Blumenthal: This is Not Normal

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – At a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) slammed Senate Republican for rushing through a Supreme Court nominee in the few weeks remaining before the election and “robbing this confirmation of legitimacy.”

In response to President Trump’s refusal to commit to accepting a peaceful transition of power if he loses in November, Blumenthal challenged his colleagues to respect the will of the American people and “to say they will accept the results of this election without the Supreme Court being necessary to decide it.”

Blumenthal decried Republican efforts “rushing to confirm a justice who will pass the President’s test, his strong test in his words, that that nominee will vote to strike down protections for people who suffer from pre-existing conditions” during a global pandemic, and urged the Senate to focus on COVID-19 relief.

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

I have listened to these remarks with growing sadness, fear, and frankly, anger, which is what I have heard from the people of Connecticut and others around the country.

This is not normal.

My Republican colleagues are robbing this confirmation of legitimacy. The American people should understand this is not normal.

My Republican colleagues are saying we need to rush to confirm this nominee because she will be necessary or he to determine the results of the election. The American people should determine the results of the election. Their votes should determine it.

I challenge my Republican colleagues to say they will accept the results of this election without the Supreme Court being necessary to decide it.

I challenge my Republican colleagues to say that they accept the legitimacy of mail-in ballots, which people are using right now.

I challenge my Republican colleagues to say that votes will be counted not just on election night, but all their votes, even when they are mailed in by our service men and women around the globe as well as by citizens here in the United States.

Mr. Chairman, this is not normal.

During a pandemic for us to be rushing to confirm a justice who will pass the President’s test, his strong test in his words, that that nominee will vote to strike down protections for people who suffer from pre-existing conditions. He told us he was disappointed in the Chief Justice John Roberts because he sustained the Affordable Care Act. We know that this nominee has been vetted by the groups to whom the President has outsourced this screening and choice process.

We should be passing a pandemic relief bill that deals with the health care crisis and the economic crisis that continues to rage. Two hundred thousand Americans have lost their lives due to that public health crisis still raging around the country, unchecked by a president who cruelly mocks people have suffered from this disease. “Virtually nobody has been affected,” he says. He demeans science, he disregards public health experts. His combination of incompetence and callous indifference have brought us to this point with two hundred thousand deaths and my Republican colleagues have failed to stand up and speak out. Where are their voices?

We’re in a public health crisis and an economic crisis and now we’re about to enter a constitutional crisis by treacherously rushing to confirm a nominee who will be screened to oppose the Affordable Care Act with its protection for people with pre-existing conditions, and to deprive women of their reproductive rights under Roe v. Wade because part of that litmus test imposed by the President is that the nominee be committed to overturn Roe v. Wade. A nominee who has been screened to strike down voting rights and civil rights, marriage equality, this nomination effects real lives, real people in real ways.

And so I challenge my Republican colleagues to help reestablish those norms but also to keep their word. In this place, there are very few written rules. Most of the rules are unwritten. The main rule of those unwritten ones is that people keep their word. We count on each other to keep our word. When we break our word on an issue of such fundamental importance, we also break the Senate. That’s what my Republican colleagues are doing.

Now, we’re at a turning point for this institution and for the country. My Republican colleagues so far have failed to stand up. I had hoped they would but the record indicates that they won’t.

I’m afraid that they just don’t care. I’m afraid that my Republican colleagues as they’ve said only care about the power than can be exercised. This confirmation process has become a display of raw political power.

But Justice Ginsburg stood for something more than just power. She stood for principle. She stood for doing what is right. That is part of her legacy.

And my Republican colleagues would like to say that they too stand for principle, and if they do, they will allow the American people to have their say. The American people deserve a voice. The only way to give them a voice and a say is for the next president and the next Senate to select the next Supreme Court Justice.

It matters not only to health care, it matters not only to principles of constitutional rights, it matters to the future of this country and we know the immediate effects on the 135 million people who suffer from pre-existing conditions. COVID-19 is now a pre-existing condition along with substance use disorder, kidney disease, diabetes, Parkinson’s or pregnancy.

But it will matter to the health of our democracy. The failure to stand up and speak out by my Republican colleagues unfortunately is part of a pattern that we’ve seen all too often. It is saddening, but also angering.

We need to stop and think and stand on principle before we sacrifice what is so important, what is essential to our democracy which is giving the American people a say, counting their votes, and allowing their will to determine the next justice of the Supreme Court when the next President is sworn in and the next Senate is able to confirm that person.

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