Democrats walk out of Senate Judiciary Committee during vote on nomination of Trump‘s former lawyer
The nomination of attorney Emil Bove to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals was accepted with exclusively Republican votes.
Cory Booker quits Senate Judiciary Committee.
The Democratic bench of the Senate Judiciary Committee was empty Thursday. Blue senators walked out of a meeting to endorse two of President Donald Trump's nominees, protesting lack of time to debate "one of the most controversial nominees."
So said Cory Booker of New Jersey, who took it upon himself to give voice to the Democratic complaint, directly addressing the committee's chairman, Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley.
"What are you afraid of about even debating this?" he asked him after the Republican dismissed his request to delay a vote on Emil Bove, Trump's former personal lawyer, to debate allegations in a recent report against him. "We're simply asking for a crecible amount of time to air our concerns before the vote."
"This is unbelievable, this is unjust, this is wrong," Booker continued, as Grassley alternated between hearing him out and moving forward with the vote. "This is unbelievable," he then repeated as Democrats around him left the room.
Alone already on the Democratic side of the floor, the blue congressman accused the committee chairman of "trying to rush" approval of "one of the most controversial nominees" and made a personal complaint to him:
"You are a good man, you are a decent man. Why are you doing this? What is Donald Trump saying to you that is making you do something that is violating the decorum of this Committee."
Booker himself uploaded a snippet of the episode to his social media:
About an hour later, he posted another video accusing Republican senators of proving "they are only here for the bidding of Donald Trump."
"This is not unprecedented"
After Senate Republicans approved sending the nominations of Bove and Jeanine Pirro, a former judge and Fox News host, to the floor, Grassley wanted to clarify that, contrary to Booker's claim, there was precedent for his decision.
"This is not unprecedented, neither the actions of the minority walking away or what we did here as a majority. It's happened before," he said. Specifically, he referred to a 2023 vote by the same committee in which several Republicans, then in the minority, complained to the Democratic chairman about not being able to talk about two judicial nominations.
A 2023 CSPAN recording captured the moment. Democrat Dick Durbin, then chairman of the committee, denies the floor to protesting Republican senators saying "you want us to shut up?" "a lot of people didn’t speak of the nominees before," and "you’re going to sit there and ignore us?"
Like Booker this week, Republicans reminded on that occasion that to shorten debate time, one must turn to Rule 4, which according to the committee's official website allows debate to be suspended if eleven members, including one from the minority, approve.
Emil Bove's controversies
Among others, they cite his role firing prosecutors from cases on Jan. 6, a protest letter against him signed by 900 former prosecutors and the accusation that he would have recommended federal officials ignore court orders on immigration.
Hours before the vote, Booker sent a letter to Bove emphasizing another reason for displeasure: "Your involvement in the DOJ’s review of the Epstein files is a matter of significant public importance given the contradictory statements by Attorney General Bondi concerning the existence of an Epstein client list and DOJ’s stated commitment to transparency."
"It is imperative that the Senate Judiciary Committee ascertain the scope and extent of your involvement in the handling of the Epstein files before voting on your nomination," he wrote, adding 13 questions about Bove's role that he required him to answer before the vote.
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