McConnell on Media's Interest in Judge Barrett's Children

Statement

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) issued the following statement today regarding the New York Times story on Judge Amy Coney Barrett's children:

"The political left and the press should leave Judge Barrett's children alone. The nominee introducing her family in a few sentences of prepared remarks does not give the New York Times license to start treating minor children like objects of public curiosity.

"This is a strange pattern for the New York Times. In 2005, another Supreme Court nominee from another Republican president also had adopted children. The Times tried to make an issue of them too. Nonpartisan adoption advocates had to publicly shame the newspaper before they publicly walked away from the story. One such group restated two weeks ago that this entire "thread of conversation' should be "off the table.' Too bad the Times ignored them.

"The article editorializes that "Just as everything with her nomination, the adoptions have been hard to totally separate from the politics of the moment.' What does that mean? Hard for whom? Only a few far-left commentators and now the Times have opted to scrutinize Judge Barrett's children rather than her qualifications.

"The Times deliberately chose to paraphrase and amplify what "some critics' and "detractors' may be saying about this family. The media chooses which unhinged claims and tweets to ignore, which ones to indignantly push back against, and which ones to legitimize and elevate. If Judge Barrett happened to be a liberal icon, the press would be running interference against personal attacks and hounding Republicans to denounce them, not pretending they represent some chin-stroking national conversation.

"I look forward to voting to confirm this exceptionally well qualified nominee in just a few days."

Source