Senate

Senators battle for hours over Supreme Court vacancy

by Jordain Carney - 02/24/16 7:04 PM ET

Senators are digging in for a long fight over President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee.

Lawmakers in both parties spent hours on the Senate floor Wednesday blasting the other party’s rhetoric as Republicans remained united behind blocking Obama’s eventual nominee.

{mosads}Democrats boiled down their argument to three words, repeatedly telling Republicans to “do your job” by agreeing to take up President Obama’s pick to succeed Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called the GOP strategy of keeping the seat vacant until next year “dangerous” and “unprecedented” and warned that Democrats wouldn’t drop the issue going into the November election.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said that if Republicans believe the president shouldn’t be able to complete all of his job requirements — namely filling a Supreme Court seat — during his final year that they should apply the same logic to incumbent senators.

“If the majority leader sincerely believes that the only way to ensure the voice of the American people is heard is to lop off a last year of an elected official’s term, I trust he will make these changes [to Congress],” he said.

But Republicans hit back that Democrats are trying to cut voters out of the process by pushing through a third Supreme Court nominee for Obama during his final year.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said that the battle over who replaces Scalia goes beyond who is the next president but “will likely be about who will serve the next 30 years on the Supreme Court.”

Republicans add that Democrats are being hypocritical and pointed to previous statements made by Vice President Biden, Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on confirming justices near the end of a Republican president’s term as ammunition in their rhetorical battle.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said that it as important to have “mutual respect” and a “deference to the facts” in the Supreme Court debate, before adding that he wants to “correct a few of the most pernicious errors and inaccuracies, facilities and fabrications” that he believes have been made by Democrats.

Democrats, in turn, referenced previous statements made by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the Judiciary Committee chairman.

Reid took a direct shot at Grassley Wednesday, asking if the Iowa Republican wants to remembered as the “least productive” and “most obstructive Judiciary chairman in history.”

Tags Al Franken Chuck Grassley Chuck Schumer Dick Durbin Harry Reid John Cornyn Mike Lee Mitch McConnell