Fact Check: Kamala Harris Says Americans Want Winner of Election to Fill SCOTUS Vacancy

Hannah Knudsen

CLAIM: Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) declared during Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary confirmation hearing that Americans “want whoever wins this election” to fill the Supreme Court vacancy.

VERDICT: MOSTLY FALSE. Recent polling actually shows that a plurality support the Senate confirming Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, leading by a 17-point margin. Moreover, support for doing so has consistently risen — even among Democrats — since President Trump formally nominated Barrett in late September.

“We are also in the middle of an election. More than 12 million Americans have already voted. The American people want whoever wins this election to fill this seat,” Harris said, presenting her statement as an indisputable fact. “My Republican colleagues know that, I believe.”

She continued:

This hearing has done nothing to alleviate the concerns raised about why this nominee was chosen and why this is being rushed when the American people deserve to be heard. So again, I would say, let us not pretend that we don’t know what consequences rushing this confirmation will have on the American people. There are countless issues at stake and to be candid, people are very, very scared. They are scared that allowing President Trump to jam this confirmation through will roll back rights for generations. Scared about what it means to the future of voting rights. About what it means for civil rights. Or workers rights. Or consumer rights, climate change, and the right to a safe and legal abortion, Not to mention access to health care regardless of income or pre-existing conditions.

Harris added that the American people are also “deeply concerned” about what Barrett’s confirmation means for the nation’s pursuit of equal justice under the law and said she shares those concerns, calling the confirmation process “illegitimate” and suggesting that it will do “great damage.”

Harris’s primary assertion, that the American people want the winner of the next election to fulfill the seat, is challenged by a Wednesday Morning Consult poll, which showed support for confirming Barrett continuing to grow.

According to the survey, 48 percent of registered voters back Barrett’s confirmation, rising 11 percent, from the 37 percent who expressed the same belief in late September and the 46 percent who said the same last week. Support has even consistently risen among Democrats, as Breitbart News reported:

In the late-September survey, only 14 percent of Democrats indicated that the Senate should confirm Barrett. That number jumped ten points, to 24 percent, a week later. This week’s survey showed the number rising three points, with over a quarter of Democrats, or 27 percent, expressing the belief that the Senate should confirm Barrett.

…

According to the Morning Consult, the survey “provides another warning sign for Senate Democrats — process arguments about when the chamber should hold a vote on Barrett’s nomination have yet to sway public opinion.”

A plurality of voters, 44 percent, also believe the Senate should “vote on confirming her as soon as possible, regardless of who wins the election” — a five-point increase from those who said the same September 26, the survey found.

The percentage of those who said the Senate should “only vote on confirming her if President Trump wins the election” decreased from 40 percent in late-September to 36 percent.

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