On Monday's New Day show, CNN hosted far-left justice analyst Elie Mystal for a second time to rant against Senator Mitch McConnell and the possibility that the Republican leader would block a U.S. Supreme Court pick by President Joe Biden if Republicans take back the Senate.
In spite of Mystal's history of incendiary rhetoric in his many appearances on MSNBC, CNN previously had the far-left analyst on the show to discuss the same topic a few of months ago.
CNN host Brianna Keilar picked up on a recent interview Politico did with McConnell in which he did not rule out block Biden from filling a Supreme Court seat. Even though the line of discussion by McConnell was nothing new, Keilar seized on the chance to have Mystal on the show for an encore presentation. The CNN host played up the concerns of Democrats (and, no doubt, CNN journalists) as she set up the segment:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is reminding Democrats just how important the 2022 midterms are shaping up to be. When asked by Politico if he'll block a potential Biden Supreme Court pick if Republicans take back the Senate next year, he said that he'll, quote, "cross those bridges when I get there. We're focusing on '22. I don't rule anything in or out about how to handle nominations if I'm in the majority position." And of course you'll remember McConnell blocked the nomination of Merrick Garland with nearly a year left in the Obama administration in 2016.
Keilar did not bother to inform viewers of the ideological tilt of the far-left The Nation magazine as she introduced Mystal, its justice correspondent. Still showing his negative attitude toward Justice Stephen Breyer for resisting pressure from his fellow liberals to retire soon so his seat can be filled by another liberal, Mystal lashed out against him early on:
... Stephen Breyer might be the only person on the planet to think that this is a news story, right? Because Mitch McConnell saying that he's going to block -- he's potentially going to block another nominee is not news. That's just Mitch McConnell promising to continue being Mitch McConnell, all right? Nothing's changed here -- we all know that this is what he's going to do. But Stephen Breyer has been on a national gaslighting tour where he's trying to explain to America without evidence that the Supreme Court is not a partisan institution.
Mystal further excoriated Justice Breyer for not being enough of a team player for the liberal cause. He then turned his fire onto McConnell and complained that no one had "punished" the Republican leader after he stopped President Barack Obama from filling the seat of Justice Antonin Scalia, as if he were obligated to let President Obama do so:
The Supreme Court nomination process is broken. The person who broke it was Mitch McConnell. He took the unprecedented step of blocking a nominee, refusing to even have a hearing, refusing to even have a meeting on a nominee by the President. And he received no punishment for that. Democrats didn't punish him. Voters didn't punish him. The Court itself didn't punish him. Neil Gorsuch Gorsuch didn't, like, grow a conscience and say, "No, I will not accept this appointment under these --" Nobody stopped him. And so he will continue -- Mitch McConnell will continue to do his Court-breaking political maneuvers.
Keilar predictably gave no pushback from a right-leaning point of view as the purpose of the segment was simply to air the concerns of liberals on the issue. The liberal news network invited Mystal to be a guest in spite of his history of being one of the most inflammatory frequent guests on MSNBC for years.
This episode of CNN's New Day was sponsored in part by Weight Watchers. Click on the link to let them know what you think.
A transcript is below. Click "expand" to read more.
CNN's New Day
September 27, 2021
8:52 a.m. Eastern
BRIANNA KEILAR: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is reminding Democrats just how important the 2022 midterms are shaping up to be. When asked by Politico if he'll block a a potential Biden Supreme Court pick if Republicans take back the Senate next year, he said that he'll, quote, "cross those bridges when I get there. We're focusing on '22. I don't rule anything in or out about how to handle nominations if I'm in the majority position." And of course you'll remember McConnell blocked the nomination of Merrick Garland with nearly a year left in the Obama administration in 2016. Joining us now to discuss, Elie Mystal. He is the justice correspondent for The Nation magazine. Okay, tell us, first off, how you think this is affecting Justice Breyer's calculation about what he is going to do?
ELIE MYSTAL, THE NATION MAGAZINE: I -- it's hard for me to answer that question because Stephen Breyer might be the only person on the planet to think that this is a news story, right? Because Mitch McConnell saying that he's going to block -- he's potentially going to block another nominee is not news. That's just Mitch McConnell promising to continue being Mitch McConnell, all right? Nothing's changed here -- we all know that this is what he's going to do. But Stephen Breyer has been on a national gaslighting tour where he's trying to explain to America without evidence that the Supreme Court is not a partisan institution.
Either -- he's completely wrong about that. If he really believes that, he is as naive as like Little Red Riding Hood bouncing around the woods. But even she had enough sense to run away from the wolf when the wolf bared its teeth. Mitch McConnell is baring his teeth -- I have no idea if Stephen Breyer is smart enough to run away like an adult human. He might not -- he might not care. He just straight up might not care. It's hard to get inside the head of a man who thinks that his -- whose own self-regard is such that he has to be in this job forever and ever and ever.
KEILAR: So what - look, he may decide he doesn't want to be. We'll see, you know. I mean, there's obviously a political component that has gotten significantly more -- I don't want to say "severe" -- I guess you could say "severe." To the appointment process of Supreme Court justices, what is the long-term effect of that?
MYSTAL: The Supreme Court nomination process is broken. The person who broke it was Mitch McConnell. He took the unprecedented step of blocking a nominee, refusing to even have a hearing, refusing to even have a meeting on a nominee by the President. And he received no punishment for that. Democrats didn't punish him. Voters didn't punish him. The Court itself didn't punish him. Neil Gorsuch Gorsuch didn't, like, grow a conscience and say, "No, I will not accept this appointment under these --" Nobody stopped him. And so he will continue -- Mitch McConnell will continue to do his Court-breaking political maneuvers.
And until Democrats -- again, grow some kind of -- I don't want to say "backbone" because that gets so like -- it sounds like I'm pulling things out of the air. There are concrete things the Democrats could do to depoliticize the Court. One of them would be to expand the number of justices on the Court so that each individual confirmation battle is not a life-or-death decision for the party out of power, right? Nine justices -- if one of them goes down, that's a huge political deal. If there were 19 justices -- if there were 29 justices as there are on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, it wouldn't be a make-or-break battle every time. Democrats could expand the Court -- they could do it in a bipartisan commission -- you get five, I get five. They could do things to depoliticize the confirmation process. They won't do that, so Mitch McConnell is just going to keep winning the street brawl as long as we let him.
KEILAR: This is going to certainly continue to be a battleground. You are for sure about that. Elie Mystal, thanks for being with us.
