WASHINGTON, DC – Democrat senators are resorting to extreme rhetoric in their increasingly desperate attempts to derail the Brett Kavanaugh nomination, saying his confirmation will lead to “tyranny,” cause “the destruction of the Constitution,” and that any colleagues who vote for him are “complicit in evil.”
Judge Brett Kavanaugh is by all accounts a mainstream conservative Republican who has served with distinction on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He is the sort of Supreme Court pick you would expect from any Republican president. But you would not know that from how Democratic senators speak of him.
Kavanaugh’s confirmation process is moving steadily forward. While rhetoric from leftwing activists often seems overwrought, it is uncommon to see it coming from those who hold high office. The statements coming out of the Senate seem to indicate mounting desperation to stop what increasingly appears to be an unstoppable Supreme Court nomination.
“We are walking through the valley of the shadow of death,” said Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), in a press conference on July 24. “You are either complicit in the evil, you are either contributing to the wrong, or you are fighting against it.”
Booker is considering a run for president in 2020.
“And he’s citing Scripture to proclaim that this nominee is pure evil, of Biblical proportions?,” an incredulous Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) asked rhetorically after hearing Booker’s remarks. (The reference to “the valley of the shadow of death” is found in Psalm 23.)
Other liberal senators’ comments were equally intemperate.
“Judge Kavanaugh is your worst nightmare,” promised Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) in a July 10 press conference.
Kavanaugh’s “nomination is a threat to people of color, to women, to workers, to the LGBTQ community, to people living in poverty,” railed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on July 24, widely talked up as a Democratic presidential contender.
“We’re looking at a destruction of the Constitution of the United States,” warned Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), who is also contemplating challenging President Trump in 2020.
“This is a nominee who wants to pave the path to tyranny,” prophesized the normally soft-spoken Sen. Jeff Merkley at a July 9 rally at the Supreme Court, rivaling Booker’s moralizing on being complicit with evil.
Former Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D-VA) is not a senator, but evidently decided that because he too is considering a White House run in 2020, condemning the newest Supreme Court nominee is an obligatory rite of passage.
“The nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh will threaten the lives of millions of Americans for decades to come,” McAuliffe tweeted on July 9, mere minutes after President Trump announced his choice in the East Room of the White House.
“These people are becoming unglued,” commented a senior adviser on the Supreme Court appointment process who is close to the White House, but who spoke anonymously to Breitbart News because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
Other Republicans are more public, and more direct:
“To some of our friends across the aisle who are engaged in this kind of superheated rhetoric,” responded Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on July 25, as the Democratic meltdown began, “my advice is: get a grip!”
This rhetoric is putting Democratic senators in Trump states who are up for reelection this year in a difficult position.
Ken Klukowski is senior legal editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski.
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