President Trump nominates Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court
What it means for the Court and the presidential election.
The Republican National Committee launched a $10 million campaign to promote President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett to “hold Democrats accountable” for what the GOP called their “hypocrisy” on the nomination process to the high court.
The initiative, rolled out after the president formally nominated Coney Barrett to the high court on Saturday from the White House Rose Garden, includes a $10 million digital ad campaign, a new website and a get-out-the-vote effort in target states.
The RNC said Saturday that the initiative also includes a “massive rapid response operation” to amplify Coney Barrett’s record, while “harnessing voters’ enthusiasm about appointing a constitutionalist” to the Supreme Court, and “motivate and persuade” voters to the polls on Election Day.
“Even before President Trump announced a nominee, Democrats made clear that they would obstruct this Constitutional process every step of the way, throwing historical precedent out the window,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Saturday.
“With a full-throttled effort from now until President Trump’s nominee is confirmed, our teams will expose Democrats’ partisanship, aggressively promote the qualifications of Judge Barrett, and use this issue to galvanize voters to the polls in November.”
In addition to digital ads, the RNC is using its joint field effort with the Trump campaign, Trump Victory, to hold dozens of events and protests to engage with volunteers in critical states throughout the confirmation process.
The effort comes ahead of what is expected to be a brutal Senate confirmation process for the president’s nominee, as Democrats, including his Democratic opponent former Vice President Joe Biden has urged the Senate to block a nominee from being confirmed to the high court until after Election Day.
“Supreme Court decisions affect our everyday lives, and the Constitution was designed to give voters a voice on who makes those decisions,” Biden tweeted Saturday, just after President Trump nominated Coney Barrett to fill the vacancy left by late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“The Senate shouldn’t act until after the American people select their next president and the next Congress,” Biden continued. “Americans deserve to be heard.”
Biden, this week, called Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s efforts to push a nominee through the Senate before Election Day an “exercise in raw political power.”
Biden pointed to the controversy surrounding Obama’s appointment of Merrick Garland to fill the vacancy left by late Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016, and argued that “having made this their standard when it served their interest, they cannot, just four years later, change course when it doesn’t serve their ends.”
Senate Republicans refused to hold a hearing or a vote on Garland’s nomination, citing the imminent 2016 presidential election.
Meanwhile, Biden’s running mate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said that Trump’s choice to nominate Barrett would “harm millions of Americans.”
“Trump’s hand-picked successor to Justice Ginsburg’s seat makes it clear: they intend to destroy the Affordable Care Act & overturn Roe,” Harris tweeted, referring to the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.
“This selection would move the court further right for a generation & harm millions of Americans,” she said.
Also Saturday, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez also weighed in, saying the president’s choice “confirms what we already knew.”
TRUMP ANNOUNCES AMY CONEY BARRETT AS NOMINEE TO THE SUPREME COURT
“Everything we care about is at stake in this election. Health care is on the ballot. Reproductive rights are on the ballot. LGBTQ rights, voting rights, and workers’ rights are on the ballot. The future of our planet is on the ballot,” he said in a statement. “Today’s announcement is an affront not simply to our values as a democracy, but to every organizer and activist who has fought, marched, and voted to make this country live up to its founding ideals.”
Perez added: “We must send a loud, clear, and unified message to Trump and every one of his Republican enablers at the ballot box in November by voting them out of office.”
Nevertheless, Barrett said she has “no illusions that the road ahead of me will be easy, for the short term or the long haul.
“I never imagined I would find myself in this position,” she said Saturday. “I will meet the challenge with both humility and courage.”
Addressing members of the Senate, Barrett said: “I will do my very best to demonstrate that I am worthy of your support.”
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