As President Trump and several Republican Senators battle COVID-19, Democrats are trying to use the news as an excuse to call for delaying Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings, which begin next Monday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Nobody should fall for such desperate and disingenuous attempts to derail a nomination that Democrats would be opposing under any circumstances.
“It is premature for Chairman [Lindsey] Graham to commit to a hearing schedule when we do not know the full extent of potential exposure stemming from the president’s infection and before the White House puts in place a contact tracing plan to prevent further spread of the disease,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee wrote in a letter.
They went on to write that, “there is bipartisan agreement that a virtual confirmation hearing for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench is not an acceptable substitute.”
Joe Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, tweeted, “Moving forward with SCOTUS confirmation hearings in exactly one week threatens the health and safety of members, our staff, and the hardworking people who keep the Senate complex safe, clean, and operational. This is completely reckless. Chairman Graham must delay the hearings.”
This is complete hogwash. For months, Congressional committees have functioned by allowing for both members and witnesses to testify remotely. Anthony Fauci has testified this way on the coronavirus. Just last week, James Comey testified remotely about the Russia investigation.
The Judiciary Committee, in particular, has been functioning in a hybrid way that allows members to participate either remotely or in person and ask questions of nominees. This has included many hearings for the lifetime appointments of federal judges.
At the confirmation hearing for the lifetime appointment of Justin Walker to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (often seen as the most important court other than the Supreme Court), Sen. Amy Klobuchar was one of several senators to ask questions by video conference. She even thanked Graham for making such hybrid hearings possible.
“Thank you also for being able to do a hybrid hearing like we’re seeing today,” she said. “Sen. Blunt and I in the Rules Committee worked hard to get this done, and I’m glad that we are seeing senators there as well as remotely.”
On the House side, Democrats have spearheaded efforts to allow more functions to be carried out remotely, including committee hearings, committee votes, and floor votes,
So there is no actual principle on which to delay the Barrett hearings. They can be conducted in person, remotely, or in a hybrid manner. Under the timeline announced by Graham, the committee would approve the nomination on Oct. 22 — or nearly three weeks after Sens. Mike Lee and Thom Tillis, both committee members, tested positive for coronavirus.
The effort to delay the hearings should be seen for what it is: a desperate attempt by Democrats to push the nomination past Election Day. At that point, if they were to win, they would claim a popular mandate for blocking the confirmation.
None of their delay tactics should be taken seriously. They are simply a replay of the strategy they used with Brett Kavanaugh when they tried to stretch out the nomination fight as long as possible in hopes of digging up dirt that they could throw at him to tank the nomination.
We applaud Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Graham for refusing to fall for their ruse. And in light of their actions now, and during Kavanaugh’s 2018 hearings, Democrats have no right to have their objections treated as if they were raising them in good faith.
