Confirmation fight kicks off
Both N.M. senators oppose Trump’s pick for high court
Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico announced Tuesday he won’t support Donald Trump’s latest Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, saying a president under federal investigation should not be allowed to appoint a justice who might hear cases involving the nation’s chief executive.
Meanwhile, the re-election campaign for New Mexico’s other senator, Democrat Martin Heinrich, sent an email to potential supporters urging them to sign an online petition opposing Kavanaugh’s confirmation. The email said the campaign hoped to get 10,000 signatures in 48 hours.
Heinrich’s challengers in the November election, Libertarian Gary Johnson and Republican Mick Rich, both have said they would vote for Kavanaugh — though that’s likely not to matter because the GOP-dominated Senate is expected to confirm him well before the election.
Udall told reporters on a conference call that “Every Supreme Court nomination has profound implications for the future of our country. But this nomination is especially consequential for this moment in history when so many of our fundamental values are being challenged.”
He continued, “Unfortunately, Senate Republicans are trying to rush and force this nominee through. They’re trying to force through a Supreme Court nomination from a president who has been implicated in serious crimes, who is under investigation for obstruction of justice and for colluding with a foreign government to win a presidential election.”
Udall mentioned the guilty plea of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who Udall said “admitted under oath that Donald Trump directed him to violate campaign finance laws,” and the recent conviction of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on eight counts of tax and bank fraud in relation to his political consulting work.
“A president with possible felonies hanging over his head should not be permitted to select the next Supreme Court justice,” Udall said. “Not when that nominee could sit on cases relating to Special Counsel Mueller, or a president’s pardoning power. And not when that nominee has the record of Judge Kavanaugh, who has shown a clear and troubling belief that the president is above the law.”
Udall said a look at the record of Kavanaugh, a one-time White House lawyer now on the federal appellate bench, shows him to be “out of line with the views of a vast majority of Americans, and in line with the big money of the special interests who handpicked him for this seat. … with the cloud of corruption hanging over this president and this administration, I am calling on Senate Republicans to immediately halt this nomination.”
Asked whether he has seen any evidence that Senate Republicans would heed his call for postponing a vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation, Udall said, “Not that I’ve seen this morning on the Judiciary Committee. It seems that they’re just in lockstep to continue this.”
Udall added that he believes there are some Republicans who might vote against the nomination, but these senators “want to see the full Judiciary Committee process, review the documents, hear all the questions and answers, and make up their mind when he gets to the floor.”
Udall’s announcement was no surprise. Support for or opposition to Kavanaugh, who would replace a retiring justice who has been a swing vote on the high court, falls chiefly along partisan lines.
Tuesday’s confirmation hearing by the Senate Judiciary hearing was marked by Democratic senators demanding a delay of the hearing, pointing to the fact that thousands of pages of documents from Kavanaugh’s years as a White House aide during President George W. Bush’s administration have not been released for inspection.
Udall echoed points against Kavanaugh made by Heinrich in an Aug. 22 speech on the Senate floor. Heinrich said Trump “knew going in that he would not need a single Democratic vote. He went straight to a predetermined list of names given to him by the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society.
“That meant the President only considered nominees that fulfilled all of the ultraconservative special interest litmus tests. This ensures each of the judges he considered opposed women’s health care, environmental protections, and workers’ rights. … we have been asked to go through the motions of a broken and partisan confirmation process for a nominee with a troubling and dangerous track record.”
Rich, the Republican challenger to Heinrich, in early July released a statement eagerly supporting Kavanaugh.
“I applaud the president’s nomination of Judge Kavanaugh to our nation’s highest court,” he said in a news release. “He has a strong record of upholding our constitution and laws on the federal bench, and I urge the U.S. Senate to act swiftly to hold hearings and vote on this nomination.”
Libertarian Johnson, a former Republican, said last month, “If I were to vote up or down on that nominee and that was my choice, I would vote up on that choice. He would fall in the bounds of ‘this is a guy who’s going to follow the constitution.’ ”