Elizabeth Warren to Republican senators: Do your jobs
You have to hand it to Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for being a straight-talking, no-nonsense lawmaker when she called on the Republican senators to “do their job” on selecting a nominee for the US Supreme Court.
With the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, Warren linked the Senate Republicans move to keep the Supreme Court seat vacant until 2017 and Donald Trump’s possible presidential nomination as two sides of the same coin.
Elizabeth Warren speaks up
Warren spoke on this issue on the Senate floor and in an interview with Rachel Maddow: “[Republican senators’] response to one of the most solemn and consequent 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.”
“At the same time, that they are blocking all possible Supreme Court nominees, Senate Republicans are in 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,” she added.
“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,” she declared.
Elizabeth Warren on The Rachel Maddow Show
The legislator further expounded her point, saying: “Look, what’s the problem with the two guys they’ve got at the top right now with Donald Trump and with Ted Cruz? These are both people who basically deny the legitimacy of their opponents. They go on the attack. They demean millions of Americans.”
“And that’s what identifies them as extremists and why Republicans– man, Republicans in the Senate are breaking apart over this. And yet, what have Republicans in the Senate been doing since the very day that Barack Obama was sworn in? They have given in to their extremists. In fact, they have nursed their extremists along,” she said.
“They are paying the price for their own extremism. It has now taken them by the throat. And so, when they stand up in the Senate and say, ‘Oh, my gosh, what’s going to happen to us? We now may have a presidential nominee who is so extreme that he will pull us over the edge electorally and cause us a disaster in November.’ The answer is: guys, this is what you did to yourselves. If you really want to stop it, stop it right now. Stand up and do your job,” she said.
Check out the videos below to see Senator Elizabeth Warren speak at the Senate floor, as well as her interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC.