Hillary Clinton Calls Supreme Court Nomination System ‘Broken’

After bragging about how she recommended Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a Supreme Court Justice to her husband and then President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton then took aim at the nomination system on NBC’s Meet The Press this morning.

Host Chuck Todd pointed out that she is a former senator and mentioned that she was there for 8 years of these “judicial wars.” He then asked her, “how broken is this process?”

Clinton replied, “Oh, it’s absolutely broken Chuck.” She continued, “The system has been broken awhile, but clearly the decision that Mitch McConnell made back in 2016 in the midst of that presidential election, but at a much earlier time when Justice Scalia unexpectedly passed away, is what should be the standard now.”

Hillary Clinton retweeted a quote that the Meet The Press twitter account shared from the next part of the interview, which said, “Hillary said Senate Republicans made a new precedent when they held up the confirmation of Merrick Garland in 2016. “They made this decision back in 2016 and they should be held accountable for it.”

.@HillaryClinton said Senate Republicans made a new precedent when they held up the confirmation of Merrick Garland in 2016. "They made this decision back in 2016 and they should be held accountable for it." #MTP #IfItsSunday

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) September 20, 2020

Clinton also added, “But as you clearly heard, that is not what they are intending and it’s another blow to our institutions. Our institutions are being basically undermined by the lust for power, power for personal gain in the case of the president or power for institutional gain in the case of Mitch McConnell.”

Later in the interview, she claimed that “we are at a very dangerous point in American history and there’s been a concerted effort going back decades now to turn the clock back on progress that has opened doors to people otherwise left out and marginalized.”

She said that there has been a well-funded effort to use the courts to undo precedents that have been set. However, the progressive-backed ActBlue — a donation-processing site that helps Democratic candidates, committees and organizations raise money — reported more than $95 million raised between the time Ginsburg’s death was announced and Sunday morning Eastern time.