Prop Master: Sen. Whitehouse Brings Out White Boards, Posters At Barrett Hearing, Doesn’t Ask Any Questions

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) used a variety of white boards and posters to address a list of grievances, including outside groups seeking to influence judicial appointments, during his time at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, but failed to ask the nominee any questions.

“Something is not right around the court,” Whitehouse said at the Tuesday hearing, citing groups including the Federalist Society and Judicial Crisis Network, which advocate for conservative judges. “Dark money has a lot to do with it. Special interests have a lot to do with it. Donors’ trust, and whoever is hiding behind donors’ trust, has a lot to do with it.”

Whitehouse said the groups had spent $250 million in “dark money” — money from donors that they are not required to disclose — to overthrow the Affordable Care Act and Roe v. Wade. He also lamented the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which played a role in enabling such expenditures, and in McCutcheon v. FEC, which allowed an Alabama man to contribute more than $46,200 to political candidates at the federal level.

Pulling out props including a poster that referred in capital letters to “The Scheme,” Whitehouse went through a litany of posters referencing those groups, in addition to other decisions by the court, as well as old quotes from Republican senators.

The scene led to mockery on social media, especially from conservative users, who suggested the performance was too frenetic and detached from the committee’s agenda. Members are hearing from Barrett through the end of Thursday before voting on whether to send her nomination for a vote before the full Senate.

This is literally Sheldon Whitehouse rn pic.twitter.com/vPfWxiTrZv

— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) October 13, 2020

“Unlimited and dark money in politics — Citizens United is the famous one, but it’s continued since with McCutcheon, and we’ve got one coming up now,” Whitehouse added. “Always the five [justices] for unlimited money in politics, never protecting against dark money in politics, despite the fact that they said it was going to be transparent. And who wins when you allow unlimited dark money in politics? A very small group, the ones who have unlimited money to spend and a motive to spend it in politics. They win, and everybody else loses. And if you’re looking at who might be behind this, let’s talk about people with unlimited money to spend and motive to do it.”

Watch above via Fox News.

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