Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., denounced Republican lawmakers who are poised to approve President Trump’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, a process he called illegitimate and a “callous political grab.”
Leahy’s comments came on Thursday, the final day of the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
Leahy stressed that Congress should wait until after the November election to deal with the makeup of the court.
“There is no reason why this nomination cannot be delayed,” Leahy said Thursday. “If President Trump wins re-election, this committee could take up Judge Barrett’s nomination in January.”
The senior senator from Vermont blasted Senate Republicans’ decision to go ahead with Barrett’s nomination before the impending election.
“This is a caricature of illegitimacy,” Leahy said. “That we had a nominee before Justice Ginsburg was even buried — in order to jam this nomination through before the election will forever mark this process as the callous political grab that it is.”
A Judiciary Committee vote on the nomination is set for next week.
On Wednesday, advocacy groups gathered outside Leahy’s office in downtown Burlington to demand he try to stop Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.
Throughout Barrett’s four-day confirmation hearing, Senate Democrats attempted to paint the Supreme Court nominee as a jurist who would usher in a new age of conservative activism on the high court.
Leahy and others repeatedly pressed Barrett — who will replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — about her legal opinion on the Affordable Care Act, on the breadth of presidential authority and on same-sex marriage.
If confirmed, Barrett would be Trump’s third appointee to the Supreme Court, joining Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh and giving conservatives a 6-3 majority on the court.
Democrats have also criticized Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and other committee Republicans for pushing Barrett’s nomination process, when they refused to grant a hearing for Merrick Garland, former President Barack Obama’s last pick for the Supreme Court.
On Thursday, with Barrett’s testimony completed, Democrats made a motion to postpone the confirmation process until after the November election, but it was easily struck down by the Republicans.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Barrett’s nomination on Oct. 22.
