Brett Kavanaugh

Transcripts.

The polarization of American politics has done its work and we now have an especially ugly example of where it leads. I’m referring to the fight over the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh as a justice of the Supreme Court.

PHOENIX — Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is moving past the threats that came after she announced she would vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

The Washington Post ran an item recently about a private school in the greater Washington area that was hiring a director of alumni. Doesn’t sound like much of a story, except for the fact that the institution in question is Georgetown Prep, the school attended by Supreme Court justice Brett…

The Washington Post ran an item recently about a private school in the greater Washington area that was hiring a director of alumni. Doesn’t sound like much of a story, except for the fact that the institution in question is Georgetown Prep, the school attended by Supreme Court justice Brett…

Merch.

He made more than 10 calls to two different lawmakers.

Concluding her Senate floor speech in behalf of Judge Brett Kava­naugh—her vote for him was the decisive one—Republican Susan Collins expressed “her fervent hope” that he “will work to lessen the divisions in the Supreme Court so that we have fewer 5-4 decisions and so that public confidence in our…

“In what world would that happen in?” Nick Miller, Season 5, Episode 22.

Silicon Valley is often praised for its enlightened workplaces, with tech companies offering amenities such as yoga classes, free organic food, and nap pods. But Facebook employees evidently believe these corporate perks extend to the coddling of their personal political views. At least that’s one…

In 1987, when Robert Bork met with Senator Edward Kennedy on the eve of his nomination as a justice of the Supreme Court, it was an awkward visit. Kennedy said his response would not be personal. He said that several times.

Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed, but the fight against him has done lasting damage.

“Harness that energy.”

Some data and context.

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Cutting off funding for Senate candidates and elevating Michael Avenatti are just two examples.

The California senator has plunged the nation into a bitter fight from which it will not soon emerge.

Not that we know.

Maine senator: ‘We will be ill-served in the long run if we abandon the presumption of innocence and fairness, tempting as it may be.’

Judiciary chairman, in letter, says the committee 'has a constitutional obligation to investigate Dr. Ford’s allegations.'

Judiciary chairman, in letter, says the committee 'has a constitutional obligation to investigate Dr. Ford’s allegations.'

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he has no idea how a key vote will go on Friday morning for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

A barroom tussle? Drinking beer on a weeknight? That’s nothing. How about the time the 19-year-old wrote a theater review in which he lamented the cast of “perma-smile actresses whose only qualifications seem to be their phenomenally large breasts and tight buttocks.” What sort of vile misogynistic…

Years from now, perhaps only days from now, when people are no longer quite so inebriated with partisanship, those who wish Brett Kavanaugh well and those who wish him ill will probably agree on one thing: His defiant September 27 statement denying the charges leveled against him in the course of…

Many news organizations have disgraced themselves over these last few weeks in the unlovely quest for peccadillos in Brett Kavanaugh’s youth, but the New York Times has outshone the rest. A story on October 2 brought us finally to the point of self-parody. The lede was breathtaking in its…

For anybody who wasn’t totally committed to the proposition that Christine Blasey Ford spoke only the literal truth about Brett Kavanaugh during her testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, there were long stretches during Kavanaugh’s testimony that felt like a show trial. For hours we watched…

ACLU tweet suggests that the Nebraska senator is undecided but Sasse voted to advance the nominee out of committee.

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Will it change anything?

Let us count the ways.

An ugly, dishonest and ever-changing attack on Brett Kavanaugh and the nomination process.

Senate Republican leaders are moving ahead with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation, as members of the chamber will begin viewing material from an FBI supplemental background check to investigate claims of sexual assault against the nominee on Thursday morning.

We have data.

When ill-conceived jokes become false information.

Montgomery County records from the 1980s aren't digitized. Remember microfiche?

His anger wasn't the problem; the expression of it was.

Julie Swetnick's allegations gave the judge the fire he needed.

So here's the thing about internet memes ...

Term limits for SCOTUS, anyone? In addition to TMQ, this week it's Tuesday Morning Courterback.

Term limits for SCOTUS, anyone? In addition to TMQ, this week it's Tuesday Morning Courterback.

Term limits for SCOTUS, anyone? In addition to TMQ, this week it's Tuesday Morning Courterback.

Michael Avenatti said Monday evening that his client, Julie Swetnick, did not witness first-hand Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh allegedly spiking the punch at high school parties in the early 1980s. But he knows a woman who claims to have seen the act, and while she is willing to speak to…

She claims to have seen Kavanaugh "around the punch."

Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, reporter Haley Byrd and deputy online editor Jim Swift join host Charlie Sykes to discuss the latest with the Kavanaugh nomination and Trump's recently inked NAFTA remix. Will the "USMCA" get a vote in Congress?

Former FBI director James Comey endorsed the agency’s capability to impartially investigate allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, writing in a Sunday New York Times op-ed that the bureau is staffed with “people who just want to figure out what’s true.” Such an angle could lead…

“The burden is on the nominee”?

At some point in the fall of 2017, when nearly every day brought news of another famous man disgraced as a result of allegations of sexual misconduct, I remarked flippantly to a liberal friend that the sexual revolution had not worked out the way we were told it would. “Oh, come on,” he responded.…

Jeff Flake called for such an inquiry before voting the nominee out of committee.

Calls for one-week FBI investigation into allegations against the SCOTUS nominee.

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Vote is scheduled for Friday afternoon.

Christine Blasey Ford delivered sincere testimony and deserves respect and empathy. But the burden of proof was not met.

There’s a worse way to deal with members of a restive voting bloc than fight them. It’s called appeasement. And yes, that’s the one that Republicans chose to boost Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Everyone in America should be angry about what happened in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Choosing the prosecutor to run the Republican part of Christine Blasey Ford's questioning was the smartest thing the Senate has done in months.

Nope. No. Uh uh.

"People want fame, they want money, whatever."

What?

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And neither the nominee nor the Judiciary Committee have seen the results of Ford's polygraph test.

We still don't have any corroborating witnesses to either of the accusations against Brett Kavanaugh.

Understanding where the burden of proof really rests.

Christine Blasey Ford, Brett Kavanaugh, and the conversations we need to have.

Mitch McConnell predicts that the judge will be confirmed.

With Mahomes and Fitzpatrick putting up video-game numbers early, Clay Matthews and fellow pass rushers show why it's that much tougher to slow them down. Plus: On prep schools and fraternities in light of the Brett Kavanaugh saga.

With Mahomes and Fitzpatrick putting up video-game numbers early, Clay Matthews and fellow pass rushers show why it's that much tougher to slow them down. Plus: On prep schools and fraternities in light of the Brett Kavanaugh saga.

With Mahomes and Fitzpatrick putting up video-game numbers early, Clay Matthews and fellow pass rushers show why it's that much tougher to slow them down. Plus: On prep schools and fraternities in light of the Brett Kavanaugh saga.

What if she's telling the truth as she remembers it, but her memory is faulty?

Supreme Court nominee addresses allegations against him in Fox News Interview

SCOTUS nominee rails against ‘character assassination’ in letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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Woman tells the New Yorker the nominee exposed himself to her at a party at Yale in the early 1980s.

If only her Democratic colleagues would speak as plainly.

After six days of consulting her memory and her lawyer, Deborah Ramirez remembers something Brett Kavanaugh supposedly did that no one else present says happened.

"This is not a yes."

It’s almost like they would rather delay and disrupt the process for political reasons.

Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, Politico's Alex Isenstadt joins host Charlie Sykes to discuss the latest developments in the Kavanaugh nomination and whether or not Rep. Ron DeSantis will pay a price for disagreeing with President Donald Trump over his Hurricane Maria tweets.

Rarely have we witnessed so many people pretend a controversy was about one thing when it was so obviously about another. Since September 16, when the name of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser became known—Christine Blasey Ford, a California psychologist, alleges that he sexually…

Can conservatives 'win' if Trump withdraws the nomination?

What Americans think of Trump's Supreme Court Nominee

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The author of a new book on the tool’s legacy describes its almost mythical authority.

Senate Judiciary chairman has a strong hand to keep things on schedule.

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Christine Blasey Ford wants the FBI to investigate before she appears in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

New hearings, little reason for hope.

On Monday night, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced that Christine Blasey Ford would have the opportunity to testify at a public hearing next Monday about her accusation that Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when the two were high-school students, and Kavanaugh will have a chance to…

Is Trump's adviser going rogue, or have we seen this show before?

Senate minority leader Charles Schumer called for a halt to the confirmation proceedings in response, but a spokesman for Judiciary chairman Chuck Grassley said a committee vote this week had not been delayed.

Mark Judge says he learned he was named in the letter during an interview with the New Yorker.

I signed it. Here's how it went down.

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Senate Democrats disgrace themselves again.

The spectacle of protesters jumping out of their chairs at regular intervals to shout incoherent slogans during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings did not lend itself to the view that those who oppose the judge’s confirmation are especially clearheaded in their beliefs. Their antics, if we may speak…

Her actions should be met with skepticism.

Woke emotionalism is not a substitute for sober policy debate.

Ixnay

Political archaeologists will have plenty of specimens and fragments to examine in the aftermath of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. The incivility that greeted the Supreme Court nominee was among the worst in modern times—no small achievement while the Haynsworth, Bork, and Thomas hearings live in…

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A case study in how the country creates, disseminates, and consumes information.

It’s stupider than you can imagine.

One of the most revealing moments in the Senate hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kava­naugh involved Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). He said Republican justices overwhelmingly side with corporations and right-wing interests in cases before the High Court. And so does Kava­naugh in his votes on…

And spikes one more argument against his nomination

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Sorry, liberal activists

She was only off by hundreds of thousands.

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“Cancel Brett Kavanaugh,” they reasoned.

Amid the Kavanaugh hearing chaos, the Nebraska senator offers a much-needed civics lesson.

Judiciary Committee chairman calls Democratic attacks on Kavanaugh a 'double standard.'

'If this were a court of law' Democrats 'would be held in contempt.'

No amount of vetting can predict how Brett Kavanaugh, or any other nominee, will perform as a Supreme Court justice

Hearings on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh are set to begin in early September, so expect several rounds of breathless revelations about the man’s past. Consider an AP story this week headlined “At Yale, Kavanaugh Stayed Out of Debates at a Time of Many.” The story’s lead: “It was the 1980s…

The deeper issue in the Kavanaugh confirmation fight

A letter to Senate Judiciary Committee members Chuck Grassley and Dianne Feinstein stands in contrast to a similar letter from Yale law students.

If the goal is to postpone the Supreme Court nominee's hearings, any argument will do.

Mitch McConnell has not forgotten the painful lessons of the Bork nomination.

Plus, a nugget catastrophe.

Senate Dems request thousands of trivial Kavanaugh documents. Nice try.

The nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is proving a hard thing for liberals and progressives to counter. The man’s qualifications are nearly unparalleled; he is highly regarded by judges and law professors at elite institutions; and so far the efforts to find unflattering…

Grassley, citing Dem opposition, says: “I question the sincerity of demands for more documents.”

Standing beside a collection of empty boxes labeled “Missing Records” on Tuesday, Minority leader Chuck Schumer redoubled Democrats’ calls for documents from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s time as staff secretary in the Bush administration.

Kentucky senator had expressed reservations about the judge's record on surveillance and data collection.

Public views of abortion in all 50 states (plus the District of Columbia) would take on an added importance if Roe v. Wade were overturned.

On Monday, July 9, President Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to replace Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh is a serious and respected federal judge with a well-thought-through constitutionalist orientation. Based on what we know now, he deserves enthusiastic support from all who…

As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump vowed to nominate federal judges “in the mold of” Antonin Scalia, and he has lived up to his word. Neil Gorsuch was a superior pick to replace the late Justice Scalia in 2017. And the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to replace Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme…

So Brett Kavanaugh is now part of the story. Kavanaugh, from that part of the swamp known as Bethesda, Md., is President Trump’s nominee for the seat vacated by retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. If Kavanaugh is confirmed, and if, as advertised, he is a constitutionalist, the country will be closer…

When President Trump announced last Monday that he had chosen Brett Kavanaugh to replace Anthony Kennedy, his little speech rang out like a starter pistol. Instantly every activist, party hack, and ideological mainchancer bolted from the blocks, issuing petitions and press releases and formal…

Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement triggered alarm among left-wing lawmakers and activists by giving Donald Trump his second Supreme Court nominee in less than two years. It also inspired some to revive the idea of "packing the court" with additional Democratic appointees as soon as circumstances…

Democrats will go after him by fair means or foul. Mostly foul.

Subtlety not being Donald Trump’s customary approach to his job, his nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court was a surprisingly artful political play.

The early numbers make sense based on what we know about partisanship and history.

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Trump manages to pick a Supreme Court nominee that appeals both to the establishment and the Deplorables.

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The Kentucky senator is staying mum about any concerns he may have regarding Kavanaugh’s views on spying powers.

“They can probably create some bumps in the road,” Senate majority whip John Cornyn said of Democrats in opposition, “But they can’t stop it.”

Old center-right policies get caught in the web of opposition to something new.

The Maine senator is one of two pro-choice Republicans whom Democrats hope to sway.

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Asked by Shannon Bream about the upcoming fight over the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska delivered, as is his habit, a brief seminar on civics: “A judge’s job is not to be making social policy for America,” he said. “A judge’s job is to defend the…

(1) Naming Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is the least Trumpiest thing Trump has done so far (tied with his appointment of Neil Gorsuch.) The often-erratic president followed a highly un-erratic path to this pick, outsourcing the vetting to groups such as the Federalist Society and working…

It was 8:30 p.m., and hundreds of people were yelling incoherently back and forth at each other in front of the Supreme Court. Most were there to oppose President Donald Trump’s pick to succeed retiring Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy, Brett Kavanaugh. (You can read more about Kavanaugh…

Let the hearings begin.

The president chooses an originalist who would give conservatives a solid majority.