Republican Senator Roy Blunt from Missouri shared his thoughts on voting concerns, the need for a virus relief bill, and the vacancy of the supreme court justice with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press.
The senator encouraged people to vote and expressed the need to understand that voting by mail is just a little harder than going to the polling place and there is always a percentage of those ballots argued about.
“We are close and near agreement of all Covid things that matter, what we are not in agreement with is about a trillion dollars’ worth of other things,” said Senator Blunt. He stated that as many as 150 million tests will have been completed leading up to October for Covid-19, and to get back to school, work, and good health we will need a virus relief bill.
With some people believing the current president should not pick who will fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg seat before the presidential election, Senator Blunt expressed the process could be done by October. Regarding the way the president has handled filling the vacancy, Judge Amy Coney Barrett was on his short list of people who he hoped the president would select.
Senator Blunt was asked if he regrets the argument he made a few years ago when the republican-controlled senate refused to consider former president Barack Obama’s supreme court nominee in 2016. He said it shouldn’t be based on the politics of it and was for the voters to decide and weigh in with as much direction as they wanted if the president and senate failed to reach an agreement.
“There has been 15 times in the history of the country when there’s been a justice vacancy, and when the president and the senate were in agreement they almost always filled the seat and if they weren’t they almost never did,” said Senator Blunt.
Senator Blunt responded in regard to the Affordable Care Act being overturned if Judge Barret fills the vacancy and he hopes Judge Barrett will look at the facts of the case and align it with the constitution and law before making a decision.
“Keeping people on insurance and their parent’s insurance until they are 26, I don’t see that being reversed. I don’t see preexisting conditions being reversed, no matter what the court decides a lot of discussion has already been had and the American people have accepted that as a part of the system and they will have that happen,” said Senator Blunt.