Biden Tries To Turn GOP Push To Confirm Barrett Against Them On Campaign Trail

“In the middle of this pandemic, why do Republicans have time to hold a hearing to pack the court instead of providing significant economic relief for localities,” Biden asked supporters during a drive-in rally in Miramar, Florida amid continued Republican discord over stimulus spending.

Echoing the primary line of attack Senate Democrats have committed to, Biden said the effort to confirm Barrett is “about wiping out the Affordable Care Act,” citing her past scrutiny of Chief Justice John Roberts’ decision upholding the popular health care law.

Biden’s comments are a manifestation of what some Democrats have admitted: that Barrett’s nomination is inevitable and that Democrats’ best-case-scenario is to seize an electoral boost from the hearings.

“We do not have some secret, clever procedural way to stop this sham. Let’s be honest,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) conceded during the hearings on Monday, instead stating that the “people of this country” can “change the trajectory of this nomination” by voting.

As he hammers the hearings from without, Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), scrutinized them from within on Monday, calling the hearings “reckless” from a public health standpoint by bringing “more than 50 people to sit inside a big, closed-door room for hours while our nation is facing a deadly airborne virus.”

The comments come as polls continue to show confirming Barrett before the election, as Republican senators have promised to do, is narrowly unpopular, with 52% of voters saying they oppose it in a Washington Post/ABC News poll released Sunday compared to 44% who support it – though that’s down from 57% opposition in September.