Barrett meets top GOP senators
McConnell wouldn’t say if he thinks Trump’s nominee should recuse herself if the election lands in court.
WASHINGTON — Republican senators praised President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Tuesday as Judge Amy Coney Barrett held one-onone meetings at the Capitol, but Democrats said her conservative views are outof-step with Americans as they object to a fast-track confirmation before the Nov. 3 election.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said he was “even more convinced” of the pick after their brief meeting. Noting Barrett is a working mother of seven children, he scoffed at Democratic objections that the judge would put Americans’ access to health care at risk or turn back the clock on women’s rights. “What a joke,” he said. But the Republican leader declined to answer questions about whether Barrett should recuse herself if legal challenges in the election between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden land at the high court. Another Republican, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, said that’s “the entire reason” why the Senate should rush to fill the vacant seat.
Cruz warned of a “crisis” if the eight-justice court is deadlocked over a contested presidential election. “The entire reason the Senate should act and act promptly to confirm a ninth justice is so that the Supreme Court can resolve any cases that arise in the wake of the election,” Cruz told reporters at his meeting with the judge.
Democrats are confronting the limits of their
power as they fight against the nomination and some have said they won’t meet with Barrett, who is expected to be confirmed for the seat held by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg by the end of October.
With Republicans holding a 53-47 Senate majority, and just two GOP senators opposing a quick vote, Barrett appears to have enough support for confirmation.
“She’s got a good chance of getting my vote,“said Sen. Chuck Grassley, RIowa, the former Judiciary Committee chairman who now helms the Finance
Committee.
Ahead of one meeting, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the GOP whip, said the two were “going to talk about judicial philosophy and background and experience, and also whether or not she thinks ‘Hoosiers’ is the greatest movie ever.”
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York acknowledged Tuesday it will be an “uphill fight” to stop Trump’s nominee. But he said Americans are on the Democrats’ side in preferring to wait until after the election so the winner can choose the
next justice. He is among those refusing to meet with Barrett, calling the process “illegitimate,” and said her conservative views on health care, abortion and other issues are “far outside” the mainstream.
“It’s not over,” Schumer said on ABC’s “The View.”
Barrett made no public remarks at the start of what is expected to be days of meet-and-greet sessions with senators, a traditional part of the confirmation process. She was to meet with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and
other senators on the panel. Hearings at the committee are set to begin Oct. 12.
No justice has ever been confirmed to the Supreme Court so close to a presidential election. According to a national poll by The New York Times and Siena College that was released Sunday, 56% of voters believe the winner of the Nov. 3 presidential election should fill Ginsburg’s seat, versus 41% who said Trump should as the current president.
Unable to block Trump’s pick on their own, Democrats are focused on avoiding mistakes that could hurt their party’s candidates in November. They are arguing to voters that Barrett’ s nomination threatens the protections of the Affordable Care Act — a focus that Biden has embraced and many Democrats see as a winning message. The court will hear a case challenging the constitutionality of President Ba rack Obama’s health care law just after the election, adding to the urgency of the issue.
But there will also be ample opportunities for Democrats to move offmessage as partisans on both sides infuse the nomination battle with cultural, gender and religious politics.
Some in the left wing of the Democratic Party are pushing for senators to boycott the hearings or commit to adding more justices to the court if Biden wins the presidential election. That has fueled concerns in the party about placing too much emphasis on procedural tactics that only delay votes by hours or days — even as precious time ticks away before the election.
Religion, in particular, could be a minefield.
Democrats worry that Barrett has tied her Catholicism too closely to some of her statements and decisions, and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, still faces criticism for her comments during Barrett’s 2017 confirmation hearing. Feinstein had joined Republicans on the panel in asking Barrett about her faith, but then went further by telling the then-professor that “when you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you.”
Republicans now use those comments against Democrats.