CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Senator Richard Blumenthal
Interview
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[18:50:49]
BLITZER: The final day of questioning in the confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court concluded just a little while ago. Throughout her testimony yesterday and today, Judge Barrett avoided answering many substantive questions on controversial issues like the Affordable Care Act, abortion, disputed elections.
Let's discuss with Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. He's a member of the Judiciary Committee.
Senator, thanks so much for joining us.
As you saw personally because you questioned her, Judge Barrett repeatedly insisted she does not and will not allow her personal, her religious beliefs to affect her decision making when it comes to being a U.S. Supreme Court associate justice.
When you had the opportunity to question her today, you pressed her, for example, about a sensitive issue, marriage equality. What -- what did her answers reveal to you?
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): My questions, Wolf, had nothing to do with her religious faith or her personal beliefs. They had to do with her legal positions.
And I asked her whether those guarantees in the Constitution to marriage equality articulated in relevant Supreme Court cases were there in the Constitution. I asked her directly, were the cases like Obergefell or Lawrence v. Texas, they are fundamental principles of our Constitution correctly decided? She declined to answer. She refused to be responsive on those questions.
And also, Griswold v. Connecticut which held that contraceptive use cannot be banned criminally. It's a case decades-old. She refused to say it was correctly decided, and that she didn't know whether she would be in a majority.
So I think she has created almost an extension of the rule called the Barrett rule that questions are going to be avoided and ducked and dodged. I'm deeply disappointed.
But really, for the people of America, those couples, whether it is gay or lesbian couples or others who are in marriages or relationships, my heart goes out to them because she has created a level of apprehension that is really unbelievable.
BLITZER: But in refusing to answer, you know, those -- those kinds of questions, wasn't she simply following in the footsteps of almost all of the Supreme Court nominees who have come before the Judiciary Committee in recent years?
BLUMENTHAL: She's taken that trend, it's a very regrettable one, many steps farther.
But I'll tell you what also deeply angered me is the non-disclosures. And, in fact, CNN is reporting right now, additional seven speeches and potential documents that have not been disclosed, talks that she gave at Notre Dame and other events.
I use the 2013 letter that she signed that was undisclosed in a number of my questions. We wouldn't know about that document if CNN and other sources hadn't given it light and breath.
So I think that these nondisclosures show we should delay the markup. In other words, the initial vote on this nominee scheduled for 9:00 a.m. tomorrow. We should postpone it. We should have full review.
I said to her, if we had had a less rushed process, maybe you would have found these documents. Maybe you would have done disclosure better.
BLITZER: But bottom line, you don't have the votes. Democrats are in the minority, the Republicans are in the majority, right?
BLUMENTHAL: They have the votes on their side in the committee right now. They have the raw political power. But might does not make right. They are doing it because they can.
But we're making our case to the American people. We have brought real people into that hearing room who are affected by the potential destruction of protection of people with preexisting conditions, the impact on reproductive rights and on gun violence prevention.
[18:55:04]
I think we made -- or at least we have begun to make our case to the American people.
But these new disclosures, especially tonight by CNN, are really a bombshell.
BLITZER: Senator Blumenthal, as usual, thanks so much for joining us.
BLUMENTHAL: Thank you.
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