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US President Donald Trump’s decision for the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett was defended by the Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham. He pondered the earlier days of bipartisan Supreme Court confirmation processes and defended the Senate GOP’s decision to move ahead with Donald Trump. The chairman pointed out that the US Senate confirmed the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Her seat will be filled after appointing Coney Barrett, by a bipartisan 96-3 vote. The conservative legal icon Antonin Scalia received 98 votes in his favor. Graham said, “I don’t know what happened between then and now. There was a time in this country where someone like Ruth Bader Ginsburg was seen by almost everybody as qualified for the position of being on the Supreme Court, understanding that she would have a different philosophy than many of the Republicans who voted for her”.

It is noteworthy that Democrats have criticized Senate Republicans for moving ahead with the Barrett nomination just days before the 2020 Presidential Election. They refused to hold hearings for Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, more than seven months out from the 2016 election. Graham went on the record multiple times over the past 4 years. He said he would not conduct hearings to seat a Supreme Court nominee in an election year like he’s doing now. But, he defended the Barrett confirmation process as constitutional, on Monday. Graham said, “Bottom line here is that the Senate is doing its duty constitutionally. There have been 19 vacancies filled in election years. 17 of the 19 were confirmed to the court when the party of the president and the Senate were the same”.

Graham also sent a message to his Democratic colleagues. He urged them to keep the hearing respectful to Coney Barrett, whose family was in the hearing room on Monday. Graham added, “To the extent possible. Let’s make it respectful, let’s make it challenging. Let’s remember the world is watching”. Democrats on the panel are working on 2 things at the hearing on Monday. They highlighted Senate Republicans’ hypocrisy for shutting down the 2016 Supreme Court nomination process until after that year’s election to give the American people a voice in the decision, only to rush through Barrett’s confirmation 4 years later. They also tried to warn Americans that the confirmation of Coney Barrett would effectively serve to dismantle the 2010 Obamacare.