Exclusive — Ted Cruz: Senate to Confirm Amy Coney Barrett Before 'Election Day'

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told Breitbart News on Wednesday that the Senate will confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court before the end of October.

Cruz spoke to Breitbart News as the former Supreme Court litigator released his book, One Vote Away: How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History, which details his insight into the Supreme Court and how many of Americans’ most cherished freedoms hang in the balance of the nation’s highest court.

He further told Breitbart News that the book would give a “behind the curtain” view of the Supreme Court. He added that the book would help give readers context for the impact of the Supreme Court ahead of Barrett’s confirmation.

Cruz argued in front of the Supreme Court nine times and wrote over 80 Supreme Court briefs. He was also put on President Donald Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court nominees.

The senator also clerked for then-Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist, and currently serves as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which would vote on Judge Barrett first, before sending her to the Senate for full confirmation. Cruz also chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution.

Cruz said that Judge Barrett is supremely qualified to serve on the nation’s highest court. He added that although Senate Democrats will do their best to attack her, the Senate will confirm Judge Barrett to the Supreme Court before Election Day.

Cruz told Breitbart News “So, I think Judge Barrett is a very strong nominee, I think President Trump made a good choice here. I sat down and spoke with her yesterday, about 45 minutes with Judge Barrett. And I thought she was very impressive; her credentials are impeccable. She was number one in her class at Notre Dame law school, she was a law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia, she has been a law professor at Notre Dame for 20 years, and she is one of the most respected federal appellate judges in the country. And, all top of all of that, she is also a mom with seven kids, which I can’t even imagine the latter one, much less doing everything else she’s managed to do altogether. And, you know I have to say when we sat down, and she visited yesterday, what impressed me the most was her demeanor, was the calm, the peacefulness; she brings a judicial temperament and an academic and a scholarly approach.

“I think she’s going to do very, very, well at the confirmation hearings, and I’m confident that we will have the votes and that we’ll confirm by the end of the month before Election Day.”

Cruz said that the prospect of having a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court has made the stakes even higher for Democrats. He added that the Democrats’ attack on Barrett’s adopted children and her strong Catholic faith is “despicable.”

He explained, “The threat of this Supreme Court vacancy, before the vacancy the hard left was already enraged and filled with fury and hatred for President Trump, and after the vacancy, to borrow a line from Spinal Tap; now it goes to 11. They’re just out of their minds with fury, and so I with the day her name was put forth, a couple of different Democrat operatives targeted her kids and began to begin attacking her young children, I got to say kids should be completely off bounds and then the fact that they would even consider going after young children I think is despicable. That’s actually one of the things that I shared with Judge Barrett when we sat down and visited yesterday, I said, listen, I can’t control what the Democrats do and if they target your family but, I can promise you that I and others will do everything we can to defend your family if it gets ugly, which it can.”

“We’ve also seen, and we know they’re going to do it again, they’re going to target her faith. And we know that because they did when she was being confirmed to the Court of Appeals. Judge Barrett is a Catholic, and Sen. Dick Durban, Democrat from Illinois, when he was questioning her, he inquired if she was an ‘Orthodox Catholic,’ I’m not sure what he meant by that adjective. I don’t think he meant Greek Orthodox or Russian Orthodox, which she’s not. I think orthodox was just sort of a generic expletive, or just a generic insult, like are you a Catholic who really believes in that stuff, is what I guess what he meant. Or as Sen. Dianne Feinstein [D-CA] put it, which is now an infamous comment, she said the ‘dogma lives loudly’ in her,” Cruz continued.

“The degree to which Democrats have been making the case that if you’re a Catholic, if you’re Evangelical, if you’re an Orthodox Jew, if you’re a person of faith, you can’t serve the judiciary you can’t serve in public office, I think it’s wrong, but it’s also unconstitutional. The text of the Constitution prohibits a religious test for public office, so I fully expect Democrats at the confirmation hearing to go after her faith, but I don’t I think that’s going to serve her well with the American people who don’t want to see people persecuted for her religious faith,” Cruz contended.

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.