Rubio: I wouldn’t nominate a justice if I were in Obama’s position
Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio on Saturday said he would not nominate a Supreme Court justice if he were in the position of President Obama.
He cited an “80-year tradition” of allowing the next president to choose the justice near the end of a sitting president’s second term.
{mosads}“I would respect the process,” Rubio told Fox Business Network’s Neil Cavuto. “I would respect the fact that we have an 80 year — I understand, but we have an 80-year tradition of not moving forward in the last year of a presidency on a permanent appointment to the Court, which is what this is.
“Bottom line is, Barack Obama is not accountable to the electorate anymore,” he added. “We can’t vote against him, and you can’t reverse this decision. Once a justice is put in place, you can’t reverse it.
“We’re going to have an election in November, and this is going to be an issue in the election.”
Republican leadership in the Senate has vowed not to allow Obama’s nominee to go to a vote.
Pressed by Cavuto on whether the tactic is “petulant,” Rubio said that “it doesn’t matter, because at the end of the day the stakes are too high.”
“The very balance of the Constitution and the Court is at stake,” he said. “If this is going to cost us some points in a poll or in an election, I’m willing to pay that price, because it’s too important.
“There’s nothing more important to our republic than the Constitution of the United States, and we are not going to allow Barack Obama on his way out the door to take one more shot at undermining the Constitution,” he added.
Rubio also said he does not trust President Obama to select a justice with an originalist understanding of the Constitution to replace Antonin Scalia, who passed away last week.
“I know what kind of justice Barack Obama’s going to appoint, and it would be nothing like Antonin Scalia, and we need more people on the Court that have the views that he did, that the Constitution is not a living and breathing document,” he said.
The Florida senator also said Obama does not “respect” the Constitution and “violates it habitually.”
“If he could, he would ignore the Second Amendment,” Rubio said of Obama. “He tries to ignore the First Amendment. He doesn’t believe at all in the Tenth Amendment. This president has habitually ignored and violated the Constitution of the United States, and he’s going to try to appoint someone to the Supreme Court like his previous nominees.
“So here’s how I reject it: We’re not even moving forward on it.”
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