Amy Coney Barrett, Questioned on Potential Recusal, Says She Wouldn’t Allow Herself ‘To Be Used as a Pawn to Decide This Election’

Senator Chris Coons returned to the issue of potential recusal at Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court hearing, with respect to cases concerning the election, given what President Donald Trump has openly said linking the Supreme Court confirmation push to potential cases.

Coons told Barrett directly, “I’m concerned that what President Trump wants here couldn’t be clearer, that he’s trying to rush this nomination ahead so you might cast a decision, a vote in his favor, in the event of a disputed election, and he’s doing his level best to cast doubt on the legitimacy of an election in which literally millions of votes have already been cast, most of them by mail.”

He asked if she would recuse herself and Barrett responded with this:

“No matter what anyone else may think or expect, I have not committed to anyone or so much as signaled — I’ve never even written, I’ve written a couple of opinions that have been around the edges of election law — but I haven’t even written anything that I would think anybody could reasonably say, ‘Oh, this is how she might resolve an election dispute.’ I certainly hope that all members of the committee have more confidence in my integrity than to think that I would allow myself to be used as a pawn to decide this election for the American people. So that would be on the question of actual bias, and you asked about the appearance of bias and you’re right that the statute does require a justice or judge to recuse if there is an appearance of bias. And what I will commit to every member of this committee, and to the rest of the Senate and to the American people is that I will consider all factors that are relevant to that question… that requires recusal when there’s an appearance of bias, and there is case law under the statute, and as I referenced earlier in describing the recusal process of the Supreme Court, Justice Ginsburg said it is always done with consultation of the other justices. So I promise you that if I were confirmed and if an election dispute arises, both of which are ifs, that I would very seriously undertake that process and I would consider every relevant factor.”

You can watch above, via Fox News.