http://thehill.com/homenews/house/287411-mcconnell-slams-ginsburg-for-panning-trump By Alexander Bolton - 07/12/16 02:40 PM EDT
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday slammed Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for musing about moving to New Zealand if Donald Trump is elected president.
McConnell said it was "totally inappropriate" for a sitting justice to speak out against a presidential candidate.
“It raises the level of skepticism that the American people have [from] time to time about just how objective the Supreme Court is, whether they’re over there to call the balls and strikes or to weigh in on one side or another,” he added. “I wish she hadn’t said that.”
It’s widely assumed that Ginsburg, who is 83 years old, will retire during the next administration.
She doesn’t appear to want Trump to have a say over who sits on the bench.
“I can’t imagine what this place would be — I can’t imagine what the country would be — with Donald Trump as our president,” she told The New York Times in an interview published Sunday. “For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be — I don’t even want to contemplate that.”
She said the prospect reminded her of something her late husband, Martin Ginsburg, used to say when things appeared to be going in the wrong direction.
“‘Now it’s time for us to move to New Zealand,’” Ginsburg told the Times.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) said McConnell should focus on how the court has become "inoperable" because Republicans have refused to hold a vote on Merrick Garland, President Obama's pick to replace the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.
"I'm not going to comment on what any of the eight Supreme Court justices say," he added.
Ginsburg doubled down on her criticism Tuesday, calling Trump “a faker” who must release his tax returns.
Trump fought back, calling her remarks "beneath the court."
“I think it’s highly inappropriate that a United States Supreme Court judge gets involved in a political campaign, frankly,” Trump said in a Tuesday interview with The New York Times.
