First, here's how the Speaker remembers Ruth Bader Ginsburg: "petite, tiny in size, huge in impact, and powerful, brilliant brain on the court." And, she moved quickly to what's at stake.
...she would want us to keep our eye on the ball of the 200,000 people who will be, probably this weekend, will reach -- sadly reach that number. This challenge that we have is directly -- if the president thinks this isn't about the coronavirus, it is. It's about health care. So the president is rushing to make some kind of a decision because he -- November 10th is when the arguments begin on the Affordable Care Act. He doesn't want to crush the virus. He wants to crush the Affordable Care Act.
She said that "any one of us who knew her, who loved her, who respected her" mourn her loss but understand the need to move forward to protect people who are sick, and who have pre-existing conditions.
George asked how Dems can slow or block the nomination. Pelosi focused on voting, noting that 10 states have already started early voting
We just want everyone across the country who cares about health care for all Americans, who cares about crushing the coronavirus, who cares about a woman's right to choose, who cares about LGBTQ rights -- the list goes on and on -- to vote. The election is very important.
Pelosi also pointed out that Congress does have the ability to make good law from bad SCOTUS decisions, and referenced RBG's dissent in the Lilly Ledbetter case which became the first law that Barack Obama signed as president, and that's another reason why people need to vote, "why we have to have a big turnout" in the election.
She also said she was not interested in shutting down the government, which would have "such a harmful and painful impact on so many people in our country," even as she noted "some enthusiasm, some exuberance on the left" - but that's not going to happen.
George asked if Trump and the GOP Senators try a lame-duck session nomination, even if Biden wins, should the Dems impeach Trump or Snitty Snitty Bill Barr, "as a way of stalling and preventing the Senate from acting' on Trump's pick?"
Well, we have our options. We have arrows in our quiver that I'm not about to discuss right now, but the fact is we have a big challenge in our country. This president has threatened to not even accept the results of the election with statements that he and his henchmen have made. So right now, our main goal and I think Ruth Bader Ginsburg would want that to be, would be to protect the integrity of the election as we protect the American people from the coronavirus...
So again, when people say, "what can I do?" You can vote. You can get out that vote, and you can do so as soon as possible. Ten states, as I said, on Friday, started their early voting, the day that we lost Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
George then said, "but to be clear, you're not taking any arrows out of your quiver, you're not ruling anything out?"
Yeah. We have a responsibility. We've taken an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. We have a responsibility to meet the needs of the American people. That is when we weigh the equities of protecting democracy requires us to use every arrow in our quiver.
I don't know about you, but by this point in the interview, I was quivering myself at the thought of all those arrows flying around, I really was. Quivering, and quaking, and probably some other 'q' words...
Not ready to quit trying to quapture stuff from the quiver, George asked about "expanding the court in retaliation," which has been mentioned as a possible reaction by other Dems.
Well, let's just win the election. Let's hope that the president will see the light...So people have something at stake in this decision, and how quickly the president wants to go. I don't think they care about who said what, when, and all the rest of that, but they do care about their own health and well-being and the financial health and well-being of their families if they are subjected to unlimited costs because of preexisting conditions, as well as eliminating the caps that have been placed by the Affordable Care Act on what insurance companies can charge.
...We have a great deal at stake here. I think we should be very calm. We should be inspired by Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was brilliant, and she was strategic, and she was successful. And she did more for equality for women in our country than anyone that you can name, and women appreciate that, and I think that you will see women weighing in on all of these decisions, be the elections, confirmations or the rest.
Quickly, here are some comments from the vice president's chief of staff, Marc Short, who talked with Jake Tapper on CNN's SOTU. Short said that the president "looks forward to making a nominee that I think the American people will be proud of," and we know that it's going to be a woman, possibly a Cuban American (more Florida votes to be had, of course) or an Indianan (can't hurt to get some of those flyover country voters in the fold, either).
Tapper asked whether the "obvious hypocrisy" of the rush to nominate now compared to the delay in 2016 could put some GOP senators at risk of losing close elections. It would seem that he doesn't care about that, as he said repeatedly
.. as far as the politics of it, I think the American people wanted Donald Trump to be in a position to make these nominations. And it's his obligation to do so.
Short also suggested it would be nice to see a list of potential justices from Joe Biden, to which Tapper agreed, and added "I'd also love to see president Trump's tax returns, as long as we're talking about precedents along those lines. Short didn't find the humor in that, poor thing. And he said the timetable is up to Mitch McConnell, but he noted that Ginsburg was confirmed within 43 days of her nomination.
On the possibility that a 4-4 tie on the Affordable Care Act (arguments are set for November 10th) would result in the lower court's decision that the ACA is unconstitutional in place, Tapper asked about a replacement for it (there isn't one still, even though the most recent promise was that we'd see one in two weeks -- back in July). Short said basically have no fear, you 20 million people who would lose coverage - or, at least have no fear, people with pre-existing conditions.
Jake, if that hypothetical scenario played out, there would be possibilities to make sure that people with preexisting conditions have those guarantees. The president has stated multiple times he supports protections for people with preexisting conditions...The reality is that Obamacare, I think, candidly, was also on the ballot in 2016, because a lot of Americans rejected the notion that they should be forced to purchase something they don't want.
More Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than voted for Donald Trump, Tapper pointed out. Which is true. But he's still president, and she's not. And here we are.
Keep your mask on -- it's good for you in more ways than one. See you around the virtual campus.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNo coffee yet, but not following?
ReplyDelete