WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation to discuss President Trump’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

“I'll press her on her previous statements about the Affordable Care Act. President Trump said he would only choose a nominee he was confident would overturn the Affordable Care Act [ACA], and as you know, Margaret, that is on the Supreme Court’s docket just one week after the election. It defies comprehension why President Trump would continue in his efforts to strip away from the American people pre-existing discrimination protection. There are more than 100 million Americans who have a pre-existing condition. Seven million more because they've been infected in this pandemic,” said Senator Coons. 

Senator Coons continued, “Justice Ginsburg's life's work was protecting us against gender discrimination, and before the ACA, insurance companies could and did discriminate against women just for being women by treating pregnancy as a preexisting condition, charging women more for access to health insurance. It is amazing to me that Judge Barrett has publicly criticized the decision by Chief Justice Roberts that upheld the constitutionality of the ACA, and that President Trump is making it clear a vote for Judge Barrett to be on the Supreme Court is a vote to repeal the ACA and take away health care protection from a majority of Americans during a pandemic.”

Full audio and video available here. A transcript is provided below.

Q: We want to go to Delaware Democratic Senator Chris Coons. He’s in Wilmington. Good morning to you, Senator.

Sen. Coons: Good morning, Margaret. Great to be on with you again.

Q: You heard Mark Meadows' confidence and the timeline in the confirmation of Judge Barrett – you’re laughing. It doesn't seem though that Democrats can do much to stop it. Will Democrats do anything to slow it down? Will they boycott hearings? How serious are you about trying to throw sand in the gears?

Sen. Coons: Margaret, what I was shaking my head about was having just heard Mark Meadows breathlessly trying to support President Trump's desperate efforts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of this election. We should not be barreling forward with this partisan nomination. There is only 37 days until the election. There is no precedent in American history for a president filling a vacancy this close to an election where I'll remind you more than half of the American states are already voting. We should be waiting until after the election. We should honor Justice Ginsburg's dying wish that the people should choose the next president; the next president choose her successor.

Q: Well Eisenhower recess appointed Brennan 22 days before the election, but I understand that was without Senate consent, so I hear your point. But the question was, are Democrats going to do anything to slow this down? Some of your colleagues are saying they won't even meet with the nominee. What will you ask her when you meet with her?

Sen. Coons: Well I'm either going to meet with her in person or by phone – just another way this pandemic has upended the lives of millions of Americans. I'll press her on her previous statements about the Affordable Care Act. President Trump said he would only choose a nominee he was confident would overturn the Affordable Care Act, and as you know, Margaret, that is on the Supreme Court’s docket just one week after the election. It defies comprehension why President Trump would continue in his efforts to strip away from the American people pre-existing discrimination protection. There are more than 100 million Americans who have a pre-existing condition. Seven million more because they've been infected in this pandemic. And I'll remind you, Margaret, Justice Ginsburg's life's work was protecting us against gender discrimination, and before the ACA, insurance companies could and did discriminate against women just for being women by treating pregnancy as a preexisting condition, charging women more for access to health insurance. It is amazing to me that Judge Barrett has publicly criticized the decision by Chief Justice Roberts that upheld the constitutionality of the ACA, and that President Trump is making it clear a vote for Judge Barrett to be on the Supreme Court is a vote to repeal the ACA and take away health care protection from a majority of Americans during a pandemic.

Q: I understand that. Judge Barrett introduced herself to the American public as a mother of seven, as sort of a class mom, a very warm presentation in the public space. How do you fight that?

Sen. Coons: Well, we don't need to fight that. I can respect the fact that she has a beautiful family. That her clerks and students say she is a very talented professor and judge. That's not what is at issue here. What is at issue is both this rushed and partisan confirmation in which President Trump has told us he is choosing someone who will overturn Roe v. Wade, he is choosing someone who will overturn the ACA, and he is choosing someone who President Trump himself says he will need to put their thumb on the scale so that he can win the next election. He’s not confident he’ll win it fair and square at the ballot box. He says we have to rush through this nominee, so that there [are] nine justices and one he handpicks to – according to President Trump – support him in his re-election effort.

Q: Well, he says he believes it will go to the Court and be decided. I understand your points. As you know with individual cases, judges sometimes are hard to predict, even though you can kind of guess where they stand ideologically. But on the question for her confirmation hearing, Judge Barrett has been before your committee before because she was confirmed to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and at the time, Senator Feinstein said to her, and you know what I’m going to say to you because it has gone viral, "The dogma lives loudly in you, and that is of concern." To many people, that sounded like anti-Catholic bigotry. You are a man of faith. How did that comment land with you?

Sen. Coons: Well, Margaret, as you know, millions of Americans rely on our faith to guide us, to give us a framework in which we raise our children and live our lives, a community of meaning and of depth. Religious faith should not be at issue here. There isn't a religious test for service in the government, whether it is in the Senate or on the Supreme Court. If Judge Barrett is confirmed I know that–

Q: Is that a legitimate question? Should that be raised as a factor?

Sen. Coons: What should be raised is her opinions, her speeches, her public statements as a professor and a judge, and whether or not she will uphold precedent. As you well know, Margaret, Roe v. Wade, Griswold v. Connecticut, these are settled cases that for decades have allowed Americans to have confidence about the role of the state in terms of their private decisions about health care, and the Affordable Care Act is settled law. The Supreme Court has upheld it as being constitutional. That's on the docket a week after this election. And that's something Judge Barrett has spoken directly about. It is appropriate for us to question her statements, her opinions, her actions as a professor and judge, but not to go into questions of doctrine or faith personally. That's where I'll be focusing my questions, on the Affordable Care Act and on what she has said publicly about her views on its constitutionality.

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