Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, offered high praise for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, one of the candidates said to be under consideration for the Supreme Court, saying it would be “wonderful” if the president were to nominate her.
“Barrett can very well handle herself. She is very smart, she knows what she’s talking about, she’s a law professor. I have a high regard for her, but I have a regard for the other three as well,” Hatch told Fox News on Monday. “I know them all quite well and frankly, the president has a plethora of people who are just excellent, and I think we can support any one of them for the United States Supreme Court.”
“There something in me that says it would be wonderful if they appoint Amy Coney Barrett. I think that would be a good thing,” he said.
The president will announce his nominee to the Supreme Court to succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy at 9 p.m. Reports indicate Trump has made his selection, though the White House has been mum on offering clues as to who the pick is.
Barrett, a judge on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, was considered to be a frontrunner, along with fellow appeals court judges Brett Kavanaugh, Thomas Hardiman, and Raymond Kethledge.
Hatch praised the four candidates and said their qualifications for the Supreme Court puts Senate Democrats in a difficult position.
“The four that are mentioned, they’re all really outstanding people. They’re very, very good,” he said. “Any one of them would make a good justice on the Supreme Court, and I think it’s going to be tough for the Democrats to face that.”
Senate Democrats have already begun to lay the groundwork to oppose the president’s nominee, highlighting the future of abortion rights and the Affordable Care Act if there is a Supreme Court with five conservative justices.
Hatch said Barrett’s possible nomination, though, could prove an additional challenge for Democrats.
“If the president chooses her, then the Democrats are going to have to face the fact that they’re really not for women unless less they are Democrat women,” he said.
[Also read: Schumer: ‘Impossible to imagine’ Trump’s Supreme Court nominee won’t be ‘hostile’ to Obamacare, abortion]
