HBO host Bill Maher attacked presumptive Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett for her religious views.
The host of Real Time called the 48-year-old 7th Circuit Court of Appeals judge a “f—ing nut” given that she’s “really, really Catholic” on his show Friday night. His commentary came hours after there were reports that Barrett would be President Trump’s choice to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“Apparently, the pick is going to be Amy Coney — we’re going to be saying the name a lot, because she’s a fuckin’ nut, religion, I was right about that one too! — Amy Coney Barrett,” Maher stated. “Catholic. Really Catholic. I mean, really, really Catholic — like speaking in tongues. She doesn’t believe in condoms, which she has in common with Trump, because he doesn’t either. We learned that from Stormy Daniels.”
In the time since Ginsburg’s passing, others have brought up Barrett’s religion as a strike against her. Newsweek claimed that the religious organization Barrett belongs to, People of Praise, was an inspiration for the book The Handmaid’s Tale but had to issue a correction that it wasn’t true. Reuters published a similarly titled piece, “Handmaid’s Tale? U.S. Supreme Court candidate’s religious community under scrutiny,” while Yahoo! Life shared an article titled “This Is Amy Coney Barrett, The Potential RBG Replacement Who Hates Your Uterus.”
Richard Painter, a White House ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007 and an outspoken Trump critic, tweeted: “Your handmaiden has arrived. Welcome to the Republic of Gilead.”
Republicans expect Democrats will launch similar attacks if she is, in fact, the president’s nominee.
Despite Democrats’ objections, they have limited options to prevent Barrett or any nominee from filling the vacancy. They want the winner of November’s election to fill the seat, but they do not have enough members in their party to stop the confirmation unless four Republicans defect. So far, two have already said they do not believe the seat should be filled before the election.
Barrett, during her 2017 confirmation to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, faced repeated challenges toward her Catholic faith. In one instance, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California said, “The dogma lives loudly within you,” while Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois asked if she considered herself an “orthodox Catholic.”
