(Radio Iowa) – Vice President Mike Pence drew cheers from crowds in Iowa yesterday as he vowed Republicans will soon fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court. “And Judge Amy Coney Barrett is going to be Justice Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court of the United States,” Pence said, to cheers in Des Moines.

Pence spoke at a manufacturing plant in Carter Lake early Thursday afternoon, then addressed about 600 people at an event in downtown Des Moines hosted by The Family Leader. Pence says the president nominated a remarkable, conservative woman and he challenged Democrats to provide her a “respectful” Senate confirmation hearing.

“When she was nominated to the Court of Appeals, during Judge Barrett’s confirmation hearing, the Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee criticized her Catholic faith, saying: ‘The dogma lives loudly within you.'” California Democrat Dianne Feinstein is the senator who questioned how Barrett’s faith would influence her opinions as a judge. Pence says that criticism had been revived by “Hollywood elites” opposed to Barrett’s ascension to the Supreme Court.

“That dogma lives loudly in me. That dogma lives loudly in hundreds of millions of Americans and every American who cherishes faith has the right to live and work and worship according to the dictates of our faith and conscience, enshrined in the Constitution of the United States,” Pence said. The crowd gave his statement a standing ovation. This was the vice president’s fifth trip to Iowa this year. He promised his Iowa audiences a Covid vaccine is “weeks away.”

Joe Biden’s deputy campaign manager issued a written statement responding to Pence’s visit, saying after nearly 90-thousand Iowans contracted Covid, there’s no end in sight to the pandemic’s impact on the health and finances of Iowans.