Federalist Senior Editor Mollie Hemingway derided Democrats who are pledging to pack the court for accusing Republicans of mounting an assault on the nation’s institutions after fulfilling their constitutional responsibility to fill a Supreme Court vacancy.
“Mitch McConnell gave a lengthy address right before the vote to confirm Amy Coney Barrett where he went through how Democrats seem to think that there is no legitimate way for them to lose,” Hemingway said. “So if they lose an election they say it’s not legitimate. If there are results in those elections such as the confirmation of Supreme Court justices, they say those aren’t legitimate. Now they’re saying Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation is not legitimate, but they said the exact same thing about Brett Kavanaugh and they said the exact same thing about Neil Gorsuch.”
Hemingway, who co-authored “Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court” chronicling the bitter battle to seat Kavanaugh on the high bench, said the media tried again to find an angle to go after Barrett as they did Kavanaugh two years earlier but failed to find anything to stick.
“They have done all sorts of crazy coverage over the last few weeks,” Hemingway said. They tried to tarnish her for her religious views. They went after her children in multiple different ways. Trying to tie her to a global pandemic that has hit the entire world… As much as the media tried to do a repeat of what they did with Brett Kavanaugh, nobody seemed to bite on it this time.”
Hemingway said the public vigilance against taking Democrats’ bait on Barrett stemmed from the lessons learned in 2018 when Democrats executed a character assassination of the nominee with unsubstantiated allegations of sexual misconduct.