Lacking A Path To Block Barrett, Senate Democrats Push For Viral Missteps

During his questioning Tuesday, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) invoked several unpopular statements President Trump has made in recent months, asking Barrett if she condemned white supremacy, which she did, and if she believes every president should commit to the peaceful transfer of power amid Trump’s refusal to do so, which she dismissed as a “political controversy right now” and expressed a desire to “stay out of it,” an answer liberal groups took aim at.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) elicited a similar demurral from Barrett by asking if it’s illegal to engage in voter intimidation – another pressing issue as Trump tells supporters to act as “poll-watchers” – with Barrett saying she “can’t characterize the facts in a hypothetical situation” and Klobuchar responding by citing the specific statute that criminalizes such activity.

Klobuchar also got Barrett to signal at least some view on landmark abortion case Roe v. Wad – a broadly popular ruling that Democrats argue will be gravely threatened by Barrett’s confirmation – in stating that it doesn’t fall into the category of “super precedent” that she assigned to Brown v. Board of Education and Marbury v. Madison.

Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked Barrett whether the constitution – which empowers Congress to determine the time of elections – gives the president authority to “unilaterally delay an election under any circumstances,” to which Barrett responded that she would be a “legal pundit” by giving an answer to the question.

The questions represent an effort by Democrats to make Barrett’s confirmation – widely acknowledged on both sides of the aisle as an inevitable outcome – painful for Republicans at the ballot box in November by tying Barrett to unpopular policies and statements by Trump and making her a more divisive figure.