Schumer Vows GOP Will ‘Regret’ Barrett Confirmation, Democrats Plan Retaliation

'One of the darkest days in the history of the Senate'

After Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to the Supreme Court on Monday evening, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) warned Republicans that they will live to “regret this.” “The Republican majority is lighting its credibility on fire … The next time the American people give Democrats a majority in this chamber, you will have forfeited the right to tell us how to run that majority,” Schumer said during a floor speech before the confirmation vote. “My colleagues may regret this for a lot longer than they think,” he added. Schumer complained that Republicans, who control the Senate and the White House, moved before the election to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who died last month at age 89. “Here at this late hour, at the end of this sordid chapter in the history of the Senate, the history of the Supreme Court, my deepest and greatest sadness is for the American people,” Schumer said.

Schumer continued: Generations yet unborn will suffer the consequences of this nomination. As the globe gets warmer, as workers continue to fall behind, as unlimited dark money floods our politics, as reactionary state legislatures curtail a woman’s right to choose, gerrymandered districts and limit the rights of minorities to vote, my deepest, greatest, and most abiding sadness tonight is for the American people and what this nomination will mean for their lives, their freedoms, their fundamental rights. Schumer later took to Twitter to complain again. “Today will go down as one of the darkest days in the Senate’s 231-year history,” he wrote. “The Senate GOP is thwarting the will of the people and confirming a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court in the middle of a presidential election. Democrats will never stop fighting for Americans.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Republicans had “usurped” the Supreme Court seat. “Congress will have to reverse the damage of a radical Republican court and defend pre-existing condition protections together with every other benefit and protection of the Affordable Care Act,” Pelosi said in a statement. “With this usurped Supreme Court seat, the President is ripping away millions of families’ health care in the middle of a pandemic that has infected over 8.6 million and killed nearly one-quarter of a million Americans.” Other Democrats immediately called on the Senate to “pack” the court, which means passing legislation to allow additional justices on America’s highest court. “Expand the court,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) wrote on Twitter, adding, “Republicans do this because they don’t believe Dems have the stones to play hardball like they do. And for a long time they’ve been correct. But do not let them bully the public into thinking their bulldozing is normal but a response isn’t. There is a legal process for expansion.” AOC was also joined by her fellow first-term congresswomen, Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN). “We must expand the Court if we’re serious about the transformational change the people are crying out for,” Tlaib said. “We are going to take back the White House & Senate next week with a resounding mandate from the people to fight back against Trump’s illegitimately stacked judiciary. We must expand the Court if we’re serious about the transformational change the people are crying out for,” Tlaib wrote on Twitter.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/schumer-vows-to-make-gop-regret-barrett-confirmation-democrats-plan-retaliation

https://twitter.com/RashidaTlaib/status/1320880795591036930

https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/1320868746093842432