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WASHINGTON (AP) – Republicans in the United States Senate vowed to go ahead with a vote Thursday (Oct. 22) on President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, despite the Committee’s Democrats Judicial pledged to boycott a procedure they called “a sham.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsey Graham said in a statement Wednesday that “Judge Barrett deserves one vote and will receive one vote.”
Hours earlier, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Judiciary Committee Democrats said they will not stand for the vote. They have been urging Republicans to await the results of the November 3 presidential election before submitting a nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the September death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“Amid a global pandemic and ongoing elections, Republicans are rushing to confirm a Supreme Court judge to deprive millions of health care and execute the extreme and deeply unpopular agenda that they have failed to pass in Congress,” they said the democrats.
“This has been a bogus process from the beginning,” they added.
READ: Democrats take advantage of stalemate in US Supreme Court elections on Barrett fight
Graham, who is on a tough re-election campaign in South Carolina, responded by saying in his statement that Barrett “has a court provision that should be the gold standard for all future nominees” to the high court.
The 12 Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have indicated they will support Barrett, a favorite of conservative Christians, while the 10 Democrats oppose it. So Graham is believed to have enough votes to prevail, but he might have to circumvent some committee rules on how to do business without Democratic members present.
Assuming the Judiciary Committee sends the nomination to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation as expected, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell aims to hold a procedural vote on Barrett’s nomination on Sunday, which would limit the debate so that a final vote can take place to confirm it on Sunday. Monday.
IMMEDIATE CHOICE
Democrats have fiercely opposed Barrett, a federal appeals court judge whose confirmation by the Republican-led Senate would expand the conservative majority of America’s highest judicial body to 6-3.
McConnell, who has made confirming Trump’s conservative court appointments a high priority, has been working to get Barrett confirmed for the life office before Election Day, as requested by the Republican president. Republicans have a majority in the Senate of 53 to 47.
Trump has said that he believes the Supreme Court will decide the election outcome when he faces Democratic challenger Joe Biden, and has made it clear that he wants Barrett on the bench for any election-related case.
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No candidate for the Supreme Court has been confirmed by the Senate this close to a presidential election.
Democrats reiterated their anger that Senate Republicans moved forward with the nomination so close to the election after refusing in 2016 to allow the House to act on a Supreme Court nomination from Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, because it was one year. electoral.
“Now, Republicans have moved at breakneck speed to cut through this nominee, ignoring her troubling record and unprecedented evasions, and breaking committee rules to set tomorrow’s vote,” Democrats said in their statement.
“Fearing defeat at the polls, Republicans are showing that they don’t care about the rules or what the American people want, but are only concerned with sheer political power,” the statement added.
Barrett thwarted Judiciary Committee Democrats during his confirmation hearing last week by sidestepping questions about abortion, presidential powers, climate change, voting rights, Obamacare and other topics.
