Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said nothing about getting a COVID relief package to struggling Americans but he was darned determined to rush through the confirmation of extremist Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court before the election despite the fact that two Republican Senators (so far) on the Judiciary Committee have tested positive for COVID-19.
On Fox News earlier today, host Neil Cavuto asked Scott, “Democrats are saying, well, postpone [the hearings], push them back, no need to risk anyone or anything. What do you say?”
In short, Scott would rather risk spreading the virus further, though he claimed there’s nothing to worry about. “You can either show up in person and social distance, which is what we do. We’re in big rooms and we’re not close to each other, or you can do it by video, so there’s no reason we can’t continue to do that,” Scott said.
“So I don’t think this is going to upend anything,” Scott continued.
Then he went on a jag of gushing over Barrett: “And by the way, Judge Barrett’s a wonderful person. She’s humble, she’s got a wonderful family, adopted two kids from Haiti, raising seven kids, and successful law professor, successful judge, so she needs to be confirmed. We’ll get her confirmed the last week of October.”
Cavuto asked about Scott’s “Democratic friends” who think hearings for such an historic nomination should be in person, not virtually.
“They want to postpone this. They don’t want a Trump nominee to be confirmed,” Scott said. “There’s no reason she shouldn’t be confirmed. She’s a great pick. She understands there’s three branches of government. … She absolutely wants to interpret the law, not make the law. … Democrats want an activist judge.”
Just like last week, on the same show, nobody pointed out that Barrett is an extremist with unpopular views.
Would Scott feel the same way if Democrats rammed through a nomination with Senators recovering from a virus, weeks before the presidential election? I don’t think so.
You can watch Scott show his priorities below, from the October 3, 2020 Cavuto Live.
As for coronavirus stimulus, that’s never been a priority for Republicans. Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly tried to get something done here, but the House has already recessed until after the election – unless something truly bizarre happens in the next week. They already voted on their own reduced version of the stimulus at 2.2 trillion, and the GOP laughed at it. My expectation is that this will once again result in a standoff, with Pelosi reluctantly telling Dem voters that it’s up to them to fix this on November 3rd. I’ll add that in the event that the Pence White House loses and the Senate is flipped, angry Right Wingers won’t be in any mood to cooperate with anything, so any kind of relief would not likely happen until next February at the earliest. I’d be delighted to be proven wrong on this, but the GOP has been extremely consistent in their contempt for any kind of stimulus.
It is my fervent hope that people have enough savings to hold them over until next year, or until they can be employed again.
Thirty-odd days from the election, the Chief dispenser of misinformation and at least two members of the Judiciary Committee are diagnosed with Covid-19. Were I a conspiracy theorist, I’d be tempted to think that God may NOT be in favour of a hard-right turn within the Supreme Court.
