-If I'm confirmed, you would not be getting Justice Scalia.
You would be getting Justice Barrett.
-Do you think it is faithful to our democratic principles
to fill a Supreme Court vacancy this close to an election?
-I think that is a question for the political branches.
-What's the precedent regarding the Affordable Care Act?
Do you feel like you should recuse yourself from that case
because you're being nominated by President Trump?
-That's not a question that I could answer in the abstract.
-I'm gonna ask you some questions
that if you had told me five years ago
that would be questions asked at a Supreme Court nomination
hearing, I would have thought they wouldn't be possible.
You condemn white supremacy, correct?
-Yes. -Should a president commit
themselves to the peaceful transfer of power?
-Well, one of the beauties of America
from the beginning of the republic
is that we have had peaceful transfers of power.
It is part of the genius of our Constitution.
-Will you commit to recuse yourself from any dispute
that arises out of the 2020 presidential election?
-I have had no conversation with the President
or any of his staff on how I might rule in that case.
-In the 2013 letter that you signed,
there is the following statement --
"We renew our call for the unborn to be protected in law."
-It's really no more than the expression of a pro-life view.
-Do you agree with Justice Scalia's view
that Roe was wrongly decided?
-I'm gonna invoke Justice Kagan's description.
She said that she was not gonna grade precedent
or give it a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down.
-In 2006, you signed your name to an advertisement.
It described Roe v Wade
as "an exercise of raw judicial power"
and called for putting
"an end to the barbaric legacy of Roe v Wade."
You signed a similar ad in 2013.
I would suggest that we not pretend that we don't know
how this nominee views a woman's right to choose.
-Now, Senator Harris just called you a liar,
that you've already made up your mind
on how you're gonna vote on some cases.
Are you a liar?
-I am not a liar, Senator Kennedy.
-You used the term "sexual preference"
to describe those in the LGBTQ community.
"Sexual preference" is an offensive and outdated term.
-I would like to just make a quick follow-on
to some of Senator Hirono's comments.
I certainly didn't mean
and, you know, would never mean to use a term
that would cause any offense in the LGBTQ community.
Saying that I couldn't opine
on whether Obergefell was rightly decided or not,
I was certainly not indicating disagreement with it.
The point of not answering was to simply say
it's inappropriate for me to say a response.
-Do you think we should take the President at his word
when he says his nominee will do the right thing
and overturn the Affordable Care Act?
-I can't really speak
to what the President has said on Twitter.
-Have you committed to the President or anyone else
that you will vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act
if confirmed to the court?
-Absolutely not.
I was never asked, and if I had have been,
that would have been a short conversation.
-Since you became a legal adult,
have you ever made unwanted requests for sexual favors
or committed any verbal or physical harassment
or assault of a sexual nature?
-No, Senator Hirono. -Where are we today
when it comes to the issue of race?
-As we just talked about the George Floyd video
that racism persists in our country.
I discussed I am aware that there is evidence
and that there have been studies of systemic racism
or implicit bias in the justice system.
-Is it illegal to intimidate voters at the polls?
-Senator Klobuchar, I can't characterize the facts
in a hypothetical situation.
-Well, I'll make it easier.
18 USC 594 outlaws anyone who intimidates,
threatens, coerces, or attempts to intimidate, threaten,
or coerce any other person for the purpose of interfering
with the right of such other person to vote.
This is a law that has been on the books for decades.
-Senator Klobuchar, if you continue to ask questions
about super precedents
that aren't on the list of the super precedents
that I discussed in the article that are well-acknowledged
in the constitutional-law literature,
every time you ask the question,
I'll have to say that I can't grade it.
-Okay. Well, I am then left
with looking at the tracks of your record
and where it leads the American people.
And I think it leads us to a place
that's gonna have severe repercussions for them.