Potential 2020 Democrats seize on Kavanaugh Senate hearings
WASHINGTON (AP) — Spoiling for a fight, a trio of Democratic senators weighing 2020 presidential campaigns seized upon the opening moments of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearings Tuesday in a show of force aimed at countering President Donald Trump.
One by one, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Cory Booker of New Jersey, demanded that Republicans delay Kavanaugh’s hearing after a last-minute release of more than 40,000 pages of documents and the withholding of more than 100,000 others.
The Democrats’ coordinated showdown with the committee’s chairman, Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, served as a theatrical preview of what is expected to be a wild, unpredictable 2020 campaign against Trump, who has stoked outrage among Democratic activists and is expected to fuel an unusually large field of challengers.
The hearing showed the degree to which the Senate could be the testing ground of resistance among Democrats who are prepared to fight the Republican president’s agenda in a field without an obvious front-runner. And it harkened back to how Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other Democratic senators battled President George W. Bush’s administration before launching presidential bids of their own in the 2008 contest.
Grassley hadn’t even introduced Kavanaugh by name when Harris interjected, objecting to the late Monday night release of Kavanaugh’s documents. Harris, who has created a number of viral moments with her tough questioning of witnesses during her first term, noted lawmakers hadn’t had a chance to “review or read or analyze” the papers and said the hearing shouldn’t move forward.
“You’re out of order. I’ll proceed,” Grassley responded, banging his gavel.
As Grassley tried to introduce Kavanaugh, Klobuchar called for the hearing to be postponed as the two senators attempted to talk over each other. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., jumped in, asking that the hearing be adjourned, prompting loud cheers and applause in the room.
Kavanaugh, a veteran judge and a former aide to Bush, sat silently as the spectacle unfolded.
Booker then appealed to Grassley’s “sense of decency and integrity,” pushing for more transparency in the hearing.
“We are rushing through this process in a way that is unnecessary,” Booker said. Harris, Klobuchar and Booker are considering whether to enter the presidential campaign following the November midterm elections, along with other Senate Democrats who aren’t on the Judiciary Committee, such as Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Jeff Merkley of Oregon.