Democrats and Republicans were all smiles Thursday after fireworks erupted in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing amid a heated battle over the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Senate Democrats enjoyed the opportunity to relieve a pressure valve with liberal activists frustrated at their perceived lack of aggressive action to block President Trump’s pick to succeed Anthony Kennedy on the high court. Senate Republicans welcomed the chance to amass more evidence to use against vulnerable, red-state Democratic incumbents in the fast-approaching midterm elections.
It was a rare, win-win on Capitol Hill.
“The theatrics, the demeanor — unbearable to watch. And if you’re a red-state Democrat, I think it’s a big challenge for you to try to justify the behavior of your colleagues, the boorishness of your colleagues,” Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a brief interview.
Senate Democrats don’t have the votes to sink Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Only Republican defectors could do that.
But the Democrats appeared to raise the stakes when they purported to release confidential records documenting Kavanaugh’s past writings and communications, in apparent violation of Senate rules governing sensitive records. At one point during Day 2 of the public hearings, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., announced that he was knowingly breaking the rules, but willing to risk expulsion from the Senate, a possible though unlikely penalty for the violation.
Republicans later claimed that no rules were broken because the papers had been cleared for release hours before, and they mocked Booker and other Democrats for using the Kavanaugh hearings to build support for a 2020 presidential bid. But the Democrats were satisfied that they had forced potentially explosive documents into the open and put Kavanaugh on the defensive.
“We are fighting tooth and nail on this nomination. I know people are watching carefully and we’re going to keep fighting,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
[Opinion: Cory Booker’s dishonest stunt]
From the moment Kennedy announced his retirement in June, Senate Republicans have giddily anticipated the Judiciary Committee hearings and confirmation vote for his successor.
The high court was a great motivator for the GOP base in 2016, and Senate Republicans are confident that the fight over Kavanaugh, coming just weeks before the midterm elections, could help the party cement victory in at least a handful of key races. The Democrats are defending 10 states that Trump won in 2016, with Republicans poised to oust Democratic incumbents up to handful of them.
The Republican Senate nominee in Indiana, businessman Mike Braun, jumped on the Judiciary hearings, holding a last minute conference call with reporters to try and use the circus-like atmosphere to make Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., uncomfortable. Donnelly has declined to offer a position on Kavanaugh, although he did vote last year to install Trump’s first nominee to the Supreme Court, now-Justice Neil Gorsuch.
“Every day that Joe Donnelly remains on the sidelines, it shows Hoosiers and his decisions are orchestrated by Chuck Schumer,” Braun said, referring to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “Almost all Hoosiers support the president’s pick for the Supreme Court.”
Though holding their own in recent public opinion polling, Democratic incumbents are on the defensive in Senate races in Indiana, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, and West Virginia — states Trump won easily in 2016 and that still think rather highly of him.
The Kavanaugh vote is a real dilemma for some, as they weigh disappointing their Democratic base with turning off independents and the Republicans they need in their corner to win re-election. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia conceded that he wasn’t all that pleased with the display his Democratic colleagues put on in the Judiciary Committee.
“That’s just not who I am — none of that’s me. I just wish it wouldn’t happen. I just wish we weren’t in this type of discourse,” Manchin said.
But an energized liberal base that could propel Democrats to take over in the House celebrated Thursday, as they saw the party land shots against Kavanaugh, and possibly create questions about his confirmation for the two Republicans most likely to defect: Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
Brian Fallon is a former aide to Schumer and was the press secretary for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
A lead spokesman for the umbrella group acting as the ringleader of liberal opposition to Kavanaugh, Fallon has been sharply critical of Senate Democrats for engaging in what he labeled as a defeatist strategy, pressing them to do more despite their essential powerlessness to block Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
But after Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee collaborated to publicize the previously private tranche of documents on Thursday, he tweeted a line of approval. “No more butter knives to a gun fight,” he said.
