Politics

CNN Correspondent: Obama Will Say Republican Senators Are Racist If They Block Supreme Court Nominee

Jamie Weinstein Senior Writer
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CNN chief national correspondent John King says that if Senate Republicans block President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, the president will argue they did so because they are racists.

“[H]e understands the legacy value in this pick, so he will fight for it,” King said in an appearance on “Anderson Cooper 360” Tuesday night. “If he doesn’t get it, then he will go around the country trying to turn out votes, trying to turn out the Obama coalition in November to help the Democrats win the White House to make sure at least a Democrat gets that pick next.”

“And if he does that, he will make the case — and you can bet on it — that Republicans blocked him because he’s the first African-American president and they didn’t give it to him because of his race,” he went on.

During the same segment, liberal George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said that Obama has a hypocrisy problem in demanding that Republicans give his eventual nominee a vote since the president tried to filibuster Justice Sam Alito in 2006 when he was a senator.

“[A]t the end of the day, President Obama is the answer to his own question, you know when he says, ‘what is the Senate going to do?'” Turley said. “He filibustered Justice Alito and even though he had qualms at the time, he did exactly what he’s telling the Republicans not to do in many respects.”

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