Washington Post: ‘Republicans Are Already Treating Clinton’s Presidency as Illegitimate’

Two weeks before the election, Paul Waldman reports in the Washington Post that Republicans in Congress “are already treating Clinton’s presidency as illegitimate.”

From the Washington Post:

When Antonin Scalia died in February, Senate Republicans quickly proclaimed that despite what the Constitution says, Barack Obama had no right to appoint Scalia’s successor. Instead, they invented a new principle, which is that presidents — or Democratic ones anyway — only get to appoint Supreme Court justices for the first three years of their four year terms. After that, we must wait until the next president takes office, so he or she can make the appointment.

At the time, I made a prediction: If Hillary Clinton gets elected, Republicans will change their minds and decide that the Supreme Court is actually working just fine with eight justices, and there’s no need to rush ahead and fill that vacancy, at least not until 2021 or 2025, whenever we have our next Republican president.

Now at least one senator is suggesting that this just might be just the ticket, and he’s getting backup from conservative writers, as David Weigel reports:

“Speaking to reporters after a campaign rally for a Republican U.S. Senate candidate here, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said that there was “precedent” for a Supreme Court with fewer than nine justices — appearing to suggest that the blockade on nominee Merrick Garland could last past the election.”

Read the rest here.