Democrats Attempt to Shut Down Senate, Searching for to Stain Barrett Affirmation

“The injury to Individuals’ religion in these establishments may very well be lasting,” he mentioned. “So, earlier than we go any additional, we must always shut off the cameras, shut the Senate, and speak nose to nose about what this would possibly imply for the nation.”

Republicans wished no such dialogue. They voted inside a matter of minutes to reopen the proceedings and transfer forward with contemplating Decide Barrett.

“It’s simply harassment,” mentioned Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas. “It’s not about substance.”

But it surely was left to Mr. McConnell, the architect of Republicans’ takeover of the federal courts, to supply a fuller response. Turning away from the cameras to talk on to Republican members seated at their desks, he provided a selectively curated historical past of the devolving judicial nominations course of within the Senate, reaching again to Democrats’ rejection of Robert Bork, a conservative nominee, in 1987.

Mr. McConnell argued that the choice to dam Decide Garland had been according to historical past and so was the choice to verify Decide Barrett as a result of now, in contrast to then, the identical celebration controls the White Home and the Senate. Democrats view the Garland blockade as a severe escalation from which the chamber has not recovered.

“This isn’t spin. That is reality,” Mr. McConnell mentioned. Referring to Democrats, he added: “Each new escalation, each new step, each new shattered precedent, each certainly one of them was initiated over there. No exceptions.”

In an indication of how poisonous the connection between the 2 leaders had grow to be 4 years after Mr. Schumer assumed his management publish, Mr. McConnell prompt his counterpart was merely reaping what he had sown.

“I hope our colleague from New York is pleased with what he’s constructed,” Mr. McConnell mentioned. “I hope he’s pleased with the place his ingenuity has gotten the Senate.”