October 12, 2020

Kamala Harris Just Slammed the Senate GOP for “Reckless” Endangerment of Capitol Staff

“Senate Republicans have made it crystal clear that rushing a Supreme Court nomination is more important than helping and supporting the American people.”

Adam Schultz/Zuma

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Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) just slammed Senate Republicans’ “reckless” decision to hold Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing “inside of a closed door room for hours while our nation is facing a deadly airborne virus.”

Harris pointed out that Republicans in the Senate have failed to advance a second coronavirus relief bill to assist the millions who are facing economic devastation because of the pandemic, but nonetheless are attempting to push Barrett’s confirmation in the final few weeks before the presidential election—all while endangering people’s health.

“This committee has ignored common sense requests to keep people safe, including not requiring testing for all members, despite a coronavirus outbreak among senators of this very committee,” she said. “The decision to hold this hearing now is reckless and places facilities workers, janitorial staff, and congressional aides and Capitol Police at risk.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Friday deemed the White House celebration of Barrett’s nomination a “superspreader event.” Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), who both serve on the Judiciary Committee, tested positive for COVID after attending the White House event.

Watch the video of Harris’ testimony below:

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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