Kamala Harris, Honest Abe and the Supreme Court
Q: Was Sen. Kamala Harris’ story at the vice presidential debate about President Abraham Lincoln’s 1864 Supreme Court vacancy correct?
A: There’s no evidence that Lincoln said he delayed the nomination to let voters choose the next president, as Harris said.
FULL QUESTION
Last night in the VP debate Kamala Harris notes that Abraham Lincoln chose to delay nomination of a SCOTUS until after the election, because it was the right thing to do. Is this accurate?
FULL ANSWER
At the , Sen. Kamala Harris invoked a bit of Civil War-era history by offering the purported words of “Honest Abe” about filling a Supreme Court vacancy just before a presidential election. The tale was intended to
