Politics

Dick Durbin Blames Trump Tweets For Democrat Attacks On Amy Coney Barrett’s Independence

Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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Democratic Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin blamed President Donald Trump’s tweets for a series of questions that appeared to attacked Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s independence.

Durbin began his own time during Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with a response to Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who had called such attacks on Barrett’s independence “insulting.” (RELATED: ‘The ACA Versus ACB’: John Cornyn Slams Democrats For Suggesting Amy Coney Barrett Would Violate Oath)

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“Thank you for being with us for this marathon questioning,” Durbin said as he addressed Barrett.

“Who came up with this notion, this insulting notion that you might violate your oath? Where could this idea have come from?” Durbin asked. “Could it have come from the White House? Could it have come from the president’s tweets of what he expects a Supreme Court nominee to do politically for him? That’s where it comes from, that’s where it originated.”

President Trump has called on the Supreme Court to overturn the Affordable Care Act and has said in the past that he would select justices who he believed would side with Republicans in potential efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade, but Judge Barrett responded to questions about that by saying that she had not spoken to the president or anyone else about how she might rule on particular cases.

Durbin turned back to Barrett and added, “You have said very clearly today without equivocation you will not be influenced by President Trump’s importuning or the importuning of this committee or anyone else. Which is what we expect you to say. This notion that this whole idea that you are being used for political purposes is a Democratic creation — read the tweets, and you have plenty to work with. Read the tweets.”