No idea why any Republican would ever listen to him about anything, but he got a piece published in TIME Magazine saying the following:
In the October 2019 Democratic debate, Joe Biden clearly expressed his opposition to court-packing. “I’m not prepared to go on and try to pack the court,” he said, “because we’ll live to rue that day.” He continued, “We add three justices. Next time around, we lose control, they add three justices. We begin to lose any credibility the court has at all.”
He’s right. Court-packing is dangerous. Yet if the GOP violates its principles to jam through a nominee in Trump’s last days in office, the pressure from congressional Democrats to pack the court may well be overwhelming. So Biden should make a deal with the lame-duck Senate. Keep the seat open, and he’ll pledge not to sign any legislation packing the Supreme Court while he’s in office.
This isn’t the “unilateral disarmament” so despised by partisans. It’s a compromise. Both sides would shed Machiavellianism (for a moment, at least) and do something concrete to actually de-escalate America’s toxic political conflicts. America’s polarization is growing dangerous. Political violence stalks our streets. Now is the time for true statesmen to step forward, to put prudence before power, and reach a compromise that doesn’t just preserve the legitimacy of the court, it helps preserve the integrity of our republic.
French is of course assuming Trump will lose because French believes the polls, like the lib he is.
And “political violence stalks our streets” because Democrats are both allowing it and encouraging it. Maybe the way to “de-escalate” is for Democrats to actually oppose the violence and bring an end to it in the cities that they have full and unchecked control over.
Additionally, Republicans are not “violating their principles” to “jam through a nominee.” They are completely within their rights to nominate and confirm a new Supreme Court Justice. They have the White House and the have the Senate. What is illegitimate about that? Democrats didn’t have the Senate in 2016 after Scalia died. Merrick Garland was never going to be confirmed anyway.
Does David French consider the Democrats’ threats to pack the supreme court a “violation of principles” as well? Or does the NeverTrumper think that’s somehow justified and fair?
So David French wants Republicans to keep the seat open because apparently French thinks this will magically make all the rioting and chaos and violence stop (as if it’s some great mystery why it’s all happening.)
In return, Republicans will get… the Democrats to promise that they won’t pack the Supreme Court the next time they regain power? French is willing to invent leverage for the Democrats out of thin air and grant it to them, while voluntarily removing all the actual leverage that Republicans currently have–which is to say, the Presidency and the Senate Majority. The Democrats can’t stop Trump’s nominee from getting confirmed. Republicans already have the votes.
This is one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever read. The Democrats can make all kinds of outrageous and reckless threats about packing the court and we’re supposed just surrender and not confirm a SCOTUS nominee that we have the votes to confirm, currently, right now?
This would be one of the biggest self-owns in US history. I’m confident in Trump’s chances to win the election in November, but why risk it? Get the nominee confirmed ASAP, and lock down a Republican majority for decades to come.
We’re supposed to reward the Democrats for threatening to blow up the whole institution of the Supreme Court with their court packing scheme?
This is why we do not negotiate with terrorists. You never give in to threats. If you’re a parent and your kid says, “If you make me eat vegetables I’m gonna throw a temper tantrum and break stuff,” you don’t capitulate to that.
The Democrats have no leverage here outside of the threat of violence and taking a wrecking ball to the Supreme Court. In what sane world should that be rewarded? They don’t have the votes to stop the confirmation. Period. End of story.
I am so glad losers like David French were given the boot from the GOP. These are the kinds of weak men that used to call the shots in the Republican Party just four years ago.
Thankfully nobody listens to these losers anymore.
