McConnell Scorches 'Fake News' Media Right to Their Face on Misleading Court-Packing Coverage
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized the establishment media on Tuesday for their coverage of the Democratic push to pack the Supreme Court.
“I’ve never been one to complain about fake news, but I want to start with the total frustration I have with the coverage that most of you have engaged in with regard to the issue of expanding the Supreme Court,” McConnell said at a news conference, according to The Hill.
He pointed out that many outlets fail to mention that the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg did not support court packing, and neither does the liberal Justice Stephen Breyer.
The late Justice Ginsburg rejected the discredit concept of court-packing.
“If anything would make the Court appear partisan, it would be that.”
“Nine seems to be a good number.”
Justice Breyer just reaffirmed his own opposition. And the American people agree overwhelmingly.
— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) April 21, 2021
“I read story after story after story that do not mention that Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, two of the most important liberals in modern time, are opposed to court packing,” McConnell added.
The progressive Ginsburg said in an interview with NPR in 2019 that she disagrees with some Democrats on the issue.
“I have heard that there are some people on the Democratic side who would like to increase the number of judges,” she said. “I think that was a bad idea when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to pack the court.”
“If anything would make the court appear partisan, it would be that — one side saying, ‘When we’re in power, we’re going to enlarge the number of judges, so we will have more people who will vote the way we want them to.'”
“Nine seems to be a good number, and it’s been that way for a long time,” Ginsburg added.
The Supreme Court has had nine justices since 1869.
Breyer, one of the three liberal justices who currently serve on the court, has suggested that packing the court would be a risky move.
Justice Stephen Breyer and the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg agreed that packing the court would politicize it and undermine its independence, impartiality and integrity in the eyes of the people. pic.twitter.com/cPibIjdKPK
— Sen. Grassley Press (@GrassleyPress) April 21, 2021
In a speech at Harvard Law School earlier this month, he told legislators to “think long and hard” before cementing an overhaul of the Supreme Court into law.
The desire of some liberals to pack the court stems from the fact that former President Donald Trump was able to appoint three new justices during his four-year term, giving the body a solid conservative majority.
Democrats were particularly infuriated when Justice Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed as Ginsburg’s replacement prior to the 2020 election.
It’s no wonder, then, that the establishment media has neglected to mention the two progressive heroes pouring cold water on the court-packing scheme.
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