MSNBC host Chris Jansing attempted to make a point Tuesday about conflict between potential Supreme Court Justice Amy Barrett's religious beliefs and career interests by brining up Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's late husband.
Jansing asked New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters about who President Donald Trump is likely to pick to fill the Supreme Court vacancy.
"Amy Coney Barrett is somebody who's known to be deeply religious. She's a Catholic," Peters said. "She belongs to a very small tight-knit group called People of Praise that has received some scrutiny lately for some of its less orthodox beliefs."
"Such as?" Jansing asked.
"Taking a lifetime loyalty oath to the organization and basically preaching an ideology that says the husband is the head of the wife in the family unit," Peters responded.
"Let's see how that plays out when the wife is a Supreme Court justice," Jansing said.
"Exactly. Seems a little odd to me," Peters said.
"Ask Ruth Bader Ginsburg's husband," Jansing quipped.
Ginsburg's husband Martin Ginsburg, however, passed away back in 2010.
Democrats have signaled that if Barrett is nominated, they will oppose her. Barrett, 46, was recently appointed on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit after being confirmed by the Senate. During her last confirmation hearing, Democrats targeted Barrett for her Catholic faith. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) attacked Barrett for the influence her Catholic faith might have, insinuating that, "the dogma lives loudly within [her]."
Peters said if Democrats attack Barrett's faith it would energize Republicans before the midterm elections.
"The Republicans are eager to make this a fight over a religious test. They want to make the Democrats look intolerant when it comes to people of faith and they would want another moment like you saw in Coney Barrett's confirmation hearing for the appeals court position when Dianne Feinstein seemed to belittle her faith, saying 'the dogma runs deep in you,'" Peters said. "So while that may seem like the kind of messy confirmation process the president wants to avoid, there's actually a school of thought that that might be good for the Republican party because that would really fire up the base."