Female Republican senators praised Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett Wednesday, saying that Barrett will inspire their daughters and granddaughters through her example as a dignified legal jurist and successful mother.
“Folks, this is what a mom can do,” Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst said at the Wednesday afternoon press conference. “I tell my daughter that all the time. A mom can be a farmer or a rancher. A mom can be a combat veteran. A mom can be a financial planner. A mom can serve in the United States senate. And most certainly, a mom can be a Supreme Court Justice. Anybody that says different is absolutely wrong.”
President Donald Trump announced Barrett as his Supreme Court nominee Saturday evening. If confirmed, Barrett will replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Sept. 18.
In Barrett “we have a role model for our girls, our daughters, and our granddaughters,” said Republican West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, adding that since Barrett has “traveled a journey that not many of us get to do, we should use that as an opportunity to inspire that next generation.”
“She’s been asked to put her name forward, she’s accepted that, she’s putting her family under tremendous scrutiny, along with her professional life, and that’s not an easy journey in and of itself,” Capito said.
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Barrett’s 2017 confirmation hearings gained national attention when Democrats suggested that her Catholicism made her unfit to serve as a judge — and media has attempted to spin comments Barrett made soon after during an interview on filling Supreme Court vacancies. Barrett’s Catholic faith has also been called “extreme,” and some media outlets have attempted to link a Catholic group associated with Barrett to the fictional dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
Republican female leaders pushed back against these criticisms Wednesday, emphasizing that Barrett is a “brilliant” jurist and a woman who conducts herself with “grace.”