WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence pushed back on critics of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett in an interview airing Thursday with EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo, arguing that they cannot presume to know how she would rule on any particular case as a justice on the high court. 

During Barrett’s confirmation hearing this week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Democrats have pointed to a pro-life letter signed by Barrett in 2006, as well as a 2017 essay she wrote as a professor at Notre Dame Law School critical of the Supreme Court’s majority opinion that upheld the Affordable Care Act — also known as Obamacare — to characterize Barrett as an ideologue. 

In the World Over interview, Pence said he is pro-life and proud to be part of a pro-life administration, but President Donald Trump “nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett because she is a brilliant jurist who will uphold the Constitution, who will interpret laws as written and won't legislate from the bench.” 

“I wouldn't presume how she would rule on any case,” Pence said. “But the president kept his word in nominating someone who will uphold all the liberties enshrined in our Constitution and will serve in a manner consistent with her mentor with whom she worked, the late Justice Antonin Scalia.” Pence reiterated the administration’s opposition to the ACA, but said those who argue Barrett would throw it out are “presuming how a Justice Amy Coney Barrett would rule.”

“The American people can be confident,” Pence said. “With four more years of President Donald Trump in the White House, we'll have health care reform based on freedom, free markets, we'll allow Americans to purchase health insurance across state lines, we’ll protect Americans with pre-existing conditions.”

At a Monday rally in Columbus, Ohio, Pence brought up Barrett’s 2017 confirmation hearing in which Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told the nominee that "the dogma lives loudly within you" and that was a “concern.” 

“Well, I got news for the Democrats and their friends in Hollywood,” Pence told rally attendees. “That dogma lives loudly in me. That dogma lives loudly in you and the right to live, to work, to worship according to the dictates of our faith and conscience lives in the Constitution of the United States of America.”

Asked by Arroyo what the term “dogma lives loudly” means to him, Pence replied, “You know, I've often said I'm a Christian, a conservative and a Republican in that order.” 

“And when I hear the kind of religious intolerance that we've heard coming from Democrat leaders in recent years, like millions of Americans, I take it very personally,” Pence said. “The American people cherish our first freedom, the freedom of religion. And for me, the ability to live and to work and to raise my family in a manner consistent with my faith is at the very heart of who I am. And I think you could tell at the rally today that when I said that dogma lives loudly in me, I also said to the crowd, that dogma lives loudly in you. And you could tell that it does.” 

Pence said in his travels across the United States, “the sweetest words I ever hear, when people stop, take a moment and say, I'm praying for you.” 

“The President and I hear it all the time,” he said, adding he was “moved” that Barrett’s opening statement at her confirmation hearing included her saying that she believes in prayer. 

“This nation believes in prayer and we cherish the freedom,” Pence said. “Freedom to live out our faith every day under President Donald Trump, we're going to protect that freedom for four more years.”

 

The full interview airs Thursday at 8:00 PM EST on EWTN. 

The EWTN News Washington Bureau has previously requested interviews with former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris but the Biden/Harris campaign has not responded to those requests.