Political Quotes

“I rise today as the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee to speak about the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court of the United States. In committee, at the outset of the hearings, I remarked that our job was not to evaluate legal doctrines and theories or to review Judge Gorsuch's record in a vacuum. Our job is to assess how this nominee's decisions will affect the American people and whether he will protect the legal and constitutional rights of all Americans. I have had this in mind throughout the entire process. Let me begin with an aside. I represent a large State, and I do pay close attention to constituent letters, calls, and emails. A weekly report lets me know on what issues people are focused and what they think. I take this feedback very seriously. In general, my barometer has been that when I receive over 30,000 calls, emails, or letters, that is when I know an issue is reasonably meaningful to many people in the State. To be clear, I don't base my final judgment on any issue or nominee solely on the numbers of calls and letters I receive. However, this is a representative democracy. I find this to be an important measure of what California constituents are thinking. When it comes to this nomination so far, my office has received a total of 112,309 calls, emails, and letters from California constituents; and 92,799, or 83, percent, oppose this nominee and 19,510, or 17 percent, support this nominee.…”