Live blog of confirmation hearing | September 4, 2018
We are live-blogging the first day of Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
3rd & 7 37yd
3rd & 7 37yd
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This appears to be the op-ed she is referencing.
Opinion | Staff secretaries aren’t traffic cops. Stop treating Kavanaugh like he was one.
Washington PostThe people deserve a review of documents from his time as White House staff secretary. -
Hirono: Trump did as promised. He did not nominate someone who demonstrates independence and fidelity to the rule of law. He picked someone pre-approved as someone who would further causes. And in particular, he picked someone who would protect him from criminal charges.
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Hirono: But, earlier this year, Gorsuch overturned 41-year precedent meant to support workers in a 5-4 decision (Janus, case page here).
Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31 - SCOTUSblog
SCOTUSblogThe Supreme Court of the United States blog -
Hirono: Instead of just enduring this hearing, Judge Kavanaugh, don't you think you owe it to the American people to disclose your records because you have nothing to hide? If you stand behind your record, fairness would recommend suspending this hearing. Your failure to do so would respect a fundamental mistrust of the American people.
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Crapo: Mentions Kavanaugh's book (with Gorsuch, and others) on the law of judicial precedent. Sadly, much of the discussion not about past opinions, philosophy, or temperament, but the notion that the chairman has not been transparent in the document production efforts. Those claims are wholly without foundation.
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Crapo is repeating a point of past Republicans: more documents from Kavanaugh than past five nominees combined. Democrats largely have not contested this claim (although some have been saying that many of the documents are duplicate emails). The Dems' larger point is about the percentage of his documents that have been released, which is still small.
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Crapo: Much of what we are hearing today is an effort to relitigate the last presidential election. We just heard Judge Kavanaugh attacked because he is a Trump nominee. The attack is on President Trump, not his nominees, because of an unwillingness to accept the outcome of the last election.
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Booker: When I was new to the Senate, I was told by older senators (like McCain) to be objective, because what goes around comes around. And I've been struggling with this lately. If Republicans were being denied about 90% of documents about a person's public record, ...
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Booker also made the claim that he could not ask Kavanaugh about the contents of documents marked as "committee confidential," or else he'd be ousted from Senate. [I'm not in a position right now to confirm whether that's really what could happen, to answer one question that came in.]
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Booker: The special counsel has already indicted and charged multiple people. Amid all of this, we have a judge chosen who was not on either of Trump's first two lists. He got put on Trump's list after the president was already in jeopardy from the special counsel -- the one person who has already spoken vastly about a president's ability to end an investigation.