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Republicans are working hard to cover up the sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, because having a rock-ribbed Republican on the Supreme Court is much more important than asking seriously whether he attempted to rape a younger girl while in high school. And Sen. Orrin Hatch is enthusiastically out in front of that effort, starting with calling Christine Blasey Ford “mixed up” and calling on the Senate to “consider who the judge is today,” which is, according to Hatch, “a really good man.” He wasn’t done there, though.
Hatch is aggressively defending the Trump White House decision against having the FBI investigate, taking the position that the FBI just doesn’t do that sort of thing. Hmmm … how interesting, in the context of Hatch’s 1991 remarks on the investigation into Clarence Thomas’ sexual harassment habits:
Chairman Biden and ranking member Thurmond, when they heard about this the first time, they immediately ordered this FBI investigation, which was the very right thing to do, and they did what every other chairman and ranking member have done in the past[.]
Republicans might draw a distinction that the allegations against Thomas involved his time at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency, vs. allegations of what would be a state crime. But if so, would they truly be suggesting that they and the FBI wouldn’t consider it FBI business if a Supreme Court nominee had committed, say, a murder that would only draw state, not federal, charges if uncovered? Or state-level drug crimes?
For that matter, and much more recently, the FBI included domestic violence allegations against White House staff secretary Rob Porter in its background investigation of him—something Hatch might well remember since his own first response to the news was to vigorously defend Porter, only to have to walk it back.
Even before Christine Blasey Ford came forward, Republicans had been looking to cover up Kavanaugh’s history and rush through his confirmation. They started with hiding the vast majority of the records of his government work. Now they’re working to bury sexual assault allegations. Whatever it takes to get their guy on the Supreme Court.
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