Washington: Senate Democrats, facing an uphill struggle to defeat the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, opened a broad attack Tuesday, painting him as an arch-conservative who would roll back abortion rights, undo health care protections, ease gun restrictions and protect President Donald Trump against the threat of indictment.
But as Kavanaugh arrived at the Capitol to begin making courtesy calls on the senators who will decide his fate, the White House expressed confidence in the man Trump introduced to the country as “one of the finest and sharpest legal minds of our time.”
The White House is embarking on an intensive sales campaign that has already enlisted more than 1,000 interest groups, including farmers and religious organisations, to build support for Kavanaugh. Administration officials are pushing for hearings and a confirmation vote by Oct. 1, in time for the court’s new term.
In a sign of how difficult the Democrats’ path will be, Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a key swing vote, spoke favourably of Kavanaugh on Tuesday, telling reporters, “When you look at the credentials that Judge Kavanaugh brings to the job, it’ll be very difficult for anyone to argue that he’s not qualified for the job.”
The positive comments from Collins — who voted in favour of Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, two of President Barack Obama’s nominees — may have already shifted the pressure from leery Republicans to skittish Democrats running for re-election in states won handily by Trump in 2016.
Three of those Democrats — Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia — voted to confirm Neil Gorsuch, nominated by Trump last year. None gave any hint on Tuesday of how they would vote on Kavanaugh, but all will undoubtedly face intense pressure at home.
“I thought he came across as a good family person, good, decent human being,” Manchin said of his initial reaction to Kavanaugh. But Manchin said he would not be making a hasty decision about a Supreme Court appointment mere hours after the announcement, noting his concern about Kavanaugh’s views of the Affordable Care Act given the “lives at stake” in West Virginia.
Republicans are already delighting in watching Democrats like Manchin squirm.
“You’ve got red-state Democrats who are up for re-election this year who are going to be faced with some pretty significant challenges with this vote,” said Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, the chairman of the committee charged with electing Republicans to the Senate. “I think it’s a hot potato.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Senate Democratic leader, joined all of the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday to deliver a direct appeal to Americans to rise up in opposition to Kavanaugh’s nomination. One by one, they ticked off warnings.
“If you are a young woman in America or you care about a young woman in America, pay attention to this,” said Democrat Sen. Kamala Harris, “because it will forever change your life.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal issued a specific plea to the survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida: “If you care about common-sense gun violence protection, Judge Kavanaugh is your worst nightmare.”
Republicans, in turn, excoriated Democrats for not giving Trump’s nominee a chance.
“We’re less than 24 hours into this, and folks are already declaring that if you can’t see that Brett Kavanaugh is a cross between Lex Luthor and Darth Vader, then you apparently aren’t paying enough attention,” said Sen. Ben Sasse, a Republican. “The American people are smarter than that.”
Before Kavanaugh’s nomination Monday night, Democrats had centred their strategy on abortion rights and health care, warning that anyone Trump picked would overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision legalising abortion, and would imperil protections for people with pre-existing conditions under the Affordable Care Act.
But Kavanaugh has given them a new line of attack: his past writings on the powers of the presidency, which go to the heart of the special counsel’s investigation of Trump. In 1998, Kavanaugh wrote a law review article that raised doubts about whether a sitting president could be indicted. In another article, he argued that a sitting president should not be distracted by civil lawsuits or criminal proceedings.
Democrats said on Tuesday that those views would be a central focus of questioning during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings; already, some Democrats are calling for Kavanaugh to pledge that he would recuse himself from any Supreme Court proceedings involving the president.
“We knew with any of the 25 nominees that health care and women’s health, right to choose would be important,” Schumer said, referring to the list of potential candidates drawn up for Trump by conservative groups during the 2016 campaign. “But Kavanaugh brings a new prominence to the issue of executive power, because he is almost certainly the most hard right of all of the 25. He is almost certainly the one who would most yield to presidential power.”
