Wednesday on the Senate floor, Minority Leader Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said in light of Tuesday’s guilty plea by the president’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court should be delayed.
Schumer said, “During our meeting, actually, the news broke that President Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, implicated the president in a violation of campaign finance laws. The sequence of those two events, Kavanaugh’s refusal to say this a president must comply with a duly issued subpoena and Michael Cohen’s implication of the president in a federal crime makes the danger of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court abundantly clear. It’s a game changer. It should be. A president identified as a co-conspirator of a federal crime, an accusation not made by a political enemy but by the closest of his own confidants, is on the verge of making a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, a court that may someday soon determine the extent of the president’s legal jeopardy. In my view, the Senate Judiciary Committee should immediately pause the consideration of the Kavanaugh nomination.”
He added, “The majority of the Senate has still not seen the bulk of Judge Kavanaugh’s record. At the very least, the very least, it is unseemly for the president of the United States to be picking a Supreme Court justice who could soon be effectively a juror in a case involving the president himself. In light of these facts, I believe Chairman Grassley has scheduled a hearing for Judge Kavanaugh too soon and I am calling on him to delay the hearing. I know that Chairman Grassley and leader McConnell hold all the cards in terms of scheduling hearings, but the plain facts of the case should compel them to the same conclusion I have reached, the Judiciary Committee should postpone Judge Kavanaugh’s hearings. At this moment in our nation’s history, the Senate should not confirm a man to the bench who believes that presidents are virtually beyond accountability, even in criminal cases. A man who believes that presidents are virtually above the law and only Congress can check a president’s power.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.