The moment Trump's supreme court pick refused to say he should commit to a ‘peaceful transfer of power’

Trump's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett refused to say whether she thought a president should commit to a ‘peaceful transfer of power’ and people are highly alarmed.

“Do you believe that every president should make a commitment, unequivocally and resolutely, the peaceful transfer of power?” Asked Senator and former Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker, on the second day of Barett’s confirmation hearing.

"That seems to me to be pulling me into the question of whether the president has said he would not leave office. To the extent that this is a political controversy right now, as a judge I want to stay out of it, and I don't want to express a view," Barrett replied, completing dodging the question.

“Amy Coney Barrett literally will not say if the President should commit to the peaceful transfer of power,” Elie Mystal tweeted, to which others responded: “How the f*** are all of them getting away with this?”

People were particularly concerned with her calling a “peaceful transfer of power” – which politics professor Brendan Nyhan called “the core of democracy itself” – merely just a “political controversy”.

“It’s not a political controversy. It’s a question of law,” one lawyer tweeted. Others said it was a sign of corruption and made it seem like she “doesn't support generic principles of democracy”.

Booker, seemingly trying to get some kind of answer on this pertinent question, continued to press Barrett on the matter, and she responded:

"One of the beauties of America from the beginning of the republic is that we have had peaceful transfers of power and that disappointed voters have accepted the new leaders that come into office ... That's not true in every country..."

So again, not a 'yes' or 'no'.

This comes in the context of president Donald Trump, who nominated Barrett in September after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has refused to commit to peacefully accepting the results of the 2020 election.

Trump, who is trailing significantly in polls against Democrat Joe Biden, has engaged in a disinformation campaign, saying that the election is "rigged" against him via mail-in voting.

This whole confirmation is controversial, as many see Barrett’s nomination as highly hypocritical, considering Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s speeding through a confirmation process just weeks before an election.
But none of this seems to matter, as McConnell and the Senate Republicans seems to have their minds fully made up, and seemingly nothing will stop them from confirming the judge.

MORE: Amy Coney Barrett is not the answer for America