While FBI Director James Comey was blowing up the news cycle with his revelation that there is indeed an ongoing investigation into popular vote loser Donald Trump's campaign ties to Russia, that potentially illegitimate president's Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch sat through the first of a week's worth of confirmation hearings.
NARAL Pro-Choice America joined with Daily Kos in demanding a delay in the Supreme Court hearings in an emailed statement.
“Given today’s bombshell remarks by Director James Comey confirming publicly for the first time that the FBI is actively investigating ties between the Trump campaign and Russia—and Russia's intervention in the 2016 election—the Senate Judiciary Committee must immediately pause any consideration of Judge Gorsuch’s nomination until the truth can come out. The American public deserves nothing less.”
While the news was too fresh for the initial round of statements, breaking just as the hearing was called into order, some Democrats used the Russia news to warn Gorsuch of the high bar he was now going to have to clear. Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont told Gorsuch, "I need to know that you can be an independent check and balance on the administration that has nominated you, and on any administration that follows it." And Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal was direct.
Blumenthal caustically called out Trump’s “campaign of vicious and relentless attacks on the credibility and capacity of our judiciary to serve as a check on lawless executive action,” adding that the president “has shaken the foundation of respect for judicial rulings.” Without respect for judges, and their independence, Blumenthal went on, “our democracy cannot function.”
Blumenthal then pointedly told Gorsuch: “You have a special responsibility here this week, to advocate and defend the independence of our judiciary against those kinds of attacks.” Given the “looming constitutional crisis” arising out of the FBI investigation into Russia’s interference in our election, which we now know is focused on the possibility of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, he added, makes “independence of the judiciary more important than ever and your defense of it is critical.”
Democrats were strong in their messaging today, with Rhode Island's Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s particularly "blistering attack on the United States Supreme Court led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., listing more than a dozen decisions in which the court had voted 5 to 4 to limit voting rights, increase the role of money in politics and favor business interests." Sen. Dick Durbin was pointed as well, telling Gorsuch he would be "called upon to stand up to this president. […] You are going to have your hands full with this president." Even Sen. Michael Bennet, who introduced Gorsuch since he's from his home state of Colorado, refused to commit to supporting the nominee, but instead called out Republican leadership for "failure to do its duty in respect to Judge Garland," saying it "was an embarrassment to this body that will be recorded in history and in the lives of millions of Americans."
Merrick Garland was the ghost in the room, with every Democrat using the unprecedented Republican blockade to point out that they were taking the high road by participating in this process, and raising that bar for Gorsuch that much higher. Republicans were as despicable and hypocritical in return as you'd expect.