Former Vice President Joe Biden on Monday said that Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s faith “should not be considered” during her Senate confirmation hearings.
“I don’t think there should be any questions about her faith,” Biden told reporters as hearings began in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Biden instead said that Democrats need to “stay behind the ball” and focus on Barrett’s alleged opposition to the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama’s signature achievement, which the Supreme Court will revisit after the November elections.
“Everyone knows that in 28 days, 20 million Americans may lose their healthcare,” Biden said. “This nominee said she wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.”
Barrett has never stated that she would rule against the Affordable Care Act. At the hearings Monday, many Democratic senators accused her of opposing it, with Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, and Sheldon Whitehouse of New York making passionate speeches about the legislation.
In the weeks leading up to the hearings, many Republicans and supporters of Barrett frequently accused Senate Democrats, as well as Biden and his running mate California Sen. Kamala Harris, of anti-religious bias, pointing to the 2017 hearing on Barrett’s nomination to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, in which California Sen. Diane Feinstein said that the “dogma” of Barrett’s Catholicism “lives loudly within you.”
Sens. Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Chuck Grassley of Iowa both addressed these accusations in their opening statements, with Sasse decrying the religious tests that he said Democrats have put before President Trump’s judicial nominees.
At the vice presidential debate last week, Harris called the accusations of anti-religious bias against Democrats “insulting.”
