Mitch McConnell says he will block any Biden Supreme Court nominee in 2024 if GOP takes back Senate



Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) drew fury from Democrats when he blocked a U.S. Supreme Court nominee from going forward under former President Barack Obama during the 2016 election year — and says he will do it all over again in 2024 if the GOP takes back control of the Senate in 2022.

He says Democrats would do the same thing.

What are the details?

McConnell, who was Senate majority leader from 2015 until early 2021, famously refused to allow Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland for consideration in 2016, arguing that it was an election year and that the next president should make the pick.

Then in 2020, McConnell triggered Democrats when he pushed through the nomination of now-Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett just a few weeks before Election Day. Democrats accused him of hypocrisy, but he pointed out at the time that the difference was Republicans controlled both the Senate and the White House — while that was not the case in 2016.

"I think in the middle of a presidential election, if you have a Senate of the opposite party of the president, you have to go back to the 1880s to find the last time a vacancy was filled," McConnell said in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday. "So I think it's highly unlikely — in fact, no, I don't think either party if it controlled, if it were different from the president, would confirm a Supreme Court nominee in the middle of an election."

Hewitt then asked McConnell about whether he would block a Biden nominee if he is running the Senate again in 2023, a non-election year. The Kentucky Republican responded, "we'd have to see what happens."

McConnell was able to confirm three U.S. Supreme Court justices selected by former President Donald Trump, making the court a 6-3 conservative majority and igniting far-left calls for court-packing as some Democrats seek to expand the size of the court in order to add more liberal justices in what they see as an imbalance.

There is currently a movement on the left calling for 82-year-old Justice Stephen Breyer to retire soon so that President Joe Biden can select his replacement, just as there was a movement under President Obama for liberal icon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to retire. Ginsburg passed away in 2020, and Trump chose Barrett as her replacement on the high court.

Internet provider to block Twitter, Facebook for customers who ask after the social media giants banned President Trump



Twitter and Facebook just got a digital glove to their faces.

It's relatively a tiny glove — but the social media giants still might feel the sting.

What happened?

In the wake of Twitter and Facebook banning President Donald Trump following the U.S. Capitol siege that leftists — and some conservatives — say Trump incited, an internet provider in Idaho says it's blocking Twitter and Facebook for customers who request it, KREM-TV reported.

The station said Your T1 WIFI provides internet services to North Idaho and the Spokane, Washington, area — and that it got calls from customers about both social media sites.

"It has come to our attention that Twitter and Facebook are engaged in censorship of our customers and information," an email to Your T1 WIFI customers reads:

Umm from my North Idaho internet provider.... this is INSANE. https://t.co/vzy9tSDRAp
— krista yep (@krista yep)1610322893.0

The above letter indicates that Your T1 WIFI had been getting calls from customers asking that it not display Facebook or Twitter, and saying they didn't want their children to see the social media sites, either.

At first the internet provider said it would block Facebook and Twitter outright unless customers specifically asked Your T1 WIFI to allow Twitter and Facebook to be viewed — but KREM said the internet provider changed its approach Monday and said Twitter and Facebook would be blocked only for those who request such an action.

The station said the Your T1 WIFI customer forwarded to KREM additional emails from the internet provider that said two-thirds of customers wanted Twitter and Facebook blocked — and that Your T1 WIFI's contract and acceptable use policy allows it to block anything that violates its rules or that's "illegal or harmful to our customers and more."

Anything else?

"Our company does not believe a website or social networking site has the authority to censor what you see and post and hide information from you, stop you from seeing what your friends and family are posting," the initial email from Your T1 WIFI also said.

It added that "we also don't condone what Google, Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, and Apple are doing ... to Parler by trying to strong arm them into submission."

The station added that a representative for the Idaho attorney general said its office lacks jurisdiction in this matter. KREM also said it reached out for comment to the offices of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Idaho Gov. Brad Little, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Washington state attorney general.