Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on the Senate floor Sept. 21, 2020 (Video screenshot)
Amid fierce opposition from Democrats and the objections of at least two Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell explained Monday on the Senate Floor why he planned to hold a vote on a Supreme Court nominee who is expected to be announced at the end of the week by President Trump.
After eulogizing Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a legal "giant," the Kentucky senator addressed the opposition to voting on a successor before the Nov. 3 election. He argued that when the people "elect a Senate to work with the sitting president" -- meaning the majority and the president are of the same party -- the historical precendent is "overwhelmingly" in favor of confirmation.
"Already, some of the same individuals who tried every conceivable dirty trick to obstruct Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh are lining up to proclaim the third time will be the charm," he said.
"The American people are about to witness an astonishing parade of misrepresentations about the past, misstatements about the present and more threats against our institutions."
McConnell said that for many months before Ginsburg's death, Democrats were issuing "naked threats," including to "pack the court," meaning adding seats and putting liberals in them.
Without naming Schumer, McConnell referred to a rally by Democrats at the Supreme Court building in March in which the Senate minority leader declared: "I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price."
McConnell said "senators who appear on steps of the Supreme Court and personally threaten associate justices if they rule a certain way are ill-equipped to give lectures on civics."
The Republican leader "debunked" the myth that there isn't enough time for the confirmation process, noting Justice John Paul Stevens was confirmed 19 days after the Senate formally received his nomination.
For those who argue the situation is analagous to the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016, McConnell noted he explained at the time that the Senate would not act on a nomination by President Obama because the government was divided, with a Democrat in the White House and a Republican Senate majority. That was the historical precedent, he said.
And it was what Democrats said they would do in 1992, he said, with then-Democratic Sen. Joe Biden chairing the Judiciary Committee and Republican George H.W. Bush in the White House.
Unprompted, McConnell noted, Biden said his committee might refuse to cooperate if a vacancy arose and the Republican president tried to fill it.
The Senate leader also recalled that in 2007, when Democrats controlled the Senate with Republican George W. Bush in the White House, Schumer said, "Except in extraordinary circumstances" the opposite party Senate should boycott any further confirmations to the Supreme Court.
That was with one and a half years left in Bush's term, McConnell noted.
Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said over the weekend that they would not vote to confirm a Trump nominee before the election or during a lame duck session.
Schumer: 'Everything on the line'
Later, on the Senate floor, Schumer said the current Supreme Court vacancy "could determine the future of the Supreme for generations and make rulings that touch every aspect of American life."
"Reporters will no doubt cover the political machinations here in Washington, but for hundreds of millions of Americans this vacancy on the Supreme Court puts everything, everything on the line," Schumer said.
He said the "right to health care hangs in the balance" as well as, among others, "the right to choose," meaning abortion rights, and "the future of the planet," referring to climate change.
"By all rights, by every modicum of decency and honor, Leader McConnell and the Republican Senate majority have no right to fill it," he said of the vacancy, raising his voice and gesturing. "No right!"
Schumer insisted Republicans must adhere to Ginsburg's "most fervent wish," expressed to her family in her final weeks of life, "that she not be replaced until a new president is installed."
The Democrat said the Senate majority "should have no problem adhering to Justice Ginsburg dying wish," arguing McConnell held the Scalia vacancy open for nearly a year in order to, quoting McConnell, "give the people a voice in selecting a Supreme Court justice."
Schumer said "no amount of sophistry can change what McConnell said then, and it applies evern more so now, more so, so much closer we are to an election."
"Now these words don't apply?" he said of McConnell. "It doesn't pass the smell test.
"No wonder Leader McConnell was so defensive in his comments" earlier on the floor, Schumer said.
The New York Democrat said there's "not a shred of credibility" to the Republicans' arguments.
"It is utterly craven, an exercise in raw political power," he said.
"Tell me how this would not spell the end of this supposedly great, deliberative body," said Schumer. "I don't see how."
Schumer said there's only one way "to have some hope of coming together again, trusting each other again, lowering the temperature, moving forward, and that is for four brave Senate Republicans to commit to rejecting any nominee until the next president is installed."
"That was Justice Ginsburg's dying wish, and that may be the Senate's only last hope."
See McConnell's and Schumer's remarks:
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