Senator reveals how Trump picked Amy Coney Barrett to dump Obamacare, gay rights and abortion

‘When you find hypocrisy in the daylight, look for power in the shadows,’ Senator Whitehouse says of conservative dark-money groups

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse used all 30 minutes of his time at Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearing on Tuesday to reveal how Donald Trump and the Republican party have harnessed a quarter of a billion dollars in conservative dark money to appoint federal judges who will dismantle Obamacare, gay marriage, and abortion rights.

Rifling through bullet-point, cardboard slides on an easel on his desk, the Rhode Island Democrat called out Republicans for refusing to hold hearings for Barack Obama’s Supreme Court appointee in 2016, Merrick Garland, because it was an election year and, as Iowa GOP Senator Chuck Grassley said at the time, “the American people shouldn’t be denied a voice.”

Mr Obama nominated Mr Garland seven months before the 2016 election. Donald Trump nominated Ms Barrett, whom Republicans are determined to confirm this year, seven weeks before the 2020 election.

“When you find hypocrisy in the daylight, look for power in the shadows,” Mr Whitehouse said.

On one of his slides, Mr Whitehouse presented a direct quote from the Republican party platform from 2016 and 2020 that read: “A Republican president will appoint judges … who will reverse the long line of activist decisions — including Roe, Obergefell, & the Obamacare cases.”

Roe v Wade is the landmark Supreme Court decision from 1973 that enshrined abortion rights for American women.

Obergefell v Hodges is the court’s 2015 decision that guaranteed same-sex couples the fundamental right to marry in all 50 states.

The Supreme Court has ruled on several cases with implications on key provisions from the 2010 health care law commonly known as Obamacare.

Mr Whitehouse and other Democratic senators pointed to several other comments by the president promising to appoint federal judges — including Supreme Court justices — who would roll back Obamacare policies.

“That is the president’s statement. So when we react to that, don’t act as if we’re making this stuff up. This is what President Trump said. This is what your party platform says: ‘Reverse the Obamacare cases,’” Mr Whitehouse said.

On abortion, Mr Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have made the administration’s position clear at campaign rallies this autumn that they have appointed judges who oppose Roe v Wade.

“The president has said that reversing Roe v Wade will happen automatically because he's putting pro-life justices on the court. Why would we not take him at his word?” Mr Whitehouse asked.

Earlier in the day, Ms Barrett hit back against the notion that she has a fundamental aversion to Obamacare.

Ms Barrett, a Notre Dame Law School professor who has sat on the Seventh Circuit US Court of Appeals since 2017, declined throughout the day to “pre-judge” any cases that could come before her on the high court.

“I think that your concern is that because I critiqued the statutory reasoning that I'm hostile to the ACA, and that because I'm hostile to the ACA, I would decide a case a particular way,” she said during an exchange with Democratic Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois.

"I'm not hostile to the ACA. I'm not hostile to any statute that you pass,” Ms Barrett said.

Democrats over the last several weeks have repeatedly criticised Mr Trump’s selection of Ms Barrett as aimed at rolling back Obamacare, which has boosted protections for millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions.

While Ms Barrett has made clear that she made no promises to Mr Trump or GOP senators about how she would rule on particular issues such as abortion rights and health care, Democrats have said that isn’t the point.

“I'm not suggesting you made some secret deal with President Trump, but I believe the reason you were chosen is precisely because your judicial philosophy, as repeatedly stated, could lead to the outcomes President Trump has sought,” Senator Chris Coons of Delaware said on Monday.

“I think that has dramatic and potentially very harmful consequences with regards to the election, the Affordable Care Act and long-settled rights.”