Politics

‘The last gasp of a corrupt Republican leadership’: Elizabeth Warren slams Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearing

As confirmation hearings are underway, the Mass. senator took to Twitter to share her thoughts and urge people to fight against the nomination.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren waves to the crowd after speaking earlier this month as people paid their respects to Ruth Bader Ginsburg near the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. –Jose Luis Magana / AFP via Getty Images

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren took to Twitter Monday afternoon to condemn Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing, and remind Americans of the danger that lies in her possible confirmation. 

Today’s sham hearing on a holiday, 22 days from Election Day, during a COVID-19 outbreak in the Judiciary Committee with a likely-exposed Chairman who won’t get tested shows just how far the GOP will go to steal another Supreme Court seat & hand our courts over to extremists,” Warren wrote as the beginning of a Twitter thread sharing her thoughts on the issue. 

Monday’s hearing was the first of four, and the senator warned that if Barrett is officially appointed to the seat, a right-leaning Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wade, and strip health care for those with pre-existing conditions through the Affordable Care Act. 

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“Most Americans don’t want the Supreme Court to take away abortion rights. Most Americans don’t want the Supreme Court to rip away health care from millions of people,” Warren said. “And most Americans believe that the next President should be filling this Supreme Court seat.”

In a Rolling Stone op-ed published Monday, Warren called upon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s last fervent wish” not to be replaced before a new president is inaugurated.

Warren asked readers to honor Ginsburg’s words, adding that if ignored, “we risk our rights being snatched away by another right-wing lurch of the Supreme Court.” 

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The senator even juxtaposed Barrett’s nomination with the 2016 Merrick Garland controversy, when “Sen. McConnell and his Republican henchmen locked arms and insisted there could be no confirmation until after the next president had been elected and sworn in.”

“This kind of sleazy double-dealing is the last gasp of a desperate party that is undemocratically overrepresented in Congress and in the halls of power across our country,” Warren wrote in her article. “The last gasp of a corrupt Republican leadership, numb to its own hypocrisy, that doesn’t reflect the views of the majority of Americans or the values that we hold dear.”

As Senate Republicans “ram this nomination through,” Warren argued that it’s more important than ever to explore “every option.”

“It is our duty to explore every option we have to restore the court’s credibility and integrity,” she said. “Every option to expand our democracy, not shrink it. Every option to ensure that a working single parent and a millionaire corporate executive have equal justice in our courts. And every option to ensure that all Americans are represented in our institutions.”

Barrett’s hearing, Warren said in conclusion over Twitter, is happening because it’s the GOP’s last hope to “cling to power just a little longer.” And as the nomination process is scheduled to continue, Warren focused instead on uniting people to take a stand. “If today’s Supreme Court hearings to steal a Supreme Court seat make you furious, get in the fight and make your voice heard,” Warren said in her final Tweet. “The power isn’t just in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room right now – the power is with you.”

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