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Local- and state-level leaders across the country say they’re ready to lash out against Democrats in the midterm elections. When many conservative women around the country watched Christine Blasey Ford appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, they didn’t find her testimony compelling or convincing, as many liberals did. They saw a political farce. “Honestly, I don’t think I have ever been so angry in all of my adult life,” says Ginger Howard, a Republican national committeewoman from Georgia. “It brings me to the point of tears, it makes me so angry.” In interviews with roughly a dozen female...

Anti-Brett Kavanaugh protesters have flooded Capitol Hill since news of allegations of sexual misconduct against him, walking hallways in protest, holding loud demonstrations and confronting senators in elevators. One such protester approached Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana on his way through a Senate building walkway Monday. She asked, “Why are you supporting Kavanaugh?” to the brisk-walking senator. Cassidy took the chance to push back, asking her if she would like it if her loved ones were “destroyed” by “uncorroborated” charges. Cassidy: “Why wouldn’t I support Kavanaugh?” Protester: “Because rapists are bad.” Cassidy: “Wait a second — everybody there said...

The GOP senator told Sean Hannity that the president should basically appeal any Senate “no” vote to the American people. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) released a statement on Tuesday calling on President Donald Trump to renominate alleged sexual abuser Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court should his current nomination fail. Graham opened by sharing his admiration and empathy for Kavanaugh and his family, imploring other senators to “not quit on him,” before diving into the senator’s suggestion to the president. “I believe Judge Kavanaugh will be confirmed to the Supreme Court very soon,” Graham said. “However, if his nomination were...

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Opponents of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh plan to keep up the pressure on Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a key swing vote. Collins has not said how she would vote on Kavanaugh's nomination. Demonstrators planned to show up at her Portland office on Monday to urge her to vote no. It's the latest in a series of demonstrations at Collins' offices. Demonstrators also held a sit-in at her Portland on Friday, the day the Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to advance Kavanaugh's nomination to the Senate floor....

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Democratic U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont says he believes that if Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is seated, it would diminish the confidence Americans should have in the court. Leahy, a member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, made the comments Monday in his Burlington office before flying back to Washington. He said questions that arose during the confirmation process about an alleged sexual assault in high school and bad behavior in college demonstrate what happens when "you try to rush through a judicial nominee." Leahy said he believes the allegations against Kavanaugh are "completely...

AUSTIN, Texas (KTRK) -- Senate-hopeful Beto O'Rourke used his free time from the postponed debate Sunday to reach voters on Facebook Live. His campaign billed his interactive effort as a live television ad in response to the spate of recent negative ads against him. During the Facebook Live broadcast, he mentioned the timing of his campaign, especially given the contentious testimony during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. Rather than point out the emotional nature of the proceedings, O'Rourke offered his gratitude to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused the Supreme...

Rest assured that if there’s a rumor that, in third grade, young Brett Kavanaugh yanked on the ponytails of the girl in the second row (war on women!), The New York Times, NBC News and phalanxes of their journalistic colleagues will be all over it. Meanwhile, Rep. Beto O’Rourke had a pair of felony arrests in his mid-to-late 20s, including a reckless drunk-driving incident in which he crashed into a car and allegedly tried to flee from the scene. The cases appear to have mysteriously disappeared without serious prosecution, notwithstanding that O’Rourke continues to deny basic facts outlined in at...

Senator Lindsey Graham said that in a conversation with Donald Trump Thursday night, the president told him that first lady Melania Trump was “proud” of his fiery attack on the sexual allegations brought against Brett Kavanaugh by Christine Blasey Ford. After a hearing in which Republicans had allowed female prosecutor Rachel Mitchell to question both Ford and Kavanaugh, Graham took the microphone and angrily denounced Democrats and the whole process that threatened to derail Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. “This is not a job interview. This is hell,” a furious Graham said. “What you want to do is destroy...

Judge Brett Kavanaugh was defiant and visibly angry as he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday afternoon, rebutting earlier emotional testimony from the woman who has accused him of sexual assault, Christine Blasey Ford. Departing from his prepared statement he had submitted to the committee the night before, Kavanaugh cast himself as the victim of a political smear campaign driven by the partisan divide in the country. "This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit," Kavanaugh said, "fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly...

One of the country's most popular Republican governors on Thursday called for an independent investigation into the allegations made against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and said the Senate should hold off on a vote. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker made the comments as Professor Christine Blasey Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Kavanaugh sexually and physically assaulted here. "The accusations brought against Judge Kavanaugh are sickening and deserve an independent investigation," Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker tweeted. "There should be no vote in the Senate." Baker, who faces re-election this November, is one of only a few Republican governors,...

Link only due to copyright issues: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/09/26/brett-kavanaugh-gender-gap-men-democrats-midterm-elections-column/1437100002/

Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s weekly politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited. micah (Micah Cohen, managing editor): As far as we know, Republicans are pushing ahead with Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court — for the moment, anyway — amid accusations of sexual assault and misconduct from at least two women. Nate made a semi-compelling argument that that’s a bad move politically. The counter-argument was succinctly expressed by Washington Free Beacon editor-in-chief Matthew Continetti in an interview with Politico: “A defeated Kavanaugh nomination would not only demoralize the conservative base, it could seriously jeopardize Trump’s relationship with the...

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer thinks it’s time for Brett Kavanaugh to withdraw from the Supreme Court confirmation process. If he won’t, Schumer called for Republicans to press pause on Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination in the wake of explosive new allegations of sexual misconduct that emerged against him on Wednesday. “I strongly believe Judge Kavanaugh should withdraw from consideration. If he will not, at the very least, the hearing and vote should be postponed while the FBI investigates all of these allegations,” said Schumer in a statement released on Wednesday. “If our Republican colleagues proceed without an investigation, it would...

A new fear swept through the Capitol on Tuesday afternoon as Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination sat in a holding pattern ahead of Thursday’s hearing: The fear of weekend work. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, according to several senators, told Republicans at a Tuesday luncheon to prepare to work through the weekend to process Kavanaugh’s confirmation. They want to wrap it up as soon as possible for several reasons: Because they’re already irritated that it’s taken this long, they want Kavanaugh on the bench as close as possible to the start of the new SCOTUS term on Monday, and...

Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) said Tuesday that the upcoming hearing with a sexual assault accuser will determine "whether or not Judge Kavanaugh has the credibility and character to serve on the Supreme Court." Hirono also warned that there will always be an "asterisk" by Kavanaugh's name in an interview Tuesday morning on CNN. ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Senator, are there plans to hear from Debbie Ramirez on Thursday? SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D-HI): I don't know, but what I really want to hear from this administration, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders is, there will be an FBI investigation. That is what we...

As President Trump fights for confirmation of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, the stakes go beyond the fate of this particular conservative nominee. At risk for Mr. Trump is his ability to install any more conservatives on the court at all. If Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination falls apart in the face of sexual misconduct accusations, Mr. Trump faces the very real possibility that he could lose his chance to put even his second choice in this seat, which holds the balance between conservative and liberal wings on the nation’s most important court. Democrats need to pick up only...

MORNING JOE: Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) discusses NYT reporting on Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein as well as the latest details involving misconduct allegations against President Trump's Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh. SENATOR BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): We're talking about a lifetime appointment to the nation's highest court that will make a real difference in real people's lives for generations, literally generations to come with this appointment. And so we have a constitutional duty to get to the bottom of these allegations. They are serious, and credible, and now the person with the most knowledge about them, namely Judge Brett Kavanaugh has a...

The woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of a decades-old sexual assault has accepted a Senate committee's request to tell her side next week but Christine Blasey Ford wants to resume negotiations over the exact terms of her appearance, her lawyers said Saturday. It was not immediately clear whether the Republican-run Senate Judiciary Committee would agree to more talks with Ford's team. Also unclear was when she might come to Capitol Hill and she was offering to speak in a public session or a private one. The committee wanted her to appear Wednesday, but she prefers her earlier request...

A fair number of people who voted for President Donald Trump—just about half—think that women who complain about harassment often create more problems instead of solving anything, according to a new poll released this week. The survey from YouGov/The Economist asked respondents whether they agreed with this statement: “Women who complain about harassment often cause more problems than they solve.” Among Trump voters, 14 percent said they strongly agreed, while 34 percent agreed somewhat—meaning that overall, 48 percent agreed with the statement to some degree. Forty percent of Trump voters disagreed, to some degree, that “women who complain about harassment...

Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas took a verbal swing at his Republican rival, Sen. Ted Cruz, and his ties with President Donald Trump, during a debate on Friday, in the final weeks of a heated and closely watched midterm election in the state. Speaking at an auditorium at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, O'Rourke contrasted Cruz's recent conciliatory statements about Trump, and the harsh criticism Cruz had for Trump when they were both candidates in the 2016 Republican primary....