What have we learned? It’s all about winning
This editorial is about winning. Unfortunately.
The United States Senate confirmed Brett Kavanaugh to be the 114th associate justice to the U.S. Supreme Court.
He was sworn in just hours after Saturday’s historic vote.
Monday night Kavanaugh was sworn in again – this time in a White House ceremony. With his wife and children at his side, in full view of the TV cameras, Kavanaugh placed his hand on the Bible and took the oath, striking a tone of conciliation after his contentious hearing. Kavanaugh vowed not to be a partisan, to be a team player on the nine-member court.
Gone was the bile that billowed forth in his follow-up remarks in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in reaction to sexual assault allegations raised against him. There was no hint of his antagonistic responses to Democratic senators’ questions and his veering very close to conspiracy theories involving bitterness over Trump’s election and some kind of Clinton revenge that had many questioning his temperament for the high court.
“The Senate confirmation process was contentious and emotional,” Kavanaugh said in his remarks. “That process is over. My focus now is to be the best justice I can be.”
Mindful of the group he was joining, Kavanaugh stressed the high court “is not a partisan or political institution” and assured he will take up his new duties with “no bitterness.”
The president?
Not so much. President Trump used an event that could have been a unifying event, a balm for the nation’s battered, bruised psyche after a grueling two weeks surrounding his pick for the high court, a charged atmosphere perhaps never seen before in Washington, and decided to pour a little gas on the fire.
Trump opted to use the occasion to once again play to his base, trying to energize the GOP just a few weeks before the crucial mid-terms many believe will be a referendum on his presidency.
Trump took the opportunity to offer an apology to Kavanaugh, while slamming those who opposed his nomination in a “campaign of personal destruction.”
“On behalf of our nation, I want to apologize to Brett and the entire Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure,” the president told those gathered.
All eight of Kavanaugh’s fellow justices were in attendance. As were a slew of top Trump Administration officials.
It was in this setting that the president attacked the stories of those who came forward with allegations of sexual abuse by his nominee as “based on lies and deception.”
He did not reference the testimony offered by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, whose story he initially described as “compelling” and “credible” after her extraordinary appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He did not offer any words of healing. He did not show any compassion. He did not extend a sense of understanding or even acknowledgement of what it must have took for her to come forward.
He could have placed a much-needed salve on the nation’s gaping wound, a balm on our troubled psyche. Instead he ripped it open again.
He attacked. Why? Because this is not just about Kavanaugh, or the high court.
It’s about Trump. It always is. And it’s about winning.
And make no mistake. Trump won. Mitch McConnell won. Republicans won.
And in the process, Trump discovered a magic elixir that may yet salvage what many viewed as a “Blue Wave” coming in the November mid-terms.
He used the bruising confirmation battle, or as he referred to it, “a hoax set up by the Democrats,” to energize Republicans for the election fights that loom just a month away.
Trump continued to rail against what he saw as a plot to stop the Kavanaugh nomination by people he described with a single word: “Evil.”
He blasted the case against his nominee as “false charges” and “false accusations. Horrible statements that were totally untrue.”
Now Trump will hit the road, hoping to stoke the base, rally Republican and swing voters and reverse what many had envisioned as a coming rebuke of his administration.
Give the president credit for the economy, for sparkling numbers on the jobs front.
But don’t forget everything else.
You can be pretty sure he has not. He never does. He remembers every slight. He even skewered pop star Taylor Swift after she came out in support of Democratic candidates in Tennessee. The president vs. the pop star.
This is the Donald Trump presidency. Indeed this is Trumpism, the new mantra of the Republican Party.
It’s not about the greater good. It’s not about unifying the nation, especially now when the scars of the Kavanaugh hearing are still so inflamed. It’s not about decency.
It’s about Trump. It always is.
It’s about winning. And this round clearly went to The Donald.