NBC was at it from the get-go on Monday, being the only network to kick off their broadcast with the confirmation hearing. “Amy Coney Barrett makes her case revealing how she’ll base her judgments. Democrats arguing she'll threaten affordable health care. Protesters claiming women's rights will be in danger if she’s confirmed,” anchor Lester Holt announced during the opening tease.
Once he got around to introducing their top story, Holt followed up by echoing the claims of Senate Democrats that she was “a threat” to what they hold dear:
Republicans with a majority in hand ready to confirm someone they regard as highly-qualified. Democrats, however, framing the conservative judge as a threat to the Affordable Care Act, a key election issue.
Of course, there was no mention of how people were punished and taxed for not being able to afford ObamaCare, and those that had it were still unable to see a doctor because deductibles were ridiculous.
“Judge Amy Coney Barrett, tonight, vowing to decide cases based on the law, not on her personal beliefs,” reported White House correspondent Peter Alexander. He then played this soundbite of Judge Barrett defending herself in her opening statement:
The policy decisions and value judgments of government must be made by the political branches elected by and accountable to the people. The public should not expect courts to do so and courts should not try.
But that didn’t stop him from boosting the ridiculous allegations from one-half of the liberal media’s 2020 Democratic ticket. “By replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg with someone who will undo her legacy, President Trump is attempting to roll back Americans' rights for decades to come,” Senator Kamala Harris (CA) sneered in a soundbite.
Over on CBS, anchor Norah O’Donnell beamed as she spoke about how “Democrats worked to make confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett less about her qualifications and more about the Affordable Care Act.” This was a lie. Because to the left, a judge’s qualifications and their thoughts on liberal policy are one and the same.
O’Donnell added: “They charged that a conservative court with Barrett on the bench would quickly move to gut the law.” See? Thid was so asinine, that she disproved her own argument in the next sentence.
The rest of the report was handled by chief congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes, who began the video portion by declaring: “As demonstrators flock to the Supreme Court steps, Judge Amy Coney Barrett laid out her conservative philosophy.”
Refusing to acknowledge how Democrats on the Judiciary Committee and wider Senate had attacked Barrett for her Catholic faith at a previous hearing (instituting an unconstitutional religious test on her), both Alexander and Cordes chided Republicans for defending her religious freedom.
“Republicans praising Judge Barrett's qualifications. (…) And arguing her devout Catholic faith should be off-limits, though no Democrats today raised it as an issue,” Alexander mocked.
Cordes noted that “Republicans defended Barrett's membership in a small Catholic group called People of Praise,” before adding, “Democrats didn't focus on her faith, highlighting instead constituents who they said could lose their health care coverage if Barrett joins the court.”
Alexander concluded by touting how Democrats were “already demanding that she agree to recuse herself for any case that could impact the outcome of the election.”
This ideological bigotry and lies were made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Fidelity on CBS and Progressive on NBC. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they’re funding. CBS Evening News has also asked people the “text Norah” at this number: (202) 217-1107.
The transcripts are below, click "expand" to read:
CBS Evening News
October 12, 2020
6:38:20 p.m. EasternNORAH O’DONNELL: Today, Democrats worked to make confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett less about her qualifications and more about the Affordable Care Act. They charged that a conservative court with Barrett on the bench would quickly move to gut the law. We get more now from CBS’s Nancy Cordes.
[Cuts to video]
NANCY CORDES: As demonstrators flock to the Supreme Court steps, Judge Amy Coney Barrett laid out her conservative philosophy.
JUDGE AMY CONEY BARRETT: Courts are not designed to solve every problem or right every wrong in our public life.
CORDES: It is the timing that makes this nomination a political powder keg, with Americans already voting in nearly 40 states.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): I think this hearing is a sham.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): There’s nothing unconstitutional about this process.
CORDES: Republicans defended Barrett's membership in a small Catholic group called People of Praise.
SEN. JONI ERNST (R-IA): Your political opponents want to paint you as a TV or cartoon version of a religious radical.
CORDES: Democrats didn't focus on her faith, highlighting instead constituents who they said could lose their health care coverage if Barrett joins the court.
SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): Kenny is a real person whose life depends on the Affordable Care Act.
CORDES: They pointed to Barrett's comments from 2017 when she argued that “Chief Justice John Roberts had pushed ObamaCare beyond its plausible meaning in order to save it.”
SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): The ways this which you may serve as a justice will do irreparable harm.
SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY: That's outrageous. As a mother of seven, Judge Barrett clearly understands the importance of health care.
(…)
[Cuts back to live]
CORDES: Starting tomorrow, Barrett will face two days of grilling from the committees 22 senators. And barring some unforeseen obstacle, Republicans are hoping to confirm her to the highest court in the land about a week before election day.
NBC Nightly News
October 12, 2020
7:00:22 p.m. Eastern [Opening tease]LESTER HOLT: Tonight the Supreme Court showdown just three weeks before the election. Amy Coney Barrett makes her case revealing how she’ll base her judgments. Democrats arguing she'll threaten affordable health care. Protesters claiming women's rights will be in danger if she’s confirmed.
(…)
7:01:39 p.m. Eastern
HOLT: Good evening. With the Senate hearings underway, the outcome of Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation to the Supreme Court hardly seems in doubt, but how we get to that outcome is tonight the emerging subplot to the hearings and the presidential election.
Republicans with a majority in hand ready to confirm someone they regard as highly-qualified. Democrats, however, framing the conservative judge as a threat to the Affordable Care Act, a key election issue. And now after a day of pleasantries and positioning, are the gloves about to come off? Peter Alexander starts us off tonight.
[Cuts to video]
ALEXANDER: Judge Amy Coney Barrett, tonight, vowing to decide cases based on the law not on her personal beliefs.
JUDGE AMY CONEY BARRETT: The policy decisions and value judgments of government must be made by the political branches elected by and accountable to the people. The public should not expect courts to do so and courts should not try.
ALEXANDER: Barrett, with six of her seven children seated behind her, focusing on family and judicial philosophy, saying the late Justice Antonin Scalia, for whom she clerked, helped shame her conservative views and offering praise for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
BARRETT: I have been nominated to fill Justice Ginsburg's seat but no one will ever take her place.
ALEXANDER: With 21 protesters arrested at the Capitol, today's testify kicks off a contentious four days.
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS: By replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg with someone who will undo her legacy, President Trump is attempting to roll back Americans' rights for decades to come.
ALEXANDER: Chairman Lindsey Graham erasing any doubt that Republicans will confirm Barrett before next month's election.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): This is probably not about persuading each other unless something dramatic happens. All Republicans will vote “yes” and all Democrats will vote “no.”
ALEXANDER: But with millions of ballots already cast, Democrats are slamming Republicans for ignoring a majority of Americans who say whoever wins the election should fill the seat.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): This isn't Donald Trump's country. It is yours. This shouldn't be Donald Trump's judge. It should be yours.
ALEXANDER: Democrats also united in warning that a Justice Barrett would strike down the Affordable Care Act. Just when they say Americans need it most.
SEN. CORY BOOKER [D-NJ]: For years Merritt put off going to the doctor because he was, like many Americans, afraid he could not afford it.
SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Kerri from Middletown, Delaware use to pay $800 a month for junk insurance as she called it.
ALEXANDER: Republicans praising Judge Barrett's qualifications.
SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY: Judge Barrett's qualifications and character are impeccable.
ALEXANDER: And arguing her devout Catholic faith should be off-limits, though no Democrats today raised it as an issue.
SEN. BEN SASSEL This committee isn't in the business of deciding which religious beliefs are good and which religious beliefs are bad and which religious beliefs are weird.
(…)
[Cuts back to live]
ALEXANDER: Also tonight, some Democrats resigned in the fact it's all but certain Coney Barrett will be confirmed, are already demanding that she agree to recuse herself for any case that could impact the outcome of the election.
(…)
