CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday rebuked Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s deputy campaign manager for arguing that President Donald Trump’s appointment of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court is “unconstitutional.”
Kate Bedingfield tried to argue that Republicans are acting unconstitutionally by moving forward with the confirmation process for Barrett.
She cited a poll that shows a majority of Americans want the winner of the presidential election to fill the Supreme Court vacancy, but as Tapper pointed out, a poll is not the Constitution.
“His (Biden’s) point is that the people have an opportunity to weigh in on this constitutional process through their vote,” Bedingfield said. “And we are now in the midst of the election. Millions of people have already cast their votes. And you see that the vast majority of people say that they want the person who wins the election on November 3 to nominate the justice to take this seat.”
“That is their constitutional — there’s the constitutional process of advise and consent,” Bedingfield continued. “The American people get to have their say by voting for president, by voting for senators. We are now 23 days from the election.”
Tapper responded: “Right, but it’s not unconstitutional.”
But Bedingfield continued to falsely claim that millions of “voters are being denied their constitutional right to have a say in this process.”
“They elected the Senate,” Tapper informed Bedingfield.
In fact, voters increased the Republican majority of the Senate after the sharply contested confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018, further validating their judgment.
She responded by citing the same poll again, which shows that “most Americans vehemently disagree” with confirming Barrett prior to the election.
“Again, Kate, that’s a poll,” Tapper fired back. “That’s not what the word constitutional means. Constitutional doesn’t mean, I like it or I don’t like it. It means it’s according to the U.S. Constitution. There’s nothing unconstitutional about what the U.S. Senate is doing.”
