VIDEO: Senator Merkley Confronted By Democratic Hypocrisy On Filibusters

Someone needs to help Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) out. The junior Senator from Oregon went on CNN this morning to discuss his role in trying to obstruct Judge Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court nomination, and he ended up getting destroyed by CNN’s Chris Cuomo:

Merkley had no answers when Cuomo threw in his face that it was Democrats who set the recent precedent on judicial filibusters. It was Harry Reid, a Democrat, who launched the nuclear option.

Even a cursory look at Merkley’s record on filibusters explains why he was so tongue-tied on CNN. Merkley was one of the leading proponents of Harry Reid’s nuclear option, and previously castigated Republicans for using the filibuster against judicial nominees:

“The use of the filibuster was not used to paralyze and the power of confirmation, of advice and consent under the Constitution was not used to systematically undermine the president because he simply happened to be of a different party. It was not used to undermine the judiciary by keeping judicial vacancies open.”

Merkley’s hypocrisy is so great on this issue that his only real option should be to avoid the topic all together. That’s because no matter what Merkley says now, everyone knows he said the exact opposite thing not too long ago.