U.S. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed announced Friday their opposition to Neil Gorsuch’s U.S. Supreme Court nomination.
The move comes after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats announced their opposition to Gorsuch earlier this week.
Whitehouse shared many of his concerns about Gorsuch during a recent meeting in Providence.
Whitehouse said Gorsuch would move the Supreme Court to the right. After questioning Gorsuch earlier this week during Judiciary Committee hearings on the anonymous campaign contributions known as dark money, Whitehouse said he also believes that Gorsuch would strengthen the influence of such contributions.
“As somebody who’s involved in politics and government, dark money creates a lot of dark power,” the senator said. “And I see a lot of important stuff that we should be doing that we can’t even touch because of the threat that that dark power enables, like climate change.”
Whitehouse said GOP support for fighting climate change has faded away since the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision Citizens United loosened campaign finance regulations.
Asked if Democrats will be able to block President Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, Whitehouse said he believes Gorsuch lacks 60 votes — the necessary threshold in recent Senate history — “so at the moment it’s on [Republicans] to pick a candidate and work with people to get 60 votes.” Trump has signaled support for changing the 60-vote threshold in the face of Democratic opposition.
U.S. Sen. Jack Reed’s spokesman confirmed Reed is opposing Gorsuch’s nomination.
State GOP Chairman Brandon Bell this week criticized Whitehouse for accepting more than $70,000 in campaign contributions from the Thornton Law Firm, which, according to The Boston Globe, is under scrutiny for questionable campaign contributions. Bell said that amounts to hypocrisy given Whitehouse’s talk about dark money.
Whitehouse spokeswoman Meaghan McCabe offered this response: “The campaign is not planning to return these donations at this time, as waiting until an investigation has run its course is the American way. The Republican Party in Rhode Island would be better served by focusing on protecting the Affordable Care Act from President Trump and standing up for seniors and for children, rather than on theatrics about ongoing investigations.”
