Biden judicial nominee no longer believes Christian Coalition members are 'bigots' when pressed by GOP

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A Biden nominee for a District Court in California told senators Wednesday that says she no longer believes members of the Christian Coalition are "bigots," something she asserted in an essay when she was a senior at Harvard.

The Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings for six of President Joe Biden’s nominees for judgeships and other positions in his administration. Several GOP members drilled into the nominees’ records, including Sen. John Kennedy, R-L.A., who questioned Judge Rita F. Lin about her college writings in which she called members of a Christian political organization "bigots." Lin has been nominated to be a judge in Northern District Court of California.

In the hearing, Kennedy read an excerpt from a publication called Perspective, where Lin published an essay titled "Person of Faith: Race and Religion as Experiential Knowledge" in 1998.

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Sen. John Kennedy questioned Biden's nominees at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday. (Kevin Dietsch/Pool via AP)

"This is what you said, and I quote, your words not mine," Kennedy said. '"The problem with the Christian Coalition is not that they are Bible thumpers (there are personal beliefs that often result from religious experiences) but that they are bigots.’ Did I quote that correctly?"

Lin responded that the Louisiana senator did quote her correctly but that she does not agree with those statements today.

"I did write that when I was 18 years old, or 20 years old…. I do want to be clear. I do not agree with that today. I wrote that before I went to law school, before I had any kind of…"

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Kennedy pressed a Biden nominee on a college paper in which she called members of the Christian Coalition "bigots." (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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"You were a grown woman when you wrote this," Kennedy interjected as he noted that Lin was a junior at Harvard at the time of publication.

"So you were three-quarters of the way through your Harvard education, and you wrote that?," Kennedy asked.

Kennedy repeated, "Wow," as Lin disavowed her published college-era opinion and stressed that she wrote the essay 20 years before she became a judge.

Sen. John Kennedy speaks at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. (Graeme Jennings-Pool/Getty Images)

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The Senate could take a vote on Biden's nominees as early as this week.