As former New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte appeared as a guest on Thursday's Andrea Mitchell Reports to discuss the Neil Gorsuch nomination for the U.S. Supreme Court, host Mitchell brought up "bitterness" from Democrats about the Senate's refusal to take up President Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland last year.
She ended up claiming that former Vice President Joe Biden was "taken out of context, with all due respect," after Republican Ayotte started to recall that, in 1992, then-Senator Biden advocated blocking action on any potential Supreme Court vacancies until after the election.
Earlier in the hour, Mitchell not only did not press liberal Senator Bernie Sanders on the Gorsuch issue, but even brought up the same point that she would later raise with Ayotte that Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer had called for a delay in considering Gorsuch. Speaking to Sanders, the MSNBC host posed one question on the subject as she ended the interview which was mostly about the issue of Russia. Mitchell:
And, finally, do you agree with Majority -- Minority Leader -- Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, I should say -- with his argument that while there's an FBI investigation into all of this, you should not be approving a Supreme Court nominee? How will you vote on Judge Gorsuch?
A bit later, after bringing aboard Ayotte and remarking that Gorsuch had avoided commenting on how he would be inclined to rule on specific cases, her second question repeated her question to Sanders about Senator Schumer as she followed up: "Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has said that there should not be a vote on him while the President and his associates are under FBI investigation."
After the former New Hampshire Senator argued against Senator Schumer's contention, Mitchell brought up Senator Sanders indicating that he would vote against Gorsuch, inspiring laughter from Ayotte:
ANDREA MITCHELL: Bernie Sanders was on the show before -- earlier today -- and said that he will vote against him.
FORMER SENATOR KELLY AYOTTE (R-NH) (laughing): Well, surprise.
The MSNBC host then brought up "bitterness" from Democrats over Republicans not holding a vote on Garland last year after President Obama nominated him:
One vote against. But the bottom line is, there is a lot of bitterness because of the fact that at virtually the same time that President Obama made his nomination there was still a year left in his own term of office. And he didn't even get a hearing.
Former Senator Ayotte brought up the "Biden Rule" argument as she began to respond:
Yeah, I understand that, Andrea, and I think that was brought up in the -- yesterday in the last couple of days in the hearing repeatedly. Senator Graham made a really good point. He went back to point out obviously Vice President Biden's comments during a presidential year when-
Mitchell jumped in to interrupt: "Those were taken out of context, with all due respect."
The MSNBC host did not explain why she considered Biden's comments to be "out of context," although liberals have leaned on the fact that he called for delaying hearings until after the election without explicitly stating whether they would actually confirm a George H.W. Bush appointee if Bill Clinton as a Democrat were about to enter office within months. And, if a vacancy had arisen at this time, it would be naive to believe a Democratic Senate would have confirmed a conservative justice the month before Clinton was to take office.
The MSNBC host then posed a question from a witness in the hearings that criticized Judge Gorsuch's record on issues of human rights, before switching to the topic of U.S. Marines scandal involving nude photographs of women.
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Thursday, March 23, Andrea Mitchell Reports on MSNBC:
12:21 p.m. ET
ANDREA MITCHELL (to Senator Bernie Sanders): And, finally, do you agree with Majority -- Minority Leader -- Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, I should say -- with his argument that while there's an FBI investigation into all of this, you should not be approving a Supreme Court nominee? How will you vote on Judge Gorsuch?(...)
12:46 p.m. ET
MITCHELL: So far he came through in terms of very carefully not disclosing what the -- obviously critics and opponents would want him to disclose -- which is how he would vote in particular cases.[FORMER SENATOR KELLY AYOTTE (R-NH)]
MITCHELL: Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has said that there should not be a vote on him while the President and his associates are under FBI investigation.
FORMER SENATOR KELLY AYOTTE (R-NH): Yeah, I heard what Senator Schumer had to say. I think that's really an absurd theory. The Supreme Court -- it's important to go forward with this nomination. And we got to see yesterday -- the American people got to see how qualified Judge Gorsuch is.
He has impeccable qualifications. And you also see people from across the political spectrum in the Bar really coming out to support him, including President Obama's former solicitor general. And so I just really think this idea that because something else is happening in Washington that somehow we shouldn't go forward with this Supreme Court nomination just doesn't make sense.
MITCHELL: Bernie Sanders was on the show before -- earlier today -- and said that he will vote against him.
AYOTTE (laughing): Well, surprise.
MITCHELL: One vote against. But the bottom line is, there is a lot of bitterness because of the fact that at virtually the same time that President Obama made his nomination there was still a year left in his own term of office. And he didn't even get a hearing.
AYOTTE: Yeah, I understand that, Andrea, and I think that was brought up in the -- yesterday in the last couple of days in the hearing repeatedly. Senator Graham made a really good point. He went back to point out obviously Vice President Biden's comments during a presidential year when-
MITCHELL: Those were taken out of context, with all due respect.
[AYOTTE]
MITCHELL: Of course we didn't hear from critics in terms of witnesses yesterday. Today there were a few. Elisa Massimino was from, I think, the Human Rights Watch Campaign (sic). I want to play a little of that.
ELISA MASSIMINO, CEO OF HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST, CLIP #1: Gorsuch repeatedly sought legislation that would strip courts of Habeas jurisdiction, including for people who were tortured or unlawfully detained. He also played a lead role in the litigation strategy in the Hamdan Vs. Rumsfeld case where the government argued that the President has the power to disregard the Geneva Conventions, and that the courts are powerless to review that decision.
MASSIMINO CLIP #2: These were the defining legal debates of our time, and Judge Gorsuch was on the wrong side of them.
MITCHELL: She's from Human Rights First. Your response to that?
[AYOTTE]
