CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin on Saturday blasted Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., for making Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett a “hero to religious conservatives” in 2017 — and said it was time the 87-year-old Senator “leave the committee.”
“The dogma lives loudly within you,” Feinstein declared at a Court of Appeals confirmation hearing for the Roman Catholic Barrett three years ago.
Toobin derided the comment from the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee as “so incompetent, so inept, so apparently religiously discriminatory that Amy Coney Barrett became a hero to religious conservatives.”
“Dianne Feinstein was and is a distinguished public servant,” he said. “She is now 87 years old and she has repeatedly engaged in behavior in recent months that seemed out of step with what Democrats want to do. She’s going to be the leader. And all I can say is good luck with that, Democrats.”
Pressed by host Wolf Blitzer whether Toobin believed Feinstein should recuse herself, Toobin went one step further.
“She could leave the committee,” he said. “She could go to the Intelligence Committee.”
“This is not some joke,” he added. “These committee assignments are done largely by seniority. Republicans don’t do it typically by seniority. They pick who can do the best job. Democrats do it based on seniority. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is going to be the leader on the force as to the nomination. She could move off that committee, but her incredibly inept behavior during Barrett’s confirmation hearing helped the forces that Dianne Feinstein has spent her entire career fighting against.”
“That’s just what happened. Democrats have to decide if they want that to happen again,” he said.
President Donald Trump has said he wants the hearings to begin in early October.
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