Democratic Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy today roasted Republican Senator Mitch McConnell for his promise to confirm the President Trump’s next conservative high court justice this fall and his demands that the nominee be “treated fairly.”
Wait, so the thing about “the American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice” wasn’t really about a concern for the American people?
It was just about Obama?? I am shocked! SHOCKED!! https://t.co/c88ofnzMB3
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) June 27, 2018
Murphy is referring to McConnell’s unprecedented obstructionism in 2016 when President Obama nominated Justice Merrick Garland to fill a Supreme Court vacancy.
McConnell blocked Garland by never letting his appointment come to the Senate floor for a vote, claiming it was up to the American people to have a say in the net justice, which meant waiting until after the election and inauguration of a new president.
McConnell has to follow the rule he set for the Senate.
We shouldn't vote on ANY Trump nominee to replace Justice Kennedy until the voters have had a chance to weigh in and a new Congress is sworn in.
Sign my petition if you agree.https://t.co/w0eFPo20Q1
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) June 27, 2018
Murphy knows that McConnell will use the same kind of dirty, hardball tricks he used in 2016 to get his will, which is to stuff the Supreme Court with conservatives who will roll back generations of progressive rulings on immigration, labor, abortion, campaign finance and much more.
Here it is, plain and simple.
McConnell set the rule.
Now, he and Senate Republicans need to follow it.
No vote on a Supreme Court nominee until after the new Congress is seated.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) June 27, 2018
Now Murphy is calling on the few Republicans who have the courage and the will to stop the court from becoming a vehicle of the right wing and Trump now and long after his presidency ends.
Not surprising @SenateMajLdr has already reversed his rule on confirming justices before an election. The real question is, is there not ONE GOP Senator who sees the hypocrisy in all this? Because it likely only takes one.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) June 27, 2018
The Republicans hold a slim 51 to 49 majority in the Senate at present and that includes Sen. John McCain who is out due to illness.
Since Vice President Pence can break a tie, that means as few as two Republicans who vote with the Democrats could stop or at least delay a nomination until voters are heard from and a new Congress can be seated.
Murphy is a man of strong convictions who will help lead the fight but with the rules and votes presently stacked against the Democrats, he knows it will be an uphill fight.
However, it is a battle all progressives must fight because if Trump and McConnell are successful, the nightmare of seeing Roe v Wade killed, financial reform destroyed, campaign finance rules trashed, and immigrants treated like animals will be too sickening to imagine.