House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that Democrats will use “every arrow in our quiver” to protect American democracy when asked whether they would seek a second impeachment of President Donald Trump over his push to quickly replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We have our options,” Pelosi told ABC News’ “This Week,” when asked if she’d consider impeaching the president again if Trump and Senate Republicans try to sign off on a new justice before Election Day or during a lame duck session, should former Vice President Joe Biden beat Trump in November. “We have arrows in our quiver that I’m not about to discuss right now … Protecting our democracy requires us to use every arrow in our quiver.”

Ginsburg died on Friday evening at the age of 87. Her dying wish, according to NBC News and NPR, was that the next president after Trump names the nominee to replace her.

But the president has said it’s his “obligation” to name a potential replacement “without delay,” noting a nominee could come later this week.

And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who led the Republican blockade against President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, in 2016, said the Senate will vote on Trump’s pick.

Pelosi did say, however, that the push by some progressives to shut down the federal government over the matter goes too far.

“None of us has any interest in shutting down the government,” she said, arguing the move would have a “harmful and painful impact on so many people in our country.”

Pelosi took the opportunity to push people to vote. She said the fight over the nominee is directly tied to the battle over the Trump administration’s efforts to eradicate the Affordable Care Act at a time when Americans still face the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pelosi noted that arguments over the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature bill that expanded health care and guaranteed insurance coverage for Americans with pre-existing conditions, pick up again just a week after Trump faces Biden on Election Day.

“The president is rushing to make some kind of a decision because Nov. 10 is when arguments begin on the Affordable Care Act,” Pelosi said. “He doesn’t want to crush the virus. He wants to crush the Affordable Care Act.”

Pelosi said she wants “everyone across the country who cares about health care for all Americans, crushing coronavirus, for a woman’s rights to choose, for LGBTQ rights, to vote,” noting Congress “has the ability to overturn the injustices that spring from the Supreme Court. That’s why we have to have a big turnout in this election.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, in a Saturday night vigil for Ginsburg on the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., condemned McConnell for saying, the night Ginsburg died, that Trump’s nominee would see a vote on the Senate floor.

“Four years ago, Mitch McConnell told us that there would be no vote in the U.S. Senate on a Supreme Court nominee because our president had only one year in office, and every republican stood with him,” Warren said. “Today, Mitch McConnell and his henchmen believe that they can ram through a Supreme Court justice only 45 days from the election. Mitch McConnell believes that this fight is over. What Mitch McConnell does not understand is this fight has just begun.”

___

(c)2020 MassLive.com, Springfield, Mass.

Visit MassLive.com, Springfield, Mass. at www.masslive.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Rating: 2.1/5. From 19 votes.
Please wait...