Senate Democrats Continue to Move Goalposts on Judge Kavanaugh’s Nomination
‘So I’m confident we’ll hear that even the very same supplemental FBI investigation Democrats had so loudly demanded is now, magically, no longer sufficient. Well, after the FBI shares what they’ve found, Senators will have the opportunity to vote. We’ll have the opportunity to vote “no” on the politics of personal destruction. We’ll have the opportunity to vote “yes” on this fine nominee.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the president’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Brett Kavanaugh:
“Yesterday, I said that if we stop and listen, we can practically hear the Democrats trying to move the goalposts on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Remember, before Judge Kavanaugh was even named, several Democrats on the Judiciary Committee indicated they’d oppose whomever the nominee might turn out to be.
“The junior Senator from California, for example, explained on television that whoever President Trump chose would bring about -- quote -- ‘the destruction of the Constitution of the United States, as far as I can tell.’ Of course, mere hours after Judge Kavanaugh was announced, my friend the Democratic Leader made the announcement that has now become famous: ‘I will oppose him with everything I’ve got.’
“And not long after that, another Democrat on the Judiciary Committee proclaimed that anyone supporting Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation was -- quote -- ‘complicit in the evil.’ These statements are the context for every action the Democrats have taken during this process. These statements remind us: Democrats may be trying to move the goalposts every five minutes -- but their goal has not moved an inch. They will not be satisfied unless they have brought down Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination.
“It started with straightforward political maneuvering. None of it worked, of course. But -- whatever excuses they could find to delay, delay, delay. First, back in June, Democrats tried to argue the Senate shouldn’t confirm a Supreme Court justice in any even-numbered year. Then they were reminded that Justices Kagan, Breyer, and Souter were all confirmed during midterm election years. And that argument evaporated.
“Next, Democrats said the process should be delayed because too few documents were available from Judge Kavanaugh’s past public service. Well, then they received the most pages of documents ever produced for a Supreme Court nomination. Guess what came next? The goalposts moved down the field and the Democrats called for delay because there were too many documents for them to read. I wish this fight could have remained in the realm of normalcy. But when none of these tactics worked -- when Judge Kavanaugh demonstrated his widely-acknowledged brilliance, open-mindedness, and collegiality at his confirmation hearings -- some chose a darker road. The politics of personal destruction were willfully unleashed.
“I’ve spoken at length about the underhanded way Senate Democrats have treated Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and her allegation. In brief: For six weeks, Dr. Ford’s confidential account passed from a Democratic member of Congress, to the Democrat side of the Judiciary Committee, to the Washington D.C. lawyers that Senate Democrats handpicked for her. Then, well after Judge Kavanaugh’s hearings had wrapped up, the supposedly confidential letter found its way into the press.
“Shoving aside proper procedure. Shoving aside an accuser’s plea for privacy. This is not politics as usual. Because -- let us not forget -- Dr. Ford’s allegation is not the only uncorroborated allegation that has been breathlessly paraded around. Oh no. Shortly after Dr. Ford’s confidential letter made its way into the press, the floodgates of mud and muck opened entirely on Brett Kavanaugh and his family. Out of the woodwork came one uncorroborated allegation after another, each seemingly more outlandish than the last.
“A tabloid lawyer organized a red-carpet rollout for someone who wanted to accuse Judge Kavanaugh of masterminding some kind of high-school drug and serial sexual assault ring -- hosting one wild party after another, filled with sexual violence, for which there conveniently happen to be zero witnesses, but plenty of people who refute the claims. This didn’t stay in the tabloids, by the way. This fantastic story was effectively read into the record of the Judiciary Committee by the Ranking Member, who decided it deserved a mention in her remarks during last Thursday’s hearing.
“And every Democrat member of the Judiciary Committee seized on this outlandish tale in a formal letter in which they called on Judge Kavanaugh to withdraw his name from consideration. This is how desperate some became for any way to stop this stunningly qualified nominee. I guess upholding any standards, of any kind, was just too much to ask.
“We heard another anonymous, unattributed and now thoroughly debunked account -- this time an anonymous accusation from Colorado alleging physical abuse twenty years ago. A sitting federal district court judge quickly stepped up to bat down this anonymous smear. We heard that Judge Kavanaugh was supposedly responsible for a sexual assault on a boat in Newport, Rhode Island… until that accuser recanted the story completely. But not before many in the media had begun eating it up.
“In short, Democrats’ mishandling of Dr. Ford’s letter opened the floodgates for this deluge of uncorroborated, unbelievable mud. And the mudslide was cheered on, and capitalized on, at every turn, by the far left that has been so eager to stop this nomination. Just politics? I don’t think so.
“And on the other extreme, some of the other lines of attack have been completely trivial. Last night, the New York Times unleashed this ‘major’ story. Get this -- Judge Kavanaugh may have been accused of throwing some ice -- ice -- across a college bar back in the mid-1980s. Talk about a bombshell. One can only imagine what new bombshell might be published today, or tomorrow. But we know one thing for certain: The Senate will vote on Judge Kavanaugh, here on the floor, this week. Our Democratic friends will try to move the goalposts yet again. Just yesterday, they submitted a list of twenty-four people whom they wanted the FBI to interview.
“So I’m confident we’ll hear that even the very same supplemental FBI investigation Democrats had so loudly demanded is now, magically, no longer sufficient. Well, after the FBI shares what they’ve found, Senators will have the opportunity to vote. We’ll have the opportunity to vote ‘no’ on the politics of personal destruction. We’ll have the opportunity to vote ‘yes’ on this fine nominee.”
Related Issues: Senate Democrats, Judicial Nominations, Nominations, Supreme Court
Next Previous
