Presidential hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) doubled down on her call for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to be impeached following a now-discredited New York Times story about sexual misconduct allegations that the alleged victim does not recall.
In an interview with National Public Radio (NPR), Morning Edition host Noel King asked Harris about a lack of evidence for the charges.
“Now, you’re a former prosecutor,” King said. “Are you not troubled by a lack of evidence here?”
“Well, I would say that the fact that someone does not remember the details of an incident doesn’t mean that there’s lack of evidence if there are other witnesses who can establish that the fact occurred,” Harris said. “And so I wouldn’t say there’s no evidence.”
Harris also said it is “very normal” for victims not to remember details of traumatic events.
“It’s worth noting, though, that the witness has not established that this in fact occurred,” King said. “He was a male classmate of this woman. He says it happened, but no one has proved that it’s happened. Does that trouble you?”
Harris said Kavanaugh, who was the subject of seven FBI background checks, six relating to his appointment as a federal judge and a seventh after Dr. Christine Blasey Ford made charges of sexual misconduct during his confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court seat, needed to be investigated.
“But you’re getting to exactly the point,” Harris said. “Someone should investigate this because the fact that something has not been proven, it doesn’t mean it didn’t occur, right?”
“But if you don’t investigate it, if it hasn’t been investigated, then there’s not been a full airing of the issue,” Harris said.
Harris continued:
And my point from the beginning about all of these allegations against Brett Kavanaugh is that there’s not been a robust, a meaningful investigation. There’s not been an investigation with the level of attention that normally would occur around these kinds of allegations and especially related to the subject at hand, which is the appropriateness of this individual who’s serving on the highest court of our land for a lifetime appointment.
And King pushed back when Harris claimed that Kavanaugh lied under oath during his confirmation hearings.
“I mean, you have said that he lied under oath,” King said. “But I wonder when — what is the evidence that he lied under oath? Now, many people believed Dr. Blasey Ford. Many people found her to be very credible. But is there evidence that Justice Kavanaugh lied under oath?”
Harris gave a lengthy response about Kavanaugh’s high school yearbook and “his involvement in the anti-Roe judicial nomination when he was in the White House.”
“And the reality is that this confirmation process was — it lacked integrity,” Harris said. “It was pushed through.”
Harris also admitted in the interview that the likelihood of Kavanaugh being impeached is low given the requirement that the majority of the House must approve an indictment to impeach, and a two-thirds supermajority of the Senate must convict for impeachment, but she said it was worth pursuing nonetheless.
Harris said:
Where will it end up? You know, if you gauge what the United States Senate has done under the current leadership, it has been coddling. And, frankly, you know, it’s not holding into account this administration on a number of levels. But it doesn’t mean that those of us have a — who have a responsibility to act shouldn’t act.
King asked about some saying as a presidential candidate whether or not Harris and others will see the call for impeachment as “political opportunism.”
“I sat in that hearing room as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and I watched Dr. Ford, who came forward and told the American public what happened to her and had nothing to do with politics,” Harris said. “And she was excoriated. She was treated like a criminal.”
“I feel very strongly about this case,” Harris said. “I have since then. And so I’m willing to take the hit. I agree that some will say it’s politically motivated. But to be very honest and clear with you, this has to do with the facts of that case.”
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