MARGARET BRENNAN: Back in 2016, when Merrick Garland was nominated by President Obama, a Democratic president when Democrats were in the minority, you said the Senate has no excuse to ignore blockade or stonewall consideration of this nominee. Why a different standard now?
SEN. BOOKER: Well, first of all, 269 days before an election, I felt very clearly that President Obama should have had been able to name a nominee, and we should have taken it up in the Senate, even had people meet with that nominee. And it is unfortunate that that did not happen. I think that that greatly undermined really a- a sense of what was right. Now voting has already started. And we had literally my colleague speaking to what the rules should be, what the guiding principles they were operating on. And so for now for them to so severely violate their own words, I think does a tremendous amount of damage to the institution of the Senate as well as to the legitimacy of the court. And we’ve got to start stepping back and having our larger view of history. It’s not just the hotly contested issues of civil rights and women’s rights and LGBTQ rights, all that’s really in the balance here, but also the long term strength of our democracy and the institutions that are so critical to our success as a nation.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So–
SEN. BOOKER: This is one of those moments where I wish we would step back and take a beat and understand what we’re doing and the consequences and how they could radiate throughout time.
Cory Booker: GOP Doing “Tremendous” Damage To Senate, Court, Institutions In Rush To Fill Ginsburg’s Seat | Video
New Jersey Senator Cory Booker told CBS’s “Face The Nation” on Sunday that Republican efforts to confirm a nominee to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court before the November election “does a tremendous amount of damage to the institution of the Senate.”
