U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) shined a huge spotlight on Judge Amy Coney Barrett Tuesday afternoon, exposing her, during her Supreme Court confirmation hearing, as a tool of the far right and its shadowy dark money groups. The goal of these groups, which are funded by millionaires and billionaires who hide their identities behind non-profits: kill abortion, same-sex marriage, and ObamaCare, Whitehouse proved.
Judge Coney Barrett looked shocked, and swallowed hard several times.
“Don’t act surprised,” Sen. Whitehouse scolded his Republican colleagues. “Why is it surprising for us to be concerned that you want this nominee to do what you want nominees to do?”
Whitehouse reveals in the video below the tens of millions of dollars from the right, being injected into groups including the Judicial Crisis Network and the Federalist Society, to ensure their hand-picked extremist judicial nominees get chosen by the president and confirmed by the Senate. In one case an unnamed donor, he says, donated $17 million to get one Supreme Court nominee confirmed. Another $17 million was also donated by one person, possibly the same, to get another Supreme Court nominee confirmed.
He also notes how the Judicial Crisis Network and the Federalist Society are housed in the same building, and appear to be assisting each other.
CNN’s Keith Boykin adds that “right-wing groups have spent $250 million in dark money to reshape the courts and turn back the clock on fundamental rights for vulnerable Americans.”
Here’s video of Sen. Whitehouse exposing the far right’s attack on democracy.
Watch: