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3 Democratic senators refuse to meet Trump pick Amy Coney Barrett, say 'her views will harm lives'

Democrats have accused Republican Party of following double standards since it was the same party that had opposed appointment of successor to former SC Judge Antonin Scalia during Obama reign

The Donald Trump administration’s rush to appoint the Supreme Court successor to the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg has caused a political outrage with the opponent Democrats refusing to cooperate. They have accused the Republican Party of following double standards since it was the same party that had opposed the appointment of the successor to former Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia in the times of Barack Obama. The Republicans led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell resisted the nomination of Merrick Garland, a pick by Obama then, saying Scalia’s successor should have been picked by a new president and Trump eventually did it in 2017 when Neil Gorsuch replaced the deceased judge.

A number of Democratic senators have said that they will not meet Amy Coney Barrett, who was nominated by Trump on Saturday, September 26, and now waits for a confirmation by the GOP-controlled Senate which will happen next month. The president touted Barrett as a pure constitutional textualist while the 48-year-old judge said during her brief acceptance remarks that she will “apply the law as written”. Barrett has been serving at the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit since November 2017. Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said on Sunday, September 27, that the panel will move the confirmation to the Senate floor on October 22. “So, we'll start on October 12, and more than half of the Supreme Court justices who have had hearings were done within 16 days or less," Graham told Fox’s ‘Sunday Morning Futures’ host Maria Bartiromo.

“We’ll have a day of introduction. We'll have two days of questioning, Tuesday and Wednesday, and on the 15th we'll begin to markup, we’ll hold it over for a week, and we'll report her nomination out of the committee on October 22,” the veteran senator added. Meanwhile, polls showed that Graham, who has been serving as a senator from South Carolina since January 2003, is facing a steep challenge from his Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison ahead of their November electoral showdown. Graham said after the nomination comes out of the Senate committee, the ball will be in the court of McConnell who said soon after Ginsburg’s death that the body would move forward quickly with Trump’s nominee, inviting the opponents’ wrath.

Senators Gillibrand, Blumenthal and Hirono refuse to meet Barrett

The Democratic senators who have refused to meet Barrett feel that her views are too conservative and they would prove to be harmful for the people. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand tweeted on Sunday to say she will not meet Judge Amy Coney Barrett as she felt her nomination process was illegitimate.

“I refuse to participate in the further degradation of our democracy and our judiciary,” she said in another tweet.

Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal also took to Twitter to second Gillibrand’s stand. In a series of tweets, he said: “I will oppose the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, as I would any nominee proposed as part of this illegitimate sham process, barely one month before an election as Americans are already casting their votes. Americans deserve a voice in this hugely consequential decision.”

“Judge Barrett's views would harm real lives—real people—in real ways, from children with pre-existing conditions to women who just want to be able to decide when & how to have a family. I’m fighting for them.”

“Judge Barrett, like any Trump nominee, has already been vetted & screened to meet two tests: a commitment to striking down the Affordable Care Act & to overturning Roe v. Wade.”

“Judge Barrett has criticized past decisions protecting access to health care, shown hostility to reproductive freedoms, & expressed a willingness to overturn settled Supreme Court precedent that does not align with her extreme views.”

“If Judge Barrett’s views become law, hundreds of millions of Americans living w/pre-existing conditions would lose access to their health care. In the middle of a pandemic, rushing confirmation of an extreme jurist who will decimate health care is unconscionable.”

“I will refuse to treat this process as legitimate & will not meet with Judge Amy Coney Barrett.”

Hawaii’s Japanese-born Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono was the third lawmaker to back Gillibrand’s views. In one tweet, the 72-year-old said fearing the consequences of having Barrett in the Supreme Court: “Millions of Americans will be sitting at their kitchen tables, wondering how the heck they're going to pay for their medical bills without the Affordable Care Act.” She tweeted a video of her speaking with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer while saying this.

She also posted a series of tweets slamming the nomination and cited reasons why she would not support it. She suspected Barrett will strike down the Affordable Care Act; endanger “the protections of Roe v Wade”; the final wish of Ginsburg that she wanted to be replaced by a new president was not honored and that Barrett has an ideological agenda and Trump wants to have her on the bench so that he gets her backing in case the upcoming November 3 election ends up at the apex court for a decision.

Dissenter Lisa Murkowski welcomes Trump's SC pick

The GOP, which has 53-45 lead over the Democrats in the Senate, also had a couple of dissenting voices over the appointment of Barrett to the Supreme Court. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, for instance, opposed the elections just before the election saying her stand remained consistent with what it was seen in 2016. However, the veteran senator said last Tuesday, September 23, that she wouldn’t rule out voting to confirm the president’s nominee before Election Day. After Trump picked Barrett, she said in a statement that the president used his “constitutional authority” to choose the new candidate and she was looking forward to meeting the new nominee just as she did in 2016.

Maine Senator Susan Collins, the other Republican member who disagreed with the appointment of a replacement of Ginsburg before the election, decried the politicization of the top court and feared it “may well” cost her among her conservative followers. The four-time senator is indeed facing a tough re-election bid against Sara Gideon, the speaker of Maine House of Representatives.