Posted on 09/24/2018 12:56:15 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Monday that the Senate will hold an up-or-down vote on Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination, amid a committee investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against the nominee.
"I want to make it perfectly clear ... Judge Kavanaugh will be voted on here on the Senate floor. Up or down on the Senate floor. This fine nominee to the Supreme Court will receive a vote in the Senate in the near future," McConnell said from the Senate floor on Monday.
He declined, after his floor speech, to say if Republicans would try to vote on Kavanaugh before Oct. 1—the previous timeline for when leadership wanted to get him confirmed.
McConnell's comments are the latest sign from top Republicans and the White House that they are not backing down from an all-out brawl as they try to confirm Kavanaugh to succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy.
He added that Democrats are trying to "smear" Kavanaugh, arguing that their tactics are "despicable."
The floor speech was McConnell's first comments on Kavanaugh since The New Yorker reported that Senate Democrats are investigating a second sexual misconduct allegation dating back to Kavanaugh’s freshman year at Yale.
Deborah Ramirez says Kavanaugh exposed himself in front of her during a gathering at Yale. She told The New Yorker that Kavanaugh thrust his penis in her face, causing her to touch it without her consent.
Kavanaugh was already facing a sexual assault allegation from Christine Blasey Ford, who says that at a party in the early 1980s Kavanaugh pinned her down to a bed and tried to remove her clothing.
Kavanaugh and Ford are both scheduled to testify before the Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Kavanaugh has denied wrongdoing.
McConnell indicated on Monday that he wants the Thursday hearing to go on as scheduled, saying senators should "have a fair hearing on Thursday."
For example, the judiciary committee solidly rejected Bork, but they had a vote in the full senate.
Do, McConnell, do, there is no try!!!
SAme way with everything with that pos...same on the wall...same on everything that Trump has pressed for...put it off...pujt it off...what a bunch of f’king LOSERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you Mitch.
Last week, he promised that Kavanaugh would be sitting on the Supreme Court soon. This week, he is only promising an up or down vote. Not a good indication of his confidence.
Under the rules of The Senate Mitch McConnell has this absolute authority. If committee does not send it to the Senate Mitch will.
How would you like to be a democrat in a far right red state and vote against Kavenaugh and then face an election?
This is a done deal. Kavanaugh will be confirmed.
“Kavanaugh looks like the kind of son that every mother would love to raise and be proud of....”
I have raised TWO of those kind of sons and I am SPITTING mad at these blatantly false, politically motivated hit jobs! If you want to argue the merits or qualifications of a nominee, then have the guts to do so. Go ahead and vote them up or down based on those criteria. But this is an insult to every honest, hard-working man AND woman in America - telling them that if they dare to THINK differently than you do, they will be destroyed!!
Let’s not celebrate just yet. McConnell has been worthless up to now. Just sayin.
Ah, the FR hyperbole squad has arrived. Do you drive over the cliff screaming and with your hair on fire often?
I disagree he has been worthless. Who held up The One’s supreme Court pick and pushed through Trump’s pick. Just say’n.
They are not going to win any. We, the People, are now very alert to them and their sneaky, unjust, vile agenda!
They should go forward, there is no turning back.
I notice that Mitch is no longer saying “Justice Kavenaugh”. In his mind, putting it to a vote and killing it is he means of extricating the Republicans from the controversy.
I believe there is a special place in Hell reserved for people who make false accusations.
Still, I can’t help but wonder if the longer this farce drags out, the more conservatives will show up at the polls in November, in an ugly mood.
If you can’t vote for a Republican, at least vote against a RAT.
As things stand now “I vote for the candidate, not the party” is tantamount to voting for communism.
McConnell reminds me of Lucy holding the football for Linus.
Virtually your entire sparse history is talking about genitalia and the anal orifice. You seem to have some issues.
You post as though McConnell hasn’t come in for the “save” in huge ways - not once, but twice - when it comes to the Supreme Court in recent history. We’ll see if he succeeds this time like he did before, but he has an actual record of being able to do so.
Senators,Our system of jurisprudence has always been based on the tenet of the presumption of innocence. The accuser must meet the burden of proving the accusation is true.
As a Justice on the Supreme Court, would you have had me rule that the burden was on Dredd Scott to show why he should be an American citizen, or should that burden have been on Sandford to demonstrate why Mr. Scott should not be a citizen?
Should the burden have been on Oliver Brown to show that the separate school his daughter was forced to attend was not equal to closer white-attended schools, or should that burden have been placed on the Topeka Board of Eductation to prove that "separate but equal" schooling was necessary?
Should I rule that the burden was on Ernesto Miranda to know his full legal rights when he was arrested, or should Arizona police have to inform Mr. Miranda of his right to an attorney when they arrested him?
Should Norma McCorvey have to justify to the state why she needed an abortion? Should Fred Korematsu have to prove his loyalty to the United States? Should women have to demonstrate their competency to sit on juries? Should the Cantwell family have to prove that their public expression of religion was not a breach of the peace and a public disturbance?
In our system, the accused has a right to know the specific charges and factual evidence against him or her. It is a mockery of our judicial system to suggest that a sitting federal appellate judge, or anyone else for that matter, has to prove his innocence against vague, unspecified, and suddenly recalled allegations, when the very essence of being a judge is to balance the rights of the accused with the rights of the accuser. The burden of proof is on those who make the claims, not on those who are their targets.
Thank you.
-PJ
How’d that repeal of O’Care go? Maybe it was the budget...nope $1T+ deficits. Any wall funding? DACA taken care of? Voter ID? Deep State\govt lawlessness?
Oh, that’s right, corp. tax cuts, killed the individual mandate (aka 1/2 @ss measures).
Sure, McConnell will allow a full up/down vote...right after the midterms...where the never-Trumpers, uniparty and RINOs can vote ‘their conscience’, thumbs-down, w/ no repercussions.
He had better, and soon.
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