Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I came here to make my climate remarks, but I can't resist the opportunity--both as a Senator who actually gets quite a lot of bipartisan legislation passed with my Republican friends but also somebody who sits on the Judiciary Committee--to point out that there actually are quite a few firsts happening that I think help explain why the floor has become a battleground for so many of these nominees. One first has been that this is the first time, I think, in anybody in the Senate's lifetime experience in which the blue slip is not honored for circuit court judges, in which a judge on the circuit court of appeals associated with the Presiding Officer's State of Oklahoma or my State of Rhode Island--we get rolled. We do not have the ability to approve or disapprove those judges. That is a long tradition of the Senate summarily thrown out. This is the first time, I think in the history of the United States, in which the selection of judges is being done by a private group funded with anonymous money. That is a very bizarre way to go about picking judges. That is the way it is taking place right now. In fact, the gentleman named Leonard Leo from the Federalist Society who is doing the picking was admitted by Trump's legal counsel to have been insourced for the selection process. That is a first. We never had a private organization pick our Federal judges funded with anonymous money. Finally, there are some qualified appointees to the bench.…”