Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell led a cascade of criticism of Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for appearing to threaten two Supreme Court justices over their rulings on abortion-related cases.
“The minority leader of the United States Senate threatened two associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Period,” McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said in a Senate floor speech Thursday.
McConnell said Schumer’s comments were part of “shameless efforts to bully our independent judiciairy,” by the Democrats, adding, “Yesterday those efforts took a dangerous and disturbing turn.”
Schumer, on Wednesday, said he was not threatening Justices Neil Gorsuch or Brett Kavanaugh when he appeared on the steps of the high court to participate in a rally on reproductive rights. He said at the rally: “I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
The New York Democrat’s warning prompted a rare response from Chief Justice John Roberts, who issued a statement declaring the threats “inappropriate” and “dangerous,” particularly because they came from a high-level government official.
Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, plans to introduce a measure calling on the Senate to censure Schumer. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican who led the confirmation of Gorsuch and Kavanaugh while he was chair of the Judiciary Committee, called on Schumer to apologize for his statements on the Senate floor.
Schumer said his threat was directed at the Senate GOP, which he said would suffer political consequences, and not at the justices if they uphold a Louisiana law that requires abortion doctors to be preapproved to check patients into a nearby hospital.
McConnell, however, disputed Schumer’s explanation.
“There is nothing to call this except a threat,” he said. “And there is absolutely no question to whom it was directed.”
President Trump, who appointed both Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, tweeted that Schumer’s comments at the rally are “a direct & dangerous threat to the U.S. Supreme Court by Schumer. If a Republican did this, he or she would be arrested, or impeached. Serious action MUST be taken NOW!“
