'We Both Know That And You're Under Oath': Mike Lee Rips Judicial Nominee Over His Answer

feinstein senator lee thank you very much mr ho i'd like to start with you does the constitution sometimes compel results in particular cases that are unpopular or contrary to the will of a majority of americans um yes senator lee i think the purpose of the constitution is to put well one of the purposes of the constitution anyway is that it serves a counter-majoritarian function um and puts a few issues of individual civil rights and liberties um beyond um uh uh young debate yeah i think that's fair yeah uh it recognizes the the risk of mob rule and otherwise in other words if if all you're doing is simply giving in to the will of a simple majority of americans at any given time the human condition can't flourish it was making essentially this point on a series of tweets i sent out on october 8th of 2020 series of tweets explaining the difference between a constitutional republic like ours where our system of government is constrained by a series of laws a laws governing the making of laws in our government and the fact that these things can be counter-majoritarian and that's good and in other words as i explain it democracy itself isn't the objective that is with the understanding if you refer to pure democracy as simple majoritarian rule that's not the objective the objective is to have a situation in which the human condition can flourish that's sometimes squelch when individual liberties are crushed when majoritarian impulses are allowed to erode the fundamental rights of others i i was a little surprised to to see that uh in response to one of those tweets you retweeted you tweeted this as a retweet quote the mask is off i wasn't sure what that meant you made clear in a subsequent retweet with the following commentary translation these are your words not mine if we can't maintain minoritarian rule despite the electoral college senate mal apportionment extreme partisan gerrymandering and strict conditions on voting then we'll rely on a 6-3 scotus to block and to block any elected democratic agenda did you in fact send that i believe i did tweet that senator and i really appreciate you giving me the opportunity to address this what do you mean by this and and we've got limited time so i want to ask you some specific questions what do you mean by senate mal apportionment what does that mean well um senator lee i i i just want to be clear i think i misinterpreted um your tweet and i regret that i did that and i want to apologize to you i appreciate that and i appreciate the apology i want to know what you meant by senate mal apportionment i'm not familiar with that term what does it mean senator lee i was responding to an ongoing debate um or i'm sorry news reports at the time that there were state legislators who even before the election were contemplating fabricating some sort of pretext by which they could ignore their state's own votes for president and directly select their presidential electors and it was hard for me to imagine anything how is that character senate and now apportionment that's not i mean that might refer to your uh maybe you made a separate dig somewhere at the electoral college you did you said maintain minoritarian rule despite the electoral college so that might describe that part of your tweet that doesn't describe senate mal apportionment it appears to me that what you mean by that is uh you're challenging the principle of equal representation among the states notwithstanding their different populations well said earlier i just want to make clear obviously we have a federal system and um the apportionment of two senators per state is instantiated in article two of the constitution if i were confirmed is that mal apportionment no senator lee i wouldn't describe it that way but you did but senator lee i guess what i was trying to respond to was this notion that was being bandied about that state legislators who that that doesn't that doesn't explain senate male apportionment there's no planet on which that could be interpreted that way are you aware that the constitution itself makes one thing preemptively unconstitutional there is one feature of the constitution that cannot under the terms of the constitution be amended are you aware of what that is senator lee um i don't believe in my 15 years of practice in courts around the country that that particular issue has come up in any of my yeah because it's not litigated because it's in the constitution but it's there in the text it's what you derisively referred to as senate mal apportionment it's the principle of equal representation in the senate it's the one feature of the constitution that cannot may not must never ever be amended the fact that you referred to it derisively along with by the way denigrating the electoral college itself and the supreme court of the united states the ult the superior court the court of last resort to which you'd be answerable if confirmed to this position is deeply troubling to me i i don't know how we're supposed to confirm you to this now this is this has nothing to do with with how you feel about any elected official me or otherwise it has everything to do with your open contempt for the constitution which i i know of no other way of reading this in including that one feature of the constitution that can't be amended how do you serve as a federal judge when you've denigrated the supreme court uh uh apparently under the the the theory that they're operating is some sort of partisan hacks and other essential features of the constitution how do you defend that how do you how do you stand here and say that you can be supported in being appointed to an office whose job it is to interpret that document and to adhere those precedents made by the supreme court that you've derided senator lee um in that tweet i was trying to caricature a view that i thought that others had about the right that they would have to directly select their own state's presidential electors and to ignore the will of voters entirely i certainly did what senate mal apportionment means we both know that and you're under oath thank you thank you senator lee senator feinstein i'm sorry senator whitehouse

Channel: Forbes Breaking News

Views: 687,570

Keywords: Sen. Mike Lee, Dale Ho, Senate

Id: MIjXWHYna18

Length: 6min 52sec (412 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 01 2021