Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) ignored everything that Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett had just told his colleague Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). Democrats have hounded Barrett for wanting to upend the Affordable Care Act because of her past writings, but she keeps telling them that she's "not hostile" to the act.
"I don't want to be a legal pundit commenting on things in real time," Barrett told Cornyn.
She said that she goes into every case with an "open mind." She's even been known to change her mind during oral arguments after reading briefs.
But Durbin didn't stray from his narrative. Like the other Democrats on the panel, he suggested that Barrett would be a threat to Obamacare, to which she calmly replied, "Judicial activism is bad, from either side...you and I agree on that."
During his second round of questions, Durbin sarcastically told the nominee that she's "making history."
"You are the first nominee to ever be considered in the midst of an election," he noted. Durbin asked, "Why? What's the hurry?" But that question he could answer on his own.
"Because there is a political agenda here...It has to do with the ACA," the Democrat asserted.
In conclusion, he said there's an "orange cloud" over Barrett's nomination.
Durbin shared his concerns about the voting process, and how President Trump "continues to lie about paper ballots" and keeps trying to delay the election. And so, Durbin said it troubles him that Barrett, as an originalist, did not answer whether the president has authority to delay a general election. An annoyed Barrett told Durbin that there are laws in effect, including the equal protection clause and the 15th Amendment, acting as external constraints, that prohibit that kind of voting discrimination.
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Watch Judge Amy Coney Barrett put Sen. Dick Durbin in his place: pic.twitter.com/d9YGQEDZtO
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She added that the senator was distorting her record.
Durbin was at least right about the part about Barrett "making history." As Republicans on the panel have noted, Barrett is the first mother of school aged children to be nominated to the Supreme Court. And in his opening remarks on Wednesday, Chairman Lindsey Graham praised ACB for being such a prominent conservative, pro-life woman and a role model to girls.
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