Democrats, along with NBC News, are trying to scandalize Judge Amy Coney Barrett by claiming she didn’t disclose her support for overturning Roe v. Wade in a newspaper ad back in 2006, long before she was a judge:
NBC NEWS – President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, failed to disclose her participation in a 2006 newspaper ad calling for Roe v. Wade to be overturned and ending its “barbaric legacy” when she submitted paperwork to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Two Democratic committee aides confirm to NBC News that the two-page ad published in the South Bend Tribune, which included her name in a long list of those in support, was not disclosed in the Senate forms required of judicial nominees but maintain it should have been. They say it should have been included in the response to a question in those forms asking for citations of “books, articles, reports, letters to the editor, editorial pieces or other published material you have written or edited.”
“The ad should have been included in Judge Barrett’s Senate Judiciary Questionnaire and was not,” one of the two aides said, asking not to be named in order to speak freely about the questionnaire. The aide also said that Barrett did not include her participation in the ad in her Senate disclosures for her 2017 circuit court appointment.
Barrett’s support for the ad, and her failure to report it, was first reported in The Guardian.
It’s always about abortion when it comes to Trump nominees. Democrats are so scared that Roe v. Wade is on the way to being overturned, so they create phony scandals like this attacking her legitimacy to try and sway Senate RINOs from voting for Barrett.
The White House says that Democrats are wrong, that there is nothing to this:
A White House spokesman said that because Barrett did not write or edit the advertisement, it does not fall within the scope of the questionnaire.
The Committee's questionnaire requires disclosure of material that a candidate has "written or edited." Judge Barrett neither wrote nor edited the ad in question.
This reporter's (and Dem aides') suggestion that ACB did something improper on her questionnaire is false. https://t.co/hQRzCbu2dk
— Ben Williamson (@_WilliamsonBen) October 1, 2020
They aren’t the only one. A former Chief Counsel for Nominations to the Senate Judiciary under Chuck Grassley says this is just nonsense:
More nonsense.
I served as the chief counsel for nominations on @senjudiciary.
Judge Barrett isn’t required to submit this public ad, as it’s *not responsive* to the Senate Judiciary Questionnaire.
And this public ad is *already* publicly disclosed.
That’s the point of an ad. https://t.co/5JMmMs7mBX
— 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸 (@mrddmia) October 1, 2020
National Review said this about the ad:
In 2006, long before she was a judge, Amy Barrett agreed to let her name appear with many of her neighbors in a newspaper insert under the statement, “We, the following citizens of Michiana, oppose abortion on demand and support the right to life from fertilization to natural death.” The insert was placed by St. Joseph County Right to Life. It appeared next to anti-Roe v. Wade commentary from the organization, but signatories were asked only to approve the statement.
SHOCKER! A Catholic woman opposing abortion! Just another attack on her faith.
Christopher Scalia actually posted the question on the disclosure form and it’s exactly as the White House says:
One of the many great things about originalists is that they understand what the words "written" and "edited" mean. https://t.co/w5VFyLmxgf pic.twitter.com/hyH98OiMy1
— Christopher J. Scalia (@cjscalia) October 1, 2020
Clearly there’s nothing to this, but expect Schumer and his Democrat minions to make as much hay about this as the can and the Democrat media, like NBC News, to help them push this phony story.