Kavanaugh survives tough day of hearings
Supreme Court nominee skates by angry protests, documents dispute
WASHINGTON – Brett Kavanaugh steered a narrow course toward confirmation to the Supreme Court on Thursday, sidestepping tough questions from Democrats and a Senate battle over documents withheld from his years in George W. Bush’s White House.
The multiple challenges facing President Donald Trump’s nominee – including the third day of sudden outbursts from angry protesters – did little to slow his progress toward becoming the ninth and decisive vote on the high court.
Before Thursday’s session even got underway, Democrats fought to publicize some documents that shed light on Kavanaugh’s previous views about abortion and racial profiling.
Not even their repeated efforts to get Kavanaugh, a defender of presidential powers, to comment on issues involving Trump knocked him off his game.
They raised the president’s attacks on the Justice Department and special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election to no avail.
Democrats asked him whether he has discussed the Mueller investigation with anyone from a law firm headed by one of Trump’s lawyers – talks that could taint his independence in a future Supreme Court case.
In response, Kavanagh painted himself as willing to stand up to any president.
Democrats have complained about getting none for three years of Kavanaugh’s career, when he served as White House staff secretary.
On Thursday they focused on
190,000 pages released to the Senate but withheld from public release.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., threatened to flout Senate protocol and release an email elucidating Kavanaugh’s views on racial profiling.
Republicans beat him to it, releasing a range of documents requested by Democrats.
Another confidential email concerning abortion was leaked to The New York Times.
It showed that in 2003 while serving as a White House associate counsel, Kavanaugh said some legal scholars did not consider the right to abortion, which was legalized by the Supreme Court in 1973 and reiterated in
1992, “settled law.”