McCarthy: Democrats trying to make Barrett face of ObamaCare repeal
Ex-federal prosecutor decries 'political malpractice' by White House on 'Bill Hemmer Reports.'
The Trump administration should have dropped its support for a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act rather than give Democratic lawmakers a chance to hound Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett about the implications of adding her to the bench just before the high court considers the case, former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy told “Bill Hemmer Reports" on Tuesday.
"I really think it is political malpractice to have put not only just her, but to put the Trump campaign in this position in connection with litigation that I don't really think has any chance of success," McCarthy said.
A major theme of Democrats’ questions and statements to Barrett during Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing was the idea that President Trump nominated her due to her attitude towards the Affordable Care Act — also known as ObamaCare.
On Nov. 10, the court is due to hear arguments in a case challenging the constitutionality of ObamaCare's individual health insurance mandate.
BARRETT SAYS SHE'S 'NOT HOSTILE' TOWARDS OBAMACARE
The timeline "has given the Democrats the ability to try to frame her as somebody who is being put on the court to get rid of ObamaCare and also three weeks before Election Day," McCarthy argued, "basically [to] pound the drum of ObamaCare, which is an issue of some concern to a lot of voters."
The Fox News contributor praised Barrett for approaching the issue as a "surgical jurisprudential exercise, not a policy commentary on ObamaCare," adding that he thinks she has "deftly handled it."
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But, McCarthy said, it is unlikely that the Supreme Court will overturn the controversial law even if Barrett is confirmed, arguing that as a matter of legal merit, the lawsuit brought by a group of Republican-governed states "wasn't any better in March than it is today."
Fox News' Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
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