Toobin Blames GOP For Increased SCOTUS Confirmation Partisanship

Reacting to the news on Wednesday’s Neue DaySusan Collins was the first Republican senator to declare her intention to vote in favor of Ketanji brown Jackson. CNN’s chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin suggested it was Republicans that are to blame.

Toobin’s ahistorical remarks came after host Brianna Keilar asked, “Jeffrey, often the conversation and historically it has been about whether the nominee is qualified, right? Not whether they’re nominated by a Democrat or Republican, are they qualified to do the job, clearly Ketanji Brown Jackson is.”

Toobin started out well enough, pointing out the problems with Keilar’s premise, “She is. But—but– the standards the Senate have used have changed in recent years. There is just a complete transformation in how the Senate evaluates Supreme Court justices. It—it’s– just a more—more– partisan process now. You had ideological figures like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia confirmed with over 90 votes, both of them. The days of 90 vote confirmations are over for the foreseeable future. This is a partisan enterprise”

However, Toobin blamed this raise in partisanship on Republicans, “that’s how it’s been, basically, since, you know, with—with– Obama’s two nominations, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, there were a handful of crossover votes by Republicans, but by the time the three Trump nominees came before the Senate, it was almost a straight up partisan vote, and that’s what we’re looking at here.”

Sotomayor and Kagan both received more Republican votes both in raw totals and in terms of percentage than Samuel Alito received Democratic votes and then there is how Democrats treated Clarence Thomas and Robert Bork.

Jackson was at least questioned by Republicans. Democrats have accused Republican nominees as being anything from racists and serial rapists. Toobin compares the two.

This segment was sponsored and produced by Touch of Modern.

This transcript is for the March 30-show.

CNN John Berman and Brianna Kilar present New Day

3/30/2022

9:00 AM ET

BRIANNA KEILAR: I want to bring in Jeffrey Toobin to this conversation because, Jeffrey, often the conversation and historically it has been about whether the nominee is qualified, right? Not whether they’re nominated by a Democrat or Republican, are they qualified to do the job, clearly Ketanji Brown Jackson is. 

JEFFREYTOOBIN: Yes. But—but– the standards the Senate have used have changed in recent years. There is just a complete transformation in how the Senate evaluates Supreme Court justices. It—it’s– just a more—more– partisan process now. You had ideological figures like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia confirmed with over 90 votes, both of them. The days of 90 vote confirmations are over for the foreseeable future. It is a bipartisan venture. And, you know, it–it’s — this will be — the president will say this was a bipartisan confirmation, but barely. I mean, we’ll see whether she gets — whether Judge Jackson gets even one other vote. But that’s how it’s been, basically, since, you know, with—with– Obama’s two nominations, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, there were a handful of crossover votes by Republicans, but by the time the three Trump nominees came before the Senate, it was almost a straight up partisan vote, and that’s what we’re looking at here.