Patrick Leahy: “I recommend all the Republicans and Democrats listen to the speech given by the distinguished Senator from Pennsylvania.…”

“I recommend all the Republicans and Democrats listen to the speech given by the distinguished Senator from Pennsylvania. I said to him earlier this morning if it were he and I who were allowed to work this out, we could work it out probably in less than an hour. I said the same thing to the President and to our two leaders. Hopefully everyone understands the significance of this debate and what the Republican leader, the majority leader is doing. He has decided to trigger the nuclear option. That is what it is. This nuclear option is something any Senate majority could have done any time over the past 50 years. It boils down to the Republican Senate leader declaring the Senate rules governing filibusters are out of order. The nonpartisan Senate Parliamentarian has indicated that would violate the Senate rules. It would. The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has studied this and concluded it is unprecedented. Why? Because it amounts to breaking the rules. We are talking about judging whether nominees will be fair and impartial judges who will follow the law and the majority is willing to break the rules to do that. When you have a slim majority and are willing to use parliamentary brute force, if you want to break the rules, you can. It does not make it right. It makes it wrong, but you can do it. The American people ought to recognize this for what it is, an abuse of power to advance a power grab.…”