Karma....

Merrick Garland 'karma' trending in response to McConnell remarks

By Mike Moffitt

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that the impeachment of President Donald Trump sets a "toxic" precedent.

Mitch McConnell

"This particular House of Representatives has let its partisan rage at this particular president create a toxic new precedent that will echo well into the future," McConnell said.

McConnell described the impeachment inquiry as "the most rushed, least thorough and most unfair" in modern history and bristled at Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's non-commitment to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate.

McConnell's remarks triggered a Twitter backlash invoking former Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. A sample of the tweets can be found in the above gallery.

Many Twitter users found McConnell's professed concern about dangerous precedents set by the House to be hypocritical in the light of his handling of Garland's nomination in 2016.

Garland was nominated by former President Barack Obama to fill the seat on the court created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. McConnell famously blocked the court vacancy for 293 days on the grounds that neither party would approve a Supreme Court justice during an election year, a rule that did not actually exist.

A minority of Twitter responses referencing Garland described the comparison between his Supreme Court nomination and the impeachment as "stupid", "low information", "vengeful", "totally predictable but dumb" and similar terms.