Obama the Obstructionist

Katrina Trinko / February 18, 2016

What a shock.

Now that he’s at the White House—and facing GOP opposition to appointing a new Supreme Court justice in the mere months before a new president is elected—President Barack Obama seems to have changed his tune a decade after serving as a U.S. senator.

As we detail in the above video, Obama used to think it was appropriate for senators (including himself) to block judicial nominees. In fact, he filibustered Justice Samuel Alito’s confirmation to the Supreme Court along with circuit court nominees Janice Rogers Brown, William Pryor, and Leslie Southwick.

But White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday that Obama sees things a little differently now. Speaking about filibustering Alito’s nomination, Earnest said, per The Hill, “That is an approach the president regrets.”

It took only 3,670 days for Obama to reach this conclusion. No doubt that doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that he’s now in the White House and the GOP controls the U.S. Senate.

Watch the video above to see then-Sen. Obama’s own words on judicial nominees. And then check out the one below of Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., another liberal politician who was singing a different tune when George W. Bush was president.