Senate Judiciary Democrats Call for Delay on Kavanaugh Vote
The eleventh-hour attack on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s disputed actions at a high school party more than 30 years ago are grounds for delaying a vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination, according to Senate Democrats.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee demanded in a letter to committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley that the nomination process, which has scrutinzed Kavanaugh’s life and writings for the past two months, grind to a halt, The Hill reported.
Democrats want to delay any action in order to launch a full-fledged investigation into claims from Christine Blasey Ford that Kavanaugh behaved in a sexually inappropriate manner towards her during a party in the 1980s when both were in high school. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein has been aware of the claim since July, but only brought it forward late last week.
In a statement Monday, Kavanaugh said the alleged incident never happened.
Brett Kavanaugh: “This is a completely false allegation. I have never done anything like what the accuser describes—to her or to anyone, because this never happened, I had no idea who was making this accusation until she identified herself yesterday.”https://t.co/AJmHeWzJFi
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 17, 2018
But Democrats were adamant.
“Now that her story is public, it is even more important that we give the Bureau the time it needs to follow up. All Senators, regardless of party, should insist the FBI perform its due diligence and fully investigate the allegations as part of its review of Judge Kavanaugh’s background,” Democratic senators wrote Grassley.
In a Twitter post Sunday, Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris of California, a member of the Judiciary Committee who has opposed Kavanaugh throughout the process, was among those leading the calls for delay.
Christine Blasey Ford courageously stepped forward to tell her story — it is a credible and serious allegation. The Senate has a constitutional responsibility to scrutinize SCOTUS nominees. A vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination must be delayed until there is a thorough investigation.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 16, 2018
The Democrats’ letter also continued the attack on Kavanaugh that was part of the Democrats’ contention that they never received enough documents about Kavanaugh during the confirmation process.
The “lack of the nominee’s full record, combined with his incomplete and misleading answers during the hearing and beyond, demonstrate a clear need for this Committee to postpone moving forward this week,” the Democrats wrote.
However, Kavanaugh supporters called for his immediate rise to the Supreme Court.
Brett Kavanaugh should be confirmed IMMEDIATELY.
It is time for Americans to send a STRONG message to the anarchist Democrats that we will no longer tolerate their disgusting, corrupt, low-bar antics.
The #MeTooWitchhunt needs to come to an END once and for all.
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) September 17, 2018
Grassley, an Iowa Republican, has so far not shown any inclination to delay the vote scheduled for Thursday. A statement issued Sunday on behalf of the committee’s majority Republicans, according to Powerline, scolded Feinstein for holding back a letter she received about the alleged incident in July.
“Instead, they said nothing during two joint phone calls with the nominee in August, four days of lengthy public hearings, a closed session for all committee members with the nominee where sensitive topics can be discussed and in more than 1,300 written questions,” the statement said.
It added that “… senators met individually with Judge Kavanaugh during a nearly two-month period before the hearing began, yet Feinstein didn’t share this with her colleagues ahead of many of those discussions.”
Grassley did say that he was working to set up calls so that Kavanaugh and Ford could each tell their stories to the committee’s members, The Hill reported.
In a statement, Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican and a member of the committee, said he was willing to hear Ford’s story, but said the committee should hear it immediately so the nomination process should continue on schedule.
My statement on Judge Kavanaugh. pic.twitter.com/QGz3uUyzC9
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) September 16, 2018
Despite Grassley’s comments, two Republican senators — Jeff Flake of Arizona and Bob Corker of Tennessee — said they think Ford should appear before the committee before any vote takes place, The Telegraph reported.
Feinstein called for everything to stop until an FBI investigation is concluded.
“I support Mrs. Ford’s decision to share her story, and now that she has, it is in the hands of the FBI to conduct an investigation. This should happen before the Senate moves forward on this nominee,” she said, according to NBC.
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