Tom Cotton Launches ‘War Room’ to Help Fight Attacks on Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) at a border security discussion hosted by Center for Immigration Studies in Washington on July 30, 2019. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) has announced his office will operate a campaign-style war room to push back against attacks on President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court and promote the candidate’s appointment.

“Today, I am launching an emergency Supreme Court War Room at scotuswarroom.com to help President Trump fulfill his constitutional duty to appoint the next Supreme Court justice,” Cotton announced on Twitter.

In a video statement, Cotton said Trump would soon announce his pick for the nation’s highest court, characterizing the choice as a “great nomination.”

“We already know Democrats are going to use every trick in the book to smear this nominee,” he continued, saying he expects attacks on her religion and judicial philosophy.

He called his initiative an “all-hands-on deck effort” and urged people to support his war room initiative to “help make sure that we confirm President Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court.”

The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died at age 87 on Sept. 18 from cancer complications, vacated a seat on the nation’s highest court, also opening a fierce battle over nominating her replacement.

Democrat congressional leaders have urged the Senate not to consider Trump’s nominee, arguing it’s too close to the election and expressing frustration with how the GOP-controlled upper chamber blocked President Barack Obama’s nominee in 2016.

But the bulk of Republican senators say there’s plenty of precedent for election-year nominations and that the same party controls the Senate and presidency this time around, making the situation different from 4 years ago.

“President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said last week, hours after Ginsburg died.

Trump on Saturday will announce his next Supreme Court nominee, the third in his first term, with the president widely expected to choose Amy Coney Barrett, a federal judge in Indiana.

Amy Coney Barrett during Senate confirmation hearing to be U.S. circuit judge on Aug. 4, 2017. Screenshot via Senate TV

Barrett is “exactly the kind of justice President Trump wants, and that the country needs right now, so I think it will be her and that it should be,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) told The Epoch Times.

Barrett, who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, has been hailed by supporters for her judicial record and other qualities.

“Time and time again, you hear people saying she’s the smartest person in the room,” Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network, told The Epoch Times.

In a preview of what is expected to be a heated debate around Barrett’s potential appointment, Cotton took to Twitter to denounce what he said were Democrat attacks targeting Barrett’s adoption of two children from Haiti.

“Disgusting. The left now smearing Amy Coney Barrett for adopting children,” Cotton wrote in a tweet, which included screenshots of a message thread calling for the press to probe the matter, alluding to impropriety by saying some adoptions from Haiti were “sketchy as hell” and “her kids were scooped up by ultra-religious Americans.”

Jan Jekielek and Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.