The network morning shows on Monday rightly honored the historic legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paying tribute to her life. However, amidst the tributes, they seemed curiously uninterested in an interview she gave in 2016. Since the death of the Supreme Court justice, many have reported her dying hope that “my most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”
However, Fox News on Sunday produced a flashback to a July 2016 New York Times interview with Ginsburg. Asked about Merrick Garland, who Barack Obama nominated to replace the late Antonin Scalia, the liberal justice asserted, “There’s nothing in the Constitution that says the president stops being president in his last year.” She added, “That’s their job.”
Yet on Monday, only CBS This Morning briefly alluded to it. Analyst Jonathan Turley allowed a single sentence: “Notably, Justice Ginsburg herself said that a president has every right to appoint someone in his final year.”
On Fox News, Monday, Fox and Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt quoted Ginsburg:
It's being reported that on her death bed that... she told her granddaughter that it was her dying wish to have the next president choose her successor. But, if you look back at what she told The New York Times in 2016: She said, "That that's their job. There's nothing in the Constitution that says the president stops being the president in his last year.”
On CBS This Morning, co-host Gayle King bristled at White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany bringing up liberal hypocrisy over filling the Supreme Court seat.
But if we're going to point to the “refer you to your old words game,” you've got Senator Graham, Senator McConnell, Senator Cruz, who all said something very different in 2016. Is this really just all about politics, whoever's in power, whoever has the votes, that's how it goes, folks?
It’s definitely true that many conservatives are shifting from what they said in 2016. But so are Democrats and liberals, including Ginsburg herself. Journalists should at least be discussing this.
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Brief transcripts are below. Click "expand" to read more.
CBS This Morning
9/21/2020
7:43TONY DOKOUPIL: If that election is challenged as we hear it might be, both Republicans and Democrats are hiring lawyers for that eventuality, how could Ginsburg's absence in this 4-4 lock at the court affect the election outcome, Jonathan?
JONATHAN TURLEY: It could be significant. Notably, Justice Ginsburg herself said that a president has every right to appoint someone in his final year. And Justice Sotomayor said that she hoped they would hurry to get back to a nine-justice court. And this could be a serious problem if we have a 4-4 split, there is likely to be challenges here.
Fox and Friends
9/21/2020AINSLEY EARHARDT: If two more Republicans side with Murkowski and Collins, that will stop the process. Doubt that will happen but we will have to see. It's being reported that on her death bed that her granddaughter -- she told her granddaughter that it was her dying wish to have the next president choose her successor. But, if you look back at what she told The New York Times in 2016: She said, "That that's their job. There's nothing in the Constitution that says the president stops being the president in his last year.”
