Key GOP senators leaning toward party on Kavanaugh
WASHINGTON — GOP senators expected to hold key votes on President Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court are showing subtle signs of support for the Republican effort to put Judge Brett Kavanaugh on the bench.
Both Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine said Tuesday that they are satisfied with the GOP plan to limit the scope of documents to be released regarding Kavanaugh’s record, despite Democrats’ call for a fuller review of the candidate’s work in Washington, particularly his years as staff secretary in the Bush White House.
The women indicated that they were keeping an open mind on his nomination as they review his record. Murkowski and Collins told the Washington Post recently that they aren’t getting the same level of pressure from constituents to vote against Kavanaugh as they did to vote no on the Republicanled effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act last year. Their no votes helped kill those repeal plans.
With Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., receiving cancer treatment at home, Republicans can’t afford to lose a single vote of their 50-49 majority if Democrats stay united and vote against Kavanaugh.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who had initially expressed concerns with Kavanaugh, announced his support for the nominee after meeting with him Monday.
At the same time, cracks are showing in Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer’s effort to keep Democrats united against Kavanaugh. Democratic leaders have been urging members to refrain from meeting with Kavanaugh until the documents dispute was addressed.
But vulnerable Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who is facing re-election in November in a state Trump won, met with Kavanaugh on Monday. Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana is scheduled to meet with Kavanaugh later this month. Both men voted for Trump’s first Supreme Court pick, Neil M. Gorsuch, and are getting heavy pressure to vote for Kavanaugh.
Manchin has not said how he will vote on Kavanaugh, but after their meeting his staff released photos of the two men smiling together in his office.
Kavanaugh has met with 40 of 100 senators so far, with six more meetings scheduled for Wednesday.
On Friday, judiciary committee chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa requested from the National Archives only documents from Kavanaugh’s time in the White House Counsel’s office, saying, “I am not going to put the American taxpayers on the hook for the Senate Democrats’ fishing expedition.”
Grassley said Tuesday he’s been told that senators are already getting more documents for Kavanaugh than they have for the last five Supreme Court nominees combined, and that the staff secretary documents would take months to wade through.
“We haven’t had a single Democrat say they are going to vote for him, and probably two-thirds of the Democrats say they are going to vote against him. How much more information do you need to know to vote no?” Grassley said. “What are they going to do with the information?”
Schumer dismissed that explanation, saying senators have a constitutional responsibility to conduct a thorough review, and Republicans haven’t raised concerns about the costs of providing documents about nominees in the past, including the 170,000 pages of documents from Justice Elena Kagan’s White House Service.
Schumer also scoffed at the idea that Democrats are dragging their feet.
“We’re not intending to be dilatory,” Schumer said at a press conference Tuesday. “The intent here is sunlight, not delay.”