Kamala Harris slams 'reckless' Senate Republicans for pushing SC judge nomination over COVID-19 relief

Democratic Vice Presidential candidate and California Senator Kamala Harris on Monday hit out at the Republican Party for pushing the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court over Covid-19 relief even as the US continues to be the worst-affected country with over 7.9 million cases and over 200,000 deaths.

Harris, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also warned that Barrett, a nominee of President Donald Trump, will "undo" the legacy of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

"This hearing has brought together over 50 people sitting inside a big closed room for hours while our nation is facing a deadly, airborne virus. This committee has further ignored common sense requests to keep people safe including not requiring testing for all members despite a coronavirus outbreak among senators of this very committee," said Harris, who participated in the first day of the Barrett's Senate confirmation hearings via video conferencing.

The Democratic Party vice-presidential nominee further argued that the hearing "should have been postponed" as well. She further pointed out that due to the recent "Senate outbreak (of COVID-19)", the Republican Senators had "rightly postponed business on the senate floor" further calling the decision to hold the hearing as "reckless".

"This hearing should have been postponed--the decision to hold this meeting now is reckless and puts facility workers, janitorial staff professional aides and Capitol Police at risk--not to mention while tens and millions of Americans are struggling to pay their bills, the senate should be prioritising Coronavirus relief, providing financial support to those families," she added.

Harris further went on the attack at the Republican Senators for making it "crystal clear" that rushing a Supreme Court nomination "is more important" than providing COVID-19 relief adding that their priorities are not that of the American people.

"Senate Republicans have made it crystal clear that rushing a Supreme Court nomination is more important than helping and supporting the American people who are suffering from a deadly pandemic. Their priorities are not the priorities of the American people," the Democratic Senator said.

As the Republican Party holds the majority in the Senate with 53 seats, Harris accused the majority of "rushing this process" of appointing the judge and "jamming President (Donald) Trump's nominee" through the Senate.

"They are deliberately defying the will of the people in their attempt to roll back the rights and protections provided under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Republicans finally realised that the Affordable Care Act is too popular to repeal in Congress so now they are trying to bypass the will of the voters and have the Supreme Court do their dirty work," she said.

She further said that Trump "had promised to nominate judges who will get rid of the Affordable Care Act".

Trump nominated Barrett last month to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

As per the latest updates by Johns Hopkins University, the US continues to be the worst-affected country in the world with 7,781,980 cases and 214,925 deaths due to the pathogen.

(ANI)

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