Watch: Reporter Asks WH If It Can ‘Rule Out’ Obama Doing THIS During Scalia’s Funeral, The Response Is Raising Eyebrows

oped: Being that Scalia is Catholic and the service will be in a Catholic Church...Obama will be on the Golf Course...#EOS


by Olivia Babine 

After the recent death of Supreme Court Justice Scalia, the dust is just now beginning to settle. The final arrangements are in the process of being concluded. It was announced that the funeral will take place on Saturday, February 18 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on the campus of the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. The Vice President will attend alongside his wife. On Friday, the body will lie in repose in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court building.
While the Vice President and his wife will attend the President himself will not. Instead the President and First Lady will visit Justice Scalia’s body while it lies in repose on Friday to pay their respects. In the past both Democratic and Republican President’s have attended the funerals of Supreme Court Justices, including President George W. Bush who attended the funeral of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, and President Bill Clinton who attended the funerals of Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Justice William Brennan.

President Obama’s absence is notable considering the current fervor and debate between Democrat’s and Republican’s over whether the President should wait to appoint Justice Scalia’s replacement until after the election. The Republican majority have argued that the President should wait to appoint a new Justice in the hopes that a Republican will win the Presidential general election ensuring a conservative replacement for Justice Scalia. Democrat’s vehemently propose that a new Justice be nominated as soon as possible, as is under the President’s authority.
In the past, President Obama has found time to attend numerous other funerals. Some of those include the funerals of, newscaster Walter Cronkite, former Democratic House speaker Tom Foley, democratic Senator Robert Byrd and Daniel Inouye to name a few. There are some people who perceive the President’s lack of attendance as a snub to the legacy of Justice Scalia who is viewed widely as a man of great character as well as an intellectual and conservative giant.

At at a recent press conference at the White House, Press Secretary John Earnest was asked if he could rule out whether the President was going to be playing golf instead of attending the funeral. The Press Secretary vaguely stated, “I don’t have a sense of what the president’s plans are for Saturday. The president obviously … believes it’s important for the institution of the presidency to pay his respects to somebody who dedicated three decades of his life to the institution of the Supreme Court.”

As Dana Perino pointed out on The Kelly File, Obama’s attendance would be “an easy thing to do. It takes an hour out of your day.”

“Do you think for one second if it was a liberal justice that had died, that he wouldn’t go to the funeral?”Tonight on “The Kelly File,” Dana Perino reacted to President Barack Obama’s decision to skip Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s funeral this Saturday.
Posted by The Kelly File on Wednesday, February 17, 2016