Graham: Dems telling me how to handle SCOTUS picks is like 'arsonists advising the Fire Department'
Democrats changed the rules for a President Hillary Clinton who never came, chairman says.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., ripped Democrats' objections to President Trump signaling he will summarily choose a replacement for late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Ginsburg, who died Friday at age 87, had been a liberal-progressive stalwart of the court since being nominated by President Clinton in 1993.
Graham took to Twitter on Sunday to slam his opposition, writing that "being lectured by Democrats about how to handle judicial nominations is like an arsonist advising the fire department."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He accused Democrats of previously trying to "stack the court[s]" at the circuit court level, and reminded them how they trashed Trump's previous court nominee, Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
"[T]hey chose to try to destroy Brett Kavanaugh’s life to keep the Supreme Court seat open," he said, noting how the jurist was hit with accusations of sexual misconduct and lectured during questioning by several Democrats on Graham's committee.
"You reap what you sow," said Graham.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He also tweeted a video of part of an appearance on "Fox News Sunday" from earlier last year, in which he told anchor Chris Wallace that Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., never thought it would be Trump who would be able to fill court vacancies at the rate he has.
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"My Democratic colleagues felt that when they were in charge, we should confirm judges by a majority vote, they changed the rules to accommodate President Obama, they tried to stack the court," he said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"They never thought [Hillary] Clinton would lose, so what you're going to have is Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer's desire to take the court on their Democratic watches come back to haunt them."
Graham captioned the video by remarking that he stands by those 2019 remarks.
He accused Reid and Schumer of "dealing out the minority [party]" in the Senate, and thinking they would never have envisioned themselves as the minority party they themselves sought to silence.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Graham has faced harsh criticism for a comment he made in 2016 when he told Democrats to "use my words against me" if a Supreme Court vacancy should happen during an election year of a Republican president. Graham was speaking at a time when Republicans were blocking President Obama's efforts to have Judge Merrick Garland replace the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.