The Democrats’ call to add four justices to the Supreme Court is a “power grab” from lawmakers who are “drunk with power” and who will do anything “to seize more control and power over the lives of Americans,” so their plans must be denounced, Sen. Tom Cotton said Friday.
“They’re angry that they don’t have a liberal majority on the Supreme Court, and they want to add four justices, shocking, the exact number they need to get Democratic-appointed justices into a majority on the court,” the Arkansas Republican told Fox News’ “The Faulkner Focus.”
Even if the measure will face difficulty in being passed because the Senate is evenly divided, part of the reason to announce the bill now is because Democrats are trying to “push the boundaries of what’s possible,” Cotton added.
“If they win larger majorities at some point in the future, they’ll put more pressure on their colleagues to vote for this and ultimately to pack the court,” said Cotton. “That’s why it’s essential we denounce it today as an illegitimate attack on the foundational principles of this country, the rule of law and constitutional government, and that we win back the House and Senate next year to make sure it has no chance of happening.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she has no intention of taking the bill, announced by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Reps. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., Hank Johnson, D-Ga., and Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y., in front of the steps of the Supreme Court, to the House floor.
While presenting their plans, the lawmakers argued that additional justices are needed to balance out a court left top-heavy by conservative justices appointed by former President Donald Trump.
Cotton said the announcement came not only to ultimately pack the court but as an attempt to try to intimidate justices to “hedge and grim and to make decisions based on something other than the law and facts of each case.”
President Joe Biden has already taken the position the court should not be expanded, as have the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Justice Steven Breyer, who said last week more justices should not be added, said Cotton.
However, Democrats in Congress believe the court’s center-right majority will “uphold the Constitution as written” and will constrain their powers, said Cotton.
“It is the ultimate power grab,” he added. “It is dangerous and threatens to undermine the rule of law in America.”
Cotton also commented on Biden’s announcement Thursday that sanctions were being issued against Russia over hacking and election meddling, and that a national emergency had been declared, saying the president really only offered “half-measures” with his actions.
“He could have gone further but he didn’t,” said Cotton. “If he really wanted to punish Russia for the SolarWinds hack … if he wanted to send a message he would have shut down Russia’s pipeline to Germany,” said Cotton. “It’s in the final stages of development. The most important foreign policy objective in Russia now to get the pipeline finished so they can sell gas to Germany. It’s terrible Germany is doing this to our NATO allies in eastern Europe.”
Congress has given the administration the tools on the books to impose sanctions on the Russian firms finishing the pipeline and the European firms are insuring it and financing it, said Cotton.
“They should have been imposed months ago to stop the final miles of the pipeline being built,” said Cotton. “I have reports his administration is dragging its feet on it and it’s the way you would have punished Russia for its activities. That’s the way you would have sent the right message. As Joe Biden admitted this is nothing but half measures.”
Source: Newmax
