Warren, GOP brace for Kavanaugh fight
The showdown over U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was front and center at yesterday’s town hall meeting in Boston with the state’s senior senator, just as her GOP counterparts try to push the vote along.
“It was stolen from Barack Obama and it was stolen from the people of the United States of America,” U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said of the court appointment in the final year of Obama’s term that was delayed by Senate Republicans until he was out of office. The vacancy was subsequently filled by President Trump with his appointment of Justice Neil M. Gorsuch.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s decision to retire this summer has given Trump an opportunity for a second Supreme Court appointment.
“There’s something special about Kavanaugh and that is that Kavanaugh thinks that sitting presidents are above the law,” Warren added. “When Donald Trump hears the hoof beats of the Mueller investigation getting closer and louder ... Donald Trump says, ‘I like the guy who thinks presidents are above the law.’ ”
Warren, holding a meeting at the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, said Kavanaugh was chosen from a list of jurists who would target Roe v. Wade and health care.
“I’m opposed to Kavanaugh. I know you’re shocked,” Warren said. “What can we do? We can be as loud as humanly possible right up until that vote. Please, everybody, get in this fight. We need you.”
Her attack on Kavanaugh comes as requests for documents from his time working in the White House under then-President George W. Bush are being called a delay tactic.
Democrats want to see records from the time, portraying the potentially millions of documents as vital to understanding his approach to the law. Republicans disagree and have accused Democrats of using the issue to try to delay Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
The debate could interfere with Republicans’ goal of swiftly confirming President Trump’s pick for the court in time for the start of the new term Oct. 1 and before the mid-term elections in November.
Republicans hold a key 51-49 advantage in the U.S. Senate, making a delay one avenue to pushing off the nomination.