Chief Justice John Roberts issued a forceful and highly unusual rebuke to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in response to his mafia style threats directed at Associate Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. Roberts called the Senator’s remarks “irresponsible” and “dangerous.”
The exchange was prompted by a speech given by Schumer at pro-choice rally hosted by the Center for Reproductive Rights in which Schumer singled out President Trump’s two Supreme Court picks when he said: “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.”
Roberts replied in a written statement, “Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous. All Members of the Court will continue to do their job, without fear or favor, from whatever quarter.”
Schumer claimed his remarks were to Republicans lawmakers in the Senate and House and not the Court but The National Review’s Alexandra DeSanctis wrote, “This is pure gaslighting … I was there [and] heard the whole context. This is not what Schumer said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was having none of it. He railed against Chuck Schumer in a speech on the Senate floor in front of hundreds of their colleagues. One of McConnell’s best points was, “Perhaps he [Schumer] would like the most generous interpretation. That he got carried away and didn’t mean what he said. But if he can not even admit to what he said, we certainly can not know what he meant.”
Watch McConnell make many other pointed arguments about Schumer in the video below.
