Warren lights up McConnell, GOP over replacing Scalia
By Evan Lips | February 16, 2016, 13:16 EST
(Courtesy – Associated Press) WASHINGTON – Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren lit up her social media accounts over the holiday weekend, adding to the powderkeg of partisanship that has defined the aftermath of conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s sudden death in Texas on Saturday.
The state’s senior senator was apparently reacting to statements by Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s Republican leader, who on Saturday declared about replacing Scalia on the high court: “This vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.” McConnell cited the need to give Americans “a voice in the selection.”
Warren picked up on that and on statements from many other GOP senators concerning the timing of filling the pivotal ninth seat on the nation’s top court. The Cambridge Democrat’s twin personal and Senate Twitter feeds have historically been defined by periods of silence interrupted by successions of rapid-fire messages, delivered especially during times featuring partisan battles.
Her succession of tweets on Sunday furthered that pattern:
The sudden death of Justice Scalia creates an immediate vacancy on the most important court in the United States.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) Feb. 14, 2016
.@SenateMajLdr is right that Americans should have a voice in selecting the next SCOTUS justice. In fact, they did: when @POTUS won in 2012. — Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) Feb. 14, 2016
Art II Sec 2 of the Constitution says the President nominates Supreme Court justices with the advice & consent of the Senate.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) Feb. 14, 2016
I can’t find a clause in the Constitution that says “…except when there’s a year left in the term of a Democratic President.” — Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) Feb. 14, 2016
The Senate GOP took an oath just like Dems did. Abandoning the duties they swore to uphold threatens the Constitution & our democracy.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) Feb. 14, 2016
Abandoning their Senate duties would also prove that all the Republican talk about loving the Constitution is just that – empty talk. — Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) Feb. 14, 2016
Warren hasn’t posted via her personal Twitter account since late January.
Warren on Sunday also copied the text of her series of tweets to her Facebook page. The post generated nearly 195,000 shares and 20,000 comments from followers.
The latest comment came from Kimberly Poston-Armstrong of San Antonio:
“So if I’m to understand this correctly….if Republicans (who were elected and do represent the people who elected them) don’t cave to whatever nomination Obama puts up, then they are violating the Constitution?” Poston-Armstrong asked. “Was Obama violating the Constitution when he attempted to filibuster Bush’s Supreme Court nominee?”
