What Supreme Court pick means for election race

Senate Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham this morning clarified his committee's timeline to address the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

Graham said in an interview with Fox Business's Maria Bartiromo that confirmation hearings for Barrett would begin on Oct. 12 with an introduction day.

After that, there will be two days of questioning, and on Oct. 15th, the committee will begin its markup.

They will hold a committee vote to send her nomination before the entire chamber on Oct. 22.

Last night on Fox News, Graham said the committee would vote on Barrett's nomination by Oct. 26. 

President Trump arrived at Trump National golf club in Sterling, Virginia at just after 10 a.m. today, according to pool reports.

This is his 397th visit to one of his properties and 298th visit to one of his golf clubs during his presidency.

The President's trip comes a day after he announced he's nominating Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

As Trump arrived at the golf club, there was a woman dressed in a "Handmaid's Tale" costume with a sign that said "VOTE" and a large crowd right near the entrance of the club with a sign that read “204k.” 

More than 204,500 people have died from coronavirus in the US since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University's latest tally.

There were a few Trump supporters as well although only a fraction of the crowd, per CNN's Allie Malloy.

Asked about President Trump's refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power should he lose the election, Jill Biden said her husband, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, will bring "calm" back to the US.

"We go back to Joe Biden, we have calm. We have steady leadership," she added. "We don't have all of this chaos in America."

Some background: Earlier this week, Trump would not commit to providing a peaceful transition of power after Election Day, lending further fuel to concerns he may not relinquish his office should he lose in November.

"Well, we're going to have to see what happens," Trump said when asked whether he'd commit to a peaceful transition, one of the cornerstones of American democracy.

Trump has previously refused to say whether he would accept the election results, echoing his sentiments from 2016. And he has joked — he says — about staying in office well past the constitutionally bound two terms.

Jill Biden, Joe Biden's wife, said reports that Trump called fallen US military members losers "heartbreaking," if it's true.

What this is about: Earlier this month, a report in The Atlantic magazine cited sources who said Trump rejected the idea of a visit to Aisne-Marne cemetery in France to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. He and proceeded to refer to the fallen soldiers as "losers" and "suckers," according to the sources.

Trump has forcefully denied the report in The Atlantic.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said "it doesn't matter" that Judge Amy Coney Barrett is Catholic this morning on CNN's State of the Union.

Pelosi, who is Catholic herself, was asked by CNN's Jake Tapper if she thinks it's appropriate for Democratic senators to ask Judge Barrett about her Catholic faith.

She continued: "It doesn't matter what her faith is, or what religion she believes in. What matters is does she believe in the Constitution of the United States. Does she believe in the precedent on the Supreme Court that has upheld the Affordable Care Act? This is, again, directly related to a major concern of the American people, as it was in 2018."

Some context: In 2017, Democrats were criticized for questioning how Judge Barrett's Catholic faith influences her views from the bench. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein told Barrett at the time "the dogma lives loudly within you."

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks with CNN on Sunday, September 27. CNN

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi criticized President Trump's swift nomination to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Supreme Court seat, saying he's moving quickly in order to fill the vacancy before the court hears a case on the Affordable Care Act in November.

Pelosi warned that a conservative court could overturn the Affordable Care Act.

"If you are a woman, we'll be back to a time where being a woman in a preexisting medical condition," she said.

She noted that it's the job of the Senate — not the House — to consider and possibly confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett's nomination.

"It's up to the Senate to make that judgment and have that process," she said.

Some background: The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments just after the November election in a case about the Affordable Care Act.

Senate Republicans have indicated they may vote to confirm Barrett before Election Day — meaning she could be seated on the bench for that case.

What Barrett has said about the Affordable Care Act: In an early 2017 law review essay reviewing a book related to the Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act, Barrett criticized Chief Justice John Roberts' rationale that saved the law in 2012.

"Chief Justice Roberts pushed the Affordable Care Act beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute," Barrett wrote. "He construed the penalty imposed on those without health insurance as a tax, which permitted him to sustain the statute as a valid exercise of the taxing power."

Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge speaks during an event in Washington, DC in 2018. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Tom Ridge, former Department of Homeland Secretary during the George W. Bush administration, endorsed Joe Biden in an op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer this morning. 

Ridge offered a scathing critique of Trump’s time in office, including his attempts to cast doubt on the election process. 

“With just about one month until Election Day, President Trump continues to claim the only way he can possibly be defeated is a rigged election. Can you imagine the hubris? Can you imagine any other president in our lifetime — or ever — saying something so dangerous and un-American? We are in the midst of a health crisis, when we should be doing all we can to help citizens vote safely, yet he continues to cast doubt on the sanctity of the vote. He’s done so multiple times here in Pennsylvania. It’s deplorable, yet utterly consistent with past reprehensible behavior.”

Ridge noted, “While I do not agree with many of Biden’s policies, I do know him to be a decent man who can begin to undo the damage President Trump has caused.”

Democratic nominee Joe Biden is moving from briefing books into full days of preparations. President Trump is studying notecards and getting help from a long-time ally, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

As we get closer to the debate showdown in Cleveland on Tuesday, both campaigns have been quiet about how the candidates are preparing.

Biden's early debate preparations focused on reading briefing books and holding smaller prep sessions with policy aides, people familiar with his preparations said. He typically prefers having aides pepper him with questions in rapid-fire form over conducting full mock debates, those people said.

Ron Klain, Biden's former chief of staff who also managed ex-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's presidential debate work, is helping to oversee Biden's debate preparations ahead of Tuesday night, those sources said. Other longtime close Biden advisers who have been involved in recent debate prep sessions include Anita Dunn, Steve Ricchetti and Mike Donilon.

Trump, according to a source familiar with his debate preparations, is studying expected attacks from Biden. The focus of the preparations are a series of notecards the President is reviewing — the front lays out an expected Biden attack while the back of the card has bullets of what Trump has done on the topic, what he will do in a second term and how to turn the attack back on the former vice president. Christie, who played Clinton in Trump's 2016 debate, is also helping with Trump's debate preparations, the source added.

The first debate, moderated by Fox News' Chris Wallace, will be 90 minutes and focus on six topics:

President Trump told Fox News he thinks he prepares "every day" for the first presidential debate on Tuesday.

In a pre-taped interview airing on Sunday, the President did not elaborate much further on his preparations, adding, "when you're president, you sort of see everything that they're going to be asking."

He went on to tout the economy and claimed his administration has saved "millions and millions" of lives in its efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

The US surpassed the staggering milestone of 200,000 coronavirus deaths this week.