US senators react as Barrett keeps Democrats at bay

Leading US senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee reacted late Wednesday following the end of two long days of testimony by Amy Coney Barrett, President Donald Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court.

Over and over, Barrett said she’d be her own judge if confirmed to the Supreme Court.

But she was careful in her Senate testimony not to take on the president who nominated her, and she sought to create distance between herself and past positions, writings on controversial subjects and even her late mentor.

Barrett's confirmation to the Supreme Court to take the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg seems inevitable, as even some Senate Democrats acknowledged in Senate hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The shift would cement a 6-3 conservative majority on the court and would be the most pronounced ideological change in 30 years, from the liberal icon to the conservative appeals court judge.

The 48-year-old judge skipped past Democrats’ pressing questions about ensuring the date of next month's election or preventing voter intimidation, both set in federal law, and the peaceful transfer of presidential power.

She also refused to express her view on whether the president can pardon himself.

"We shouldn't be here. We shouldn't be holding the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting in the midst of an election," Senator Dick Durbin told reporters.

Durbin added "it's a desperate attempt by Senator (Mitch) McConnell and President Trump to fill a Supreme Court vacancy at a time when we should be taking our time assessing the nominee and doing it in an orderly fashion."