STANDING ON: Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, warns that the corona infection boom will not slow down the appointment of a new, conservative judge in the US Supreme Court before the election on November 3. Photo: MICHAEL REYNOLDS / EPA
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The leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, Mitch McConnell (78), now warns that the 100 senators cannot meet physically until 19 October at the earliest.
The reason is a corona infection boom among Republican senators.
But McConnell also states that he is still fully committed to getting the hearings and the vote to make conservative Amy Coney Barrett (48) a new Supreme Court judge before the November 3 presidential election.
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“The Senate’s schedule will not disrupt the thorough, fair and historically supported approval process,” McConnell wrote in a statement Saturday.
The infection situation
Actually, the Senate was to meet for the week. It does not work – and the main reason is that three Republican senators in recent days have tested positive for corona, and that the general infection situation makes it unsafe to gather.
For 14 days, there will be no votes in the upper house of the US House of Representatives.
—TRUMP’S CANDIDATE: Amy Coney Barrett (48) is President Donald Trump’s candidate for a new US Supreme Court justice. Photo: Alex Brandon / AP
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It was on Saturday, September 26, that the Catholic, abortion opponent and judge Amy Coney Barrett officially became President Donald Trump’s candidate to fill the post of the liberal lighthouse and icon Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who recently died, 87 years old.
Trump nominates Amy Coney Barrett as a Supreme Court justice
According to the Washington Post, Barrett tested positive for corona this summer, but should have recovered.
Got infected
But it could also indicate that it was during Barrett’s ceremony in the garden outside the White House that several of the most famous Republican politicians were infected, including the president himself and one of his most famous supporters, the former governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie.
The TV pictures show that many of the participants did not use face masks, that many stood closer to each other than one meter and that several gave each other hugs.
The Democratic Party, not least represented by presidential candidate Joe Biden, has protested strongly against an urgent appointment of Barrett. They believe that the American people should have a say in the presidential election, and that the winner should propose the new judge.
Committee on Justice
Senators Thom Tillis and Mike Lee both sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which deals with Barrett’s recommendation for a Senate vote in plenary.
The third Republican-infected senator is Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, but he does not sit on the justice committee, nor did he attend the ceremony for Barrett last Saturday.
On Friday, the chair of the Justice Committee, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said hearings over four days, scheduled to begin Oct. 12, will go as planned.
If the entire committee cannot meet physically, there will be digital hearings, Graham said. Senators Tillis and Lee were quarantined yesterday for ten days, which is just in time to reach the hearings.
– Too dangerous
– If it is too dangerous for the Senate to gather, and it is also too dangerous to conduct the committee hearings, said the Democratic leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, in a statement on Saturday.
“Leader McConnel and committee chairman Graham’s monomaniacal attempt to get Judge Barrett approved at all costs unnecessarily threatens the health and safety of senators, staff and all those who work in the Capitol building,” Schumer continues.
Republicans currently have 53 of the 100 senators. Thus, they can only afford to lose three senators before the majority quits. Two senators – Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski – have already said they will vote against approving Amy Coney Barrett before the presidential election.
The outburst around Trump is growing: At least six were at the same Barrett ceremony
If only one Republican senator turns around, Barrett can only hope that Trump is re-elected on November 3 – otherwise she can only be one of nine judges, at least this time around.
Conservative judges
So far, Trump has proposed – and been appointed – two Supreme Court justices: Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Both are considered conservative. Liberal Americans fear that the appointment that Barrett will tilt the court in an even more conservative direction – in that six of the nine judges will then be counted on the conservative side.
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