Baker bashes Congress over rush to fill seat
Gov. Charlie Baker on Wednesday condemned federal lawmakers’ “classic Washington behavior” in the rush to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death.
Baker pointed to the rift between Democrats and Republicans over the Merritt Garland appointment to fill the Antonin Scalia vacancy four years ago, which was blocked Republicans, and the rush to fill Ginsburg’s seat now.
“Four years later — only because the circumstances have changed — the Republicans say ‘we need to move forward, it’s a critical issue for the country’ and the Democrats say no we should wait until after the election,” Baker said. “It’s 100% ends justify the means, classic Washington behavior and it’s a big part of why most people in this country think Washington is a problem. Period.”
What Congress should focus on is the pandemic that “has killed 200,000 people in the United States of America so far and continues to wreak havoc on our economy and our communities.”
The Republican governor said it’s “frustrating” to see federal lawmakers’ attention on the Supreme Court vacancy when it should be on a fifth coronavirus relief package that would provide aid to states and municipalities.
“I sit here as the governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts where we have basically been playing this hand around COVID as best we can with a really uneven inconsistent response from the federal government who has far more tools in their toolbox than any other state is gonna have to solve this — and they are now going to wrap themselves up in a conversation about the supreme court,” he said.
Ginsburg died Friday of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer. She was 87.
Her death came just over six weeks before Election Day, igniting debate over whether a new nominee should be confirmed before the country knows if President Trump or the Democrats’ Joe Biden wins the election.
Trump has said he would name a nominee by Saturday.