Dems Offer ‘No Message, No Leadership, No Solutions,’ Sanders Says

Democrats’ tactics of “oppose everything and do nothing” heading into the 2018 midterm elections, with a bitter fight over President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee looming, show the party has “no message, no leadership, no solutions,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”

“I think that’s the Democrats’ message right now, which is oppose everything and do nothing. It’s frankly gotten really sad that their party has no message, no leadership, no solutions,” Sanders said. “And they want to fight a president who is trying to lead and who is doing amazing things for our country and things that are really hard to argue with.”

Noting that ISIS “is on the run” and the U.S. has a “booming economy” after Trump “created job after job after job,” she said, “One day after the next, great things are happening across the globe and particularly in America, and this president is leading that effort.”

“And Democrats, frankly, they should join him in all of the great things that are happening in this country instead of fighting them — particularly since they have no ideas of their own,” Sanders added.

Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement announcement last week caused the Democratic Party to erupt into mass hysterics and fearmongering. Senate Democrats’ attempt to block Justice Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation process in April 2017 led Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to invoke the “nuclear option,” requiring only a simple majority to confirm the nominee instead of the long-standing supermajority of 60 votes. The Senate voted 54–45 to confirm Gorsuch, with three Democrats joining Republicans in support of the nominee.

But Democrats remain bitter that McConnell blocked consideration in 2016 of former President Barack Obama’s final nominee, Merrick Garland, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. McConnell insisted that the American people had the right during a presidential election year to choose which president they wanted to nominate the next Supreme Court justice.

Democrats now invoke McConnell’s presidential-election rule to delay Trump’s second nominee’s confirmation process in the hope they will retake the Senate majority in November. But McConnell isn’t having it.

“The main thing that the president is looking for are people that fit the qualifications that you would want in a Supreme Court justice: tremendous intellect, someone who will stick to upholding the Constitution, and somebody who has great judicial temperament,” Sanders said. “I know he is going to make the right decision, and we’re excited about his announcement on Monday.”

But Trump’s ability to nominate a second Supreme Court nominee in the span of a year and a half — and also replace the moderate Kennedy with a decidedly conservative justice — has enraged liberals.

MSNBC political analyst Zerlina Maxwell, for example, dumped on one of Trump’s reported top contenders, U.S. Circuit Judge Amy Coney Barrett, Monday on “Hardball with Chris Matthews.” Barrett concerned Maxwell because of her Catholic faith, her seven children and her alignment with what Maxwell dubbed a “hate group” — the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

“You’re not replacing a conservative [justice] with a conservative. You’re replacing a swing vote who is conservative with potentially a very extreme or conservative person,” Maxwell warned. “[Trump’s] list is all people who we have an understanding are in opposition to Roe [v. Wade].”

“You know, Amy Barnett went to Notre Dame. She is very Catholic. She had a famous moment with former Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) during her hearings about how she spoke essentially to a hate group without really understanding the full context there.”

Related: Dems Were for Midterm SCOTUS Appointments Before They Weren’t

During Barrett’s circuit court confirmation hearing last year, Franken called ADF a “hate group” in the exchange. Franken cited the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) label against ADF. The SPLC is a liberal operation that uses slanders of conservatives to raise millions of dollars for its coffers. The ADF has won multiple cases before the Supreme Court in recent years.

“I think that in this particular moment, with so many things on the line — voting rights, women’s rights, workers’ rights, affirmative action — you have to fight even if you know you ultimately will lose,” Maxwell said, insisting that Democrats must “ensure that they are going to vote against this particular person or at least delay it until after the midterm elections, going based on the Mitch McConnell rule.”

Maxwell also balked at the idea of Trump fulfilling his constitutional duty to nominate a Supreme Court justice even though special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into allegations of Russian collusion is ongoing.

“This particular judge that he is nominating to have a hearing in the Senate is someone that’s going to determine his fate in the legal context,” Maxwell warned. “So I think Democrats are not just fighting about all of the different rights — workers’ rights, gay rights, women’s rights — they also need focus on the fact that this is replacing the swing vote and the president is under investigation and this person is going to determine his fate.”

PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.