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US-POLITICS-SENATE-HEALTH-VIRUS-COURT
Key US Senator Graham refuses Covid test ahead of debate
WASHINGTON, Oct 10, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Prominent US lawmaker Lindsey Graham,
who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee set to consider President Donald
Trump’s Supreme Court nominee next week, refused on Friday to be tested for
the coronavirus.
The South Carolina ally of Trump said no to a testing request by his
Democratic rival in their Senate race, ahead of their scheduled debate in the
southern state.
Graham’s move prompted the debate with Jaime Harrison to be scrapped, with
separate interviews of the candidates conducted instead.
But the issue could prove to be a critical one in Washington.
Graham is expected to preside in person over next week’s hearings on the
confirmation of conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the Supreme
Court seat made vacant by the death last month of liberal justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg.
Should Graham test positive and be forced into 10 days or more of
quarantine, that could postpone the hearings, something Republicans have
fiercely opposed.
Two other Republican senators on the committee, Mike Lee and Thom Tillis,
tested positive after attending a September 26 ceremony where Trump announced
Barrett as his nominee.
Most attendees were not wearing masks and several have since tested
positive.
Of the Judiciary Committee’s 22 members, 10 are age 68 or older. They
include the Senate’s two oldest senators, Democrat Dianne Feinstein and
Republican Chuck Grassley, both 87.
Feinstein and other Democrats on the panel penned a letter to Graham, 65,
saying he is putting Barrett and the senators at “serious risks” by holding
the hearing, especially without mandatory testing for participants.
“We urge you against unsafely moving forward with these hearings while no
clear testing regime is in place to ensure that they do not become another
super-spreader of this deadly virus,” wrote the Democrats.
One of the signatories was Senator Kamala Harris, who is Democratic nominee
Joe Biden’s vice presidential running mate.
In defending his own refusal to be tested, Graham tweeted that his
challenger Harrison was “putting himself above others” by insisting on
different treatment for him and Graham than for other South Carolinians.
BSS/AFP/SSS/0902 hrs