WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding Judge Amy Coney Barrett and religious freedom:

“At this time last week, the nation did not know whom President Trump would be nominating to the Supreme Court.

“But amazingly, we did know what kinds of false attacks the far left would deploy against whoever it was.

“Democrats and special interests have been telling the country for 45 years that every Supreme Court vacancy under a Republican president was going to bring about the apocalypse.

“John Paul Stevens was anti-woman. David Souter wanted to hurt vulnerable people. John Roberts was out to get health insurance.

“And wouldn’t you know, the President had barely finished saying Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s name before the same old attacks began rolling in.

“Our 77-year-old male former Vice President and our 69-year-old male Senate Democratic Leader have tried to inform American women that this 48-year-old working mom wants to roll back her own rights as a woman.

“Democrats have tried to fear-monger around a four-year-old academic paper that referenced one unfair penalty in Obamacare — which Congress has already eliminated.

“As an aside, if the American people are interested in which Senators are serious about protecting Americans with pre-existing conditions, they can simply look up the vote Senators took last night.

“Every single Democrat voted against legislation from Senator Tillis that would have cemented protections for these vulnerable Americans.

“Democrats voted to block protections for pre-existing conditions.

“Just like they voted to block hundreds of billions of dollars of coronavirus relief.

“And just like they voted to block police reform.

“And 1,000 other things they tell Americans they support, but vote against, to block bipartisan progress.

“Here’s another one of the made-up attacks:

“Democrats are demanding that Judge Barrett commit in advance to recuse herself from entire categories of cases, for no reason.

“This is another totally invented standard. Nobody has ever suggested that Supreme Court Justices should categorically sit on the sidelines until the President who nominated them has left office.

“Justices Ginsburg and Breyer were confirmed during President Clinton’s first term.

“Justices Sotomayor and Kagan were confirmed during President Obama’s first term.

“All four of these Justices went on to participate in election-related proceedings while the President who’d nominated them was on the ballot.

“And Justices Breyer and Ginsburg participated actively in Clinton v. Jones and other matters connected to President Clinton’s eventual impeachment. In fact, they urged and attempted to get the Supreme Court even more involved.

“This is just a sideshow.

“If Judge Barrett is confirmed, she will swear an oath. She will have a lifetime appointment. Nobody serious is suggesting she lacks any bit of the integrity which everyone trusted Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan, and countless others to exercise.

“In fact, her integrity and independence are precisely what Judge Barrett’s peers across the political spectrum go out of their way to applaud.

“Judge Barrett has no obligation to make any of the bizarre pre-judgments that our Democratic colleagues are demanding.”