The Democrat-led smear campaign against Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s newly-picked nominee to fill the current vacancy on the Supreme Court, is in full-swing. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) promised that the GOP majority in the Senate will confirm Judge Barrett, triggering outrage from Democrat Senators and pundits alike.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) even went as far as to vow that she will not even meet with Judge Barrett ahead of her confirmation hearings. An ally of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Gillibrand called Judge Barrett’s nomination “illegitimate.”
I will not meet with Judge Amy Coney Barrett. This nomination process is illegitimate. I refuse to participate in the further degradation of our democracy and our judiciary.
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) September 27, 2020
The Constitution designates the Senate’s role in Supreme Court nominations as giving “advice and consent” to the president on nominations; meeting with the president’s nominee for the highest court, and evaluating qualifications and jurisprudence accordingly, is part of the job that Sen. Gillibrand and other Democrats were elected to do. It is now a question of when, not if, the Senate will vote to confirm Judge Barrett. By refusing to meet with her, Sen. Gillibrand herself is writing off a well-qualified nominee based on disagreement with the ideology of the president who nominated her. Ironically, Sen. Gillibrand’s political grandstanding only speeds up Judge Barrett’s eventual confirmation to the Supreme Court.