Blumenthal: This Justice Will Do Real Harm to Real People in Real Ways if Confirmed

[WASHINGTON, DC] – At a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called out the “cruel irony” of Senate Republicans rushing to confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee who will take away health care from people with preexisting conditions – including the seven million Americans who have suffered from COVID-19 – and stated that this “should be reason enough for us to deny confirmation.”

Blumenthal lambasted the Republicans’ “rank hypocrisy” for moving forward with this confirmation weeks before an election and as Americans in 11 states are already voting, saying: “There’s still time for my Republican colleagues to keep their word, to say that we are going to postpone this vote until after the election and the inaugural, that the American people will have a chance to decide that they will have a voice, that the next president and the next Senate will decide who this justice will be, and it was Justice Ginsburg’s dying wish. If we have any respect for her, we ought to honor that wish, but most important, I hope that my Republican colleagues will honor their own word.”

Blumenthal also challenged his Republican colleagues to demand that Amy Coney Barrett recuse herself of any decisions involving the election since the president appointed her so recently, saying: “In a normal time, there would be no question that she would say of her own initiative that she’d recuse herself. In a normal time, that would be the expectation and my Republican colleagues would have no question about demanding it. This is not normal. This confirmation process is not business as usual.”

The full transcript of Blumenthal’s remarks is available below.

Blumenthal: There’s no question that justices evolve and change and Senator Grassley has reminded us about some of them. Actually I clerked for one, Justice Harry Blackmun, who was appointed by President Nixon as one of the so called Minnesota twins because he was thought to be a sure vote for the conservative side along with his fellow Minnesotan, Warren Burger. The rest of the story is of course history…

Graham: You’re not helping…

Blumenthal: Justice Blackmun wrote the court’s opinion in Roe v. Wade. He became a justice known for his very enlightened and progressive views on the court, ruling with the majority in favor of humanitarian and social change that he championed. But we know that Judge Amy Coney Barrett is not going to change or evolve, certainly not in the short term, because of what she’s written about the Affordable Care Act and what she has said publicly. Her criticism of Justice Roberts that he pushed the Affordable Care Act, “beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute in NFIB v. Sebelius.” Her criticism of the court in King v. Burwell that the dissent had the better of the argument. These are not long past statements, they are recent and they confirm the test that was applied to her. The president has called it a “strong test.” She has been vetted and screened by the president’s surrogates, in fact the organizations to which he has outsourced choices of judges and Supreme Court Justices. And the American people know it. That’s why a majority of the American people want this decision to be made by the next president and the next Senate about who the next justice is. The polls confirm it and I’ve been hearing it from people as I listen to folks in Connecticut and hear from my colleagues about what they’re hearing around the country. 1.5 million people in Connecticut, some 52% of our population, non-elderly, suffer from pre-existing conditions – cancer, asthma, heart disease, diabetes, Parkinson’s, pregnancy, and now COVID-19.

COVID-19 is now a pre-existing condition, what an incredibly cruel irony. Seven million Americans who have suffered from COVID now have a pre-existing condition that will preclude access to health care coverage because of the justice that this president wants to appoint to the United States Supreme Court. The cruelty of that irony has yet to be fully felt by the American people. This justice will do real harm to real people in real ways if confirmed. And the fact that people who suffered from COVID and who now have a pre-existing condition that will preclude their health care access should be reason enough for us to deny confirmation.

There’s an elephant in the room, in this vast historic place, and the elephant is the next election. It is the next election about 30 days from now. If the president really admired Abraham Lincoln, he would do what President Lincoln did in an almost exactly similar situation saying “I’m not going to rush to appoint someone to the Supreme Court before the election, I’m going to wait for it.” And President Lincoln did it when he thought he was going to lose that election. But he respected the American people. So should we.

I challenge my Republican colleagues to say what the president refused to say, that he will accept a peaceful transition. I challenge my Republican colleagues to say the voters should decide this election, not the Supreme Court. I challenge my Republican colleagues, if we’re going to move ahead with this hearing, to demand of Amy Coney Barrett that she recuse herself, that she decline to rule or participate in a decision involving an election of a President who has appointed her literally just a month or so before that election. In a normal time, there would be no question that she would say of her own initiative that she’d recuse herself. In a normal time, that would be the expectation and my Republican colleagues would have no question about demanding it. This is not normal. This confirmation process is not business as usual.

My colleague Senator Durbin has referred to all of the rules that we’ve been discussing. I discovered after coming here that there are very few written rules in the United States Senate – almost none. There are some unwritten rules, and they’re not the McConnell Rule or the Ginsburg Rule or any of the rules we’ve heard this morning. The most important unwritten rule is we keep our word. This place breaks apart when people break their word. In this very room, our predecessors have come to make historic decisions and they have kept their word. My colleagues on the Republican side are breaking theirs. I’m not going to recite all of the times that they have pledged there would be no confirmation of a Supreme Court Justice during an election year, let alone a month before that election when Americans in 11 states, think of it, 11 states, are now voting. The election is ongoing as we speak. But they know, my Republican colleagues clearly are aware that they are breaking their word and this rank hypocrisy will be judged by history well after we are gone, from this room and others in the Capitol.

There’s still time for my Republican colleagues to keep their word, to say that we are going to postpone this vote until after the election and the inaugural, that the American people will have a chance to decide that they will have a voice, that the next president and the next Senate will decide who this justice will be and it was Justice Ginsburg’s dying wish. If we have any respect for her, we ought to honor that wish, but most important, I hope that my Republican colleagues will honor their own word. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

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