Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Leahy, participating in the second day of Barrett's confirmation hearings remotely over health concerns related to the coronavirus, spoke far more than the nominee during his 30-minute interrogation, using his first of two rounds of questions to probe Barrett's stance on issues of health care policy and potential election disputes.
Leahy's approach reflects a key strategy of Senate Democrats heading into this week's confirmation hearings: Instead of attacking the nominee's character, they hope to show how her confirmation would impact some of the most contentious societal issues — particularly as Barrett seeks to replace the far more liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Barrett, however, has maintained a stance held by many of her predecessors — including Ginsburg — in refusing to say how she would rule in potential cases. She also largely steered clear of discussions about any precedents that she may reconsider.
“It would be wrong of me to do that as a sitting judge,” she said Tuesday morning. “Whether I say I love it or I hate it, it signals to litigants that I might tilt one way or another in a pending case."
Tags: Sen. Patrick Leahy , Judge Amy Coney Barrett , Supreme Court , President Trump , Affordable Care Act , election , recusal , Web Only , Image
Monday, October 12, 2020
Leahy, echoing a description he used two years ago when the Senate Judiciary Committee was embroiled in the vetting process of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, said the GOP-led effort to replace the late justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been "nothing but a sham."
"It's the responsibility of this committee to consider her replacement on the Supreme Court, but this isn't the way we should do it," Leahy said, noting that he has witnessed 20 other Supreme Court nominations during his 46 years on the Judiciary Committee.
"Justice Ginsburg, I am certain, would have dissented," he later said. "And I will, too, on behalf of Vermonters, on behalf of the integrity of the Senate, and on behalf of the majority of Americans who oppose this process."
Tags: Sen. Patrick Leahy , Judge Amy Coney Barrett , confirmation hearings , Affordable Care Act , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Scott is leading Progressive/Democratic Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman 55 to 24 percent, the poll found, and the incumbent governor has the highest favorability rating of the state's top officeholders. Sixty-eight percent of respondents approve of his job performance, while only 17 percent disapprove.
Scott, 62, is so popular that he could topple eight-term Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) in a hypothetical Senate matchup in 2022, the poll found in one of its more provocative questions. The governor has expressed no interest in challenging Leahy, and the 80-year-old senator has not said whether he will run for a ninth term. Still, according to the survey, 41 percent of voters would prefer Scott, while 38 percent would back Leahy.
That lead is within the poll's overall 4 percent margin of error. New Jersey-based Braun Research conducted the survey under the supervision of Castleton University professor Rich Clark. The pollsters reached 604 Vermonters via landline and cellphone during the first two weeks of September. Though the public media organizations surveyed Vermonters about the impact of COVID-19 in July, no major public polls of the election have come out since February.
The race to replace Zuckerman as lieutenant governor appears far more competitive than the gubernatorial contest. The poll found that Democrat Molly Gray, an assistant attorney general, is leading Republican Scott Milne, a travel agency executive, 35 to 31 percent — also within the poll's margin of error. Twenty-four percent of those surveyed said they hadn't made up their mind yet or had no opinion on the LG race.
Tags: David Zuckerman , Donald Trump , Election 2020 , Governor's Race , Joe Biden , Lieutenant Governor's Race , Molly Gray , Phil Scott , Scott Milne , Web Only , Image
Friday, September 18, 2020
In an interview late Friday, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) told Seven Days that a rushed vote to confirm a nominee put forth by President Donald Trump would have lasting consequences for the federal judiciary.
"That would make a mockery of the Supreme Court," said Leahy, the dean of the Senate and most senior member of its Judiciary Committee. "It would totally politicize the Supreme Court. It would say only Republicans can be on the Supreme Court — and that would be so destructive of our whole system of justice."
If the Senate were to hold a confirmation vote just weeks before the November election, Leahy added, "I think it would be decades before the Supreme Court would regain any sense of integrity with the rest of the country."
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
"My friends, I say to you — to everyone who supported other candidates in the primary and to those who may have voted for Donald Trump in the last election — the future of our democracy is at stake. The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake," he said. "The price of failure is just too great to imagine."
As the runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination — for the second election cycle in a row — Sanders had been expected to play a prominent role in the Milwaukee convention. But due to the ongoing threat of the coronavirus pandemic, he and most other speakers delivered their remarks from home. Sanders appeared to have done so from Hen of the Wood's Burlington location, using the restaurant's neatly stacked firewood as a backdrop.
Sanders pulled no punches in his eight-minute remarks. Calling the 2020 election "the most important in the modern history of this country," he repeatedly referred to Trump as an authoritarian — and alluded to the Holocaust's devastating toll on his father's family.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Joe Biden , Donald Trump , Web Only , Image
Monday, July 27, 2020
Vermont's most influential politician has thrown his weight behind Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman's gubernatorial campaign.
In a written statement Monday morning, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) encouraged Vermonters to vote for Zuckerman in the August 11 Democratic primary.
"I am proud to endorse David and know he will continue to ensure Vermonters have an economy that works for all of us, by growing good paying Vermont jobs, fighting climate change and leading a progressive recovery out of this pandemic," Sanders said in the statement, highlighting Zuckerman's support for a higher minimum wage and marriage equality. "I hope you will join me in supporting David to be our next Governor."
The two progressive pols have been allies for decades. Zuckerman credits Sanders with inspiring him to become involved in politics in 1992 when the former was a student at the University of Vermont and the latter was a member of the U.S. House. That fall, according to Zuckerman, he volunteered on Sanders' reelection campaign and helped to register fellow UVM students to vote. Zuckerman stumped for Sanders during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, spent time with him the night of the New Hampshire primary and spoke at his Super Tuesday rally in Essex Junction.
Tags: Bernie Sanders , David Zuckerman , Election 2020 , Governor's Race , Senator , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
Vermont’s senior senator, it turns out, has been hunkered down in the Capitol even longer.
According to spokesperson David Carle, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has not set foot in Vermont since January 4. “Never in my life have I been gone this long. Both Marcelle and I are homesick,” Leahy said in an interview, referring to his spouse.
So what’s kept him from his native Green Mountains? Leahy, who is 80, cited a busy congressional schedule, Marcelle's health concerns and, most of all, a dearth of broadband at his house in Middlesex.
“Some of this time I might’ve just spent at home, but the internet service — even though we pay for the premium one — in Middlesex is not reliable and [is] extraordinarily slow, and I’m doing Zoom calls and meetings,” he said.
Tags: Senator , Patrick Leahy , Bernie Sanders , Peter Welch , David Carle , Keane Bhatt , Lincoln Peek , Eliot Engel , Web Only , Image
The ad, titled "Betrayed," features a one-minute presidential takedown from Dan Barkhuff, a former Navy SEAL who is now an emergency room doctor at the University of Vermont Medical Center.
"Any commander in chief with a spine would be stomping the living shit out of some Russians right now — diplomatically, economically or, if necessary, with the sort of asymmetric warfare they're using to send our kids home in body bags," Barkhuff says in the video, which has amassed more than 214,000 views since it was published on Tuesday.
Tags: President Trump , Betrayed , Viral ad , Dan Barkhuff , Web Only , Image
Monday, April 13, 2020
Sanders made the announcement Monday afternoon during a Biden campaign livestream, saying that he believes his former opponent in the Democratic primary understands the country needs to move forward in an "unprecedented way" to address the "terrible pain" caused by the coronavirus.
"Today I am asking all Americans — I'm asking every Democrat, I'm asking every independent, I'm asking a lot of Republicans — to come together in this campaign, to support your candidacy, which I endorse, to make certain that we defeat somebody who I believe ... is the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country," Sanders said.
"We need you in the White House," Sanders went on to say. "I will do all that I can to see that that happens, Joe."
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Joe Biden , president , campaign , Web Only , Image
Thursday, April 9, 2020
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) hosted the virtual gathering alongside Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Gov. Phil Scott and several officials from the state health and labor departments.
"I don't have to tell anybody that we are living in a moment of unprecedented difficulty for our state and for the entire country," Sanders said in his opening remarks, which came a day after he suspended his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
"The function of tonight is to get information out to you," he later told the audience. "Get your pencils out, get your papers out and take some notes if you need to."
Tags: Senator , coronavirus , Sen. Bernie Sanders , Sen. Patrick Leahy , Gov. Phil Scott , Rep. Peter Welch , Web Only , Image