Jake Tapper Questions White House Official: ‘Did the President Ever Consider Honoring Justice Ginsburg’s Dying Wish?’

White House official Marc Short defended the move by Republicans to advance a nominee to replace Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper Sunday.

Tapper pressed Short, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, on the hypocrisy of Republicans pushing to vote on a nominee just weeks before the 2020 presidential election after Mitch McConnell refused to hold a hearing on Merrick Garland, who was nominated to the Supreme Court by former President Barack Obama in March 2016.

After airing previous comments from top Republicans explaining that Supreme Court vacancies should not be filled in an election year, Tapper asked Short if “this obvious hypocrisy may cost Republicans in competitive races their seats?”

“I reject the notion there’s hypocrisy. As I said, historical precedent is when your party is in power, when the president nominates — consistently, going back to George Washington — the party has continued to confirm those nominees,” Short replied. “So I don’t think there’s hypocrisy.”

Short noted Trump was elected after making public, during the 2016 campaign, his list of potential nominees to the Supreme Court. He called on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to do the same.

“I would love to see list from Biden,” Tapper said. “I’d also love to see President Trump’s tax returns.”

The CNN anchor went on to ask about Ginsburg’s statement, dictated to her granddaughter days before her death, that it was her “fervent wish” to “not be replaced until a new president is installed.”

“Did the president ever consider honoring Justice Ginsburg’s dying wish?” Tapper asked.

“You know, Jake, I think that today we as a nation mourn the loss of Justice Ginsburg,” Short said. “She’s certainly a giant upon whose shoulders many will stand and she blazed a trail for many women in the legal profession. But the decision of when to nominate does not lie with her.”

“The reality is that this is the president’s obligation to make a nomination and he will do so and he will do so in the near future,” Short said.

Watch above, via CNN.

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