President Trump announced today that he will announce his nominee to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court created by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Saturday at 5:00pm:
I will be announcing my Supreme Court Nominee on Saturday, at the White House! Exact time TBA.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 22, 2020
NEWS: Trump says his announcement on his SCOTUS pick will be at 5p Saturday.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) September 22, 2020
Earlier today, there was news that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell likely has enough support to hold a confirmation vote this year, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham indicated his willingness to move the committee hearing process along and prevent the Democrats from playing games and attempting to destroy the nominee as they did with Justice Kavanaugh.
To retaliate, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is essentially stopping Senate committees from meeting -- all of them, not just the Senate Judiciary Committee:
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday invoked a rule to prevent Senate committees from meeting, to retaliate against Republicans, who have agreed to vote on confirming President Trump's nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death Friday.
Under the "two-hour rule," no Senate committee or subcommittee can meet after the Senate has been in session for two hours or after 2 p.m. The move potentially delays a briefing on national security and a confirmation hearing for Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf. . . .
Senate Democrats have few options to delay the Supreme Court confirmation process, since there are enough Republicans to confirm Ginsburg's replacement without Democratic support. President Trump has said that he will announce his nominee on Saturday. Invoking the two-hour rule may gum up the works in the Senate, but it also could prevent important meetings from being conducted.
Under the rule, committees can only meet outside its time constraints if the Senate grants unanimous consent for them to meet, the majority and minority leaders agree to permit the meeting, or if the Senate adopts a privileged motion to allow the meeting. If a meeting takes place without a committee obtaining permission, any action that it takes is considered "null, void, and of no effect."
Senator Marco Rubio pointed out that this is preventing important election-related hearings from occurring:
Remember when Democratic leaders were demanding more briefings on election interference?
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) September 22, 2020
Senate Intel Committee scheduled one today with Bill Evanina who leads our nations election security efforts
Sen. Schumer had a temper tantrum over SupCt & used procedural move to cancel it
This only builds on Democrats' threats to remake our institutions if they win the presidency and Senate:
Democrats, their media friends want us to know, are furious. If Republicans exercise their constitutional prerogative and fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat on the Supreme Court, the Democrats are prepared to burn it all down.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) told his caucus on Saturday that if Republicans move forward with a nomination, "nothing is off the table." Others were more explicit: If the Democrats retake the Senate in 2021, Massachusetts senator Ed Markey vowed to abolish the filibuster; his failed primary challenger, Rep. Joe Kennedy, promised to pack the Court. They'll bestow statehood on Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., and get rid of the Electoral College, too.
Of course, as Leader McConnell points out, the Democrats' "new" threats fall a little flat when they've been making them for years, even over such trivial matters as a pending petition for certiorari that raised Second Amendment issues:
Democrats are threatening to attack the foundations of the Senate and the Court if they do not get their way.
— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) September 22, 2020
Here's the problem with this attempted blackmail: They have already been making these threats for many months. They've been campaigning on them for over a year.
Fortunately, President Trump, Leader McConnell, and Chairman Graham have shown that they are not willing to pay attention to the Democrats' tantrums or bow under their threats. As we look forward to the announcement of a new Supreme Court nominee on Saturday, we can be grateful that President Trump is committed to nominating a highly qualified attorney who respects the Constitution and the rule of law.