Earnest Dismisses Biden ‘92 Clip: ‘We Can Spend Time Throwing Quotes Back and Forth’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
REPORTER: "I want to turn to the Supreme Court. So should Senate Republicans take the advice of Joe Biden from 1992 when he said action on supreme court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over or Joe Biden of 2016 who insists the president's nominee should get full consideration?"
EARNEST: "Kevin, I'd go with both, because Vice President Biden in 1992 in the same speech that you noted said if the president consults and cooperates with the Senate or moderates his selections absent consultation, then his nominees may enjoy my support as did justices Kennedy and suitor. We've observed in the past we can spend a lot of time throwing quotes back and forth, and I think that's indicative of some comments the president made last week about how this process has become politicized. But when you consider the record of senator Biden and his service on the judiciary committee, it's a record that's hard to beat. When you consider that he presided over the last time that the Senate voted to confirm a supreme court nominee in an election year, that was a nominee that was put forward by a Republican president, and Joe Biden was chairman of the Senate judiciary committee and insured that justice Kennedy got both a fair hearing and a timely yes or no vote. That's what we're asking the Senate to do. There are a variety of examples of this. Senator Biden, more than anyone else, has insured the fair confirmation of nine supreme court justices. I don't think there's any other senator that can stake a claim to that kind of record. He wasn't just in the united States Senate so that he could confirm supreme court justices appointed by Democrats. He often presided even in difficult situations like an election year of insuring that even appointees of a Republican president were confirmed to the supreme court. So, you know, I know there's often this old adage that sometimes politicians are reduced to the expression that people should do as I say, not as I did. In this instance we actually want the Republicans in the Senate to do precisely as vice president Biden did when he served in the Senate. And if so, it will allow the president's nominee when he puts that individual forward to get a fair hearing, to get a time toy yes or no -- timely yes or no vote and for the supreme court of the United States to function precisely as the founders intended."