Vice President Joe Biden dismissed the so-called “Biden Rule” on election year hearings of judicial nominees, saying his words were taken out of context, NBC News reported.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said nominating Judge Merrick Garland to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia should be left up to the next president, referring to comments Biden made in 1992.
In a speech at Georgetown Law School, Biden said there was no such rule. He said he was upset with the politicization of the Supreme Court nomination process, and that every nominee President George H. W. Bush put forward “got a hearing.”
"At times like these, we need more than ever to have a fully functioning Supreme Court, a Court that can resolve divisive issues peacefully,' Biden said. "Dysfunction and partisanship are bad enough on Capitol Hill....But we can't let the Senate spread this dysfunction to the Supreme Court of the United States."
