Democrats have (largely) shifted away from smearing Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett over her religion and have moved on to focusing on solely on how they think the process to confirm her is illegitimate.
Meanwhile, Democrat senators and aides are admitting there’s nothing they can do to stop Republicans from confirming Barrett to the Supreme Court. On Wednesday, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) said he had no way to stop the nomination process.
“There’s no procedural move that I’m aware of that allows the minority to slow this process down at all,” Coons said, as reported by Fox News. “And trust me, I’ve asked a lot.
“That’s one of the things that I think the general public doesn’t quite appreciate is that as long as the [GOP] majority is willing to change the rules and is willing to insist on moving ahead when it is demonstrably unsafe, unwise and unprecedented to do so, there’s nothing the [Democratic] minority can do to stop them.,” he added.
Coons said the only way Barrett’s confirmation could be stopped is if Democrats can convince two more Republicans to reject the process.
“We need two more to join them in their … recognition that fair is fair,” Coons said. “I am not optimistic that will happen.”
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said something similar at the end of last month on ABC’s “This Week.”
“We can slow it down perhaps a matter of hours, maybe days at the most, but we can’t stop the outcome,” the senator said.
A Democratic aide also told Fox News: “A lot of this will just depend on whether they can make a quorum, both in the committee and then on the floor to be able to proceed.”
The aide was referring to the possibility that Republicans might not have enough senators present on the Judiciary committee to vote on Barrett’s nomination, sending it to the full Senate. Confirmation hearings are scheduled to begin on October 12 and will be conducted as the Senate has operated since the coronavirus pandemic began – with members able to attend the meeting in person or virtually, The Daily Wire’s Emily Zanotti reported.
“Since May, the Judiciary Committee has operated flawlessly through a hybrid method that has seen some Senators appear physically at its hearings while other members have participated virtually,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said in a statement. “The Committee has utilized this format successfully for many months while protecting the health and safety of all involved. Certainly, all Republican members of the committee will participate in these important hearings.”
Democrats, of course, objected to conducting the hearings this way even though Democrats constructed the virtual hearing plans back in March.
“The idea of having virtual hearings where no one is with the witness for the highest court in the land for a life appointment that would have such effect on people’s lives makes no sense. A virtual hearing is virtually no hearing at all,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a statement.