MSNBC’s Ruhle in SCOTUS Panic: Dems ‘Going to Get Played’ By GOP!

Her 9:00 a.m. ET hour show was interrupted by Stephanie Ruhle, MSNBC anchor. On Tuesday morning’s ET hour, MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle panicked over President Biden not naming a Supreme Court nominee by even one day. She wanted to hold a bipartisan meeting of senators regarding the appointment. Her partisan paranoia was on display as she fretted that Democrats were somehow “going to get played” by Republicans.          

“President Biden will meet today with Senators Dick Durbin and Republican Chuck Grassley, the top members of the Judiciary Committee, about his plans to replace Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer,” Ruhle neutrally reported at the top of the segment. However, just moments later, the worried host engaged in complete left-wing hackery as she turned to PBS’s Yamiche Alcindor:

Yamiche, please help me. Chuck Grassley was present to refuse Merrick Garland a hearing in 2016. It was a topic he didn’t hesitate to discuss as recently last year. Biden would love to meet up with him. Merrick Garland has to be watching this saying they are going to run the clock and then say it’s close to the midterms and we are going to get played again.

While Alcindor claimed Biden was “trying to put his best foot forward” by talking to some Republicans, she also engaged in the same panicked fearmongering as Ruhle:

Democrats recognize that it is something that must be done quickly, and that time is not of the essence. Democrats, in reality, are a 50/50 Senate split. It takes one person getting sick or one person not being able to enter to cause everything to go wrong. So that is also in the back of Democrats’ minds.

Talking to Punchbowl News co-founder John Bresnahan, Ruhle wailed: “John, nobody is going to care about the show if they don’t get the results. We get a COVID flare-up, everybody goes home, the timing could get pushed again.” She then demanded: “Is the Biden administration making a mistake in putting on this best effort when it could put at risk this massively important appointment?”

Bresnahan admitted: “…it’s a 50/50 Senate. If one Democrat, you know, can’t make it or for health reasons, whatever, that would be a huge problem.”

Ruhle still had his freakout when he returned to Alcindor a few minutes later. “Biden saying he could wait as much as four weeks. Are Democrats nervous that this could put things at risk?” Alcindor agreed: “They’re definitely some Democrats who are nervous about the timing, but it’s again – goes back to the idea that you’re dealing with senators who are mature, who have – who could possibly have some sort of health issues, so everyone is sort of on pins and needles…”

Near the end of the discussion, while speaking with NYU Law Professor and potential Biden SCOTUS nominee Melissa Murray, Ruhle whined that the President wasn’t getting enough credit for all the leftist federal judges he has appointed: “Biden is getting a lot more done on the bench front than people realize….more federal judges confirmed in 2021 than any first-year president since Reagan. In his first year, he got 40. Trump scored 23. Why isn’t this getting more attention? It’s a very big deal.”

Murray joined in by complaining that the liberal press wasn’t doing enough to promote it: “I could turn the question back on you, Stephanie. Why isn’t the media reporting this? Because this is the true success of Biden’s domestic agenda.” She then swooned:

He’s completely turned this around. Not only is there a demographic diversity, there’s diversity with the kind of professional experience that these nominees have. Public defenders, labor-side lawyers. The number of lawyers is staggering, I’m sure. It looks even more like the legal profession, than it has ever been.

Ruhle assured that she had done her part in smearing Trump appointees to the federal bench: “We do need to talk about it more. During the last administration, we talked right here about all those judges Trump was putting on the bench, white male under the age of 40, men with very little credibility, some were ghost hunters.”

The obedient anchor then followed Murray’s instructions: “And we should remind our audience, 40 confirmed in Biden’s first year, many of whom are true representation of our legal force in this country.”

Ruhle’s freak-out over the normal Supreme Court nomination process playing out was brought to viewers by Verizon and Noom. This is your chance to fight back.

Below is the complete transcript from the February 1, 2018 segment.

9:00 AM ET

STEPHANIE RUHLE – As the morning develops, President Biden will speak with Senators Dick Durbin, Chuck Grassley and Republican Chuck Grassley about the plans to replace Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. Durbin had indicated that several Republican senators would be open to Biden picking them.

More than 12 candidates are being considered by the White House. The President said he’ll announce his pick within the next month. So let’s discuss and bring in Yalmiche Alcindor, the moderator of Washington Week on PBS, John Bresnahan, co-founder of Punchbowl News, and Melissa Murray, an NYU Law professor and MSNBC legal analyst, and one of the candidates that the White House has floated to replace Justice Breyer.

Yamiche! Please help me. Chuck Grassley was present to refuse Merrick Garland a hearing in 2016. It was a topic he didn’t hesitate to discuss as recently last year. Biden would love to meet up with him. Merrick Garland has to be watching this saying they are going to run the clock and then say it’s close to the midterms and we are going to get played again.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Well, based on my conversations with White House officials, this is really President Biden trying to put his best foot forward, trying to, in some ways, dig in on the idea that bipartisanship is something he wants to embrace, even if it’s not necessary for his Supreme Court pick. This is an unusual timing and Democrats are pretty confident they can get the nominee through Congress. They have the numbers to win at this stage.

However, Democrats are aware that it is something that must be done quickly. Time is of the essence. With this split of 50/50 in the Senate Democrats, it is all that’s needed to cause a person to become sick or for someone to be denied entry to make everything go berserk. So that is also in the back of Democrats’ minds.

But I think this White House meeting here, it really is, I think, just a show to say for President Biden, “You elected me to be somebody who is bipartisan, you elected me to be someone who tried to work across the aisle, I’m going to do that.” But my conversations with White House officials tell me that he is not going to be waiting for Republicans to try to give him a green light to get through his nominee.

RUHLE: John, nobody is going to care about the show if they don’t get the results. The COVID flare up is over, everyone goes home and the timing might be pushed back again. Are the Biden Administration making mistakes by trying to put on their best performance when it might risk such a crucial appointment?

JOHN BRESNAHAN – Well, let’s be honest, the Senator, which was President Biden, served 36 years. You have to take that into account. He – you know, form does matter, process matters, procedure matters to Biden. And I think he wants to go back to pre – you know, some of the form of the pre-Trump era where you have this kind of meeting, you know, even if it does, as you pointed out correctly, that as Yamiche said it, it does not really matter. It’s not going to – you know, he’s not sitting around waiting for Republicans to offer him names.

So I think process matters, but, yeah, listen, Senator Durbin was talking about this yesterday, all the, you know, all the Democrats and the White House are cognizant of, you know, it’s a 50/50 Senate. If one Democrat, you know, can’t make it or for health reasons, whatever, that would be a huge problem. It all depends on what time it is, and it also depends on who the senator is.

Justice Breyer’s not going anywhere, if you read his resignation – or his retirement letter – he plans to stay until or can stay throughout the rest of his term. So that doesn’t change the balance on the Court. So I think Democrats are feeling they’ve got to move, but they don’t want to do what Republicans do. They just don’t want to just jam somebody through in 27 days, like Amy Coney Barrett was.

RUHLE – Why not? It gets the job done and it gets them what they’re looking for. Melissa, you might be the right person or someone they’re looking for. Are you familiar with the White House, having been one of 13 names? That’s a big deal.

MELISSA MURRAY: It’s a big deal. I’m honored to be included in this list. But to be clear, I think it’s important to reflect on what this nomination will mean for the country. It’s the first time an African American woman will sit on the high court. That’s enormous.

And it’s true that more contentious confirmation battles have become the norm, but I think we should reflect on the time when unanimity in Supreme Court confirmations was actually the rule and many people would just go along with the President’s pick, recognizing that elections have consequences, and though you did not necessarily agree ideologically with someone, it wasn’t really your pick to make and the President has his choice.

So all these individuals are highly qualified. Each of these people would make fantastic jurists. The President is the one who has all the votes so this process will be a smooth transition.

RUHLE. Yamiche. Are there any Republicans disappointed Trump got Amy Coney Barrett into office so quickly? She was nominated in only eight days. Biden claimed he was willing to wait for as long as four weeks. Do Democrats worry that it could lead to problems?

ALCINDOR: They’re definitely some Democrats who are nervous about the timing, but it’s again – goes back to the idea that you’re dealing with senators who are mature, who have – who could possibly have some sort of health issues, so everyone is sort of on pins and needles when it comes to making sure that all 50 senators can be there, that the Vice President can do her tie-breaking vote.

There is of course some – it depends of course who the nominee is, but there is talk that there could be some Democratic votes. Already you can hear South Carolina’s delegation coalescing behind Judge Childs. So there is this sort of feeling that maybe they can afford to lose possibly one Democrat if something happens and a senator can’t make it.

You also asked the question “Are Republicans disappointed by Amy Coney Barrett’s flying through?” It’s not. Republicans were in for a lot of trouble when Donald Trump took office. In some ways they detested talking about Trump when tweets were flying and all that stuff. They got three Supreme Court justices, which was a lot, even with many Republicans. Apart from some issue-based issues such as Affirmative Action and abortion, the Supreme Court has all kinds of power in dealing with this pandemic. Republicans knew they needed to pass Amy Coney Barrett.

While I believe the same is true for Democrats, it is clear that the energy has died. But, I believe President Biden wants to ensure the Democrats take the process seriously.

BUT, Melissa, Biden gets a lot of work done at the bench front. The Federalist Society is Trump’s naming body, and Republicans are credited for it. Biden, however, was able in 2021 to confirm more federal judges than any other first-year President since Reagan. He got 41 in his first full year. Trump scored 23. Why isn’t this getting more attention? It’s a very big deal.

STEPHANIE MURRAY: You could ask the same question again. Why isn’t the media reporting this? Because this is the true success of Biden’s domestic agenda. And it’s not simply that he has been absolutely assiduous in getting his nominees through. The nominees look very different from what we’ve seen for a long time. In the past, federal court nominees were drawn from big-firm lawyers and prosecutors. He’s completely turned this around. Not only is there a demographic diversity, there’s diversity with the kind of professional experience that these nominees have. Public defenders, labor-side lawyers. The number of lawyers is staggering, I’m sure. It looks even more like the legal profession, than it has ever been.

RUHLE : I agree. It is important that we talk more about this. We talked about it during the previous administration. It was all white men under 40 years old, with little credibility and some ghost hunters. And we should remind our audience, 40 confirmed in Biden’s first year, many of whom are true representation of our legal force in this country. We are grateful to you. Thank you for joining me in this conversation.