siobhan hughes covers congress for the wall street journal. with the hearings come up and the jute -- in the judiciary committee coming up, we have spent an hour talking about these four days worth of hearings siobhan hughes, welcome. how did these hearings compare with ones in the past given we are now operating under the pandemic. four days for the nominee. caller: four to -- guest: four days is about the standard for a lot of people who have been tuning into the supreme court nominations only recently, it might feel a little different. that is because the brett kavanaugh nominations were so contentious. it did go on for longer than normal. four days is about right. we will start monday with opening statements from senators. we will hear from a neat -- amy coney barrett. divebsequent days, we will into very intense questioning of her by the senators. finally, there will be an outside panel that the senators will question. that is the format. that is standard. what is not standard is that we are operating in a pandemic. this is going to be a

host: siobhan hughes, he hopes it won't turn into a debacle.t are some issues that could come up with judge merrick that could be controversial? guest: probably the number one thing at this moment is roe v. wade. this is going to cut and a couple of different directions. democrats are likely to go on the attack against her out of concern that her personal views are going to seep into her rulings, should any roe v. wade issues come before the court. the big thing that has happened previouslye undisclosed advertisements, pro-life as -- pro-life advertisements have emerged. in one of the advertisements, roe v. wade is called barbaric. the statement is that life begins at fertilization. it says we oppose abortion on demand. those are already flags for democrats. republicans, this is going to cut in another direction. republicans say democrats have an anti-catholic bias. democrats are essentially imposing a religious test and trying to ban anyone with catholic feelings from serving on the supreme court. the stakes are high. these are topics that swa

. >> coming up on "washington journal," siobhan hughes, congressional reporter for the wall street journalpreview for the supreme court confirmation hearings for amy coney barrett. from that, robert mann louisiana state university's school of mass medication looks at the history of presidential advertisements in campaigns. we will take your phone calls and tweets. "washington journal" is next. ♪ president trump has been declared virus free by his doctors. he has back to the campaign trail for a weeks worth of rallies beginning tomorrow. is sunday, october 11, 2020. welcome to "washington journal." we will show you some of joe biden's event in erie, pennsylvania. we will start the program with a question about you and your friends and your political views ll that asks, do you have friends or family with opposing political views, and how is that

siobhan hughes covers congress for the wall street journal. with the hearings come up and the jute -- in the judiciary committee comingp,