President Donald Trump was careful not to discuss "certain concepts and certain things" with Judge Amy Coney Barrett, but he did suggest her conservative views might lead to the new Supreme Court kicking the abortion rights issue to the states.
"She is certainly conservative in her views, in her rulings, and we'll have to see how that all works out, but it will work out," Trump told Sunday's "Fox & Friends Weekend."
That includes a potential relitigation of the Supreme Court precedent on abortion rights set by Roe v. Wade.
"It's certainly possible, and maybe they do it in a different way – maybe they'd give it back to the states," Trump told Pete Hegseth from the White House on Saturday. "You just don't know what's going to happen."
Trump began the interview saying he avoided discussion of specific topics on advice from his advisers, despite his own intuition to do so.
"I didn't discuss certain concepts and certain things, and some people say you shouldn't," Trump added. "I don't see any reason why you shouldn't, but I decided not to do it. And I think it gives her freedom to do what she has to do. She has to make rulings. But I think she's going to make a lot of people very proud."
Trump noted he has been "surprised" by some of the rulings of the Supreme Court of late, which includes his two previous nominees, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, among the eight existing justices (one-quarter of the Court; if Judge Barrett is confirmed, Trump would have staffed one-third of the Court).
"I've been surprised by some of the rulings that we've already had over the last year," Trump said. "You know, you think you know somebody and then you get rulings federal a little bit different than you think could happen. So you never know what's going to happen.
"Mostly, I'm looking for somebody that can interpret the Constitution as written. We say it all the time and she is very strong on that. And it'll be very interesting."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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