In response to questions on filling the current Supreme Court vacancy, Congressman Will Hurd delivered the most incoherent, gibberish statement of this campaign season:
“It’s a great question. A lot of the major decisions over the last couple of years have been 5-4. I’m not a judicial scholar and what happens when there’s deadlock. I think this president will attempt to make a nomination, but I don’t think the Senate will let that nominee ever come to a vote. Mitch McConnell has been pretty firm on that over the last couple of days. The impact of that on the presidential election this year, it’s already seen and shown. More is gonna come out and I think there’s several cases in front of the Supreme Court now and we’ll see how those go, but this is gonna be an important issue. Ultimately, the rule of law should prevail, and we should be enforcing the laws on the books, and it’s the legislative branch that makes the laws and the executive branch that executes those laws, not the other way around. This is gonna be an interesting couple of months.”
“I think both parties see it as a real issue, and I think both parties can accuse the other of partisanship. The realities are this – the president can nominate someone and the Senate doesn’t have to hear it. That’s the separation of powers and I think that is the clear stance Mitch McConnell – you know, I think he has that ability. We’ll see what happens in this presidential election. And look, there’s 80 years of precedent of a president not making a Supreme Court nomination in the last year of office. Some folks bring it up and I think it may have been Clarence Thomas, but he was nominated way before the last year of the Bush years, but it was just the actual hearing was in the final year. That’s not an example or deviation of that 80 year history.”
“Many of us are used to Congressman Hurd tongue-twisting to avoid taking stances on tough issues, but his statement on the Supreme Court vacancy is an outright insult to people with common sense,” said DCCC Spokesman Jermaine House. “As a Member of Congress, Will Hurd doesn’t need to be a judicial scholar to read the Constitution and decide if he wants to voice support for a functioning government or more obstruction.”
BACKGROUND
Marco Rubio Given “Mostly False” Rating For Saying It Has Been 80 Years Since “Lame Duck” Made Supreme Court Nomination. “Rubio’s statement prompted several comments on Twitter from those who noted a specific exception to his claim: the nomination of Justice Anthony Kennedy. The Senate confirmed Kennedy 97-0 on Feb. 4, 1988. That was about 28 years ago — not 80.” [Politifact, 2/14/16]