After successfully holding a confirmation vote on President Donald Trump’s third Supreme Court nominee earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took a moment to jab at 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who turned 73 on the day that Justice Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed.
“It was a wonderful birthday present for Hillary Clinton to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court Monday night on her birthday,” McConnell told supporters on Wednesday during a campaign stop in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, according to the New York Post. “Oh, I’m sure she was so grateful, so grateful.”
Clinton’s birthday has become an annual commemoration of sorts online, and an opportunity to recirculate the former Democratic nominee’s infamous 2016 “birthday” tweet, which featured a photo of herself as a little girl and contained a caption that read: “Happy birthday to this future president.”
She’s also never deleted the tweet.
Happy birthday to this future president. pic.twitter.com/JT3HiBjYdj
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 26, 2016
After Barrett was confirmed on Monday evening, the House Judiciary GOP also sent out a birthday tweet to Clinton, saying: “Amy Coney Barrett, confirmed. Happy Birthday, @HillaryClinton!” Shortly thereafter, Clinton tweeted: “Senate Republicans just pushed through a Supreme Court justice who will help them take away Americans’ health care in the middle of a pandemic. For them, this is victory. Vote them out.”
Amy Coney Barrett, confirmed. Happy Birthday, @HillaryClinton!
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) October 27, 2020
Senate Republicans just pushed through a Supreme Court justice who will help them take away Americans’ health care in the middle of a pandemic.
For them, this is victory.
Vote them out.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 27, 2020
Barrett, the fifth female justice ever to serve on the nation’s highest court, was nominated to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in mid-September following a battle with cancer.
According to The New York Times, top Democrats during the Obama administration, including former President Barack Obama himself, twice tried to nudge Ginsburg toward retirement but were ultimately unsuccessful and dropped the topic.
Barrett was sworn in by Justice Clarence Thomas during a ceremony at the White House on Monday evening, and vowed to execute her duties “without any fear or favor.”
“It’s a privilege to be asked to serve my country in this office, and I stand here tonight truly honored and humbled. Thanks also to the Senate for giving its consent to my appointment. I am grateful for the confidence you have expressed in me, and I pledge to you and to the American people that I will discharge my duties to the very best of my ability,” said Barrett.
“It is your Constitution that establishes the rule of law and the judicial independence that is so central to it. The oath that I have solemnly taken tonight means at its core that I will do my job without any fear or favor, and that I will do so independently of both the political branches and of my own preferences. I love the Constitution and the democratic republic that it establishes, and I will devote myself to preserving it,” she later said.