October 12, 2020
COVID Questions for Amy Coney Barrett
- Do you question the scientific evidence that the coronavirus causing COVID-19 is highly contagious?
- Do you question that almost 215,000 Americans have died of COVID-19?
- Dr. Anthony Fauci and other experts have called the White House event where President Trump announced your nomination a super spreader event for COVID-19. More than 20 people who attended the event later tested positive. When the White House held an event where over 200 people were packed closely together, inside and outside, with most of them, including you, not wearing masks, was that a wise decision?
- Why did you, as a federal judge, as a member of an independent branch of government, agree to be the centerpiece of such a reckless, dangerous Trump administration photo-op event in the midst of a pandemic?
- Two members of this Committee were among the people who tested positive for COVID-19 after attending your announcement event. Now one of them, Senator Lee, is here in person at this hearing, which is part of a rushed process aimed at getting you confirmed even as the American people have begun voting, and just before they choose a president on election day in three weeks. People are wearing masks, but they take them off to speak, as have you. We’re in a closed room, the kind of place where the virus spreads. Do you think getting yourself confirmed before the election, while the pandemic still rages, is worth the risks and the bad example this hearing sets?
- President Trump’s administration is in court seeking to invalidate the Affordable Car Act, with a Supreme Court argument set for November 10. The President has expressly stated that he wants a justice who will strike down the law. You have written that the Court, in an opinion by Chief Justice Roberts that rejected a prior challenge to the Act, “pushed the Affordable Care Act beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute.” Nearly eight million Americans have contracted COVID-19, which means, for them, COVID-19 is a pre-existing condition. If the Court strikes down the Affordable Care Act, Americans will no longer be guaranteed health insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions. Aren’t you, then, the justice President Trump wanted to get rid of Obamacare, and thereby get rid of protections for people, including COVID-19 survivors, with pre-existing conditions?