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Video Transcript
Court and who is the man behind that awful decision shad redline President trump's nominee for the sixth Circuit court of appeals I'm not exaggerating he wasn't just some lawyer who filed an americas brief he was the chief cook and bottle washer in the effort to take away protections of preexisting conditions from people he was the lead counsel he led the brief arguing that Sections for Americans with preexisting conditions should be eliminated his recommendations were so outrageous that Justice Department officials refuse to sign the statement many of the attorneys in Justice said this is such a reach so ridiculous we ain't signing and then guess what in an administration where your never shocked to see what they'll do next this one is shocking the day after he filed his brief he was nominated for a lifetime appointment It seems like they were saying chad you'd get a did a good job taking away people's health care now you can stay get a lifetime appointment to the bench Coincidence that it happened one day later I don't think so the nomination is the latest example of the trump administrations and the Republican parties all out assault on preexisting conditions now we have many of our Republican colleagues who have said campaigning and otherwise they want to protect preexisting conditions now's their test now's their test how are they going to vote on riddler anyone who in a campaign or as he goes around his or her state S Says I wanna protect preexisting conditions and then votes for regular is performing an amazing act of hypocrisy So later today when the Senate has a closure vote on regular every Republican will be forced to show the American people whether or not they stand for protecting preexisting conditions they stand for getting more Americans health care more Americans medicaid and stand for making sure that health plans cover maternity care and prescription drugs a vote to confirm mister riddler is very simply an endorsement to the lawsuit to eliminate free existing conditions plain and Simple and we are watching the American people are watching our Republican colleagues on this issue senator Brown sure Chad wheeler is a clear and immediate threat to the health coverage of millions and millions of Americans who have preexisting condition last summer is as leader schumer said he regular did what three career attorneys with Department of Justice would not do they refuse to do we filed a brief challenging the law protecting Americans taking away the consumer protections the protections of Americans have those with preexisting condition and as a leader Chad Reed was was rewarded by being nominated to be a judge the very next day I spoke to the White House about him ahead of time I spoke to the White House ahead of time about Eric murphy I asked the White House personally the White House chief counsel personally to pick someone who is in the mainstream instead of someone who had built a career attacking a Americans health care and in the case of Eric Eric murphy who had tried to restrict access to contraceptives for women who had defended efforts to defunded planned parenthood who fought for big tobacco I personally asked the White House to send us Other judges who were qualified also conservative but not far right not out of the mainstream the White House refused and we know with chad riddler three career attorneys withdrew from the case we were talking about one went so far as to resign all of these to resign all in objection to the Department of justices unprecedented actions on protecting the public three with brings us edition one Republican senator called revelers arguments in the brief as far fetched He had ever seen as far fetched as you've never seen that comes from Republican senator the president's other nominee or murphy also threatens america's health as I said with position on women's health in his positions on big tobacco that's why even though they're both Ohio ans and even though I always fight for my state in this case I fight for my state again because I want to protect people's health care I wanna protect keep the consumer protections for those with preexisting condition I've been protecting women especially in our state from two people who have lifetime appointments to the federal judiciary if we don't if we don't vote them down some their Phoenix great thank you very much shared thank you chuck listen it's no secret Republicans have spent the last two years trying every tactic available to them to try to take protections away from sick people in this country people who have cancer diagnosis people who have children with serious heart ailments it Republicans Use every lever at their disposal to try to Strip away protections for people with preexisting conditions they spent an entire year trying to pass a piece of legislation that would take those protections away they have spent the last two years stacking the Supreme court with justices that will eventually overturn the affordable care act and now they are sending a very clear signal to everyone inside the administration If you stand up and lead on the issue of taking away protections for people with preexisting conditions you will be rewarded so you're gonna have a whole bunch of other people in the Justice Department scrambling to try to figure out how they can try to make a name for themselves on taking protections away from free people with preexisting conditions because the signal has been sent loud and clear if you stand up to try to take people's health care away in this administration you're gonna get a job for life Consequences of that lawsuit that chad read filed again a lawsuit that others in the Justice Department refused to file are absolutely cataclysmic lamar Alexander was a senator who said that the arguments were far fetch because he knew what that lawsuit would lead to it would ultimately lead to 20 million people who receive insurance coverage through the losing it overnight it would result in a hundred and 33 million Americans with preexisting conditions to have their rates jacked up to the point Where many of them couldn't afford it over night including 30 million Americans who are age 55 to 64 whose insurance is already more expensive than others revelers lawsuit would have read this filing in the preexisting conditions lawsuit would have resulted in a cataclysmic humanitarian catastrophe in this country all to make a political point this is just a another brick in the Wall Republicans Made it very clear that they are going to stop at nothing in order to try to take these protections away simply because the protections have President obama's name on it not because they're they are wildly popular amongst the public and this is an upper down vote you know we don't get these votes every very often when preexisting conditions and protections for people with preexisting conditions are on the floor of the Senate this vote this week is one of those occasions senator corona Thank you very much I'm glad to join my colleagues and raising the human cry for a clear and present danger that everyone in our country who has preexisting conditions face with the nomination of chad wheeler let me set the stage for you there is court packing going on every single day and every judiciary Committee hearing on this Committee I sit on we have many many nominees nominee after nominee pretty much handpicked by the federalist society and the heritage foundation for Nominees who will not sit aside their ideological perspectives with their lifetime appointments to the judiciary and of course it starts with two Supreme court justices Gore such and kavanaugh there's a lot of auditioning going on for these lifetime appointments and chad release certainly addition for his job by signing that brief as the head of the civil division and the Department of Justice this is a division that is actually supposed to be defending laws Not signing on to undo them but as head of this division he led the charge and when he came before the judiciary Committee I asked him what was his role and the Justice Department very unusual for them not to defend a julie enacted law by Congress and he waffle and all that saying when he talked to others no the fact of the matter is you see his name appears first on that brief and you heard that that position was so unusual and outrageous that three other lawyers in the Department of Justice refused to even sign on to the brief so court Is is a proceeding a pace President trump aided them a bettered by leader mitch mcconnell is setting aside really the norms of the judiciary Committee to pack the course with as many of these ideologically driven judges who by the way even if they tell us we'll just follow President you know the minute they get into their lifetime positions they begin to do the opposite and exhibit number one on that is Neil Gore such who said he would follow precedent and the first chance he got he writes a descent on an abortion case Directly contradicted a Supreme court decision that have been made only fewer than five years earlier so fully one tenth of the judiciary will be trump appointed ideologically driven judges and more to come we know that health care is important to everyone in this country is the number one concern that people have regardless of what political stripe you are and if they knew that this is a person who led the charge it really in the challenge to the affordable care act in the Texas court which court by Deemed the entire law to be unconstitutional that that lawsuit is gonna head to the Supreme court where Neil Gore search and kavanaugh await reading him already willing to undo protections for millions of people in our country and this is why there is a clear and present danger and the more people who know what's going on the better and certainly what I would hope that all of our Republican colleagues who care about protections for people with preexisting conditions will see the signs and not put this guy on the court for a lifetime position Questions for any of us first on this subject fresh you won't be able to block closer and if so do you regret not use the nuclear option and point and now I think I think without question this nominee would not get on the bench the 60 vote threshold brought parties together and pick more judges to be moderate we have seen a tremendous abuse of this way beyond that folk Supreme court which we left intact and then the worst abuse All is leader mcconnell allowing merrick garland to just hang out on the floor for a long time any of your colleagues feel happy about the nuclear option and supporting that Getting rid of the 60 vote requirement for Supreme court justices is really crossing a line and that's one of the first things that mitch mcconnell did because he wants to get as many of these lifetime appointees on the bench as possible so you know you gotta go over the history here the dc Circuit the second most important Circuit had four vacancies and they were blocking every single one where this started was not with what Reid proposed but with mitch mcconnell once again just blocking any judge that he didn't want before that there was some comedy yeah the President Obama I mean I I'm not a Committee but I've been here now is my third term press President Obama and President Bush to some degree did I mean they they they put judges on a little too conservative in my mind by Bush but put judges on that many of them are mainstream American jurist and this administration is in and so did so did President Obama put people on their mainstream American jurist this administration has been people so much out of the mainstream as I've said I I went to the White House I had two judges that I suggested The White House for these two seats they were people that had gone through the bipartisan Commission process that senator portman and I put together for district judges they would have been acceptable I would have gone to my colleagues and said I'm gonna blue slip this these two judges are too conservative in my mind but at least our mainstream and mature and experienced in the White House said nope we're gonna pick these two in my mind very extreme out of the mainstream who attacked planned parenthood who attacked the consumer protections for preexisting condition Support it will fight for tobacco companies who undermine the health care and the health status of millions of Americans could have blocked that limit let me just you just are taking a slice of history at one moment mcconnell was blocking judges long before that end bill Clinton and then even barack Obama most of the judges if you said 10 is the most liberal one is the most conservative fives in the Middle most of Clinton and obama's judges were sixes sevens Or on the left side but not extreme the right wing since George Bush came in has put extreme judges who don't even believe what most Republicans believe witness chad regular so you know it's very easy you always ask this question I respect that but it's very easy to slice it at one moment maybe you should slice it today merrick garland was held up this started when the hard right realized that they could not move America to the They wanted on workers rights on B t rights on women's rights on siding with average workers as opposed to the big special interests and so they decided to pack the bench and that's what's happened in weather here and we did that or not mitch mcconnell is going to look what he did at the Supreme court yeah connell always is doing whatever he can to please the coat now we got rid of blue slips for all these years wanted to I hope you ask them that whenever they have a press conference on this we'd ever Pat He accepted every blue slip when he was the chairman of judiciary they undid it now they want to change the rules it's been a constant stream and the rare moment where we responded is what you asked about what about all the rest we have not done this just one more point when Bush was President and potato jackie was governor we had an agreement I would dominate one with senator Clinton who was then my colleague one out of three they would nominate two out of three but we each have a veto power over the other and that creates Judges who are in the Middle doesn't happen not because of us next question let me just wait let me just said we should recognize the magnitude of difference between requiring a majority vote for district court and Circuit court nominees versus a majority vote for members who sit on the Supreme court you're gonna see a lot more States enacting all kinds of laws that will restrict for example a woman's right to choose you'll see a lot more of the Texas kind of lawsuit because they better society heritage foundation mitch mcconnell and President of trump know that they are On the Supreme court who will be on their page so what do they care if the laws that we pass can be undone by all these unelected unelected what a judicial sitting there on the judicial and in our courts for lifetime appointments but nothing could be more important than packing the United States Supreme court I know you all see the ads already because the trump administration thinks that they're gonna get yet another nominee they're gonna get another shot and making the Supreme court where so many of the Laws will be challenged and probably appealed if they're restrictive on individual rights civil rights women's rights you'll see the States passing these kinds of laws a pace and all going up to the Supreme court where we will be screwed yes we will not take as long to answer your question as we did two of my dear friend from cnn who who asked a lot but he's entitled to he's a very good reporter oh well Next no you know talking about even changing the rules of course that's what they do well you know what I said to lamar Alexander said why can't we work out a compromise they said restore the blue slips and then let's talk about a compromise you can't just keep pushing and pushing and pushing and making it more and more partisan on these issues where you have control and then when you need a rules change come to us and say let's compromise and go only halfway further get rid of the blue slips restore the blue slips rather well Can do go nuclear and change the rules just remember in that New York times article mitch mcconnell said the proudest thing he did was hold up merrick garland that speaks volumes this is tradition campaign healthier was here you are struggling to get some Republicans Yeah but they will be cause C because health care was such a big issue we elected some good senators Joe mansions kept his seat tester kept his seat we got two great new sanders in Arizona and nevada and more importantly for the balance we took back the House health care was the number one issue they're not gonna be able to repeal anything else I just guess shared Brown kept his seat as well Chris murphy and macy Arizona I just listen I know what matters to us and to me I think I think it's fascinating that senator mcconnell wax as if Republicans won the election I mean you're right it's gonna be hard to get Republicans to vote against this guy despite the fact that it is going to be a another proof point as to Republicans insistence on tearing down health care protections I think Republicans acted their apparel in the Senate believing that they can continue business as usual Fighting the after what happened in 2018 the map was pretty awful for Senate Democrats it's not as awful in 2000 20 in 2022 and if they keep this up that's a pretty quick pathway to the minority last question he said go to mitch mcconnell who I've gone to team times and he's the one who initiated the change you may remember Said he was gonna do it and grassley was a hundred was not he was then the chair of judiciary and he wavered for a while and then went along they all go along and it's detrimental to our democracy and if you believe that judges should interpret the law not make the law judges I'd say on the far right or far left 10 to one to make the law we always had a situation with judges interpret the law until the hard right came to the conclusion that even when they had the article one section of government the Congress and the article two section the presidency they couldn't get their way and they come up with a very clever plan which we will have to fight For nail and will eventually undo to take over the judiciary by changing all the rules thank you everybody no I'm gonna finish it S
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