Warren Tells Senate Republicans 'Do Your Job'

WASHINGTON, DC - Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren delivered a speech on the floor of the United States Senate on March 9 highlighting Senate Republicans' blockade of any Supreme Court nominee, and their history of bowing to extremists in the Party who refuse to recognize the legitimacy of our democratically-elected President.

"There's a vacancy on the most important court in America - and the message from Senate Republicans is crystal clear," said Sen. Warren.

"Forget the Constitution. It doesn't matter who President Obama nominates because the Republicans will allow no votes on that nominee. They will hold no hearings on that nominee. Their response to one of the most solemn and consequential tasks that our government performs - the confirmation of a Supreme Court Justice - will be to pretend that the nominee, and President Obama himself, simply do not exist-cannot see them, cannot hear them," said the Massachusetts Democrat.

President Obama has said he will nominate an individual to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia who died last month.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, said Supreme Court Justice Scalia should not be replaced until after the presidential election.

“The American people‎ should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice,” said McConnell in a statement last month. “Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President.”

Warren previous had explained that ”Article II Section 2 of the Constitution says the President of the United States nominates justices to the Supreme Court, with the advice and consent of the Senate. I can’t find a clause that says ‘...except when there’s a year left in the term of a Democratic President.’

Yesterday, she again spoke out about the delay on the U.S. Senate floor.

"At the same time that they are blocking all possible Supreme Court nominees, Senate Republicans are in a panic because their party seems to be on the verge of nominating one of two extremists for President. Two candidates who think nothing about attacking the legitimacy of their political opponents, and demeaning millions of Americans. Two candidates whose extremism, Republicans worry, will lead their party to defeat in November," said Sen. Warren. "Now, these are not separate issues. They are the same issue. If Republican senators want to stand up to extremists running for President, they can start right now by standing up to extremists in the Senate. They can start by doing what they were elected to do right here in the Senate. They can start by doing their jobs."

Warren said the"refusal of Republican Senators to execute the most basic constitutional duties of their office is shocking - but it is not new."

And it's not just judges, said Sen. Warren.

"For months after the President won re-election, Republicans held up his nominees to run the Department of Labor and the EPA, largely on the suspicion that those highly qualified individuals might actually help those agencies do their work," said Warren, who gave examples.

• For years, Republicans held up nominees to the National Labor Relations Board - even Republican nominees - in order to cripple the ability of that 80 year-old agency to resolve disputes between workers and their bosses.
• For years, Republicans held up the President's choice to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, refusing to confirm anyone unless the President would agree to gut the agency.
• Republicans regularly hold up the confirmation of dozens of ambassadors, undermining our national security and our relationships with other nations.
• Last year, Republicans blocked confirmation of the Attorney General, the highest law enforcement official in this country, blocked her for 166 days - that's longer than it took the Senate to consider the prior seven Attorneys General combined.
• For more than a year, the Republican Chairman of the Banking Committee hasn't held a single vote on any of the sixteen Presidential nominees sitting on his desk, not even nominees who are critical to maintaining the financial stability of this country or the ones who are responsible for choking off the flow of money to ISIS.

"The message couldn't be clearer: no matter how much it damages the nation, no matter how much it undermines the courts, no matter whether it cripples the government or lays waste to our Constitution, Senate Republicans do pretty much everything they can to avoid acknowledging the legitimacy of our democratically-elected President," said Sen. Warren.

"For too long, Republicans in this Senate wanted to have it both ways: they want to feed the ugly lies and nullify the Obama Presidency while also claiming that they can govern responsibly," said Massachusetts senior senator.

"Well, that game is over. Candidates motivated by bigotry and resentment - candidates unable to govern - candidates reflecting the same extremism that has been nursed along for seven years right here in the United States Senate - are on the verge of winning the Republican Party's nomination for President, and now Republican Senators must make a decision," she said on the U.S. Senate floor.

"So if it's true that some Republican Senators are finally ready to stand up to the extremism that denies the legitimacy of this President and of the Constitution, I say to you:

Do your job: Vote on a Supreme Court nominee.

Do your job: Vote on District Court judges and Circuit Court judges.

Do your job: Vote on ambassadors.

Do your job: Vote on agency leaders and counterterrorism officials."

"If you want to stop extremism in your party, you can start by showing the American people that they you respect the President of the United State and the Constitution enough to do your job, right here, in the United States Senate," concluded the Senator yesterday, March 9.