ABC's Terry Moran panned for suggesting GOP would end filibuster 'in a heartbeat' after refraining under Trump

ABC News' chief national correspondent Terry Moran was panned on social media for suggesting that Republicans wouldn't skip a beat in eliminating the filibuster if they regain power in the Senate. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., made headlines on Monday when he said he would block a hypothetical Supreme Court nominee from President Biden in the 2024 election year if Republicans take back control in the 2022 midterms, reiterating "What was different in 2020 was we were of the same party as the president."

Indeed, McConnell said as early as Feb. 22, 2016, that "the Senate has not filled a vacancy arising in an election year when there was divided government since 1888, almost 130 years ago." For that reason, McConnell says, Republicans were being consistent when they confirmed Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett after stonewalling now-Attorney General Merrick Garland's Supreme Court nomination in 2016. 

REPORTERS CONTINUE TO HOUND MANCHIN, SINEMA ABOUT ELIMINATING FILIBUSTER TO PAVE WAY FOR DEM AGENDA

Moran took to Twitter and reacted to McConnell's remarks, insisting Republicans would instantly go for a power grab if he became Majority Leader again. 

"Is there any doubt that the GOP would end the filibuster for good--in a heartbeat--if it served their purposes?" Moran asked. 

Critics knocked the ABC News correspondent for his apparent oversight of the fact that Republicans did not eliminate the filibuster under the past administration even as President Trump called on McConnell to take action in order to push his agenda. 

"There's a lot of doubt, because Trump pushed them to do exactly that back in 2017, and, instead of doing so, they issued a bipartisan letter affirming their commitment to it. 31 Democrats signed that letter," Charles C.W. Cooke told Moran.

"They could’ve and didn’t, which is why the filibuster still exists even after Republicans controlled both congressional chambers and the White House from 2017-2019," The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis wrote. "We’re not exactly talking ancient history, here. It was two years ago. You witnessed it."

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"Hello were you alive from 2017-2019?" Ruthless podcast co-host Comfortably Smug asked. 

"Senator McConnell’s respect for the filibuster has been ideologically consistent. Dem Senators, on the other hand, loved to wield it to their advantage in the minority but now view the filibuster as an unbearable imposition. Staggering hypocrisy here, abetted by media ignorance," Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., tweeted.

"It's really shocking how ignorant and insulated reporters are about actual positions and events on the right," political commentator A.G. Hamilton reacted. "We know for a fact this isn't true because Trump wanted them to get rid of it in 2017 and almost every Senate Republican, including McConnell, rejected his efforts."