Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “a flagrant dickhead” on Thursday for his apparent reversal on filling a Supreme Court vacancy in an election year.
McConnell refused to meet with Merrick Garland, who was former President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee in 2016, explaining that the next president should fill the vacancy following Antonin Scalia’s death. That decision resurfaced Wednesday when McConnell said he would try to fill a vacancy if one were to open in the final year of Trump’s first term.
Hypocrisy is McTurtle’s middle name. And his first and last name too. What a flagrant dickhead! https://t.co/17vKziC2eJ
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) May 30, 2019
Tribe tweeted a link to an article in The Economist about McConnell’s new comments with the caption, “Hypocrisy is McTurtle’s middle name. And his first and last name too. What a flagrant dickhead!” (RELATED: Supreme Court Will Review Cross-Border Shooting By Border Patrol Agent)
A McConnell spokesperson told CNN that the difference between Garland’s nomination and a potential 2020 nomination is that control of the government was divided between Democrats and Republicans in 2016, with Republicans controlling the Senate and Obama in the White House. In 2020, however, Republicans will control both the Senate and the White House.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer responded to McConnell’s admission on Twitter by calling him a hypocrite.