GOP 'full steam ahead' on Barrett after Trump test

Republicans Friday said they would push forward with Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Trump's Supreme Court replacement, even after Trump tested positive for COVID-19 and went into isolation.

Gavino Garay has more.

Senate Republicans said on Friday they will carry on with the confirmation process for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett despite President Donald Trump's positive COVID-19 test, and Trump going into self-isolation.

This comes as Mike Lee, a Utah Republican who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Twitter Friday that he too had come down with the coronavirus and will go into 10 days of isolation.

"Unlike the test I took just a few days ago while visiting the White House, yesterday's test came back positive," Lee said on Twitter.

Just this Tuesday, Lee met with Barrett on Capitol Hill without wearing a mask.

Since their meeting, Barrett tested negative for the respiratory disease.

According to a person familiar with the matter, she previously tested positive for the virus earlier this year and has since recovered.

The Republican president has asked that the Senate confirm Barrett, a federal appeals court judge, to replace the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg by the Nov.

3 election, which would forge a 6-3 conservative majority on the top U.S. judicial body.

Democrats meanwhile are calling to stall the confirmation proceedings in light of the recent infections.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Judiciary Committee Democrat, urged against pushing forward before knowing the full extent of potential Senate exposure from Trump's infection.

But Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said the hearings, set to begin on Oct.

12, are quote "full steam ahead."