Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Wednesday afternoon that the 11 Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee will boycott the Thursday committee vote to advance Judge Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, calling it, "a sham process from the beginning."
Schumer's statement, co-signed by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Chris Coons (D-DE), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), returned to the debunked claim that, "Republicans broke the promise they made and rules they created when they blocked Merrick Garland's nomination."
In actuality, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stated specifically at the time:
"…remember that the Senate has not filled a vacancy arising in an election year when there was divided government since 1888, almost 130 years ago."
In the case of Barrett's nomination, there is no such "divided government" between the Senate and the presidency.
Schumer also highlighted the "damage a Justice Barrett would do" in the realms of voting rights, health care, and abortion.
"We will not grant this process any further legitimacy by participating in a committee markup of this nomination just twelve days before the culmination of an election that is already underway," the Democrats said in a statement.
Democrats are also allegedly planning to fill their empty seats with posters of people dependent on Obamacare, which they anticipate Barrett working to overturn, according to HuffPost.
