11 Days Before Election, Gardner Votes With McConnell to Ram Through Supreme Court Nominee
Cory Gardner, 8 Months Before the 2016 Election: “Our next election is too soon and the stakes are too high; the American people deserve a role in this process”
Denver, CO - Today, eleven days before the election, Senator Cory Gardner voted with Mitch McConnell to push President Trump’s anti-Affordable Care Act and anti-choice Supreme Court nominee one step closer to the bench. Despite saying that “our next election is too soon” and “the American people deserve a role” in the selection of the next Supreme Court justice eight months before the election in 2016, Gardner “flip-flopped” on his own commitment, caved to Trump’s pressure, and is the “key vote” to ram through Trump’s nominee even after a million Coloradans have already voted.
Here are Gardner’s own words from 2016, laying a stake in the ground that eight months from the election was too soon to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court — but apparently 11 days isn’t:
PBS: “Well, look, I think the next president ought to choose the Supreme Court nominee. And I think that is only fair to the nominee themselves. And I think that is only fair to the integrity of the Supreme Court. Now, this is a very serious issue...The next president ought to be making this decision.”
Gardner Press Release: “The next president of the United States should have the opportunity to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court...Our next election is too soon and the stakes are too high; the American people deserve a role in this process as the next Supreme Court Justice will influence the direction of this country for years to come.”
Denver Post: “Asked his opinion about the high court vacancy, Gardner said the successor to the recently deceased Antonin Scalia ‘ought be chosen by the American people through the election of the next president’… ‘Again, I think we’re too close to the election. The president who is elected in November should be the one who makes this decision.’”
Plain and simple, Gardner has sold out Colorado to McConnell and Trump, and Coloradans are voting at a record pace because we deserve better.
A final vote on Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination is expected on Monday.