Ocasio-Cortez, Schumer Team Up to Fight Trump Supreme Court Pick
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer joined forces to fight Trump's Supreme Court pick
(Bloomberg) -- Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer joined forces in Brooklyn on Sunday night to call for a national mobilization against confirming a replacement for the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg before Inauguration Day.
Speaking at James Madison High School, which Ginsburg attended, both Democrats used dramatic terms to describe the potential fallout of replacing Ginsburg with a conservative chosen by President Donald Trump.
“We need to make sure that we mobilize on an unprecedented scale,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “This is our entire livelihood that could be shaped by the next 60 or so days,” she said, referring to the period before the Nov. 3 election and the court’s hearing of the case to overturn the Affordable Care Act shortly thereafter.
“Our reproductive rights are on the line. Our labor rights are on the line. Our right to health care is on the line,” she added.
Aside from health care, the two New York lawmakers warned about perils to voting rights, the plight of immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children and even the Earth’s climate.
Schumer didn’t rule out increasing the size of the Supreme Court if Trump’s nominee is confirmed.
“Once we win the majority, God willing, everything is on the table,” Schumer said, referring to elections for the Senate. “If we don’t win the majority, these questions are all moot.”
Schumer said 100 years of progress is potentially at stake. He said his own daughter and her wife wondered during Rosh Hashanah dinner if marriage equality might be reversed by a new court.
Both cited Ginsburg’s last wish that the next president pick her successor.
“We’re here because the American people want those rights preserved. We do not want to turn the clock back. And we only need two more senators to say that they will abide by RBG’s wish,” Schumer said.
Two Republicans -- Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine -- have said a nominee shouldn’t be confirmed before the election.
Schumer was also asked if he thought Amy Coney Barrett, an appeals court judge in Chicago considered to be among the people Trump might select, could be approved by the Republican-controlled Senate.
“I hope she can’t. She stands for all the things Ruth Bader Ginsburg was against,” Schumer said. “Someone of that philosophy does not belong on the court and could cement a hard-right conservative court that for a generation could turn the clock back on the rights, the aspirations, the hopes of the majority of American people.”
At the end of the news conference, the two lawmakers extended pleasantries -- Ocasio-Cortez thanked Schumer and wished him a happy anniversary -- and they shared an elbow bump.
There has been some speculation in New York that Ocasio-Cortez might mount a primary challenge to Schumer in 2022. Among those encouraging such talk was Trump himself.
“Actually, that would be a big improvement -- and she would win!” he tweeted in June.
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