[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 183 (Saturday, October 24, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6420-S6421]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The Democratic leader is recognized.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I just heard the Republican leader say 
there is no inconsistency between what the Republicans are doing now 
with Amy Coney Barrett's nomination and what they did with Merrick 
Garland in 2016. Who would believe that? The contradiction is glaring. 
The contradiction will be a stain on the leader's forehead and on the 
entire Republican caucus if it continues.
  We just heard another warped, distorted, and convoluted history 
lesson from Leader McConnell. We know how defensive he is about the 
blatant, 180-degree, hypocritical turn he has made on Supreme Court 
nominations, but a distorted, warped history lesson will not remove the 
stain.
  Only one thing will, Leader McConnell: Withdraw the nomination of Amy 
Coney Barrett until after the election, plain and simple.
  Now we meet here in a rare Saturday session because there is 
nothing--nothing--remotely normal about the Republicans' drive to 
confirm Judge Barrett to the Supreme Court only days before a 
Presidential election.
  Four years ago, the entire Republican Senate said it was a 
principle--that was their word, ``principle''--that Supreme Court 
Justices should not be confirmed in Presidential election years. Leader 
McConnell said: ``The American people [deserve a choice] in the 
selection of their next Supreme Court Justice.'' That is the principle 
they insisted the Senate must follow, and they declared that this 
principle bound the Senate not to consider the nomination of Judge 
Garland even though it was 8 months before the Presidential election of 
2016.
  Well, here we are today, just a few days from another Presidential 
election. More than 50 million Americans have already voted, and that 
number will only increase between today and Monday--the date of Judge 
Barrett's confirmation vote. Americans are waiting in line now, 
patiently, at early voting locations around the country, to cast their 
ballots in Arizona and North Carolina, in Maine and Colorado, in Iowa 
and Kansas, in Georgia, Alaska, and Kentucky, in 26 States where early 
voting centers are open and in another 15 States where early votes can 
be dropped off at election offices.
  In my home State of New York, where today marks the first day of 
early voting, it may look a little different this year. The lines are 
longer, not just because of enthusiasm but also because they are more 
socially distant. Everyone should be wearing a mask. But as we speak, 
millions of Americans are using their voices to say who they want to 
have select Supreme Court Justices.
  At the same time, when the Republican majority in the Senate is 
ramming through the lifetime appointment of a Justice who will make 
hugely impactful decisions about their lives and freedom, Leader 
McConnell has the temerity to say there is no contradiction between 
Merrick Garland and how they treated him and Amy Coney Barrett and how 
they are treating her. Give me a break. Our colleagues are saying to 
the American people: You get no say. You get no choice.
  Four years ago, when a Democratic President nominated a Justice, the 
Republicans professed to care about giving the American people a 
voice--not so now, not when a Republican-nominated Justice is on the 
line, not when their own political power is at stake.

[[Page S6421]]

What became of that high-minded principle the Republican Senators 
embraced so fervently in somber tones? Just 4 years ago, Leader 
McConnell and they told the Nation that the Senate must heed the voices 
of the American people when they vote. Where on Earth did that 
principle go? What principles govern their current mad rush to confirm 
another Trump Justice 8 days before this Presidential election?
  If this process has revealed anything, it is that the supposed 
Republican principle was a farce--no principle at all and never was. It 
was a naked, opportunistic, transparent, cynical, last-ditch grab for 
power. Of course, it is the continuation of their shameful, lockstep 
subservience to President Trump--the most unprincipled President in 
American history. This will go down as the most partisan, most 
hypocritical, and least legitimate Supreme Court nomination in our 
Nation's history.
  Once again, Leader McConnell, when you talk about history--a 
distorted, one-sided view, that is all you give--it doesn't erase what 
you have done. It stares the American people in the face. They know it. 
We know it. We all know it, and history will know it.
  It is a very dark moment for the Senate, and I am ashamed that the 
Republicans are going along with this. This, again, will be the most 
partisan, most hypocritical, and least legitimate Supreme Court 
confirmation in our Nation's history