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Michael Moore slammed for urging Pelosi to shut down government to block GOP from filling Ginsburg's seat

Moore asked the House Speaker to refuse to pass the government's budget to prevent the US Senate from 'having the funds' to continue to operate

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore, on Sunday, September 20, suggested that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shut down the US government in an effort to prevent President Donald Trump from appointing a Supreme Court justice in the seat left after Ruth Bader Ginsburg's demise. Moore made the statement during his podcast 'Rumble with Michael Moore', urging Democrat voters to speak out to prevent Trump from filling the key positing just weeks before the presidential election. 

Moore, toward the conclusion of his podcast, also turned to Pelosi, urging her to refuse to pass the government's budget to prevent the US Senate from "having the funds" to continue to operate. The documentary filmmaker, while addressing the Democrat leader, said: "You have to do something that the Republicans have been doing for decades. For the first time… you have to block the continuing resolution that funds the government and just let it shut down." A bill for government funding is set to go to the House floor for a vote.

“Shut the whole damn thing down. Shut the government down, so they do not have the funds to try to ram through this person they want to get on the Supreme Court before Trump’s gone," Moore said. "Just take the money out of the system that runs the halls of Congress or, make it contingent on Mitch McConnell signing a pledge, in writing, that he will put no Supreme Court nominee in front of the Senate before inauguration day. I know, some people won’t like this,” Moore concluded, “but we’re all going to have to sacrifice here, a little bit, for a week or two — or whatever it is — to make sure that the Republicans… cannot do the job that they’re going to try to do, to not pull off another one of their crimes."

Shortly after his urging to the House Speaker made news, many took to social media to slam the filmmaker, suggesting that a government shutdown would not prevent the Senate from debating about a potential Supreme Court nominee. One user asked: "Can a shutdown prevent the US Senate from gathering to debate confirming a Supreme Court Justice?" Another responded to the question, saying: "No." While another wrote: "We need the Senate, not the House to confirm a Justice." A third wrote: "It's the President/Senate's duty to fill vacant seats on the supreme court. If it were anything else, and it wasn't being done, the Dems would be screaming about them NOT performing their duties. They need to do their jobs, which is to fill that seat."

Moore, while appearing on MSNBC's Weekend on Sunday, had reiterated his stance, saying the Trump administration needs to be stopped from filling in Ginsberg's vacant seat. "We are going to stop any effort on the part Trump, McConnell, the Republicans, to try and ram through some right-wing judge in —literally, it’s going to be in the days before the majority of Americans show up to throw Trump out of the White House," the filmmaker said. "This is not going to happen. And it’s not going to not happen on its own, though. What I’m encouraging people to do this weekend is, umm, we need to be out in the streets. We need to be in front of the local offices in your states, where the U.S. senators have their local offices. We need protests out there every single day," he added.