WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump said Sunday that confirmation of his Supreme Court nominee will go "quickly," while Democratic rival Joe Biden implored the Republican-led Senate to hold off on voting on the nomination until after the Nov. 3 election to "let the people decide."
Speaking at a news conference at the White House, the president spotlighted nominee Amy Coney Barrett's Catholicism, portraying her as a victim of attacks on her faith. But Democrats say it's her conservative approach to the law, particularly health care access, that is drawing their opposition, not her private beliefs.
"It's a disgrace," Trump said. He vowed she will be confirmed "very quickly."
Trump's announcement of Barrett for the seat held by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is launching a high-stakes, fast-track election season fight over confirmation of a conservative judge who is expected to shift the court rightward as it reviews health care, abortion access and other hot-button issues.
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Biden on Sunday appealed directly to his former colleagues in the Senate to "take a step back from the brink."
He urged Senate Republicans not to fan a controversy during an already tumultuous election year for a country reeling from the coronavirus crisis, a struggling economy and protests over racial injustice. If Trump wins the election, Biden said, his nominee should have a vote. But Biden said he should choose the next justice if he prevails Nov. 3.
"This is time to deescalate," Biden said in Wilmington, Del.
"I am focused on one thing right now," Biden said. "I'm focused on making sure the American people understand that they're being cut out of this process they're entitled to be part of. And the cutout is designed in order to take away the ACA [Affordable Care Act] and your health care in the midst of a pandemic."
No justice has ever been confirmed to the Supreme Court so close to a presidential election, with early voting already underway in some states. Republicans believe the fight ahead will boost voter enthusiasm for Trump and Senate Republicans at serious risk of losing their majority. Democrats warn Barrett's confirmation would almost certainly undo Americans' health care protections as the high court takes up a case against the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, in the fall.
POLL FAVORS WAIT
According to a national poll by The New York Times and Siena College that was released Sunday, a clear majority -- 56% -- of voters believes the winner of the election should fill Ginsburg's seat, versus 41% who said Trump should as the current president. Biden has said he would nominate the first Black woman to the court, but he has not released the names of his potential choices.
The poll, which was conducted Sept. 22-24, had a margin of sampling error of 3.5 percentage points.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declined to say Sunday whether Barrett, a judge on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is qualified to serve. But she argued that Trump was moving quickly to fill the vacancy before the court hears a challenge to the health care law Nov. 10 -- keeping the focus on health care rather than on the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision.
"It's not about this justice. It's about any justice he would appoint right now," Pelosi said on CNN's "State of the Union."
Pelosi, a practicing Catholic herself, sidestepped any focus on Barrett's conservative religious outlook, which Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., brought up in Barrett's Senate hearings in 2017 when Trump nominated her for the appellate bench.
Pelosi said, "What I am concerned about is anyone that President Trump would have appointed was there to undo the Affordable Care Act."
"That is why he was in such a hurry, so he could have been in place for the oral arguments which begin Nov. 10. ... If you have a pre-existing medical condition, that benefit will be gone," Pelosi said.
Democratic senators involved in the confirmation process see little upside in dwelling on Barrett's personal views or her fervent religious beliefs, even though many of them consider her opinions to be extreme and fear they would influence her decisions on the bench.
"My challenge to her is not going to be personal," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. "It is about breaking the norms in this sham, rushed, illegitimate process and about her advocacy of breaking with established precedent and views that are extreme right-wing."
GOP REACTION
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said the Senate will vote on Barrett's nomination in the "weeks ahead." Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said confirmation hearings will begin Oct. 12. A vote is expected Oct. 29.
"The Senate will confirm her next month," Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said on CNN.
"We have been really clear as Republicans throughout that we think the biggest impact a president can have long term, over many, many decades, is who they put on the Supreme Court and other federal courts," Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 3 Senate Republican, said in an interview.
With only two of the 53 Republican senators voicing opposition to a confirmation vote before the Nov. 3 election, Democrats appeared outnumbered -- and without recourse to block the nomination.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the assistant leader, said Democrats can slow down the confirmation by a matter of hours or days, "but we can't stop the outcome."
Asked about potential House maneuvers to stall the nomination, such as impeaching Attorney General William Barr, Pelosi quipped, "What is the use of talking about that?" She stressed that Americans should "vote, vote, vote" to put Democrats in charge of the White House, House and Senate.
"Vote for affordable care. Vote for your preexisting condition. Vote for your safety. And vote for your health," Pelosi said.
'A NATURAL FIT'
The president said he had considered Barrett for an opening in 2018 before he ultimately settled on Brett Kavanaugh, but he explained that she "seemed like a natural fit" after Ginsburg's death.
If confirmed, Barrett's addition would make for the sharpest ideological swing on the Supreme Court since Clarence Thomas replaced Justice Thurgood Marshall nearly three decades ago.
Earlier, Trump acknowledged that the confirmation ahead may not "go smoothly."
Trump said, "Perhaps it will, perhaps it won't," in a Fox News Channel interview shortly after the announcement that aired Sunday.
Other Republican senators say a postelection confirmation vote is also possible, as the GOP will continue to control the Senate in the lame-duck period between the election and inauguration.
In a memo to colleagues, Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer of New York warned of the GOP's "monomaniacal drive" to confirm the nominee ahead of the election.
Schumer told Senate Democrats, "Our number one job is to communicate exactly what is at stake for the American people if Republicans jam through this nominee. The elimination of the Affordable Care Act is at the top of the list."
He argued that "the best strategy for fighting back" was "health care, health care, health care" -- an issue on which Democrats already have voters' trust and a track record of winning congressional seats.
In an interview on "Fox News Sunday," Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., highlighted Barrett's past statements on the Affordable Care Act.
"For me, this is all about in the middle of a ... once-in-a-lifetime health pandemic," Stabenow said. "It's very clear from her writings, multiple writings, that she will be the vote that takes away health care for millions of Americans, including people -- 130 million people and counting -- with preexisting conditions."
Barrett has been critical of Chief Justice John Roberts' 2012 opinion upholding the health care law. Ginsburg was one of five votes that saved the law in two previous court challenges.
Democrats pointed to a 2017 law review article in which Barrett, who was not yet on the bench, criticized Roberts' opinion upholding one of the health care law's central provisions. "Chief Justice Roberts pushed the Affordable Care Act beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute," she wrote.
Senate Republicans have largely tried to steer clear of an issue they see as a political liability, but not Trump, who said on Twitter on Sunday that if the court "terminated" the law, it would be "a big WIN for the USA." He promised to replace it with "a MUCH better, and FAR cheaper, alternative," but so far the president has offered only a vague and symbolic plan.
Later, in comments at the White House, Trump said he had not discussed the case with Barrett before her nomination but reiterated that he hoped it was struck down.
Information for this article was contributed by Darlene Superville, Will Weissert, Lisa Mascaro, Hope Yen and Bill Barrow of The Associated Press; by Nicholas Fandos of The New York Times; and by Felicia Sonmez, Hannah Knowles, Winfield Cunningham and Amanda Erickson of The Washington Post.
