The two top Republicans for the job of Senate Majority Leader if they take the Senate in the upcoming election are talking about how they will thwart the agenda of Kamala Harris including the candidate for the Supreme Court.
Senator John Thune of South Dakota told CNN’s Manu Raju that if Kamala Harris won the presidency and the Republicans took the senate, no abortion proposal would get sixty votes in the Senate and when asked if he could see himself allowing Harris Supreme. Court nominee will be confirmed, Thune said it will depend on who it is.
Senator John Cornyn of Texas separately told Raju that he would not “schedule a vote for some wild-eyed radical nominee, who I know he would love to nominate.”
Watch:
NEW: “I’m not going to schedule a vote on some wild-eyed radical nomination, which I know he would be happy to nominate.” @mkraju‘s new report on how @SenJohnThune and @JohnCornyn could throw up roadblocks for potential President Harris. https://t.co/5RHjVGkE12 #InsidePolitics pic.twitter.com/nIAPOb9IbR
– Inside Politics (@InsidePolitics) September 29, 2024
Raju asks: Will you put a national abortion ban on the floor for the majority leader?
Thune replied that no *abortion proposal would get 60 votes: I don’t think any abortion proposal would get sixty votes on the floor of the United States.
Raju: Can you see yourself allowing the Supreme Court nominee for Harris to be confirmed?
Thune: Well, I mean, obviously it probably depends on who that is, and that’s the advantage of the Republican Senate.
Thune said he would not replace the filibuster on any issue.
Another potential Majority Leader, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, also said he didn’t think the abortion ban would get 60 votes, and that he would actually preserve the filibuster.
When Raju asked if he would allow the confirmation of Harris’ Supreme Court nominee, Senator Cornyn said, “It depends, I think, it will also depend on who the President nominates,” and that he would not “schedule a vote for some wild-eyed radical nominee, who i know he would love to be nominated.
Harris is a former prosecutor and Attorney General who has been endorsed by several former Republican and former Trump officials. administration officials, so the idea that he would nominate a “wild-eyed radical” to the Supreme Court is laughable. Cornyn’s comments probably translate best to ordinary voters because he won’t schedule a vote for someone who would protect basic liberties like abortion health care. It’s strange that Republican leaders see basic freedoms as radical but take away freedoms that have long been conservative (this is not traditional conservatism).
Thune has been barnstorming to boost Republican Senate candidates.
Republicans have spent since 2009 dedicated to blocking Democratic presidents to the point of driving the country over the fiscal cliff and shutting down the government when they don’t achieve their radical agenda.
In the Senate they used that power to reject the vote for then President Obama Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, who was respected by both sides of the aisle. Garland would make a perfect Supreme Court judge; he has a moderate temperament and commitment to the rule of law and precedent, unlike the three judges Donald Trump put on the court and of course in complete opposition to the rampant corruption of conservative Justice Clarence Thomas.
So in that context, Cornyn and Thune’s way of responding to the abortion ban question is to expand on any abortion measure, as a way to avoid being held up by their base for not doing abortion bans. while also making room to state that there is no way abortion protections will be codified if Republicans win the senate.
A majority of Americans want Roe’s protections reinstated. Women are dying because of Republican abortion bans, and others are losing their fertility and experiencing unnecessary fear and pain, the equivalent of medical torture. Republicans are committed to continuing to allow women and girls to die under their administration if they win the senate. It is worth pausing here to ask ourselves how they define “pro-life” and what definition excludes the lives of women and girls.
Republicans promise to continue to abuse their power to thwart the will of the people, an attack on the very foundation of freedom and democracy that our country is responsible for. They have become a radical party, with common sense Republicans marginalized and extreme voices amplified, which is in direct contradiction to the Democratic Party today.
Sarah has been trusted to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi several times and exclusively covered the first home appearance after the first impeachment of President Donald Trump.
Sarah is a two-time Telly award-winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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