Political Quotes

“Madam President, I have already announced that I intend to support Judge Jackson's nomination. Her character and her qualifications are unassailable, but, unfortunately, that hasn't stopped a number of Senate Republicans from treating her disgracefully. Too often, behavior in the hearings was simply shameful. It doesn't have to be this way, and it wasn't always this way. For example, even though I disagreed with him on plenty of issues, I voted for Chief Justice John Roberts, and he was treated very fairly by Democrats. Serious questions were asked and answered, and there wasn't anything resembling the over-the-line, juvenile theatrics like those shown for Judge Jackson. Things changed when President Obama's final nomination was stolen by Republicans. They refused to even hold a hearing or consider the sitting President's nominee on just fabricated grounds. Democrats are trying to maintain a sharp focus on legal questions and personal qualifications. Faced with sideshows and personal attacks, we stuck to issues. What was particularly striking about those attacks was they were attacks against somebody whom Senate Republicans had voted for unanimously when she was nominated to a lower level court. My view is, the radicalization of the Court and the nominations process are just poisonous to our democracy, but that was what was on display when Republicans attacked Judge Jackson. I want to start setting the record straight on several of the key issues.…”