AMY GOES A-COURTIN’
Supreme pick meets sens.
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on Tuesday began meeting with senators who are expected to vote soon on her confirmation.
Barrett (right) kicked off the traditional charm offensive with a three-minute press gaggle attended by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President Mike Pence.
“We’re pleased today to welcome Judge Barrett to begin the process of advise and consent in the Senate. She’ll be visiting with members who are interested in talking to her during the course of the next few days,” McConnell said.
“We’re glad to have her here and glad to get the process started.”
Barrett, 48, was nominated on Saturday by President Trump and the trip is one of the first steps in a bitter partisan fight before the Nov. 3 election.
Barrett, currently a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, did not address reporters Tuesday, but Pence, who would break a theoretical Senate tie vote, praised his fellow Indianan.
Pence called Barrett
“someone of great character, of great intellect, who has a judicial philosophy that will uphold the Constitution of the United States.”
“We urge our Democratic colleagues in the Senate to take the opportunity to meet with Judge Barrett and as the hearing goes forward, to provide the kind of respectful hearing that the American people expect,” Pence said.
“We look forward to a vote in the Senate in the near future, and to fill the seat on the Supreme Court of the United States because the American people deserve a justice like Judge Amy Coney Barrett, and the American people deserve nine justices on the Supreme Court of the United States.”
Many Democrats, including Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer (D-NY), already are refusing to meet with Barrett, a favorite among religious conservatives who is considered likely to shift the ideological balance of the court if she replaces liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“I am not going to meet with Judge Barrett,” Schumer tweeted Tuesday. “Why would I meet with a nominee of such an illegitimate process and one who is determined to get rid of the Affordable Care Act?”
Democrats feel cheated out of their own opportunity to replace conservative Justice Antonin Scalia in the 2016 presidential election year, when McConnell refused to hold a vote on President Barack Obama’s nominee Judge Merrick Garland, saying voters should decide.
Republicans say the situation is different because one party now controls both the Senate and White House.
McConnell vowed to swiftly consider Barrett before the election. So far just two Republicans said they want to delay a vote until after the election. The GOP holds 53 seats and at least 50 senators must vote for Barrett.