Judge Gorsuch is a ‘Superbly Qualified Nominee’
‘I invite Democrats, who spent many months insisting ‘we need nine,’ to now follow through on that advice by giving this superbly qualified nominee fair consideration and an up-or-down vote. It’s time to finally accept the result of the election and move on, so we can all move our country forward.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor on Judge Neil Gorsuch and the confirmation process:
“President Trump’s outstanding Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch has earned high praise from across the political spectrum. Some of it has come from unlikely corners, whether Democratic Senators, left-leaning publications, former President Obama’s own legal mentor — even his former top Supreme Court lawyer.
“We’ve heard from those Gorsuch has taught. We’ve heard from many who’ve worked alongside him. In fact, just a few days ago we received a letter from several of his former law colleagues. Let me share some of that with you now.
“’We are Democrats, independents, and Republicans,’ the letter began.
“’Many of us have served in government, some during Republican and some during Democratic administrations; some of us have served in both. We have clerked for Supreme Court justices and appellate and district court judges appointed by Democratic and Republican presidents. We represent a broad spectrum of views on politics, judicial philosophy, and many other subjects as well. But we all agree on one thing: our former colleague, Neil M. Gorsuch…is superbly qualified for confirmation…’
“’He is a man of character, decency, and accomplishment,’ they continued, one who represented all of his clients ‘without regard to ideology,’ and one ‘who merits this appointment.’ Clearly, it’s not going to be easy to paint Judge Gorsuch as anything but extremely qualified and exceptionally fair. That hasn’t stopped some on the Left from trying.
“They started musing about blocking any nominee before the President had even nominated anyone. It’s a good reminder that much of the opposition we’re seeing from Far Left groups and Democrat Senators isn’t so much about Judge Gorsuch as it’s about their dissatisfaction with the outcome of the election.
“As a Washington Post headline recently declared, ‘Democrats’ goal with court nomination: Make it a referendum on Trump.’
“’… [P]rominent Senate Democrats,’ the article read, are ‘giving the nominee’s 10-plus years on ‘the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit almost secondary consideration.’ It seems they believe their best, and perhaps only, bet to bring down this highly qualified judge is by ‘inject[ing] Trump into the process.’
“The very next day, the New York Times ran an article about Democrats’ apparent hope that this Supreme Court fight will be ‘More About Trump Than Gorsuch.’ In other words, our Democratic colleagues are finding it hard to oppose Judge Gorsuch on the merits, so they’re trying to divert attention and invent new hurdles for him to surmount. That’s their playbook. Sure enough, we see them running the play.
“Consider the Assistant Democratic Leader’s speech the other day. It was supposedly about Judge Gorsuch. He sure had a lot to say: about President Trump, about things President Trump has done, about things President Trump might do, about refighting old battles…but precious little about the qualifications of the actual nominee before us, and precious little about the increasing number of accolades he’s been receiving, especially from well-known folks on the political Left.
“I mentioned several a moment ago. Now we can add another to the list: Alan Dershowitz, the famous Constitutional scholar and longtime Harvard Law professor. Dershowitz described Judge Gorsuch as ‘highly credentialed and hard to oppose’ and dismissed the idea that he could be caricatured as some sort of ‘extreme right-wing [ideologue].’ ‘[T]hat doesn't seem to fit what I know about him,’ Dershowitz said, adding that Gorsuch will ‘be hard to oppose on the merits.’ Indeed he will.
“That’s precisely why our Democratic colleagues are making the debate on his nomination about other things and other people. That’s also why they are arguing that there are ‘special’ hurdles for Judge Gorsuch to clear — hurdles that they are forced to admit were not there for the first term nominees of Democratic presidents.
“When even a left-winger like Rachel Maddow can’t help but admit that Judge Gorsuch is ‘a relatively mainstream choice’ — when even Maddow characterizes a Democrat attempt to filibuster his nomination as ‘radical’ — it’s hard to argue otherwise.
“That won’t stop many on the Far Left from trying. I invite Democrats, who spent many months insisting ‘we need nine,’ to now follow through on that advice by giving this superbly qualified nominee fair consideration and an up-or-down vote. It’s time to finally accept the result of the election and move on, so we can all move our country forward.”
Related Issues: Supreme Court, Judicial Nominations, Nominations
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