Tuesday’s theme for Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing was Republican lies; Wednesday’s? Kavanaugh’s lies and dodges.
Kavanaugh has demonstrated a truly remarkable memory for cases, names, and details. In fact, one of his favorite ways of avoiding a question is to simply begin describing the circumstances around whatever the question touches on. Yet when anything comes up that’s sticky for him, he’s suddenly struck with amnesia.
Here are a few big moments:
Moment #1: Dick Durbin goes after Kavanaugh for perjury, which, yes, it seems like he’s almost certainly committed.
Check out Joan McCarter’s fuller explanation of how this played out here and my borderline appropriate editorial commentary below.
Moment #2: Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has Durbin’s back, alluding to documents that prove that Kavanaugh had emails stolen from Leahy’s office before it came out publicly.
I can’t say it better than Leahy did during the hearing. Even better? The statement he released midday.
Between 2001 and 2003, two Republican staffers on the Senate Judiciary Committee regularly hacked into the private computer files of six Democratic senators, including me. They stole 4,670 files, and they used them to assist in getting President Bush’s most controversial judicial nominees confirmed. This became public in late 2003 when The Wall Street Journal happened to print some of the stolen materials.
The ringleader behind this massive theft was a Republican Senate staffer named Manny Miranda. The scandal amounted to a digital Watergate — a theft not unlike Russia’s hacking of the DNC.
During all of this, Judge Kavanaugh worked in the White House Counsel’s Office on judicial nominations. He worked hand-in-hand with Miranda to advance these same controversial nominees. Not surprisingly, Judge Kavanaugh was asked extensively about his knowledge of the theft during both his 2004 and 2006 hearings. And I mean extensively: 111 questions from six senators, both Republicans and Democrats.
He testified under oath — and he testified repeatedly — that he never received any stolen materials, and that he knew nothing about it until it was public. He testified that if he had suspected anything “untoward” he would have reported it. At the time, we left it there. We didn’t have evidence to suggest otherwise.
Today, with the limited amount of Judge Kavanaugh’s White House record that has been provided to the Judiciary Committee, for the first time we have been able to learn some information about his knowledge of this theft.
Leahy’s questioning left Kavanaugh shaken, fearing future disclosures.
Moment #3: Kavanaugh claims that he doesn’t know much about the Federalist Society process, leader Leonard Leo, or how his name popped up on Trump’s shortlist suddenly.
Much of Kavanaugh’s recent record consists of poorly veiled Supreme Court audition material. I’m not just talking about his ruling against an unaccompanied minor seeking an abortion, but also his speeches and asides. There’s no question he’s been shooting for the Supreme Court.
Likewise, there’s no question that the Federalist Society vetted and selected him. His claim to the contrary is so fictional as to be offensive.
Moment #4: Kavanaugh refuses to say whether he has spoken with anyone at Trump’s lawyer’s law firm.
One of the most remarkable exchanges came late in the night, when Kamala Harris pressed him as to whether he’d had a conversation about the Mueller investigation with anyone at Trump’s personal lawyer’s firm.
In the Harris-Kavanaugh exchange, she makes the point I did above. He was visibly sweating by then.
Continued questioning from Harris embarrassed Kavanaugh further.
Overall impressions
If we counted lies of omission as a category, I’d never stop typing. Kavanaugh rarely gave a firm answer; a rare exception came when he happily defended his insane stance on gun laws. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) points out that assault weapons are not “common use” guns. Kavanaugh just came back with, most handguns are semi-automatic. “This is all about precedent for me,” he said. I couldn't distinguish semi-automatic rifles from semi-automatic handguns as a matter of law.
As to general struggles, Kavanaugh floundered on pretty much everything race-related. The main events: Booker’s and Harris’s questions.
And here’s a relevant portion of the Harris exchange:
Another biggie? Kavanaugh’s refusal to clarify his position on the ACA and pre-existing conditions legislation is more critical than ever as a challenge to the ACA is wending its way to the court. Granted, it’s not much of a mystery that Kavanaugh toes the party line.
