Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) corrected NBC host Chuck Todd after he argued Congress does not have the power to regulate ethics rules for the Supreme Court.
"The work that we're doing on ethics in the court ought to be easy, and yet it's not; it's partisan also," Whitehouse said during a
Meet the Press special program on the Supreme Court. "So I think that the first step is going to be for the judicial conference, the other judges, to put some constraints around the Supreme Court's behavior and treat the Supreme Court the way all other federal judges are treated, and that happens inside the judiciary."
"The Chief Justice has to make this decision, though, right?" Todd asked. "Separation of powers, whether, I mean, it's pretty established, Congress can't make a law that does that, right?"
Whitehouse informed the host he was mistaken about how the Constitution works.
"No, it absolutely can," Whitehouse laughed.
"Well, it doesn't mean it's constitutional," Todd quipped.
"Yes, it does," the senator explained. "It means it's constitutional because the laws that we're talking about right now are actually laws passed by Congress. The ethics reporting law that is at the heart of the Clarence Thomas ethics reporting scandal is a law passed by Congress."
"When Justice Thomas failed to recuse himself from the Jan. 6 investigation that turned up his wife's communications, he made the case that that was OK — he had no idea she was involved in insurrection activities," he continued. "The problem with the Supreme Court is that they're in a fact-free zone as well as an ethics-free zone."
Longtime conservative gadfly Ann Coulter was buried by the panel on MSNBC's "The Sunday Show" for her latest racist comments, with one panelist suggesting she is long past being even vaguely interesting and should be ignored.
Host Jonathan Capehart kicked off the discussion by reading Coulter's sneering comment about a boycott of Florida by Black Americans.
On Twitter, Coulter wrote, "NAACP issues warning to African Americans to avoid visiting Florida; employees in restaurant and tourism industry brace for 0.00% drop in tips.”
"Oh, Jesus, take the wheel,' host Capehart began before asking former GOP campaign adviser Tara Setmeyer what she thought about the conservative's tweet.
"Ann Coulter is a has-been political hack who is getting more attention on this program than she has in I don't know how many years," Setmeyer stated as Capehart laughed.
"Because she has absolutely zero influence in today's zeitgeist," Setmayer continued on. "So this is what she is doing; she is just trying to make a name for herself, and I am not interested in her ignorance -- she has a history of it."
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Sunday lashed out at Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) deal to raise the debt ceiling because it effectively cuts military spending.
During an interview on
Fox News Sunday, Graham told host Shannon Bream that he was unhappy with parts of the debt ceiling bill.
"You know, number one, I respect Kevin McCarthy," Graham said. "I want to raise the debt ceiling; it'd be irresponsible not to do it."
"And I know you can't get the perfect, but what I will not do is adopt the Biden defense budget and call it a success," he continued. "Kevin said that the defense is fully funded. If we adopt the Biden defense budget, it increases defense spending below inflation. 3.2% increase in defense is below inflation."
Graham accused supporters of the bill of "doing a great disservice to the party of Ronald Reagan."
"I like Kevin a lot, but don't tell me that the Biden defense budget fully funds the military," Graham snapped. "So I look forward to the details, but if you send me the Biden defense budget to the United States Senate and declare it to the people of the United States, you will have a hard time with me."
Graham suggested he would not vote for a bill unless funding for defense spending was increased.
"If you ask me now to swallow it because of the debt ceiling, you can forget it," he remarked. "In 2011, my good friend Mitch McConnell negotiated to deal with Joe Biden that virtually destroyed the Defense Department in the name of raising the debt ceiling. Another round of sequestration, not only will I vote no, I will not be intimidated by June 5th."
Watch the video below from Fox News Sunday or at the link.
