Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) said Senate Democrats would be “held in contempt” if Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing were a courtroom.
Senate Democrats repeatedly disrupted the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing, attempting to delay the meeting so that the Democrats would have more time to pour documents relating to Kavanaugh’s time in the George W. Bush White House.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said if this hearing were a courtroom, the litigants could move the hearing to a later date.
Cornyn, a former Texas Supreme Court justice and Texas attorney general, retorted, “I would suggest that if this were a court of law, that virtually every member on the dais on that side would be held in contempt of court because this whole process is supposed to be a civil one where people get to ask questions and we get to get answers”:
Sen. Cornyn said, “I haven’t been in as many confirmation hearings as my colleagues, but this is the first confirmation hearing for a Supreme Court justice that I’ve seen, basically, according to mob rule.”
“We have rules in the Senate. We have norms for decorum,” Cornyn added.
“We cannot possibly move forward, Mr. Chairman,” Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) said.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called for a motion to adjourn.
Sen. Cory Booker asked, “What are we trying to hide by not letting these documents come out?”
Protesters during the hearing shouted that President Donald Trump is “an illegitimate president who cannot make an appointment to Supreme Court” and this “should be an impeachment hearing.”
“I don’t think this is fair to our judge. I don’t think this is fair to our constitutional process,” chairman Grassley said. Sources close to NBC News revealed that the Senate Democrats’ efforts to disrupt the confirmation were coordinated by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) over the weekend: