Republican lawyer George Conway blasted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for comments he made about Supreme Court justices that many saw as threatening remarks.
On Wednesday, Schumer spoke at an abortion rights rally where he appeared to say that Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh would “pay the price” in regards to how they vote on a case regarding a Louisiana abortion law.
After Chief Justice John Roberts scolded Schumer for those comments, his office said the minority leader was referring to “the political price Senate Republicans will pay for putting these justices on the court.”
In an op-ed published in The Washington Post on Thursday, Conway said that Schumer’s comments were “unmistakably intimidating” and a threat, “pure and simple.”
Additionally, Conway noted that Schumer’s claim that he was directing his comments toward Republican senators did not appear to be accurate.
“Schumer’s words, however, were unmistakably intimidating: ‘I want to tell you, Gorsuch.” ‘I want to tell you, Kavanaugh.’ ‘You will pay the price.’ ‘You won’t know what hit you if …’ The emphasis is mine, but the meaning is clear: If you don’t do as we say, something bad will happen to you.”
He did, however, commend Schumer for trying to walk back his initial comments but noted that Schumer did not address his staff’s accusations that Roberts had overlooked attacks made by President Donald Trump.
“This attack on Roberts engaged in misleading whataboutism and false equivalence — and invoked Trump’s bad behavior to justify Schumer’s behavior, which was worse than Trump’s,” he wrote.
He also suggested that Trump’s latest comments were not threats and, therefore, did not justify a response from Roberts. However, he did note that Roberts did respond to comments Trump made in 2018.
Finally, Conway calls on politicians “who ought to know better” to “behave better” and stop attacking the courts.
“They shouldn’t use judges as political battering rams. And they shouldn’t baselessly attack a judge’s integrity.”
He ended with a warning to politicians who attack the courts and justices, “If they do, they attack the rule of law, and, as a nation, we will all reap the whirlwind and pay the price.”