Mitch McConnell blasts Chuck Schumer over Supreme Court rhetoric, calls it ‘performance outrage’

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took the chamber floor Wednesday to scold Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer for what he called “performance outrage” over President Trump’s upcoming Supreme Court nominee, who Republicans have vowed to confirm before the end of the year.

Mr. Schumer, New York Democrat, on Tuesday invoked the Senate’s two-hour rule in protest against the GOP moving forward to fill the seat left vacant on the high court since Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death.

The two-hour rule prevents committees from meeting and holding business while the Senate is in session.

The move blocked a counterintelligence hearing on election integrity and interference ahead of the November election.

“Our bipartisan committees have a great deal of work to do to safeguard our nation and in particular to protect our elections,” Mr. McConnell said.

The Kentucky Republican recalled how Democrats disgraced the reputation of Mr. Trump’s other judicial nominees, referencing the minority having alleged sexual misconduct by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh while he was in high school. The allegations were investigated but never proven.

Mr. McConnell noted that after the character assassination of Justice Kavanaugh, the American people gave Republicans more seats in the Senate during the midterms.

But Mr. Schumer pushed back, saying Mr. McConnell refused to move forward with President Obama’s high court nominee in 2016 because it was an election year, but is now pushing Mr. Trump’s through with roughly 40 days until the presidential election.

“America, you can’t trust them at their word,” Mr. Schumer said Wednesday. “They are fighting to reverse Justice Ginsburg’s legacy.”

Mr. Schumer requested a parliamentary inquiry in the upper chamber to note there is no precedent for a Supreme Court justice being appointed between the month of July and Election Day in a presidential election year.

“July is gone. August is over. We’re now at the end of September — six weeks before an election in which some people have already begun to vote,” he said. “Simply, my Republican friends have no ground on which to stand. None.”