Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has warned Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, to support whoever President Donald Trump nominates to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy regardless of their views on abortion – or face being ousted from Congress.
"She's going to vote for this nominee no matter who it is," DeLay, a Texas Republican, told Newsmax TV's "America Talks Live." "She can't afford not to, unless she wants to retire as a senator."
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DeLay's tough talk came after Collins, a GOP moderate from Maine, told ABC's "This Week" a jurist who would overturn the court's historic 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion "would not be acceptable to me, because that would indicate an activist agenda that I don't want to see a judge have."
But DeLay told Newsmax TV hosts Miranda Khan, John Cardillo, and Gina Loudon: "Susan Collins doesn't understand the Constitution that she swore to uphold. The Supreme Court is not supreme. The Supreme Court's rulings are not settled law.
"The Supreme Court can't even enforce their rulings, so they are nothing more than opinion – unless they're enforced by the president and the Congress. So, what's going on here are people are jockeying, probably Susan Collins is jockeying."
He called Roe v. Wade is "an unconstitutional ruling."
"Even if it's not overturned, I've been working very hard on the heartbeat bill, and that's the bill that says if a child's heartbeat is detected, the child is protected from abortion," DeLay said.
"If we get the right kind of justice in there, then the Supreme Court will uphold that and 85 to 90 percent of abortions cannot be done."
Aside from her comment Roe v. Wade, Collins also told ABC that Trump should expand his Supreme Court justice list of candidates beyond the original 25 he has touted.
As two pro-choice women, Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, represent two vital votes in the Senate amid the narrow 51-49 majority.
DeLay is the author of "Revival! Revolution! Rebirth!: A Radical Call from the Former Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives," written with Wallace Henley and published by WND Books.
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