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- Sen. Amy Klobuchar called the Senate’s Supreme Court nomination hearings a “sham” and urged Americans to call their senators and voice their opposition during her opening statement on Monday.
- Klobuchar said Judge Amy Coney Barrett will be quickly confirmed along partisan lines unless voters protest President Donald Trump’s third Supreme Court nominee by petitioning their representatives.
- “This isn’t Donald Trump’s country, it is yours,” Klobuchar said. “This shouldn’t be Donald Trump’s judge, it should be yours.”
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Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, called the Senate’s Supreme Court nomination hearings a “sham” and urged Americans to call their senators and voice their opposition during her opening statement on Monday.
“We cannot divorce this nominee and her views from the election we are in,” Klobuchar said on the first day of four days of confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
Klobuchar, a former presidential candidate, argued that Barrett will be quickly confirmed along partisan lines unless voters protest President Donald Trump’s third Supreme Court nominee by petitioning their representatives.
“This hearing is a sham. I think it shows real messed up priorities from the Republican Party,” Klobuchar said. “But I am here to do my job, to tell the truth. To all Americans, we don’t have some clever procedural way to stop this sham. To stop them from rushing through a nominee.”
She went on, “Let me tell you a political secret: I doubt that it will be a brilliant cross-examination that’s going to change this judge’s trajectory this week. No, it is you. It is you calling Republican senators and telling them enough is enough … It is you voting even when they try to do everything to stop you. It is you making your own blueprint for the future, instead of crying defeat.”
Like all her fellow Democrats on the committee, Klobuchar argued that Barrett's stated opposition to the Supreme Court's 2012 ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act puts tens of millions of Americans at risk of losing their health insurance and other protections. The senator told the story of a constituent with diabetes who'd lose protections for her preexisting condition if Obamacare were overturned — a case the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear shortly after the election.
The senator ended her statement by speaking directly to American voters.
"This isn't Donald Trump's country, it is yours," Klobuchar said. "This shouldn't be Donald Trump's judge, it should be yours."
Senators on the Judiciary Committee each have 10 minutes to deliver their opening statements on Monday. Barrett's questioning will begin on Tuesday.
—CBS News (@CBSNews) October 12, 2020