I attended mass earlier today and prayed for Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg and her family did the nation lost heroin and an icon. They also lost a mother. The grandmother and a matriarch. You know how hard that is to watch a piece of your soul absorb the cruelty and pain of the dreadful disease of cancer. I spoke to her daughter and granddaughter last night, expressing my whole familys sorrow, particularly my grown granddaughters, one of whom was a student of Ruth Bader Ginsburgs daughter at columbia. They made clear to me, the daughter and granddaughter, that until the very end, Justice Ginsburg displayed the character and courage we would expect of her. And givetheir hands them strength and purpose to carry on. It has been noted that she passed away on rosh hashanah. By tradition, a person who dies on the jewish new year is considered a soul of great righteousness. That was Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A righteous soul. It was my great honor when i was in the senate and chairman of the Judiciary Committee to preside over her confirmation hearings and strongly support for secession to the Supreme Court bench. Astice ginsburg achieved standing few justices have or ever will. She became a presence in the lives of so many american. I agree with the others who have said that she did as much to advance constitutional rights, opportunities, and justice for women as Justice Marshall did for africanamericans. There were humorous mentions of the notorious rbg and her impressive exercise routines, but there was so much more. A trailblazer. A role model. A source of hope and a powerful voice for justice. She was proof. Proof of courage, conviction, and moral clarity, that could change not only the law, could change our culture. Could change the world. And i believe in the days and months and years ahead excuse inspirewill continue to millions of americans across this country and together, can and will we can and will continue to be a voice for justice in her name. Her granddaughter said yesterday and said publicly that her dying my mostre quote, fervent wish is that i not be replaced until a new president is installed. Should heed her final call to us. Not as a personal service to her, but as a service to the country. Our country at a crossroads. There is so much at stake. The right to health care, clean air, clean water, the environment, equal pay for equal work, the rights for voters, immigrants, women. Right now, our country faces a choice. A choice about whether we will come back from the brink. That is what i would like to talk to you about for a few minutes today. Within hours of the news of her passing, Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell said that President Trumps choice for her replacement receive a vote in the senate. Within an hour of her passing. When obamapposite replaced Justice Scalia in 2016. Majority mcconnell made up a rule based on the fiction that i somehow believed there should be no nomination to the court in an election year. It is ridiculous. The only rule i have other have ever that i followed is the constitutions obligation for the consent to a president s judicial nominee. But he created a new rule. The mcconnell rule. No hearing, no vote, no nominee for an election year. No caveats. Period. Agreedpublican senators with him, including then chairman of the Judiciary Committee of iowa. Including the current chairman, Lindsey GrahamSouth Carolina of South Carolina, who at the you to use mywant words against me if theres a republican president in 2016 and the last occurs in year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said the lets the lets let the next chident choose president oose. That is what the republicans said when Justice Scalia passed away. About nine months before election day that year. Lost Justice Ginsburg, less than seven weeks before an election this year, after americans of already begun to cast their votes, it is ofimated that up to 40 americans will have voted by october 1. Cannot millions, and you unring the bell. Having made this the standard, they cannot just four years iter change course when doesnt serve their ends. I am not being naive. I am not saying that President Trump will do whatever he wants. I am not speaking to Mitch Mcconnell to do what he want. What he wants. Im speaking to Senate Republicans who know deep down what is right for the country and consistent with the constitution as i stand here in the constitution center, not j ust what is best for the party. Im speaking to millions of american out there who have already voted and continue to vote and will have any more voting by the time this process is finished. Millions of americans who are voting because they know their health care hangs in the balance. In the middle of the worst Global Health crisis in living memory. Is before the Supreme Court trying to strip Health Care Coverage away from tens of millions of families. Thaneace of mind of more 100 million americans with preexisting conditions. , it willceeds discriminate or drop coverage completely for People Living with preexisting conditions like asthma, diabetes, cancer, and so many other problems. All, if most cruelly of donald trump has his way, the complications from covid19, which are well beyond what they should be it is estimated that 200 Million People will have died by the time i finish this talk. But the complications of covid19, like the lung scarring, and heart damage, deniableome the next preexisting condition for over 6 million americans who have already contracted the disease. Who are of americans also voting because they do not want half a century of legal andedent to be overturned it was the right to choose. Millions of americans at risk of losing the right to vote. Means dreamers risk expelled from the only country they have ever known. Millions of workers, union work, who are risk for losing the right to collectively bargain. American or demanding millions of americans who are demanding that the voices be heard and justice beginning t for all, not just some. They all know what should happen now. Voters in this country should be heard. And i said voting has already begun. Middletime we get to the of october, there will be millions and millions who have already voted. Votes inw weeks, all this nation will be heard. Ones should decide who has the power to make this appointment. This appointment is not about the past, it is about the future, and the people of this nation. The people of this nation are choosing the future right now as they vote. To jam this nomination through the senate is an exercise in raw political power. I do not believe the people of this nation will stand for it. President trump has already made it clear that this is about power. Pure and simple power. Whether the voters should make , theear on this issue power in this nation resides m, the American People, the voters. Even if President Trump wants to put forward a name now, but should not begin until the American People choose their next president. The next congress. Their next senate. Then the senate should move on his selection and way the nominee he chooses fairly. If i when the selection tion,f i win this elec President Trumps nominee should be with john. I should be the one to nominate the successor. To get a fair hearing in the senate for a confirmation hearing before a confirmation vote i should say after the confirmation hearing. We are in the middle of a pandemic. As i speak, we are possibly passing 200,000 deaths. Tens of millions of americans unemployed. Health care in this country hangs in the balance before the court. And now, and a raw political move, this president and the republican leader have decided to jam a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court to the United States senate. This is the last thing we need at this moment. Voters have already begun casting their votes. In the millions. Just a few weeks, we are going to know who the voters of this nation have chosen as the next president. The United States constitution was designed to give voters one chance. One chance to have their voice heard and who serves on the court. There is no Court Session between now and the end of this election. The moment is now for voters to get a chance to be heard. And their voice should be heard. And i believe voters will make it clear they will not stand for this abuse of power. This constitutional abuse. There is no discussion about lameduckns or the after donald trump loses. The successor to Justice Ginsburg, what happens . That discussion assumes that we allude this effort elude this effort in the grave wrong that they are pursuing here. Im not going to assume failure at this point. I believe the american voices should be heard and will be will be heard. This fight will not be over until the senate votes, if it does vote. Winning that boat if it happens, vote, if it happens, is everything. Action and reaction. Anger and more anger. Sorrow and frustration. That is the cycle that republican senators will perpetuate if they go down this dangerous path that they put us on. We need to deescalate, not escalate. That is why appeal to the few Senate Republican the handful that will really decide what happened what happens. Follow your conscience. Do not go there. Uphold your constitutional duty, your conscience, let the people speak. Cool the flames that have been engulfing our country. We cannot keep rewriting history, scribbling norms,. Crambling scrambling norms after Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away, they say biden should release the list. Trumpno wonder president and his administration asked that i release the list after she passed away. It is a game to the. It is a game to them. First, putting a judges name judges name on a list like that could influence the action of a judge, and that would be wrong. Listd, anyone put on the under this circumstance would be subject to unrelenting political attacks, because any nominee i would select would not get a hearing until 2021 at the earliest. She would endure those attacks for months on and without being defend herself. Thirdly and finally, and most important lead, if i win, i will make my choice for the Supreme Court not based on a partisan election campaign, but on what prior president s have done. And i have served with many of them. Only after consulting democrats and republicans in the United States senate and taking their advice and asking for consent. Is a person who gets to name someone, propose. I medicallyknows, that my first choice for the willcourt history make history as the first africanamerican woman justice. In the end, the choice will be mine, but i will consult. It will be a product every of a process of our finest traditions. Not the one that has torn apart our nation in the past few years. Let me conclude with this. As i said in this campaign. We are in the battle for the soul of this country. We face historic crises. Once in a generation pandemic. A devastating economic recession. Thatise of White Supremacy the fbi director warned us against, and not seen since the 60s. And a reckoning on race that is long overdue. The challenging climate. A changing climate. That is ravaging our nation in the world as we speak. The Supreme Court decisions will touch every part of these crises. Every part of our lives and our future. The last thing we need is to add a constitutional crisis that plunges us deeper into the abyss, deeper into the darkness. If we go down this path, i predict it will cause irreversible damage. The infection this president has unleashed on our democracy can be fatal. Enough. Enough. We must come together as a nation. Democrats. Republicans. Independent. Liberals. Conservatives. Everybody. Im not saying we have to agree on everything, but we have to reason our way through what ails us a citizens. As citizens. That is the guidebook called the constitution. We have to act in good faith, mutual goodwill, and the spirit of conciliation, not confrontation. Bes nation will continue to inspired by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we should not only be inspired by, we should be guided by her. Her willingness to listen to those she disagreed with, to respect other points of view. Famously, Justice Ginsburg got along well with some of the most conservative justice on justices on the court. She did this without clouding her moral clarity. If she can do this, so can we. How we talk to one another matters. How we treat one another matters. Respecting others matters. Ginsburg proves it is important to have a spine of steel, but also important to have been openhanded, not a with those whom we disagree. This nation needs to come together. I have said it many times the selection in this election. We are the United States of america. There is nothing we cannot overcome, there is nothing we cannot do we do it together. Dividetrump wants to this nation among red states and lose states, between representing those dates that vote for him and ignoring those states that dont. I do not. I cannot. I will not. Be that president. I will be a president for the whole country, for those who vote for me and against me. We need to rise to this moment for the sake of the country we love so dearly, for its very soul. May god bless the United States of america. May god protect our troops. And may god bless Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Thank you so much. [indiscernible] our campaign 2020 coverage continues with candidates, campaigning, and abating. Cspan. Your unfiltered view of politics. As Congress Pays Tribute to late Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg, discussion about the upcoming confirmation process has already begun. Today, Lisa Murkowski says she will not support this this close to the election. Take a look at what her colleagues had to say on this sunday news program