CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin slammed Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the ranking minority member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, for her “incompetent” and “incredibly inept” questioning of Judge Amy Coney Barrett during her confirmation hearing for the Seventh Judicial Circuit, saying that Feinstein had made Barrett a “hero” to religious conservatives and should step aside during Barrett’s confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court.

Toobin made the comments to Wolf Blitzer during the cable news network’s coverage of Barrett’s nomination Saturday by President Donald Trump.

“You know,” said Toobin, “one person who was not thanked during the — during the ceremony was one of the people who was most responsible for Amy Coney Barrett being nominated to the Supreme Court, and that’s Senator Dianne Feinstein, who in 2017, when she was the ranking Democrat on the committee engaged in questioning of now Judge Barrett, that was so incompetent, so inept, so apparently religiously discriminatory that Amy Coney Barrett became a hero to religious conservatives.”

Toobin then praised Feinstein as “a distinguished public servant who has served for many years,” but who was “now 87 years old” and had “repeatedly engaged in behavior in recent months that seemed out of step with what Democrats want to do.”

“She’s going to be the leader,” said Toobin. “And all I can say is good luck with that, Democrats.”

Blitzer asked Toobin if he was actually saying that Feinstein “should recuse herself,” and allow another Democrat to take the lead during Barrett’s confirmation hearings.

“Yeah,” Toobin replied. “You know, this is not some joke,” noting that Republicans put far less emphasis on seniority in their committee assignments than Democrats do. “So 87 year old Dianne Feinstein is going to be the leader of the Democratic forces on this nomination,” even though that was not required by the Constitution, and was not, in Toobin’s option, in the Democrats’ best interests.

Feinstein’s “incredibly inept behavior during Judge Barrett’s confirmation hearing had an enormous consequence that helped the forces that Dianne Feinstein has spent her entire career fighting against,” said Toobin. “That’s just what happened. Democrats have to decide if they want that to happen again in the Supreme Court confirmation hearing.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.

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