It's been 142 days since the House passed the $3 trillion HEROES Act, which Mitch McConnell has refused to take up. Meanwhile, the Senate Majority is plotting how to keep the Senate from doing anything before the election other than confirm Trump's controversial and unqualified Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett. You know, the nominee who was at the center of the Rose Garden superspreader event.
McConnell spent the weekend going around Kentucky, refusing to say if he'd been tested for coronavirus following his participation in that same event. In the meantime, he's trying to forge ahead with a plan that adjourns the full Senate until October 19, but lets the Judiciary Committee move ahead with Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett starting October 12. So no COVID-19 relief votes, but a Supreme Court nominee who will vote to overturn the Affordable Care Act and take away everyone's healthcare protections.
It's about saving the country, even these idiots. Simple as that. Donate now to help bring it back to the White House and Senate.
There are three committee Republicans who have either tested positive or are in quarantine because of exposure to COVID-19—Sens. Mike Lee (UT) and Thom Tillis (NC) are infected, Ben Sasse (NE) is sidelined. Unbelievably, three other Republicans on the committee—Josh Hawley (MO), Marsha Blackburn (TN), and Mike Crapo (ID)—were exposed at the event but have not said that they are quarantining. They've tested negative, but are still subject to the CDC guidelines to self-isolate after exposure. Or would be in a normal world not controlled by Trump and McConnell.
That's a red flag for Democrats, who are weighing options to delay the hearings for Barrett. “Moving forward with the committee process when three senators have recently tested positive for COVID-19 is irresponsible and dangerous, but doing so without requiring all members to be tested before a hearing in accordance with CDC best practices would be intentionally reckless,” Schumer said in the statement to The Post. "If Chairman Graham doesn't require testing, it may make some wonder if he just doesn't want to know the results." The third senator he's referring to is Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson, who is not on the Judiciary Committee but who participated in a number of conference meetings and events breathing his germs on people.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham is with McConnell on the full-steam ahead approach with having hearings while the Senate is officially out. Barrett, who reportedly had a case of COVID-19 over the summer and may or may not have some immunity because of that, will appear in person, but the plan is to have senators able to participate remotely. Democrats, who have been abiding by all the rules from the beginning and even have been having virtual party lunches to keep everyone safe—are opposing that because this is the Supreme Court. On a Supreme Court confirmation, "you want to be able to go back and forth with this nominee," in the actual room Democrat Amy Klobuchar said Sunday. All ten Democrats on the committee issued a statement rejecting a virtual hearing, arguing it was "not an adequate substitute" because "questioning nominees by video is ineffective."
Republicans clearly don't have the same concerns, for anybody. Like their leader Trump in his coronavirus-filled limo, they don't care who they expose. Even if that means, in the words of Arkansas plague Tom Cotton, deploying "a long tradition of […] ill or medically infirm senators being wheeled in to cast critical votes on the Senate floor."