Panelists on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" bashed Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) for holding up law enforcement nominations as part of a petty grudge against a Democratic senator.
The Arkansas Republican refused to confirm some of President Joe Biden's nominees for U.S. Attorney until Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) apologized for interrupting him in a committee hearing nine months before, and MSNBC political analyst John Heilemann ripped him.
"This relates to a thing that happened the other day that's one of the craziest things I've ever seen," Heilemann said. "Tom Cotton held up qualified U.S. Attorneys nominations for eight months and on the explicit argument that he was mad at Dick Durbin for interrupting him in a hearing and not apologizing -- for eight months, he said this out loud. This is not a controversy."
"Are you kidding me?" host Joe Scarborough asked. "He's another one of these Harvard guys. What do they teach them up there?"
"He said this out loud," Heilemann said. "He said, 'I'm not going to allow these U.S. Attorney nominees to go forward until the gentleman from Illinois apologizes to me for interrupting me in a hearing eight months ago, and finally, after eight months, Dick Durbin said, 'Okay, I'm sorry about that, I'm sorry Mr. Snowflake [that] I hurt your feelings,' and Tom Cotton graciously after eight months of being petulant decided, 'Okay, I'm going to let the U.S. Attorney nominations to go forward.'"
The panelists agreed that other GOP senators pulled similar stunts to draw attention.
"Ted Cruz, as I've said before, is not a U.S. senator," Heilemann said. "They're trying to own the libs, that's all. This is all performative politics."
Morning Joe panelists mock GOP's Tom Cottonwww.youtube.com
