Former Sen. Claire McCaskill said that Senator and vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris was the first questioner to hurt Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s credibility at the ongoing Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
On Tuesday night’s edition of MSNBC’s The ReidOut, host Joy Reid asked McCaskill to grade the Democrats’ performance on day two of the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Barrett.
Reid first noted that “Democrats have been very disciplined in centering the Affordable Care Act in these hearings” rather than making “sort of a religious-based argument against her” as Republicans expected.
“I think they’ve done a really really good job, because what the Republicans wanted, Joy, was they wanted a brawl,” McCaskill agreed. “And they wanted it to be about somehow attacking this woman for her religion. And the Democrats are smart enough not to do that. They haven’t gone near that.”
“But I think it’s really important to realize what Kamala Harris just did,” McCaskill continued. “For the first time today, I think somebody has really hurt Judge Barrett’s credibility.”
“What [Sen. Harris] pointed out, [Judge Barrett] was named to a list by Donald Trump during the election, that she was going to be considered for the Supreme Court,” McCaskill said. “And she wants you to believe she doesn’t know what the president was saying
McCaskill went on to say she’d expect Senator Harris, in her closing statement, “will pull all those pieces together and go ‘Do you believe this witness? Do you believe she didn’t know this is what Donald Trump wanted? Of course, she knew.’ You don’t get on a list to be appointed to the Supreme Court and not pay attention to what the potential president is saying about the Supreme Court. I thought that was the most effective thing that happened today.”
Sen. Harris highlighted the exchange on Twitter Wednesday morning, writing “I asked Amy Coney Barrett whether she had seen or heard statements before her nomination from Donald Trump promising to nominate judges who would rule against the Affordable Care Act.”
“Her answer? ‘I don’t recall.’,” Harris wrote.
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.