For Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, a blank notepad said it all.
In Day 2 of her hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Barrett was pounded by questions from Democratic senators on abortion, gun control, racism, the weight of court precedent and other issues she handled off the top of her head.
It was an impressive showing by any account, but it took a question from Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas to highlight how impressive it was.
Senator Cornyn asks Amy Coney Barrett if she’s been working from notes with her thoughtful and intelligent answers. Nope! pic.twitter.com/tKKoNzyYbI
— Scott Whitlock (@ScottJW) October 13, 2020
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“You know most of us have multiple notebooks and notes and books and things like that in front of us,” Cornyn told the nominee. “Can you hold up what you’ve been referring to in answering our questions?”
Barrett held up a blank notepad as the room chuckled.
“Is there anything on it?” Cornyn asked.
“The letterhead that says ‘United States Senate,’” Barrett responded.
As Supreme Court nomination hearings go in the era of scorched-earth Democratic warfare against President Donald Trump, it’s probably about the lightest moment Americans – or Barrett herself – can expect.
And social media users ate it up.
I wonder if the Senators are talking off the cuff or if they have notes?
ANSWER: Thousands of staffers writing “gotcha” questions and sending them to the Senators.
— Dr. Phil (Parler @DrPhilKnows) (@DrPhilKn0ws) October 13, 2020
But we’re the brilliant minds taking you to task! pic.twitter.com/4KURHqCY2s
— Strangest Times (@ShaolinKungFu81) October 13, 2020
Yet sleepy @JoeBiden needs a teleprompter for his speeches
— Charlie O (@C_Ost9) October 13, 2020
Smartest Person in the Hearing: During US Senate confirmation, Amy Coney Barrett was asked about her notes & prepared talking points. Barrett held up a BLANK notepad — she doesn’t need notes for her lengthy hearing😁👍🏼 https://t.co/EGImn437kL via @nypost
— Thorpe4Coconino (@Thorpe4C) October 13, 2020
When you live with integrity, you don’t need notes to remember your truth.
— trl12 (@TR_Lynn) October 13, 2020
Democrats have spent the past two days accusing Barrett of being a nominee to set back the rights of women (Vermont repugnant Pat Leahy) or trying to box her in on abortion (the duplicitous Dianne Feinstein, who played such a dishonorable role in the last Supreme Court nomination).
Barrett’s been publicly lied about on the campaign trail by the Democratic nominee for president. She’s been attacked on the basis of her faith.
Through it all, so far, she has maintained an intelligent affability that looks like it’s well on the way toward winning her confirmation to the high court.
How previous SCOTUS nominees have handled themselves (or availed themselves of a notepad, for that matter) can’t be compared to what Barrett was faced with.
This is a woman who watched the living hell Democrats created for now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh through his confirmation hearings. As courageously as Kavanaugh acquitted himself in that trial, it had to take a considerable amount of courage, and soul searching, for Barrett to place herself and her family in a position to face the same kind of baseless attacks.
Do you think Amy Coney Barrett deserves to sit on the Supreme Court?
Yet Barrett accepted Trump’s nomination and, as the first days of the hearings have shown, has been able to meet every Democratic challenge unaided.
As a Supreme Court nominee should be, Barrett has been measured in her responses, careful in her word choice and determined not to give the president’s political enemies any ammunition against him.
Barrett’s notepad might have been blank, but it was what was in her head that mattered. And Democrats – whether in the Senate, among liberal intellectuals or in the mainstream media – haven’t been able to touch her yet.
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