Why are Republicans obstructing President Barack Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court? According to The Daily Show's Trevor Noah, no good reason.
The actual reason, of course, is that they say the president shouldn't pick a nominee on an election year, when the next president could have a totally different view on who Antonin Scalia's replacement should be. As Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, put it, "Even if you picked me, Lindsey Graham, I would lead the charge against me, because you [Obama] were the one who picked me in an election year."
Noah wasn't buying it. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell "is saying give the people a voice, but he's silencing the one voice who the people chose," he said, pointing to Obama, who of course was elected (again) in 2012.
Moreover, Noah questioned whether either of the likely nominees for president — Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump — could really pick a better nominee than Obama's Merrick Garland, who has been widely praised by the left and right. "What if Hillary Clinton becomes president and she picks Garland or someone more liberal?" he said. "Or, God forbid, Donald Trump becomes president, and who knows what he'd do? He could do anything. He could pick Judge Judy, just because he's heard of her. You don't know what he'd do."
Republicans have countered by invoking what they call the "Biden rule," a reference to a speech Vice President Joe Biden gave in 1992 suggesting that nominees shouldn't be picked on election years.
"But it's not a rule," Noah said. "Just because you propose something doesn't make it a rule." He added, "And just by the way, since when do Republicans have any respect for what Joe Biden says?" (In one clip Noah played, Ted Cruz said one way to make people laugh at parties is simply saying Joe Biden's name.)
Still, this is the path Republicans have chosen. Chances are they would have blocked any of Obama's nominee to replace someone as conservative as Scalia. But the reason they've come up for the obstruction isn't very convincing — and is providing a lot of material for comedians like Noah.
