MSNBC's Chris Matthews is still upset by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) decision last year to not act on President Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. In fact he is imploring Democrats to vote against "Mr. Nice Guy" Neil Gorsuch, saying "it's not his turn."
"Donald Trump wants the United States Senate to confirm his pick, Donald Trump's pick for the U.S. Supreme Court. He wants Democrats to join Republicans in giving his pick the 60 votes to override the expected filibuster.
Let me suggest a very good reason not to let this happen—it's not about Trump's pick, it's about President Obama's pick, the one Mitch McConnell and his bunch decided did not even deserve a vote, did not even deserve a hearing, did not even deserve the respect of someone nominated to this high position."
Matthews also said that Gorsuch shouldn't be confirmed because it wasn't his turn, and that Trump shouldn't exploit the vacancy that Mitch McConnell created:
"I don't want to see Donald Trump stuff his nominee through the hoop. Why? Because it's not his turn. It's Merrick Garland's turn and everyone knows it.
Vote nay on Gorsuch, demand the 60 votes and don't give them to Trump. It's not this guy's turn. It's not this guy's turn and all the charm and dancing and Mr. Nice Guy is not going to change it. It's not about Gorsuch, or even Trump. It's about Mitch McConnell and the brand of low-level politics he stands for. Get it?"
Liberals howled last year when McConnell invoked the Biden rule as the reason for not acting on Garland's nomination. But they didn't vigorously fight for Garland, figuring that Clinton would win the election and he would be easily confirmed by what they also expected to be a Democratically-controlled Senate.
That blew up in their faces when not only did Clinton lose, but the Republicans maintained control of the Senate and they began to realize that instead of setting the Supreme Court on a liberal course for decades to come, the exact opposite would occur under President Trump.
Matthews will now have a clear conscience that he did his best to convince Democrats to reject Gorsuch. But they were unable to unearth any damning evidence during his nomination hearings, and it's only a matter of time before Gorsuch is sworn in as the next justice on the Court.
Don Irvine is the chairman of Accuracy in Media and its sister organization Accuracy in Academia. As the son of Reed Irvine, who launched AIM in 1969, he developed an understanding of media bias at an early age, and has been actively involved with AIM for over 30 years.
