Ever since President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh for the U.S. Supreme Court, the running narrative among mainstream media types has been that Dem Senators Joe Manchin(WV) and Heidi Heitkamp(ND) who are up for reelection this year, have no otherwise but to vote for Kavanaugh because Trump won decisively in both West Virginia and North Dakota in 2016.
In other words according to the mainstream media talking heads, it would be political suicide if the two Dem Senators from Trump-popular states opposed Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Recent events however suggest that during his confirmation hearings for the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, Kavanaugh may have lied under oath to Congress–a felony. This is such a serious issue that U.S. Senators need to get to the bottom of before casting their vote for or against Kavanaugh. Senate Republicans are working hard to hide from the public, documents that could prove Kavanaugh lied to Congress. Against this backdrop, Dem Senators Heitkamp and Manchin have a duty not to allow Senate Republicans to ram Kavanaugh through without proper vetting especially as regards to his potential felonious conduct. Simply put, Senators Heitkamp and Manchin must hold the line on Kavanaugh.
There is also such an egregious double standard surrounding what Senate Republicans are trying to do with Kavanaugh compared to what they demanded with Obama’s Supreme Court nominees Sotomayor and Kagan. This tweet by Sen Kamala Harris(D-CA) perfectly illustrates this egregious double standard.
When Sotomayor was nominated to the Supreme Court, Republicans had access to her 17-year judicial record and demanded that minutes from board meetings she attended in the 1980s be made public. They were.
We should see ALL of Kavanaugh’s records too.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 11, 2018
Senators Heitkamp and Manchin should also be sympathetic to pleas by their fellow Senator Patrick Leahy(D-VT) who is desperate to get to the truth about Kavanaugh because it was him that Kavanaugh potentially lied to under oath. Senator Leahy deserves to know the truth about Kavanaugh.
I keep demanding Kavanaugh’s FULL record because it will reveal if he lied to me under oath in 2006—whether he is fit to serve on our highest court. We’ve seen just 6%; only 3% is public. The hiding of his record is a sham & a fraud against the American people. #WhatAreTheyHiding
— Sen. Patrick Leahy (@SenatorLeahy) August 24, 2018
Bottom line if Senators Heitkamp and Manchin vote for Kavanaugh without inquiring as to whether he lied under oath to Congress–a felony–it will be an exercise of extreme cowardice and quite frankly a dereliction of their senatorial duty to properly vet nominees to the highest court in the land. They must hold the line on Kavanaugh.
For those of you very happy with @Emolclause’s activism don’t shy away from the “tip jar” below on your way out