Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said Judiciary Committee hearings to confirm Amy Coney Barrett as a Supreme Court justice will be Oct. 12, and a vote taken before the end of the month — despite three committee members falling ill with COVID-19.
In an interview on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," Cotton said he was confident Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah and Thom Tillis, R-N.C. — all of whom have said they have tested positive for the coronavirus — will be able to participate either in person or virtually.
"I'm confident that every senator will be in attendance when his or her vote is needed," Cotton declared, as Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., who is not on the committee is also being treated for COVID-19 infection.
According to Cotton, they could be out of isolation in time for the vote.
"Several of the senators who are in isolation right now would come out of isolation before those hearings," he claimed, adding: "The Senate Judiciary Committee has also conducted 20 hearings this year, that have either been in part or in whole virtual. . . . he hearing is going forward no doubt in my mind starting a week from [Monday]."
Cotton also blasted China for the coronavirus pandemic, and its now-deleted tweet mocking President Donald Trump for "paying the price" and getting sick with the virus.
"Their mockery of President Trump," Cotton said, "calls to mind what I've said since early January, when I was the first person in Washington sounding the alarm about this virus, which I've said from the beginning, is serious, and highly contagious, that there is one party and one party only that is responsible for all of the Americans who have been effected by this virus.
"And the responsible party is the Chinese Communist Party for unleashing this plague on the world and lying about it from the beginning as they still lie about it today."
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