Thread by @Hegemommy

🚨🚨Amy Coney Barrett hearing is starting now🚨🚨

Watch along with me here! If you don't already follow @RewireNewsGroup too

I'm following along here.

Sen. Graham says COVID is real but we all have to suffer and work through it

Good grief Jess include the link

judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/nomin…

Today is a kind of opening ceremony for the entire charade of having a hearing now.

Graham opens by invoking RBG as "someone who worked for the ACLU" as though that's supposed to be shade.

Graham is giving RBG's history here and I don't think it's going to play to ACB's benefit the way Republicans will try and make it.

Everything the Republicans are doing with the Barrett nomination is a coopting of RBG's legacy

Graham giving ACB's work history here and fails to mention her role on Faculty for Life and University of Notre Dame where ACB was a proponent of fetal personhood and fought to take away students' access to birth control coverage under the Affordable Care Act

Graham now going through the machinations of Republicans blocking the Merrick Garland nomination and how that was totally different and JEEZ WHY DO YOU ALL KEEP TALKING ABOUT THE ELECTION

Why hold this hearing, Graham says. A lot of people on our side say just ram it through, Graham says without a hint of irony as to the actual proceedings we are suffering through right now

Republicans keep pointing out the fact that ACB has two adopted children and I feel compelled to point out that Republicans want ACB on SCOTUS to help block LGBTQ families from adopting kids of their own

Sen. Feinstein up now and is gonna play along with this nonsense I guess

Sen. Feinstein doing an excellent job demonstrating what failed opposition leadership looks like

Sen. Feinstein hopes that these hearings will shed some light on whether or not ACB will gut the Affordable Care Act if confirmed and lists all that is at stake if so

This is not effective opposition in any definition of the word

I cannot-- and simultaneously can completely-- believe this is how Democrats are going to address this power grab. A lot of soft scolding and playing along

There's not a lot that Democrats can do to actually BLOCK this nomination but Feinstein giving this any air of legitimacy is a complete failure of leadership

Now Chuck "I don't need no stinking COVID tests" Grassley is up and I'm wondering how long until he starts yelling about Democrats being mean to ACB

Grassley is ranting about George III so this is all going along swimmingly

Grassley lecturing the American public about the separation of powers right now is a moment so rich in bullshit even I am struggling to find the right snark

Grassley going on about ACB's judicial temperament but as soon as Democrats actually ask about her record they'll cry victim

Grassley also invokes ACB's status as a mother as proof she's fit to serve on SCOTUS

Grassley talking about court packing right now and excuse my my head literally did just explode

Hi my name is Jess and I've spend the last 10 years yelling on this here Twitter dot com about Chuck Grassley and Republicans packing the courts

Grassley now yelling that Obamacare isn't a tax

Grassley absolutely has no poker face. He always starts out quiet and ends up yelling and here we are

Souter would end freedom of women Grassley says which lol FREEDOM OF WOMEN

Sen Leahy now joining virtually and it's gonna be weird tweeting through multiple tech delays but I'll do my best

Looks like they got the tech sorted out there and Leahy is talking about how irresponsible it is to have these hearings right now

Leahy pivots to the fact that a Barrett confirmation swings the Court wildly to the right with a conservative super-majority

These stories of people who will be devastated if they lose their health insurance would be more compelling if Republicans gave a shit

At some point Democrats will have to learn to stop appealing to the humanity of Republicans because that assumes facts not in evidence

Sen Cornyn is up now and is starting off with conservative resentment politics

Cornyn says the ACB is really nice to work with so obviously she should be confirmed

Cornyn now defending Brett Kavanaugh as a good man who was attacked with innuendo which sure

Cornyn wants to know how ACB can both bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan

Cornyn says judges shouldn't be super-legislators who deliver wins legislators couldn't otherwise and hello I'd like to introduce you to Reed O'Connor of the northern district of Texas who does this exact thing for Republicans all the time

Cornyn also bringing up court packing so yeah Republicans are worried about court reform

Sen Durbin up now as we're rounding the first hour of this ..... event! happening

At least Durbin brings up the fact that the Trump administration has failed to commit to the peaceful transition of power SEEMS IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW WITH THIS NOMINATION

Durbin pivots to the McConnell rule and GOP hypocrisy moving forward with the ACB nomination.

Democrats need to stop being shocked by the fact that Republicans are feckless

Durbin must be really outraged by all of this nonsense let me tell you, I can hardly think through his moderated tone and stern look

Sen Lee is here and maybe spreading COVID everywhere he goes

Lee talking about how they both come from large families and how that's helped make her a leader 😐

Sen Lee, who tested positive for COVID-19 and was in isolation is not wearing a mask as he monologues

Sen Lee calls the judiciary the 'least dangerous' branch of government and that is both wrong and one way to think of our democracy

Sen Lee calls the Supreme Court the best judicial system that has ever manifested on planet earth and honestly this is weird even for judiciary committee hearings

Sen Lee talking about the dormant commerce clause has me thinking about Democrats plan to codify Roe and what happens with a 6-3 conservative supreme court

Republicans project everything and Mike Lee is no exception

Mike Lee is still talking I zoned out there for a bit

Mike Lee calls the Constitution an "American thing"

Sen Whitehouse is up now and calls the hearing a microcosm of Trump's dangerous ineptitude in dealing with COVID.

Who has been tested, he asks?

The whole thing, just like Trump, is an irresponsible botch

Whitehouse calls Barrett a "judicial torpedo" Republicans are firing at the ACA

Whitehouse flat-out calls the ACB nomination ceremony a super spreader event

So far Whitehouse is the first Democrat to do any of this remotely well

Also Whitehouse dialing in on Cornyn right now is solid politicking too. Cornyn's Senate race has tightened up

Sen Cruz up now appearing remotely and has apparently kept the pandemic beard

Sen Cruz and Lee are really interchangeable parts

Sen Cruz is still talking

This man just monologues nonsense whenever he's got an audience

Ted Cruz says that Democrats are filibustering COVID relief in case anyone was wondering if it was just Trump who makes shit up on the fly

Sen Klobuchar up now and while I'm no fan I expect she'll do well today though

A-Klo going off on the list of political firings from Trump and her voice is shaking.

Her anger is palpable

Sen. Sasse up now and he's already very disappointed in all of you

Sasse says today would be very confusing to 8th graders tuning in

I'm so tired of Ben Sasse as civic scold because it is complete garbage, for starters

Sasse has decided to give us a civics lecture but I have a suspicion this will really be a politics lecture

Amazingly I was 10000% correct!

Civics is the stuff that all Americans should agree on, says Sasse. Like unelected justices deciding that businesses can discriminate against LGBTQ families or the government must underwrite discrimination

Sasse now pivoting to virgin births as part of civics

Sasse hints that People of Praise, the charismatic christian group that ACB was a part of, was just "a bunch of catholic moms sharing parenting advice"

Sasse now talking about judicial activism and is this still the civics lecture just checking

Sasse says court packing means we are blowing up civics

Sasse says this is destroying the system not reforming it.

Republicans are really worried that Democrats will do Big Structural Reform on the courts

Coons is up now and he's usually pretty good in these hearings but we'll see my expectations are minimal

Okay need to bounce out for just a minute brb!

Okay I'm back! I'm guessing I didn't miss anything

Sen Tillis is up now and then a little break

Tillis is appearing remotely as well and as soon as he opens his mouth I tense up but those two things are not related

Maybe the reason Republicans are against virtual hearings is because none of them know how to silence their computers during Zoom

Tillis notes that he had ACB sign pocket constitutions for his family members and it's my opportunity to point out that Bob Weir from The Grateful Dead signed my pocket constitution

Quick recess now until 12:20 ET let me see what disaster awaits my inbox

Republicans have brought up Amy Coney Barrett's seven kids a lot already today. Here's @DCampoamor on the Motherhood Trap the GOP is trying to set with her nomination

rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2020/0…

Nothing quite as chilling as to have the judiciary committee hearing on a random tab and then have Sen Graham start speaking.

Thanks I hate it.

Sen. Hirono up now so I hope everyone is hydrated and grabbed snacks because I expect this will get good fast

The White House has become a COVID-19 hot spot Hirono says

Hirono does not disappoint, pointing out that these are not normal times

She dials in on both COVID and the last 10 years of GOP attempts to repeal the ACA

Hirono sharing her experience with kidney cancer and the reality that the Affordable Care Act keeps people alive and one day maybe we'll live in a world where women don't have to share personal medical stories to get conservatives to give a shit

Also Mike Lee tested positive for COVID 10 days ago and isn't wearing a mask and Hirono still has cancer

Sen Ernst gives me a stomach ache

Sen. Ernst is very worried about who Joe Biden would appoint to the Supreme Court and she is also very concerned that the left will attack ACB's faith and her 'precious family'

A reminder that Judge Barrett would undermine LGBTQ families if appointed to the Court

Ernst brings up handmaids and says Democrats are lambasting people of faith in America.

Reminder that Joe Biden is Catholic. As is Nancy Pelosi.

Oh Ernst is going in hard on Amy Coney Barrett as a working mom and the great freedom of being an American woman

Ernst invoking choice and feminism and Justice Ginsburg right now in case anyone else needs to scream inside their hearts with me

Senator Booker is up now and I was told he'd be going door-to-door when covid is over and ... is there a petition somewhere I can sign to make that happen

Booker brings up criminally investigating people for abortion and conservatives will say this is hyperbole and in response we should ask them how they plan on enforcing all those abortion bans they want to pass

Now Sen Crapo and remember it is CRAY-po not CRAP-oh but also it's 2020 and there are no rules

I'm really working on admitting when I'm wrong and I think I was when I said Mike Lee is the most boring member of this committee. It's Sen. CRAY-po

Sen CRAY-po calls the arguments that Barrett will vote to overturn Roe v Wade the "same old thing" anytime Republicans appoint a judge and lol yeah it's your litmus test for being a judicial nominee you nincompoop

Get it! Crapo. Nincompoop.

Come for the real time legal analysis, stay for the poop jokes

Oh my word he's still talking

Sen Harris up now participating remotely

Harris starts off by noting that more than 50 people are inside the room and that having the hearing puts Congressional *staff* at risk too

Harris notes that Senate Republicans have had a COVID relief bill for 150 days without acting

Harris making a very clear case about what will happen if the Affordable Care Act is overturned.

Actual costs to actual lives.

And just a reminder that when we talk about overturning Roe v Wade and making abortion illegal that means *criminalizing health care* because abortion is health care

Harris brings up Brown v Board, Roe v Wade, Loving v Virginia, and Obergefell v Hodges and this is some really good framing.

Sen. Kennedy up now and says that Louisiana claims Amy Coney Barrett and honestly it comes off as a little passive aggressive

IT WAS A FREAKSHOW Kennedy shouts in relation to the Kavanaugh hearings

It was like the Cantina scene in Star Wars

I know it hurts to be called a white colonialist he says

Before its over with they may call you Rosemary's Baby, Kennedy says

Well Kennedy just made things extra weird so there's that

Kennedy has pivoted to the fact that Americans love democracy

So I have no idea what is going on with Kennedy-- and I have a pretty solid history with psychedelics here-- he is now ranting about the giant rogue beast of the administrative state

Kennedy btw is not some yokel. This is a highly educated man who plays a yokel for votes

Oh great now Sen Blackburn is up so I'm sure things will level out.

She's gonna hold my beer to Sen. Ernst on the coopting feminism

Did you know Amy Coney Barrett is a working mom? Blackburn brings it up. Again.

Also says Democrats would allow "only certain" kinds of women in the room.

Amy Coney Barrett spoke at many events in defense of "traditional marriage" and "certain kinds" of women aka not queers

Mother Justice is such a weird look but of course its the one Republicans are leaning so hard on

I'm half expecting to see an image of ACB in robes like the Virgin Mary with babies at her feet and on her hip with a bible while hearing arguments

You know this is what they're thinking

Blackburn giving a white grievance speech right now

Graham now defending the hearing today. He says the hearings are CDC compliant and that he won't be told to be tested by political opponents

Now we have a panel of folks to talk about ACB including Professor Patricia O'Hara from Notre Dame.

First up Indiana Sen Todd Young

That was a lot of talk about Hoosiers

Now for more Hoosier talk is Sen. Braun

The fact that John Mellencamp is nowhere to be found says all I need to know about ACB and Indiana

Sen Braun is concerned that hostility to ACB's faith will translate to hostility of faith elsewhere and skips right over that whole Muslim Ban thing

Now Professor Patricia O'Hara from Notre Dame law school as soon as the technology gets sorted out

She must be in the 3G part of Indiana Graham jokes

Coastal elites amirite

Okay well Graham wastes no time in swearing in ACB

ACB is going to invoke "pathmaking" and that's a specific RBGism and how Justice Ginsburg saw her role in the legal profession

ACB starts off with her joke of being part of group on 9 and how being a mom and wife is the most important thing ever

ACB introducing her family to the committee

ACB is herself one of seven kids. Growing up in Catholic circles this is quite common

ACB acknowledges a truism which is many frustrated English majors go on to law school

Barrett says she chose to accept the nomination because she believes deeply in the rule of law

Ugh ACB invoking Sandra Day O'Connor hurts but also weird how Republicans themselves seem to have forgotten her

Not weird at all. Totally predictable.

Amy Coney Barrett also believes in the power of prayer. So: rule of law and power of prayer and fertility/motherhood are the values ACB set forth

Tomorrow begins 30 minute rounds, then 20 minutes starting at 9 am ET so everyone rest up, hydrate, and eat a good dinner if you can

In the meantime stay tuned for a very special Boom! Lawyered episode dropping later today!