The liberals on MSNBC immediately turned Friday night's sad death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg into a ghoulish politicization of the Supreme Court justice’s death. Talking to Hillary Clinton, Maddow deemed Clinton's 2016 loss and the death of Ginsburg as a “feminist catastrophe.”
Bringing up the death of Antonin Scalia, the liberal MSNBC host assailed:
We ended up with Justice Gorsuch instead of Justice Merrick Garland. I think a lot of the emotion around that in the country was, in part, that the Republicans and Mitch McConnell had done something that really did feel like broke the system, that really did feel like just a small D anti-democratic assault on the process. But it felt like a feminist catastrophe and you not becoming the first woman president, despite Justice Ginsburg’s fervent belief that you would be.
On the appointment of Neil Gorsuch, Maddow ghoulishly admitted she only started praying for Ginsburg after it became apparent Donald Trump could nominate her successor:
But also then, for that Supreme Court seat to go, and for the Court to go that much further to the right and for us all to be praying for Justice Ginsburg's health in a way we never had before because of the balance of the Court, it feels mixed together with so much emotions beyond the politics here. I have to ask if you feel any of that yourself or if you are too close to it to see it in some other way that all of us feel it.
Rather than spend much time memorializing Ginsburg, Clinton trashed Mitch McConnell: “Mitch McConnell cares about nothing else but power of course he's going to do everything he can to fill that seat.”
Maddow then bizarrely asked if Democrats could simply politicize the Court more:
A lot of people have said that the Republicans, and particularly the conservative movement, have made the Supreme Court a voting issue for at least time of their base and that Republicans, not necessarily more conservative or more moderate Republicans, but a slice of the Republican voting base does vote on the base of prioritizing the Supreme Court and Supreme Court appointments and while that's on the Democratic side concerning of some activists and donors, it is not neccisarily something that the Democratic Party has figured out and turning into a motivating factor when it comes to presidential elections or when it comes to Senate elections. Do you think the Democratic Party can get better on that? I mean, we’re 46 days away from this election. More than a half dozen states are doing in person, early voting as of today. Is this something that the Democrats can make a centerpiece for the contest between Biden and Trump for the fall?
With MSNBC in rolling coverage due to Ginsburg's passing, there were no ads. But to learn more about the MRC's Conservatives Fight Back campaign, go here.
A partial transcript is below. Click "expand" to read more.
Rachel Maddow Show
9/18/2020
9:02 PM ET
RACHEL MADDOW: Ruth Bader Ginsburg has left us at the age of 87. We'll talk about the course of her life and her career. We'll talk with a number of people who covered her career more than 40 years as a judge and a justice who know about her impact on the law and we are going to talk about the striking news that in her last days on Earth she dictated a statement to her granddaughter saying that, it was her wish that she not be replaced until there is a new president. We'll talk about all of that tonight. We'll speak first with someone who may have asked to join us on short notice I am grateful she's been able to get to us on very short notice and I’m very grateful she has been able to get to us. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former U.S. Presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. Secretary Clinton, I know this is a very tough night and I know this is short notice. Thank you for being here,
...
MADDOW: We are showing pictures right now on the screen of you and Justice Ginsburg together. There was — was around the time of Merrick Garland's nomination after Justice Scalia died — who of course was Justice Ginsburg’s very close friend on the Court, despite their ideological distance. They shared a love of opera and they got along and they enjoyed dissenting against each other’s opinions. When Justice Scalia died, the justices made that decision that they would not allow President Obama’s nominee to even be considered in the Senate, and that is how, after that election in 2016, your election.
We ended up with Justice Gorsuch instead of Justice Merrick Garland. I think a lot of the emotion around that in the country was, in part, that the Republicans and Mitch McConnell had done something that really did feel like broke the system, that really did feel like just a small D anti-democratic assault on the process. But it felt like a feminist catastrophe and you not becoming the first woman president, despite Justice Ginsburg’s fervent belief that you would be. That was part of how she explained that she didn’t retire during the Obama years. But also then, for that Supreme Court seat to go, and for the Court to go that much further to the right and for us all to be praying for Justice Ginsburg's health in a way we never had before because of the balance of the Court. It feels mixed together with so much emotions beyond the politics here. I have to ask if you feel any of that yourself or if you are too close to it to see it in some other way that all of us feel it.
...
MADDOW: You describe that, Madame Secretary, as monumental hypocrisy. If they — With 11 months left in Barack Obama's term decided that President was not able to put somebody else on the Supreme Court, they would, with, four months left, in this presidential term, nevertheless try to get through a Trump nominee before this election in the lame duck, I wonder if I can ask you specifically what you think can be done to try to stop that? When we saw what happened with Merrick Garland's decision, the Merrick Garlnad nomination by President Obama and Republicans refusing to act on it, holding that seat open for more than 400 days, it was the longest the Supreme Court's seat been held open since the 1860s. Obviously the Obama administration, President Obama himself, Vice President Biden at the time, they were incredibly were outspoken about how outrageous that was and how much they were against that they were. But they were essentially powerless to stop McConnell from doing what he wanted to do. In the ensuing four years, have you had any other thoughts about what could be done, about whether or not Democrats or Republicans who feel like constitutionalists here, what they could do if McConnell is hell-bent on filling this seat, which the statement he put out tonight suggests that he is.
HILLARY CLINTON: Mitch McConnell cares about nothing else but power of course he's going to do everything he can to fill that seat.
...MADDOW: One last question for you Secretary Clinton. On the second point you were making of the political pain and making that real here. A lot of people have said the Republicans and particularly the conservative movement have made the Supreme Court a voting issue for at least time of their base and that Republicans, not necessarily more conservative or more moderate Republicans but a slice of the Republican voting base does vote on the base of prioritizing the Supreme Court or Supreme Court appointments and while that's on the Democratic side concerning of some activists and donors, it is not something that the Democratic Party has figured out and turning into a motivating factor when it comes to presidential elections or when it comes to Senate elections. Do you think the Democratic Party can get better on that? I mean, we’re 46 days away from this election. More than a half dozen states are doing in person, early voting as of today. Is this something that the Democrats can make a centerpiece for the contest between Biden and Trump for the fall?
