Political Quotes

“All right, I will just ask my question. On Monday, I wanted to come to the Senate floor to make the request I just made, but I guess the majority leader was taking a lot of heat about judges and Donald Trump's racist statements about them and didn't want to draw any more attention to the Republicans' unprecedented blockade of judicial nominations. So the Republicans offered me a deal: Just go away, and we will confirm two Court of International Trade judges. The Court of International Trade is pretty important. It handles trade enforcement cases, and nearly half of that court has been empty for a year because Republicans refused to do their jobs. These two uncontroversial nominees have been twisting in the wind for 336 days. They are highly qualified, honorable lawyers who are ready to serve their country. So on Monday, I took the deal. The Republicans released two hostages, and the Senate confirmed them by a voice vote, without objection--not a single objection nearly a year after they were nominated. Today, the majority leader isn't offering to release any hostages, and my question for the majority leader is, What happened between Monday and today? I yield the floor if the majority leader wishes to respond. Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, we tried to confirm the article III judges she is referring to before the recess and our Democratic colleagues would not clear them.…”