MSNBC National Correspondent Joy Reid argued that “This president has not been allowed to essentially be president in the full sense, because Republicans believe he shouldn’t be” which she added is because President Obama is on Tuesday’s “Hardball.”
Reid said that during Obama’s presidency there has been “the invention of new norms and pretend precedents, not grounded in our history, not grounded in the Constitution, but that only apply uniquely to this president. That there are norms that never applied before to previous presidents. Suddenly this president shouldn’t be doing executive orders, that’s tyranny. This president shouldn’t be getting to nominate to the judiciary, not just to the Supreme Court, but even at lower levels of the judiciary, he shouldn’t be allowed to do that. This president has not been allowed to essentially be president in the full sense, because Republicans believe he shouldn’t be. He doesn’t have some — he especially doesn’t have a right to be. And so I think applying those norms, to the Supreme Court, and saying, ‘We’re going to invent a new normal, which is that only Barack Obama, unique of all the presidents, is not allowed, because we’ve invented this supposed precedent that in the eighth year, they don’t get to nominate.’ Well, you know what? Ronald Reagan did. You know what? Lyndon Johnson did, and he had already announced he wasn’t going to run for re-election and he nominated Abe Fortas.”
Host Chris Matthews then asked, “[I]s it because he is unprecedented?”
Reid responded, “I think so. I think that you’ve seen a unique opposition to this president. He’s been called a liar from the floor of the Senate. That still sticks in the craw of a lot of African-Americans and liberal voters. They’ve seen him treated in a way that is different than every previous president, and you’ve really got to wonder why.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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