Mitch McConnell Says It’s ‘Full Steam Ahead’ For Supreme Court Confirmation. Here’s How Democrats Are Trying To Stop It From Happening

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the Senate will move forward with the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett — but Democrats are pulling out all the stops to try and delay or stop the confirmation from happening.

McConnell spoke with President Donald Trump while the president was resting and quarantining for 14 days after being infected with coronavirus, and said the confirmation process is “full steam ahead.”

Just finished a great phone call with @POTUS. He’s in good spirits and we talked business — especially how impressed Senators are with the qualifications of Judge Barrett. Full steam ahead with the fair, thorough, timely process that the nominee, the Court, & the country deserve.

— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) October 2, 2020

Democrats have already responded to the effort to confirm Barrett before Election Day by trying to prevent her from being seated before Nov. 10, when she likely wouldn’t be able to rule on a case involving Obamacare.

Barrett has also faced attacks by the media for her Catholic faith, which McConnell said was “only following the lead of Senate Democrats.” 

Among the tactics Senate Democrats have invoked to obstruct the confirmation is the “two-hour rule,” which governs when Senate committees can meet while the Senate is in session. Sen. Marco Rubio accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of throwing a “temper tantrum” on the Senate floor Sept. 22 by canceling an intelligence briefing on election interference because of the standoff over Republican efforts to vote on a Supreme Court justice. 

The move made no difference in the timeline to confirm Barrett, but it was one of the ways Democrats could disrupt the chamber’s activity, according to Politico. When the Judiciary Committee holds confirmation hearings in October, the two-hour rule could be invoked to delay the hearing.

Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a group of Democrats on Thursday forthrightly asked Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham to delay the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.

“The timeline for consideration of Judge Barrett’s nomination is incompatible with the Senate’s constitutional role,” Feinstein said in the letter, Fox News reported. “We again urge you to delay consideration of this nomination until after the presidential inauguration. The Senate and the American public deserve a deliberative, thorough process, and this falls far short.”

Feinstein admitted that Democrats would “fight tooth and nail” to delay and obstruct the confirmation. 

Days after Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, Democrats announced plans to introduce a bill that would impose a term limit of 18 years on Supreme Court justices, allow every new president to nominate two justices each term, and cancel lifetime appointments.

“It would save the country a lot of agony and help lower the temperature over fights for the court that go to the fault lines of cultural issues and is one of the primary things tearing at our social fabric,” Democratic California Rep. Ro Khanna, one of the Democrats to introduce the bill, told Reuters.

Democrats have even considered impeaching President Trump for a second time — this time with Attorney General Bill Barr, in an attempt to distrust the nomination process for the open Supreme Court seat.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to rule out the possible impeachment of President Trump and Barr in order to derail the nomination, telling ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week,” that Democrats would not be setting aside any of the “arrows in our quiver” going into the last days before the November 3 election. (RELATED: Pelosi Refuses To Rule Out Trump, Barr Impeachment To Disrupt Supreme Court Nomination)

Barrett’s confirmation hearings are set to begin October 12 and will go through October 15.