Amy Coney Barrett begins Supreme Court confirmation hearing

As he boarded his plane to Ohio this morning, former Vice President Joe Biden was asked whether Democrats should raise Barrett’s faith in her confirmation hearings. 

“No, her faith should not be considered,” Biden, also a practicing Catholic, told reporters. 

"This nominee said she wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, the president wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act,” Biden said. 

“Let's keep our eye on the ball. This is about whether or not in one -- less than one month, Americans are going to lose their health insurance,” Biden said.

--Molly Nagle and John Verhovek

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he was “deeply concerned” that the Supreme Court is losing the trust of the American people. He called on Barrett to recuse herself from any election-related cases as the president sows doubts in the results of the election alongside her confirmation process. 

“Now President Trump and the Republican senators are eroding and indeed destroying that legitimacy,” Blumenthal said, speaking of the court.

“Your participation in any case involving Donald Trump's election would immediately do explosive, enduring harm to the court's legitimacy and to your own credibility. You must recuse yourself,” Blumenthal continued. “The American people are afraid and they are and for good reason. It is a break-the-glass moment.”

He had noted earlier that Barrett had “auditioned'' for the job through her academic writings and judicial opinions that suggest she would have voted to strike down the Affordable Care Act had she been a justice at the time. 

Blumenthal also made clear he will oppose her nomination which he sees as being “about the Republican goal of repealing the Affordable Care Act, the Obamacare they seem to detest so much.”

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who made President Trump’s Supreme Court shortlist of potential nominees himself, used his opening statement to define “a pattern and practice of religious bigotry” he said Democratic members of the committee have shown against Barrett. 

"This freedom of conscience and religious liberty underscores all of our other rights because it tells the government that it cannot tell us what to think or who we can assembly with or how we can worship or what we can say,” Hawley said. “This bedrock principle of American liberty is now under attack.”

Hawley deemed stories attacking Judge Barrett's faith "an attempt to bring back the veto power of the powerful over the religious beliefs and sincerely held convictions of the American people.”

He suggested a public official’s freedom of religion is at stake in the confirmation hearing. 

“Judge Barrett is a Catholic. We all know that... Heck, 65 million Americans are Catholics and many, many millions more are Christians of other persuasions. Are they to be told that they cannot serve in public office? That they are not welcome in the public here unless the members of this committee sign off on their religious beliefs?” Hawley said. “I don't want to live in such an America.”

“I hope when we look back at the confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Barrett -- soon I hope to be Justice Amy Barrett -- one thing I hope we say is that was the year that the attempt to bring back religious test for office was finally stopped,” Hawley concluded. 

He did not mention Trump has repeatedly attacked the faith of his political rivals. 

Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, hit on what he called the dangers of holding the hearing after two members of the committee have tested positive for COVID-19 and even more have come in contact with someone who has tested positive in recent days -- calling it a “rushed, hypocritical, partisan process [that] should not proceed.”

“This is an ongoing national emergency and as an exercise in civics, not politics, we in Congress should be working day and night to deliver them that [COVID] relief. Instead my colleagues are barreling forward with a confirmation hearing that's distracting from our responsibility to our constituents and threatens to further tear our nation apart,” Coons said.

Coons added, “Proceeding with this nomination at this time will do harm to what remaining trust we have in each other, the Senate as a whole and potentially to the court itself.”

As with Democrats before him, he humanized the Affordable Care Act by recalling stories of constituents who have relied on the law, and he said he doesn’t think the timing of Judge Barrett's nomination is any “coincidence.” 

“It is beyond ironic this administration, which has failed to respond to this pandemic, is rushing through a judge they believe will vote to strip away health care protections,” he said. 

“Judge Barrett I'm not suggesting you made some secret deal with President Trump. But I believe the reason you were chosen is precisely because your judicial philosophy as repeatedly stated could lead to the outcomes President Trump has sought. And I think that has dramatic and potentially harmful consequences with regards to the election, the Affordable Care Act and long-settled rights,” he said.