Biden, Dems forewarn Obamacare overturn amid Supreme Court vacancy
Voters, former Vice President Joe Biden said, 'know their healthcare hangs in the balance' during this COVID-19 pandemic.
In a speech Sunday at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden warned that the conservative rush to fill a Supreme Court vacancy poses a threat to Obamacare.
Biden warned that President Donald Trump’s push to add another conservative justice could eliminate healthcare for millions of Americans. Voters, he said, “know their healthcare hangs in the balance in the middle of the worst health crisis in living memory.”
“Cool the flames that have been engulfing our country,” Biden pleaded, directly addressing GOP lawmakers. “To jam this nomination through the Senate is just an exercise in raw political power,” he said.
The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg less than two months before the presidential election has made the election even more crucial. Biden urged Senate Republicans to “follow your conscience” after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pledged that Trump’s appointee would get a vote on the Senate floor.
It was McConnell who denied the confirmation of Merrick Garland, the judge nominated for the high court by then-President Barack Obama in 2016 more than 10 months before the election.
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However, President Trump said he has an “obligation” to fill the vacancy.
“We have an obligation. We won. And we have an obligation, as the winners, to pick who we want. That’s not the next President. Hopefully, I’ll be the next President,” said Trump. “But we’re here now. Right now, we’re here. And we have an obligation to the voters, all of the people — the millions of people that put us here in the form of a victory.”
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Yet, Biden said the nomination would plunge the country into a “constitutional crisis” that will plunge the country “deeper into the abyss — deeper into the darkness,” he said. “If we go down this path, it would cause irreversible damage.”
Democrats like Senator Cory Booker warn that the rush to fill the vacancy less than two months before the election will cause long-term damage to the strength of “our democracy and the institutions that are so critical to our success as a nation.”
Trump told “Fox & Friends” viewers early Monday that he would likely announce his pick within days. His candidates’ list, he said, was down to four or five people.
“It looks like we will have probably services on Thursday or Friday, as I understand it,” he said, until after “the services to be over for Justice Ginsburg. So we’re looking at probably Friday or maybe Saturday.”
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