On Sunday’s broadcast of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” moderator Chuck Todd asked Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) if he was “concerned” the Republican Party looked “like a bunch of hypocrites.”
While discussing President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the high court, Todd said, “You have no qualms about doing this before the election? You’ve seen, polling is pretty overwhelming on this issue. A large majority of the American public do not believe this president before the election should make this pick, and it should be whoever wins the election. That is not an unreasonable thing for the American public to think, is it not?”
Blunt replied, “It may not be unreasonable, but the Constitution sets up two standards to sit on the court, one is the president has to make a nomination and, two, is you have to have a Senate that will accept that nomination and agree with that nomination.”
Todd said, “Do you regret the hypocritical argument that you guys made four years ago creating this sort of standard out of thin air and then backtracking on it four years later? And I know, you guys came up with these footnotes that says it depends on who controls the Senate. Senator Blunt, nobody, made those footnotes in 2016. It was crystal clear to the American public what your views are. Are you concerned that the party looks like a bunch of hypocrites four weeks before the election?”
Blunt said, “The voters will have to look at that and decide. I don’t know if we can make this decision — or I know we shouldn’t make it based on the politics of it but what our job is. And if we’re in agreement in getting that job done.”
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