Dems, Leftists Demand Justice Breyer Retire After Mitch McConnell Pledges To Block New SCOTUS Nominees

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell )R-KY) pledged, Monday, not to support a Biden Supreme Court nominee if President Joe Biden appoints someone to the bench in 2023 to 2024, ahead of the next presidential election, prompting Democrats and leading progressives to demand Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer retire at the end of this term.

On Monday, McConnell told radio host Hugh Hewitt that he is unlikely to advance a Supreme Court nominee through the Senate process if Republicans take back the Senate in 2022, blocking Biden from replacing any sitting Justice and potentially leaving a seat on the Court vacant until after the next presidential election, similar to the way that he handled Merrick Garland’s nomination to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

“I think it’s highly unlikely — in fact, no, I don’t think either party, if it were different from the president, would confirm a Supreme Court nominee in the middle of an election,” McConnell told Hewitt, according to The Hill.

McConnell also suggested that Democrats in his position would likely do the same thing, stall a Supreme Court nomination — if they could — in order to make the issue particularly relevant in the next presidential election. McConnell, of course, drew heat for pressing then-Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett through the nomination process ahead of last November’s presidential election, but unlike in 2016, the Senate and the White Houes were both in Republican hands, leaving it possible to shepard Barrett through without relying on support from Democrats.

“I think in the middle of a presidential election, if you have a Senate of the opposite party of the president, you have to go back to the 1880s to find the last time a vacancy was filled. So I think it’s highly unlikely. In fact, no, I don’t think either party if it controlled, if it were different from the president, would confirm a Supreme Court nominee in the middle of an election. What was different in 2020 was we were of the same party as the president,” McConnell said, defending his position.

Although McConnell is not in power at the moment — and, beyond that, Democrats in the Senate are struggling to marshal their own caucus — McConnell’s comments seem to inspire a wave of Democrat, and particularly progressive, commentary on Justice Stephen Breyer, who progressive want to see retire in before the mid-term elections, allowing Biden to fill his seat.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was the most vocal on the subject over the weekend, telling CNN’s Dana Bash that she is “inclined to say” that Breyer should step down.

“You know, it’s something I think about, but I would probably lean towards yes,” Ocasio-Cortez noted. “I would give more thought to it, but I’m inclined to say yes.”

Rep. Mondaire Jones, another New York Democrat and associate of the far-left activist group, Demand Justice, told news network Cheddar last week that he also believes Breyer should retire.

“There’s no question that Justice Breyer, for whom I have great respect, should retire at the end of this term,” Jones said.

On Monday, progressives joined in the narrative.

“Breyer needs to retire,” progressive activist Charlotte Clymer tweeted, according to Fox News. “Greatness in public service has to also mean knowing when it’s time to pass the baton, and it’s time.”

Obama administration-speechwriter-turned progressive activist Jon Favreau echoed Clymer, but suggested that Democrats focus on the issues at hand — notably, their own moderates who are holding back the Biden administration’s agenda.  “Certainly feels good to yell online about this but the only audience that really matters is Stephen Breyer, @JoeManchinWV, @kyrstensinema, and a handful of other Senate Dems who are hiding behind them.”

Breyer is not likely to retire at the end of the 2020-2021 Supreme Court term, particularly given that the Court granted certiorari to several landmark cases, including at least one case on abortion laws and one on the 2nd Amendment.

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