Trump's Sister, Maryanne, Could Be At The Debate

America is waiting for the first debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, which is set to take place Monday evening at Hofstra University. There are loads of question marks hanging over the event, and many are wondering which of the candidates’ relatives will be attending the forum. For instance, will Maryanne Trump Barry be at the debate?

Barry is Trump’s sister and, more significantly, a federal judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. She doesn’t have anywhere near as high a profile as her little brother, and in many ways, appears to be his polar opposite, in my opinion — restrained, respectful, and deliberative.

Barry hasn’t publicly stated one way or the other whether she plans to attend the debate, but it seems likely that she won’t. She keeps a low profile, and inserting herself directly into the most highly-anticipated event of the presidential campaign is not a low-profile thing to do.

Ideologically, Barry is considered a right-leaning moderate. One study that ranked appellate judges’ judicial philosophies placed her roughly in the center of the pack, and court blogger Matthew Stiegler told The Washington Post that Barry is a “moderate-conservative Republican centrist.” He added that she’s “widely respected and thoroughly mainstream.”

Barry can claim accurately to have bipartisan support as a judge. Ronald Reagan appointed her to the U.S District Court in New Jersey in 1983. Sixteen years later, President Bill promoted Barry to the Third Circuit. And although she rarely inserts herself into the news of the day, Barry has occasionally been discussed by major candidates during this campaign.

Trump called his sister “a brilliant judge” and remarked that she’d be a “phenomenal” Supreme Court justice — though he added that she apparently isn’t interested in the job — while Ted Cruz called her a “radical pro-abortion extremist” during the primaries in an attempt to depict Trump as the same. Cruz was referring to a lone 2000 decision striking down a partial-birth abortion ban in New Jersey which Barry had co-authored.

Cruz brought up Barry as a knock against Trump at a debate in Houston during the GOP primary, and in all likelihood, that’ll be the most noteworthy debate appearance she makes during this campaign. There’s no sign that she’s planning on coming to the Clinton-Trump forum — and even if she does, she probably won’t make a big deal out of it.