Fact-checking Richard Burr’s historic judicial claim
In a leaked audio tape from a meeting last weekend, Sen. Richard Burr can be heard taking responsibility for the longest-standing judicial vacancy in U.S. history.
He said it while pledging, if re-elected, to stonewall Supreme Court nominees from a hypothetical Hillary Clinton administration. It was the same meeting in which he made his now-famous “bullseye” comment.
“If Hillary becomes president, I’m going to do everything I can do to make sure that four years from now, we’re still going to have an opening on the Supreme Court,” Burr said, earning a round of applause.
“This is not tough for me,” he added later. “I had the longest judicial vacancy in the history of the United States – on the Eastern District of North Carolina. Not many people know that.”
It’s not too common to hear politicians bragging about creating all-time record vacancies in the courts, so PolitiFact North Carolina decided to fact-check Burr to see if he was telling the truth to his supporters.
Find the full article here.
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PolitiFact North Carolina
Speaker: Richard Burr
Statement: “I had the longest judicial vacancy in the history of the United States.”
Ruling: The vacancy Burr is talking about is the second-longest in U.S. history, and he’s right that he’s partially responsible for it. But other people are responsible for the seat being vacant so long, as well. We rate this claim Mostly True.
This story was originally published November 3, 2016 at 11:17 PM with the headline "Fact-checking Richard Burr’s historic judicial claim."