Democrats walked out of a Senate Judiciary Committee vote on Thursday as Republicans advanced the nomination of Emil Bove, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, to serve on Philadelphia’s 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
The 12 Republican committee members voted to affirm Bove as Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., berated committee chair Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, for cutting off requests for continued debate and not allowing Democrats to speak on the Bove nomination.
“You are a good man. You are a decent man, why are you doing this? What is Donald Trump saying to you that are making you do something which is violating the decorum of this committee, the rules of this committee, the decency and the respect that we have each other to at least hear each other out?” Booker said.
“This is unjust. This is wrong. It is the further deterioration of this committee’s integrity with a person like this. What are you afraid of?” he continued as Democrats stormed out.
Bove was accused by a whistleblower earlier this month of blatantly defying Judge James Boasberg’s order to halt the deportation flight of 130 Venezuelans to El Salvador that occurred on March 15.
Booker joined his colleagues in leaving after criticizing Grassley, saying the move lacked “decorum.”
Shortly after, he posted a video on X accusing Republicans of doing Trump’s “bidding.”
“I just walked out of the Senate Judiciary Committee for what was, to me, the most unimaginable thing that happened, where they cut off any debate or any discussion. Our job is to deliberate. Our job as the most deliberate body is to hear from each other. They cut off all debate, rammed through a vote on Bove,” Booker said. “People walked out as I sat there continuing to appeal to the conscience of my fellow senators, who now are showing their willingness to just bow to Donald Trump’s will to be able to undermine this institution in order to do his bidding.
“This was a day of shame for this committee, and what we just witnessed today was an utter sham in forcing through one of the most controversial nominees ever to the American circuit courts.”
Grassley explained his decision to force the vote at the end of the meeting.
“I ordered the vote this time, so if you’ll spread that word that this is not unprecedented, either the actions of the minority walking away, or what we did here as a majority, it’s happened before, and we have to move things along. And I thank everybody for participating,” he said.
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