CNN’s Toobin: ACB Hearing ‘Being Held in the Middle of a Pandemic’ in a Hotspot — ‘So Surreal and So Dangerous’

CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin on Monday voiced his concern about the Senate Judiciary Committee holding Supreme Court justice nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearing amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Democrats have pushed back against President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee given he is in the final year of his first presidential term.

Toobin said on CNN’s “New Day” ahead of the hearing that the confirmation process is “being held in the middle of a pandemic” in what he called a “hotspot” because Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Mike Lee (R-UT) have both tested positive. He argued it is “so surreal and so dangerous” that members of the committee, some of which he noted are in their 80s, are “exposing themselves to this virus.”

“[T]his is a hearing being held in the middle of a pandemic in the middle of a hotspot. I mean, Tillis has COVID, Mike Lee has COVID, Lindsey Graham refuses to get tested, Chuck Grassley also on that committee, refuses to get tested,” Toobin emphasized. “I mean, this is so unbelievable that they are doing this. There are three members of that committee, Grassley, Pat Leahy and Dianne Feinstein, who are in their 80s who are exposing themselves to this virus.”

“I mean, the idea that they are doing this hearing now is so surreal and so dangerous that, you know, I think that’s worth mentioning, too,” he concluded.

Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), one of the members Toobin expressed concern about because of his age, delivered his opening statement for the hearing remotely. Doctors cleared both Tillis and Lee to attend the hearings in person.

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