Rubio: Not Confirming Lame-Duck SCOTUS Nominees ‘a Tradition Both Parties’ Practice

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
TAPPER: "Let's turn to the vacancy on the Supreme Court. 28 years ago this month, Ronald Reagan's last year in office, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm his nominee, Anthony Kennedy. How is that significantly different from the timing of this nomination. President Obama still has 11 months left in office."
RUBIO: "A couple of things. You talk about the Reagan example, the nomination happened in the seventh year and the confirmation process went into the eighth year. This is a tradition that both parties have lived by for over 80 years where in the last year if there is a vacancy in the last year of a lame duck president, you don't move forward. The president can nominate someone but the Senate has said we're not moving forward on it, that the next president should have the opportunity to fill this vacancy. We're going to have an election in November. This will be an issue in the election where the candidates will describe the kind of justice they would appointing. I think that will be one of the factors how they make their decision and then the new president can appoint someone and the Senate should move forward on the confirmation process then. I don't think you should appointing someone to a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land by a lame duck president who is no longer accountable to the American electorate."