Cindy Carr, cindy.carr@sierraclub.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, 12 days before the end of a presidential election, Lindsey Graham held an illegitimate Senate Judiciary Committee vote to advance Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. The committee’s 10 Democrats refused to attend the sham vote. Rules of the Committee state that two members of the minority party must be present for a vote to be held, but Graham ignored the rules and held the vote anyway.
There has never been a Supreme Court nominee voted on -- let alone confirmed -- this close to a presidential election. In 2016, Mitch McConnell set the precedent for delaying a vote on a Supreme Court confirmation vote in an election year when he blocked President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, for more than 11 months. Currently, McConnell has scheduled Amy Coney Barrett’s full Senate vote for Monday evening.
More than 220,000 Americans have died since the COVID-19 pandemic began, yet Senate Republicans have blocked a relief package for more than five months and instead put their time and energy to a sham Supreme Court process instead of helping our communities. A recent poll found that 74 percent of American voters want the Senate to prioritize COVID relief over confirming Trump’s Supreme Court pick.
In response, Sierra Club Democracy Program Director Courtney Hight released the following statement:
"More than 222,000 of our friends and family members have died from COVID-19, including over 10,000 just since Amy Coney Barrett’s hearing started last week. More than 23 million of us are on unemployment. And millions more are suffering from the trauma created by this pandemic which Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell refuse to address. Yet today, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans further confirmed they don’t care about us, their only goal is to hoard power and cement their dangerous agenda by any means necessary. Enough. Come November 3, we must vote out any Republican who voted in support of Amy Coney Barrett.
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Paid for by Sierra Club Independent Action, www.sierraclubindependentaction.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. |
Read the Sierra Club’s letter of opposition to Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination here.