After Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee decided they would boycott the committee vote on Thursday sending the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Senate floor for confirmation, Rep. Dan Crenshaw ridiculed them on Twitter.
Crenshaw wrote, “‘We can’t vote for her, because our radical base will get mad. We can’t vote against her because she’s immensely qualified and Americans actually like her. So we will just be dramatic juveniles and not show up.’ That’s Senate Dems for ya.”
“We can’t vote for her, because our radical base will get mad. We can’t vote against her because she’s immensely qualified and Americans actually like her. So we will just be dramatic juveniles and not show up.”
That’s Senate Dems for ya. https://t.co/t3mAgGEVza
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) October 22, 2020
As The Daily Wire reported, instead of voting, the Democrats on the committee petulantly placed large photos of individuals they claimed would be detrimentally affected if Barrett votes to eliminate the Affordable Care Act.
Hilariously, the Senate Democrats’ desire to make a spectacle by playing up their absence was undercut by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the chairman of the committee, who moved the vote from 1 p.m. to 9 a.m. so that the vote preceded the planned press conference led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, which took place at 10 a.m.
Noting the Democrats’ intended boycott, Graham said at the start of the hearing, “We are not going to allow them to take over the committee. They made a choice not to participate.” He also stated, “To my Democratic colleagues, you had four days of hearings, two days to question the judge. She deserves an up-or-down vote. She did an outstanding job representing herself… She deserves better than this but she will get out of the committee today. I have the votes to get her out of committee.”
On Wednesday, Graham said on “Fox and Friends,” “Under the committee rules you need two members of the minority to conduct business. But they’re intentionally denying us that participation. They’re boycotting the committee. So what I will do as chairman there will be a majority of the committee present. We will waive that rule. We will report Judge Barrett out. She will go to the floor. And hopefully by Monday or Tuesday she will be on the court.”
“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will now file for cloture on a vote to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, triggering a 30-hour debate period, after which the full Senate will vote on Barrett’s nomination. The final vote is expected late on Monday and it looks likely that Barrett will be confirmed,” The Daily Wire noted.
On Thursday, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, who has avoided answering whether he would pack the Supreme Court with additional justices if Barrett is confirmed, released a video clip in which he stated:
If elected, what I will do is I’ll put together a national commission of bipartisan commission of scholars, constitutional scholars, Democrats, Republicans, liberal, conservative. And I will ask them to over 180 days come back to me with recommendations as to how to reform the court system because it’s getting out of whack, the way in which it’s being handled. And it’s not about court packing. There’s a number of other things that our constitutional scholars have debated and I’d look to see what recommendations that commission might make.