Obama on ‘92 Biden/ ‘07 Schumer Statements: They ‘Have No Application Here’

"I don’t think they would approve of me abdicating on my duties as commander in chief and stop doing all the other work that I got to do. Well, this is part of my job. 

There’s been arguments that for 80 years this has been the tradition. Well, that’s not the case. Justice Kennedy was approved after being nominated by Ronald Reagan in Ronald Reagan’s last year of office. They say, well, that’s different because he had been nominated in 1987, even if he was confirmed --or ‘85 -- even if he was confirmed in ‘86. Well, the notion that there’s some two-month period in which suddenly it all flips and everything shuts down? That’s not a credible argument. 

What other arguments are they making? They suggest well there have been a couple times where Democrats said it would be wise for a president not to nominate someone. First of all, we know senators say stuff all the time. Second of all, these were comments that were made where there was no actual nomination at stake. So, it has no application to actual — the actual situation that we have right now."