Words. That is the man who sits before us. Nominated to be a justice on the highest court of our land. Judge kavanaugh has the backing of his former law clerks and law students, his colleagues on the bench appointed by both republican and democrat president s and many members of his local community in which he remains so closely involved. He is a man of honor, integrity and well respected in the legal community. There is no dispute he is qualified to serve on our nations highest court. Mr. Chairman, i look forward to the hearing from the nominee himself when we all get done with our statements. [ Protester Talking ] as we discuss with judge kavanaugh for the public to hear, in his own words the proper role of a judge in our constitutional system. I look forward to this hearing and again, judge kavanaugh, thank you for being willing to
be here. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator booker. Thank, mr. Chairman. Welcome judge kavanaugh i want to say welcome to your family sincerely as well. Were all americans taking part in what is truly historic moment. Mr. Chairman, chairman grassley, i hope you do not think earlier this morning that in any way i was questioning your integrity or decency, i was appealing to it earlier before and you have conducted this hearing giving myself and others at least the opportunity to speak and make our case, even though youve not ruled in our favor, of which im disappointed, i do hope you understand that i value your friendship and frankly some of the most valuable moments ive had on the senate i still remember shaking your hand and coming to agreement with you on criminal Justice Reform and ive could have tom a deep respect for you. If you worry about our friendship being affected, it will not be. That gives me an opportunity it Say Something to the public at
large. That is, about this committee. You would think that republicans and democrats dont talk to each other. But id like to remind the public that when they think that happens, they ought to think of the record of this committee. No the just this chairman. But this committee, in the three and a half years, maybe even before i got to be chairman. But in the three and a half years ive been chairman, every bill that got out of this committee has been a bipartisan bill. Proceed, senator. Thank you, very much, sir. I appreciate that. It doesnt detract from the fact that i just fundamentally disagree with the way youve been concluding today. When i first got to the senate i was very fortunate that a lot of senior statesmen, yourself, senator hatch included, pulled me aside and gave me hard wisdom. I came to the senate in a special election at a time we were changing some of the senate rules. Senator levin brought me aside and gave me a hard talking to. Senator mccain gave me a hard talking to. All of them made similar points,
about this idea that sometimes you need to be as objective as possible and see how you would react if the pendulum was swung the other way. In other words they warned me that what goes around in this place, comes around. And to really think that if the shoe was on the other foot and ive been struggling with that, sir, with all honesty of what would the republicans be saying, what would we be saying if we had a democratic president right now, a democratic nominee right now. And this process was in the reverse. And i would like to believe, how i would behave and im pretty confident, i would be a betting man, be willing to bet, that if the republicans were being denied effectively about 90 of the documents about a persons public record, and i actually do believe that some of the analogies that are made to senator, to excuse me Justice Kagan and her solicitorgeneral time, is not a fair analogy. This is a part of the nominees history that he himself has said
was one of his most formative times. I would not hire an intern in my office knowing only 90 of their resume. Theres not a person here that would buy a home only seeing excuse me, only seeing 10 of the rooms. I just believe what were doing here, just on the Objective View of fairness, is sincerely unfair and its insulting to the ideals that we, that we try to achieve with some sense of comity and some sense of rules. I want to go deeper than that. Im trying to figure out what the jeopardy would be, what the jeopardy would be if we just waited for the documents. Last night we had a Document Dump of Tens Thousands of pages. Its been said already theres no judge that would allow a Court Proceeding to go on, no judge that would move forward if one of the parties had just got
documents as of 5 00 last night or potentially as of 11 00. What i dont understand is whats the jeopardy of just waiting, not just for us to digest these documents, but other documents . The reality is, is that senator grassley, you yourself have asked for specific more finite set, more limited set of documents, that you havent even gotten. And so whether its not seeing 90 of the resume of the gentlemen before us or 50 or 40 that should come within time and theres no jeopardy when we have a lifetime appointment. Hell be there for decades and decades, waiting another week or five days or two weeks for those documents that you yourself have requested, which is a more limited subset, for even those documents to come through. I dont understand what the rush is, especially given all that is at stake. And so those are the reasons why i say to you with sincere respect, that this is an absurd
process. It just seems unfair to me and it could easily be solved by us putting a pause here in this process, waiting for the documents, evaluating the documents and it would be a much more robust set of hearings, on this nominee. As i said i would not hire an intern if i had not seen, if i had only seen 10 of their resume. To be a fuller body of the work of this gentleman before us, who as one of my colleagues called popping up in some of the most Interesting Times in the last decade or two, on some of the most important issues, already the limited amount that we call 7 of the documents that ive seen, unfortunately those are things that being held Committee Confidential. Which i dont even know if i can use in my questioning here, i think the penalties is being ousted from the senate. Even the little limited documents that have potentially made my questioning far more rich and substantive to get to
the heart of the issues of this individual nominee. I try to summon the spirit of some of the elder statespeople i had the privilege of serving with from rock feller to levin to mccain, to summon that spirit, to be as objective as possible, i do not think it is unreasonable for us to wait for a week or two to get the full body of those documents. It will cause no harm or damage, except to have more of a full telling of what is at stake here. This is, the stakes are too high on what this nominee represents for us to rush through this process without a full sharing of the documents. And with that, ill continue, sir, with my opening statement. I have said before already th that ill take this opportunity to probably say that you said i didnt get all the documents i requested. You, you probably heard the first sentence of something i
said after our break. And that was, that i could, i first started talking about expecting a million documents. We end up i think with 488,000. But then i went on to explain that the process with all the software and Everything Else that can speed things up, duplicates were, were eliminated, et cetera, et cetera. So weve gotten all the documents i requested. Just to correct you. Sir and to my understanding go ahead with your opening statement. I want to make a point to that if you dont mind. You requested a limited set of documents of his time in the white house counsels office. We have not received all the documents from his time, theyre still being vetted slowly through a system of not a representative from the committee, but the bill burke individual is still reading through those documents as we speak. I imagine some of them will be dumped on to us as this process is going on and predict with quite confidence that some of
those documents might still be trickling out in the days before the actual full senate vote. Please, sir. Youre talking about Committee Confidential. And you have access to them right now. They just, there hasnt been a determination that like, 80 of all the documents are on the website, so the public can see them, but in regard to some, they were forwarded to us. Without a Second Review. The Second Review gives, gives an opportunity then get them out to the public. If theres not no reason that they are excluded under the law and you can read those Committee Confidential documents right now. Well, sir, i submitted a letter days ago asking for that i will resend it in the next 24 hours before tomorrow. We responded to your letter. Again, did you not respond our letter by allowing committee
confidential documents. Lease go to your opening statement. Look i was you know, form former, now former Vice President biden talked about not questioning your colleagues motives and some of the colleagues across the aisle have called the efforts by some of us sincerely to get access to these documents, a sham, a charade. I can go through a lot of the words that were used. To question the motivations i have or doing what i believe, sir, is perhaps the most grave and important duty that i have as a senator. Yes as Senator Cornyn has pointed out. I announced my decision already. But my duty is to fully vet an individual. Thats why i think the documents are important. That the full record is made clear and we have chance to ask questions about them. I also have said that i oppose this nomination happening right now because of the moment we are in american history. Which is very unprecedented. I remind thaw we have had bipartisan statements by senators working in tangent about the attack on the United States of america. Which was an attack going to the core of what our democracy is about. The voting processes. A Special Counsel was put into place and that has led to dozens of people being indicted. People around the president of the United States. It has led to dozens and dozens of charges and that investigation is ongoing. We have seen the president of the United States credibly accused by his own personal lawyer as being an unindicted coconspirator. We have one judge being chosen who was not on the original list. He wasnt on the outsourced federal societys original list. He wasnt on the second version of that list. He got on to that list after this special investigation got going. After the president was in jeopardy. He was added to the list and the president pulled the one person from all of that list, that was added late. That would give him in a sense the ability to pick a judge. That has already spoken vast ly about a president s ability to dismiss or end an investigation. So thats the second reason why ive asked to put a pause on this process. Judge lar were hand said this, as powerful and profound as the documents of this country are, our Founding Documents, theyre not worth much if the people themselves lose faith in them. And i believe the nom nay of a judge from ongoing investigation
prosecution, will shake the faith that millions and millions of americans have in the fairness of the process and the system and ive asked judge kavanaugh time and time again to recuse himself to restore that faith, to alleviate the concerns of americans and he has thus far refused to do so. Now i am upset about the process. And this is not manufactured outrage this is sincere concern for a process that seems wrong and just not objective and fair. I am concerned about as my colleagues are on both sides of the aisle. A russian atag on our nation. But theres a lot more going on here that makes this nomination of great concern. And its frankly some of the things ive heard from both sides of the aisle. When we travel this country and what we are hearing from individuals. And how that relates to a position on the Supreme Court. Right now millions of American Families are watching this, in
sincere concern and fear, ive heard them, ive gotten the calls. Ive traveled the country. Ive talked to republicans and democrats, theyre fearful about where the Supreme Court is going and what it will do when it has the power to shape law, shape the lives and liberties for individuals for decades to come. Ive talked to workers all over my state, all over this nation. Workers that now work in a country where wages are at a 60year low as a portion of our gdp. Whose Labor Protections, workers whose Labor Protections are being diluted and whose unions are under attack. So many of those individuals are asking whether the Supreme Court of their lifetimes will be an institution that elevates the dignity of american workers, or one that allows powerful corporate interests to continue to weaken Labor Protections that didnt just happen. Labor protections that were fought for. That people struggled for. That some, you know the Labor Movement actually died for. Are these labor rights going to
become aggravated . Are they going to become limited . Further increasing the vast disparities of wealth and power in our country . We know this, weve talked to both sides of the ill. Weve talked to cancer survivors, americans with disabilities. Survivors of domestic hay wus, parents with beautiful children that happen to have disabilities, who because of the Affordable Care act can no longer be denied coverage because of quote a preexisting condition. Theres a texas case where thats being challenged right now. Thats moving up. It could likely go before the Supreme Court. Well knowing your record, it is right that these americans, so many of them with preexisting conditions are asking whether the Supreme Court will be an institution that affirms and protects the rights of people with access to health care. Many people who rightfully believe when they read our Founding Documents that talk about life, liberty and the
pursuit of happied in, that health care they believe is fundamental. We all know too many people who have set aside Prescription Drugs because theyre too high because of what corporations are doing there. People who have put off going to see the doctor because a visit is too expensive. That is in the balance with this nomination. Ive gone across the state and senator durbin, i was in your state talking to a republican farmer, about how the farm country is changing so dramatically the livelihoods of so many independent Family Farmers are being threatened by the consolidation of large, multinational corporations. These corporations have acquired so much power this consolidation now from the seeds that they buy, the prices going up to who they have the ability to sell to, the abuse of corporate consolidation is driving so many farmers out of business. You see, one farmer was telling
me about the suicide rates. Now people are saying this is histrionics, this is not life or death. I know these things are. Often a matter of life or death when our insurance rates go down, more people without health care often lose their lives. There are, there is not one senator on the republican side or democratic side who has not seen, ive only been here five years and ive seen the culture of washington change. Because of the obscene amount of dark money pouring in to our political process, corrupting our political processes. Rigging the system. This nomination will have an effect on that. Ive seen americans all over this country, its a bipartisan work that ive done with senators on either side, who feel entrapped by a broken Criminal Justice system. One we know is unassailably
disproportionately targets black and brown americans. Many americans believe, we have a system that treats you better than if youre rich and guilty, than poor and innocent. These issues are in the balance now. And everyone who is concerned about these issues and more are wopdering what the story of america is. We have this great leader, a man named king who said the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. Theres so Many American who is fought for these fundamental rights. Whose family members, union organizersoring, civil rights activists, Womens Rights activists, who fought for, struggled for, and died for these rights. The right for women to make their own medical decisions, including right to an abortion, not a back alley butcher. The right of all americans to marry who they love. The right to vote. And to work free of discrimination regardless of race and the rights of all
americans. These are our rights, these are our american rights. And so we know the answer to these questions, ive looked through the record. Ive had access to, to see the pattern of your decisions. And thats the pattern that really troubles me, judge, and i know were going to get a chance to go through this. And my know my colleagues will as well. It seems so clear that in your courts the same the same folks seem to win over and over again. The powerful, the privileged, big corporations, special interests. And over and over again, folks that lose the folks, why i came to washington to fight, working folks, consumers, women, immigrants, minorities, the disadvantaged, the poor this is, the challenge before us, this is why so much is at stake. I love that my colleagues keep going back to the constitution. But understand this i laud
our founders, i think they were geniuses. But you got to understand that there are millions of american who is understand that they were also flawed people. Were the oldest constitutional democracy. Were the oldest one. We were founded in a break with human events, you know this, judge, ive read your writings, we not founded on some kind of tribalism, as much as we think its breaking out in our country. We werent founded because we all look alike, or we all pray alike. We broke with the course of human events and formed this nation, god bless america, god bless our founders, but we know our founders and their values and their ideals. We know that they, that they were flawed and can you see that in the documents. Native americans were referred to as savages, women werent referred to as all. Africanamericans, slaves were referred to as fractions of human beings. Constiti can only say threefifths of the world. Senator booker im almost done. The only reason i stopped you at this point is i thought i would let people go at least as far as senator blumenthal went. And you reached that point. Im a bit of a trail blazer, im going to push two or three more minutes. My point, sir, is that im proud of this your clock when it reaches 10 is your two and a half minutes. I want to point out from the activism of stone wahl, selma, seneca falls. Theres an activism that i wo y worry, rights that were gained were rolled back and theres an amazing activist here right now, ms. Carlotta walls lanier. And i thank her for coming today. It was 61 years ago on this very day, on september 4, 1957 that
ms. Lan year at the age of 14 were shouting racial slurs, she was jeered. On that day, miss lanier joined eight other students, a group that would be known as the Little Rock Nine to try to desegregate an allwhite high school in little rock, arkansas. We know what they did that day was much bigger than the first day of school. It was the first major test of the Supreme Courts landmark decision, brown v. Board of education. There are some judges that trump has appointed refuse to even say that thats settled law. There are people like ms. Lanier who are part of gaining rights in this country, advancing the ideals of this nation towards the purity of the ideals put forth by the founders, despite the inperfections and now the fear and the worry is, where the trend of the court is doing, is rolling back those gains. Undermining that progress. Is restricting individual rights. As the rise of corporations, the rise of dark money, the rise of
the interests of the powerful and the privileged and the elite. So i just say in conclusion, sir, i said this to you in a hearttoheart moment the last seconds that you were, you came to my office to meet with me, oneonone which i appreciated. I pointed to the map behind my desk, the central ward of newark, new jersey. A place with mighty people. Its a lowincome community. People still struggling for the fullness and the richness of the promises of america. That thats, thats the concern that i have right now. That is what is at stake. So i say in conclusion, sir, this to me, is a profound and historical moment. Ky not support your nomination, not just of the body of your work, because also the perverse process by which this comes forward. We should not vote now. We should wait. And if were not waiting, we should object to your nomination. Thank you. Senator tillis . Thank you, mr. Chairman. I have a 12minute preamble and
an 18 minutes of comments. In all seriousness, i hope to beat senator flake in being brief. First off to ashley, i know that margaret and liza are gone, but youve gone through a very difficult day and youve held up well, to your parents, judge kavanaugh, ive got to compliment you on your mothers composure, im pretty sure my mother would have been out of the chair by now. So i appreciate all that youve done. Youve obviously raised your son right. You know, i think we need to go back and recognize, we were going to be here this wasnt going to be a kumbayah moment. We had every member on this committee either publicly state or participate in a Press Conference before the sun had set on the first 24 hours of your nomination that they were going to vote against you. Now were asking for all kinds of documents and youre getting them. As a matter of fact, i think that the chair has done an extraordinary job. He started ott on this process by offering acquiring as many as
a million documents, we determined because of duplication and relevance, it was only half a million. And theyve all been provided. And im not an attorney, but i am a technologist and im also a process person. And i know damn well, that if you get documentation like that, you can get through it in a matter of hours. And for the documents sent yesterday, can you get through it in a matter of hours, they have plenty of time to get documents, they only need to run up the score because they know theyre going to run against you. I want to compliment you on your composure. Youve taken a lot of notes. Im going to spend more of my time listening to your responses, rather than talking over to and try to simplify things into yes, no answers that you cant respond to. So i look forward to your testimony tomorrow. I, you know the, as the hearing was going on. There were two things that caught me. Im not doing my prepared statements, ill submit them for the record, mr. Chair, were
talking about all this dark money and efforts going on the other side. I got an email from organizing for action. Yall would know that as the Legacy Campaign of President Obama. Telling me to oppose you because youre going to deny reproductive rights, deny health care coverage. Advance Climate Change and in a bad way and End Gun Violence prevention. I dont know near as much about the institutions of government as lets say senator sasse, but im pretty sure once get confirmed on the bench youre not going to be able to file a bill to do any of that. What you may end up doing is finding out we got lazy, we didnt work hard enough, we didnt understand the constitution, we didnt reach across the aisle to create enduring value which is largely the reasons why people get frustrated with you. They want you to do our job. Justice gorsuch sid numerous times in his confirmation hearing, its not my job to do your job, mr. Senator. If youre frustrated and worried about the prospects of somebody
being able, denied coverage, for preexisting conditions, then les fix it thats why i filed a bill a couple of weeks ago. Lets fix it. Dont play politics and blame the Supreme Court for your inadequate architecture of a bill. Lets fix it. If youre worried about the balls and strikes that judge kavanaugh has called on the bench around regulatory issues, it seems to me youve called balls and strikes on both sides of the administrative procedures act. And there seem to be flaws in there that need to be fixed. For the attorneys in the room, who are studied on the law, rather than trying to get judge kavanaugh to commit one way or another on these policy initiatives, that the President Obama and others around this table are interested in, get him to explain to you the legal theory behind his position. That may have in fact produced the outcome that he didnt particularly like. But because he did it based on his interpretation of the
constitution and the laws. Dont expect him to be a politician. And as for motivations, you know i have to say that its been said by at least one person on this committee, that on the one Hand We Shouldnt Question other peoples motivations, on the other hand, i find it personally insulting to think that because i think we have before us an em indepthly qualified judge, someone who is going to call balls and strikes, to suggest that because im inclined to support him, that im complicit and evil really makes me wonder the sincerity of questioning other peoples motives. So judge kavanaugh, i am glad that youre before us. I believe that you have 300 opinions that people should look at and read and try and spar with you on the basis of your legal knowledge. Your constitutional understanding of the statutory constructs. It would be great and i hope that people are actually taking time to look at the singlemost important factor in your resume. Its not maybe where you went to school. I guess thats good. Its not maybe where you practiced law. But its the 307 different opinions, you can read and the dissents can you read. Spar on the basis of your legal knowledge. Those of you who want to prove to be the smartest lawyer in the room and see if you can prove a better theory that may actually give judge kavanaugh pause. But thats not what this hearing has been about. And im so glad that im one of the last people to do an opening statement. Because what i hope i hear tomorrow, and by the way, just from a process standpoint. The were going to have 30minute rounds which in senate time is about an hour and a half per member. Tomorrow. And then were going to have 20minute rounds the following day. Everybody take time to talk about legal theory. Stop the theater, and Start Talking about whats really meaningful here. I think if we do that, i have every Confidence Judge kavana h kavanaugh, youre going to be Justice Kavanaugh and im proud
to actually see you composure yourself the way you have today. Ill be asking you several questions on some judgments that frankly i didnt like. But i know you probably made the right decision and i believe that when you get confirmed to the bench, youre actually going to take some other opinions that i dont like. Because its what i wished you could do for me, because we failed to get it done here. But it will be done for the right reasons. And i think if people objectively look at your record, theyre going to be hardpressed to take all this theater weve heard today and boil it down into something that makes you look like youre an activist judge, just waiting to be one of the members of the ninemember Legislative Branch down the street. I think youre one of the singlegreatest, great opportunities that we have to make the Supreme Court make us do our job and to rein in the dangerously high amount of authority that our Administrative Branch has. Thats all i want you to do. And i look forward to asking you questions tomorrow. I yield back the rest of my time. I see senator graham has rejoined us, hes more senior. Okay, great. So i thank you, mr. Chairman. Id like to restate my objection from earlier for the record. Which is my motion to postpone the hearing. A number of comments have been made by my honored and respected colleagues, id like to address a few of them. One there was some mention a concern about elena kagans hearing and that the white house at the time, there was an agreement that those Certain Records are sensitive and should therefore not be disclosed. Its my understandings that a a point of distinction between that time and today, that those were active cases in the white house and for that reason, there was an understanding and agreement that they were of a sensitive nature and should not be disclosed. In terms of the point thats been made about playing
politics, and blaming the Supreme Court, i think that we have to give pause when those kinds of concerns are expressed to also think about the fact that there have been Many Political campaign, that has been run, indicating an intention to use the United States Supreme Court as a Political Tool to end things like the Affordable Care act. The Voting Rights act and Campaign Finance reform. Which makes this conversation a legitimate one. In terms of a reasoned concern about whether this nominee has been nominated to fulfill a political agenda. As it relates to using that court and the use of that court. As it relates to the 42,000 documents, or 42,000 pages of documents, i find it interesting that we get those documents less than 24 hours before this hearing is scheduled to begin. But it took 57 days for those
documents to be vetted before we would even be given those documents. So theres some suggestion that we should be speedreaders. And read 42,000 pages of documents in about 15 hours. When it took the other side 57 days to review those same documents. So the logic at least on the math is not applying. Now the chairman has requested 10 of the nominees documents, thats 10 . Of 100 of his full record. The nominees personal lawyer has only given us 7 of his documents. 7 out of 100 of the full record. Republicans have only given 4 of these records or made them public. Thats 4 of 100 of a full record. 96 of his record is missing. 96 of his record is missing. It is reasonable, it is reasonable that we should want to review his entire record. And then we can debate among us the relevance of what is in his record. To his nomination. But it should not be the ability of this, the leadership of this committee, to unilaterally make decisions about what we will and will not see. In terms of itsed a missibility, instead of arguing about the weight of whatever is made admissible. The late Senator Kennedy of massachusetts called these hearings a Supreme Court nominees quote Job Interview with the American People. And by that standard, the nominee before us is coming into his Job Interview with more than 90 of his background hidden. I would think that anyone who wanted to sit on the nations highest court would be proud of their record. And would want the American People to see it. I would think that anyone privileged to be nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States would want to be confirmed in a process that is not under a cloud. That respects due process. I would think that anyone nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States would want to have a hearing that is characterized by transparency and fairness and integrity and not shrouded by uncertainty and suspicion and concealment and doubt. We should not be moving forward with this hearing. The American People deserve better than this. So judge kavanaugh as most of us know, and i will mention to you and you have Young Children and i know theyre very proud of you and i know you are a great parent and i applaud all that
you have done in the community. As we all know, this is a week when most students in our country go back to school. And it occurs to me that many years ago, right around this time. I was starting kindergarten and i was in a bus, a school bus, on my way to Thousand Oaks Elementary School as part of the second class of students as bussing desegregated berkeley, California Public schools. This was decades after the Supreme Court ruled brown v. Board of education. That separate was inherently unequal. And as ive said many times, had chief Justice Earl Warren not been on the Supreme Court of the United States, he could not have led a unanimous decision and the outcome then of that case may have been very different. Had that decision not come down the way it did, i may not have
had the opportunities that allowed me to become a lawyer or prosecutor. Id likely would not have been elected District Attorney of San Francisco or the Attorney General of california. And i most certainly would not be sitting here as a member of the United States senate. So for me, a Supreme Court seat is not only about academic issues of legal precedent or judicial philosophy, it is personal. When we talk about our nations highest court, and the men and women who sit on it, were talking about the impact that one individual on that court can have, impact on people youll never meet and whose names you will never know. Whether a person can exercise their constitutional right to cast a ballot, that may be decided if judge kavanaugh sits on that court. Whether a woman with Breast Cancer can afford health care, or is forced, off lifesaving treatment. Whether a gay or transgender
worker is treated with dignity, or maybe treated as a secondclass citizen. Whether a young woman who got pregnant at 15, is forced to give birth or in desperation, go to a backalley for an abortion. Whether a president of the United States can be held accountable or whether hell be above the law. All of this may come down to judge kavanaughs vote. And thats whats at stake in this nomination. And the stakes are even higher because of the moment were in and many of us have discussed this. These are unprecedented times. As others have already observed, less than two weeks ago the president s personal lawyer and Campaign Chairman were each found guilty or pleaded guilty to eight felonies. The president s personal lawyer under oath declared that the
president directed him to commit a federal crime. Yet, that same president is race raising to a position to the highest court in our land. A court that very well may decide his legal fate. And yes, thats essentially what confirming judge kavanaugh could mean. So it is important, more important i say than ever, that the American People have transparency and accountability with this nomination. And thats why it is extremely disturbing that Senate Republicans have prevented this body and most important, the American People, from fully reviewing judge kavanaughs record and have disregarded just about every tradition and practice that i heard so much about before i arrived in this place. Judge kavanaugh, when you and i
met in my office you said with respect to judicial decisions, that rushed decisions are often bad decisions. I agree with you. I agree with you. And when we are talking about who will sit on the Supreme Court of the United States, i believe your point couldnt be more important. Mr. Chairman, when judge kavanaugh was nominated in july, he expressed his belief that a judge must be independent, must interpret the law, and not make law. But in reviewing this nominees background i am deeply concerned that what guides him is not independence or impartiality. Its not even ideology. I would suggest it is not even ideology. What i believe guides him and what his record that weve been able to see shows, is what guides this nominee is partisanship. This nominee has devoted his
entire career to a conservative republican agenda. Helping to spearhead a partisan investigation into president clinton. Helping george w. Bushs legal team insure that every vote was not counted in bush v. Gore. Helping to confirm partisan judges and enact partisan laws as part of the bush white house. And in all of these efforts, he has shown that he seeks to win at all costs, even if that means pushing the envelope. If we look at his record on the d. C. Circuit, and in his recent writings and statements, it is clear that the nominee has brought his political bias to the bench. He has carried out deeply conservative partisan agendas as part, as a judge favoring big business over ordinary americans, polluters over clean air and water and the powerful over the vulnerable. Just last year judge kavanaugh praised the dissent in roe v. Wade and ruled against a scared 17yearold girl seeking to end her pregnancy. He has disregarded the Supreme Court precedent to argue that undocumented workers werent really employees under our labor laws. We have witnessed horrific Mass Shootings from parkland to las vegas, to jacksonville, florida. Yet judge kavanaugh has gone further than the Supreme Court and has written that because Assault Weapons are quote in common use, Assault Weapons and high capacity magazines can not be banned under the Second Amendment. When he was part of an independent counsel investigation into the democratic president , the nominee was dogged in demanding answers. And yet, he has since changed his tune, arguing that president s should not be investigated or held accountable. A position that i am sure is not lost on this president. These positions are not impartial, they are partisan. Judge neil gorsuch, judge kavanaughs classmate insisted before this committee that judges are politicians in robes. I fear that judge kavanaughs record indicates that is exactly what he may very well be. Now, i know members of this committee and the nominees friends and colleagues have assured us that hes devoted to his family and supportive of his law clerks and volunteers in his community, and i dont doubt that at all. But thats not why we are here. I would rather that we think about this hearing in the contest of the Supreme Court of the United States and the impact it will have on generations of americans to come, and do we want that court to continue a legacy of being above politics and unbiased or are we prepared
to participate in a process that is tainted and that leaves the American Public questioning the integrity of this process . And ill close by saying this, we have a system of justice that is symbolized by a statue of a Woman Holding scales. And she wears a blindfold. Justice wears a blindfold because we have said in the United States of america, under our judicial system, justice should be blind to a persons status. We have said that in our system of justice, justice should be blind to how much money someone has, to what you look like or who you love, to who your parents are and the language they speak. And every Supreme Court justice must understand and uphold that ideal. And sir, should those cases become come before you, judge kavanaugh, i am concerned whether you would treat every american equally, or instead
show allegiance to the Political Party and the conservative agenda that has shaped and built your career. I am concerned your loyalty would be to the president who appointed you, and not to the constitution of the United States. These concerns i hope you will answer during the course of this hearing. I believe the American People have a right to have these concerns. I also believe the American Public has a right to full and candid answers to the questions that are presented to you during the course of this hearing. I will be paying very close attention to your testimony, and i think you know the American Public will be paying very close attention to your testimony. Thank you. Senator graham . Am i the last person . Yes. But dont forget, were going to hear from the nominee and his introducers before you can go home and go to bed. Okay, thank you. [ laughter ] i was going to ask you to take me to dinner, but thats not going to happen. You know the answer to that. Thats right. [ laughter ] so to my colleagues, i look forward to working with you. I think you have to be blind as to whats going on here. You know justice briar, i guess you cant say anything. Where did he come from . He was ted kennedys judiciary person. Where do you think republicans are going to find a judge . The whole argument is, you can be a conservative republican president but you have to nominate a liberal to be fair to the country thats absurd. Where do you think Ruth Bader Ginsburg came from . What groups do yall use to pick from . This is shaping up to be the hypocrisy hearing, and thats
hard to do in the senate in todays time, to be hypocritical. But let me just point to a few of these things. Clinton, it didnt bother anybody for clinton to nominate briar while he was under investigation. We actually did it. Didnt bother any of yall that ted kennedy staff person was his pick. It didnt bother me anybody, because thats who i expect you to pick. This is ridiculous. Youre one of the best choices any republican could make. As i said with justice gorsuch, i am glad youre here, because there were days im wondering who he would have picked. [ laughter ] and this is a home run from my point of view. Lets talk about roe v. Wade. Who would ever play politics on the campaign trail. What a Bastard Donald Trump is. Until you hear about Hillary Clinton. February the 3rd, 2016, this is what Hillary Clinton said. When asked does she have a litmus test for Supreme Court nominees. I have a bunch of litmus tests, because the next president could get as many as three appointments. And i hope shes right. We go to be sure to preserve roe v. Wade. October 2016, we need a Supreme Court that will stand up on behalf of Womens Rights. Its important that we not reverse roe v. Wade. I want a Supreme Court that will stick with roe v. Wade and a womans right to choose. I understand where shes coming from. Anybody running for president over there, i dare you to disagree with her. You will wind up like i did, getting 1 . [ laughter ] if you even suggest that you
will pick a nominee thats not going to uphold roe v. Wade, thats the end of you. But youve figured that out. So this is the way we do politics. This is a big decision called roe v. Wade. There are two sides and a bunch of nuances. Heres what i know about you. Youre going to take it as precedent, you wrote a big book which ill never read, and youre going to tell us what it takes to overturn long standing precedence. Nobody on this side will care if you overturn Citizens United. They will cheer you on. Somebody will challenge Citizens United and youll say let me hear both sides and ill tell you whether or not i should uphold it. So Hillary Clinton, we know where shes at on roe v. Wade, and thats just the way it is. Now, what other things . Executive power. This idea that trump picked you to save him. Amazing concept, since you said what you said back in 1998 and 2008. The bottom line is, when clinton was being impeached, my good friend, and this is true, he is my good friend, on february the 12th, 1999, introduced into the record during the deliberations of the clinton impeachment trial, an article by Brett Kavanaugh suggesting that you should wait, if there is an indictment, until after the president is out of office. The same concept were talking about here today, when the shoe was on the other foot, heres what joe said about your thinking. The president is not simply another individual, he is unique. Hes the embodiment of the federal government and the head of a Political Party. If he is to be removed, the entire government likely would suffer, and the military, our economic consequences to the
nation could be severe. These repercussions should not result from the judgment of a single prosecutor, whether it be the Attorney General or Special Counsel, and a single jury. Prosecution or nonprosecution of a president is, in sport, inevitable, unavoidably a political act. Thus, as the constitution suggests, the decision about the president , while hes in office, should be made for all Great National political judgments, and our country should be made in the congress of the United States, according to joe biden. The gift that keeps on giving for us. I think thats pretty hypocritical. During the clinton days, you were right. But all of a sudden youre a danger to the republic. Lets talk about theres so many how many minutes do i have here . The bottom line is dont exceed what i will not. Guns. Somehow youre going to make
sure that congress the bottom line on guns, Dianne Feinstein is a wonderful lady and has passion on this issue about Assault Weapons. She was able to succeed politically after ten years the gun Assault Weapons ban expired and its been hard to get it reestablished. She introduced legislation in 2013 that got 60 no votes. 16 democrats. So i dont believe they see you as a threat to the nation if you come out on the idea that the Second Amendment has some meaning. In other words, the political process, when it comes to guns, is a work in progress. And i would rather us decide that than you. When it comes to the pillar of virtue comey
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