Washington, D.C. — As day three of Senate confirmation hearings on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh comes to a close, Jake Faleschini, director of the Federal Courts Program at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement:
For three shocking days, America has watched a split screen. On one side, there’s new evidence nearly every hour from President Trump’s closest aides that he is completely out of control, unstable, and corrupt. On the other side, the Republican leaders in the Senate is desperately trying to ram through a Supreme Court nominee to put that same president above the law.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was right: During these hearings, just the cherry-picked 10 percent of Kavanaugh’s paper trail has revealed him to be disturbingly unfit for the Supreme Court. The hearing has shown that Kavanaugh is untrustworthy and political, having lied under oath and in his core promise to Maine Sen. Susan Collins (R) and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) about Roe v. Wade being safe because it is settled law.
His career both on and off the bench as a political operative for the Republican Party and big corporations has been laid bare, often in callous detail, from accusing a 17-year-old immigrant of wanting abortion on demand, to contempt for contraception as so-called abortion-inducing drugs, to shrugging off the pain and deaths of mistreated workers. Disturbing new questions about political cover-ups have also emerged, with answers buried in hundreds of thousands of undisclosed records.
On the substance and the politics, the choice is clear:
- No senator can be truly pro-choice and vote for Kavanaugh.
- No senator can truly claim to be a check on President Trump or distanced from his corruption and vote for Kavanaugh.
- No senator can truly claim to have protected their constituents’ health care and vote for Kavanaugh.
Despite the Republicans’ unprecedented cover-up efforts, the choice is clear, and all of America sees it. Kavanaugh is not fit to hold a lifetime seat on the nation’s highest court.