After justice rant, Schumer regrets words, not message
WASHINGTON — Under fire from President Donald Trump and Republican senators who accused him of threatening two conservative Supreme Court justices, Sen. Chuck Schumer said Thursday that he “should not have used the words” he did Wednesday in a fiery speech warning of the consequences of their rulings.
But Schumer, who chalked up his sharp tongue to his Brooklyn upbringing, refused to apologize for the spirit of his remarks, saying Republicans would pay a political price if the court struck down abortion rights.
“They didn’t come out the way I intended,” Schumer said of his remarks a day before that Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — both installed by Trump — would “pay the price” if a contentious Louisiana case the court was hearing ended up reducing access to abortion in the state and across the country.
“You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions,” he warned Wednesday at a rally on the steps of the Supreme Court.
Schumer, D-N.Y. and the minority leader, said those remarks were not meant as a threat of bodily harm against the justices, but instead as a warning to Trump and the Republicans who supported his conservative nominees that they could suffer a political backlash for the decisions the justices made.
“And Republicans who are busy manufacturing outrage over these comments know that, too,” Schumer added.
His clarification came after Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and the majority leader, opened the Senate on Thursday with an extended denunciation of
Schumer’s speech.
McConnell said there was no other way to interpret Schumer’s comments but as a threat, and argued his counterpart was leading a campaign by Democrats to undermine the independence of the federal courts.
“The Democratic leader traveled to the workplace of the two judges, and in front of a crowd of activists, he told those judges you will pay the price, right in front of the Supreme Court building,” McConnell said.
“If any American had these words shouted at them from the sidewalk outside their office, they would hear those words as personal,” McConnell said.
McConnell’s scolding came the day after Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare statement in which he denounced
Schumer’s remarks as “inappropriate” and “dangerous.”
Trump later joined the chorus of criticism, accusing Schumer on Twitter of making “a direct & dangerous threat to the U.S. Supreme Court” and saying any Republican who made those remarks “would be arrested, or impeached.”
McConnell, working hand in hand with the White House, has devoted substantial time and energy to installing scores of Trump-nominated judges over the past three years and portrays that as a main achievement of the Republican-led Senate.
Democratic officials said that while Schumer’s remarks might have been inflammatory, they were not all that unhappy that the episode put new attention both on the Louisiana case at hand and the Republican push on the courts overall.