The Kavanaugh charade Charles Blow
President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans have no interest in revealing the whole truth about Brett Kavanaugh. Their plan was to perform a rush-job confirmation that installed him on the Supreme Court over all objections well enough in advance of the midterm elections to provide a shield to Republicans worried about what feels like an imminent blue wave.
That is why his hearings were scheduled so quickly. That is why more than 42,000 pages of documents were released the night before his confirmation hearings started — all of which were to be treated as “committee-confidential” at the time.
As The New York Times editorial board wrote then, Republicans are “now running the most secretive and incomplete confirmation process in modern history.”
The hearings wrapped up with Kavanaugh having dodged direct answers to questions on major issues like abortion (Trump has said he would appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade) and presidential power (this may well come before the court if Trump is subpoenaed, charged with a crime or attempts to pardon himself ).
Republicans felt confident that their ploy had worked, but that was before the bombshell accusation by Christine Blasey Ford, a California professor, that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her in the 1980s when she was 15 and he was 17.
Blasey told The Washington Post that Kavanaugh and another boy, Mark Judge, both “stumbling drunk,” “corralled her into a bedroom during a gathering of teenagers at a house in Montgomery County.”
The Post continued its retelling of the Blasey interview:
“While his friend watched, she said, Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed on her back and groped her over her clothes, grinding his body against hers and clumsily attempting to pull off her one-piece bathing suit and the clothing she wore over it. When she tried to scream, she said, he put his hand over her mouth. ‘I thought he might inadvertently kill me,’ said Ford.”
In an interview last week with The Weekly Standard, Judge said, “I never saw Brett act that way.” But as The Post pointed out, Judge has written about being a blackout drunk in high school.
This is a very serious charge and one that could further delay or even derail Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote.
After the report came to light, Kavanaugh and Blasey said they would testify before the committee about the allegation, but then her attorney sent a letter to the Judiciary Committee stating:
“As the Judiciary Committee has recognized and done before, an FBI investigation of the incident should be the first step in addressing her allegations. A full investigation by law enforcement officials will ensure that the crucial facts and witnesses in this matter are assessed in a nonpartisan manner, and that the committee is fully informed before conducting any hearing or making any decisions.”
I know there are political considerations on both sides: Republicans want a vote before the midterms, and Democrats want to delay one until after. But Republicans are worried that Democrats now have a shot — though still a long one — to flip the Senate. And one could argue about how the release of Blasey’s accusation was handled.
But it is impossible to argue that her claim isn’t credible enough to demand a thorough investigation, regardless of the partisan gamesmanship. And it must be stated that Republicans have zero space to complain because of the way they blocked President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland.
If Trump was truly interested in finding out the truth of these allegations, he could have ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation to look into their veracity as soon as he heard about them. That is precisely what George H.W. Bush did when he learned of Anita Hill’s accusation against Clarence Thomas in 1991.
As CNN pointed out Wednesday:
“Upon learning of the allegations, the White House ‘promptly directed the FBI to conduct a full, thorough and expeditious investigation’ ... Three days later, on Sept. 26, 1991, the FBI completed its investigation, and a report was submitted to the White House and the Judiciary Committee.”
If Trump had done that, that investigation would presumably be wrapped up by now.
But he hasn’t ordered an investigation. Instead, he has joined Republican opposition to one. They want to jam Kavanaugh down America’s throat even though, as a CNN poll last month found, he has the “lowest public support since Robert Bork,” whose nomination was rejected in 1987.
What are Republicans hiding about Kavanaugh? What don’t they want you to know?
There is absolutely no rush here, no timeline that must be adhered to, no deadline that must be met. We are talking about a lifetime appointment here, and if Blasey is telling the truth and Kavanaugh has lied, there is absolutely no way he should be confirmed.
We can’t have a Supreme Court on which a third of the men have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct. Thomas and Kavanaugh, if confirmed, would be two of the six.