At a South Carolina debate with @harrisonjaime, Sen. @LindseyGrahamSC promises that Republicans will confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court and vows to do it “safely.”
At his Senate debate, Lindsey Graham frames the election as one between “Donald Trump” and “liberal Democrats.”
~20 minutes into this debate and I’ve lost count of how many times Lindsey Graham has used the phrase “conservative judges.”
Lindsey Graham says he’s open to “colas” for upper income Americans to save Social Security.
Not sure that translated to normal people watching but he’s talking about reducing cost of living adjustments.
“Senator Graham sometimes exaggerates,” says Jaime Harrison.
Tense exchange where Graham touts Tim Scott’s police reform bill, noting he’s an African American Republican, evokes defund the police. Harrison says he doesn’t support defunding police, adds: “Senator Scott is not the only black person who understands interactions with police.”
Lindsey Graham, asked about term limits, says voters can limit his term and pivots into a message about his determination to put conservative judges on the courts.
Harrison chimes in: “I think the question was about term limits.”
Lindsey Graham is spending much of this Senate debate running against single payer, electoral college abolition, Green New Deal, ending the filibuster, and he just went out of his way to mention @AOC.
“This is a reshaping of America,” Graham says.
Add Supreme Court expansion and health care for people in the country illegally to the list of things Graham is raising alarms about in this debate.
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Sixteen percent of America being "neutral" on a presidential candidate at a time like this is (1) absolutely wild and (2) potentially an underrated strength for Biden.
Moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News kicks off by saying none of the questions were shared with the commission or either of the candidates.
Trump defends his move to speedily appoint a Supreme Court justice at this stage: "We won the election. Elections have consequences. We have the Senate. We have the White House. We have a phenomenal nominee."
"The American people should make no mistake," Chuck Schumer says, adding that any vote to put Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court "is a vote to strike down the Affordable Care Act and eliminate protections for Americans with preexisting conditions."
.@SenSchumer says Republicans are moving to deny Ruth Bader Ginsburg's dying wish and "replace her with someone who could tear down everything she has built."
Schumer says Republicans are fabricating attacks on Catholicism that "not a single Democrat will make," calling it an "invented" and "imaginary" issue intended to avoid talking about their '16 double standard, the lawsuit to overturn the ACA, and curtailing Americans' rights.
Dems are rapidly coalescing around an ACA-focused strategy. Why? (1) Polls show the issue benefits them, (2) A lawsuit is headed to SCOTUS, (3) Trump said he'd pick anti-ACA judges; (4) Barrett has a paper trail of legal skepticism, (5) There's a pandemic. nbcnews.com/politics/2020-…
Democrats lack the power to stop Trump and his party from quickly replacing Ginsburg and creating the most conservative Supreme Court since the Lochner era.
What they can do is try to maximize their political pain.
Mitch McConnell is on the Senate floor praising Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a “spirited, powerful and historic champion for American women” and says: “The legal world is mourning a giant.”
Mitch McConnell now on the Senate floor: “Presidnent Trump’s nominee for this vacancy will receive a vote on the floor of the Senate.”
McConnell is distinguishing 2016 from 2020 by saying there was “a divided government” then while Republicans control the Senate and White House now.
(For context, some of his own members didn’t see it this way at the time, including Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham.)