJmC8CMu
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) September 21, 2020
Graham, who leads a committee who will vote on a nomination before it goes to the entirety of the Senate, fired back on Twitter explaining that, in his mind, the rules are somehow different here.
Democrats chose to set in motion rules changes to stack the court at the Circuit level and they chose to try to destroy Brett Kavanaugh’s life to keep the Supreme Court seat open.
You reap what you sow.— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) September 20, 2020
It’s unclear, however, how tired he was when composing said tweets.
[via Mediaite]