WASHINGTON— U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), joined Fox News this afternoon to discuss Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
A full transcript of Dr. Cassidy’s remarks are transcribed below.
HOST: Senator Cassidy, I can only imagine what the talk is like on Capitol Hill as a third accuser has come forth. But I don’t want to imagine it, I want to hear for you.
CASSIDY: If you will, the source is being considered, not the accuser per se but [Michael] Avenatti. Avenatti, who, you know, lawyer to porn stars who alleged this several days ago, who was immediately called by [Senate] Judiciary [Committee] staff but would not reveal any information, and now reveals it two days beforehand. Now, I have to judge it as I am told, and we are being told that a woman went to 10 different parties where women were being gang raped, and never reported it until, again, two days before this hearing. Now, that just doesn’t seem right to me. Why would she continue to go to parties where this would occur? We’ve not heard more from her, but we have to have a filter. Clearly the game plan of the left is to come out with a accusation, accusation, accusation, which can never be disproved but which are meant to taint, and that’s unfortunate.
HOST: For what you’re saying, Senator Cassidy, as people are listening to this, so you’re saying no, this has nothing to do with this Julie Swetnick, who is this third accuser, you’re talking about the person who carried first the information and teased it in social media before he would reveal any facts to the very people, the Judiciary Committee in the Senate, that might be able to drill down on the facts, which we understand from Senator Grassley is exactly what’s having to happen now with Judiciary Committee attorneys.
CASSIDY: And I’m told that Mr. Avenatti is intimating on his social media that he might run for president, and so clearly he is a guy all about publicity. But this is the weaponization of the #MeToo movement. The #MeToo movement actually is so important that folks like [Harvey] Weinstein are called out, that [Bill] Cosby are called out. But then when it’s weaponized, when people who six different FBI background checks have shown to be a reputable person, when folks across the spectrum, both genders, you name it, all races, attest to his high moral character, in which there’s no pattern of serial activity, now you can weaponize it and the presumption is that he is guilty just because well, that’s the spirit of the age. That’s wrong. It can happen to anybody and at some point we have to look at a life’s work and judge it against someone else’s. And if I judge Kavanaugh’s life work against Avenatti’s, I’ll go with Kavanaugh.
HOST: Senator Cassidy, do you think that the vote with just the Senate Judiciary Committee, because I know it’s being reported that oh, no no no, this is the big vote. No, this is just the committee vote on Friday, do you think that that schedule should be upheld or should there be any delay to take into account anybody else who has come forward in the last couple of days or even hours?
CASSIDY: Well first you have to see this as a tactic. First let’s recognize that if [Democrat Senator] Diane Feinstein had come forth with this letter six weeks ago, it would have been discussed in private and confidentially, and Dr. Ford’s confidentiality would have been protected. But the staffer for Senator Feinstein reportedly is the one who leaked it to the press, bringing her out of her anonymity into this glare. That is unfortunate for Dr. Ford. It was wrong for them to do that. But now it’s clearly a tactic in which people are revealing stuff in order to delay the vote. At some point you have to see a tactic as part of a larger strategy. I think we should go ahead with the vote.
HOST: And what do you say to these women? I mean, Senator Jeff Flake just said, you know, they’re pawns in all of this. And if it is proven that this was the staffer for Diane Feinstein that leaked it, I mean it’s been talk that it was a Democrat all along, that’s what people had suspected, which does put that sort of air of okay, well why did it have to happen this way? But what do you say to these women?
CASSIDY: First, my gosh, if at some point in your life you are assaulted, you have all of our sympathy, all of our empathy. As a husband, as the [father] of two women, who, one a teenager, one in her early twenties, I never want that to happen to my daughter. I want you to be treated with respect. And I wish your request for anonymity had been treated with respect by those who had handled your letter in the appropriate way, which would have been to give to the committee six weeks ago. Period. But also I think we need to recognize that if somebody is withholding information and choosing people as Avenatti, that appears more to be a tactic as part of a strategy and perhaps not given the same validity.
HOST: And what does that do to the process going forward? I mean, you’re going to have a full vote at some point. Are you concerned about [Senator Jeff] Flake and [Senator Lisa] Murkowski and [Senator Bob] Corker and [Senator Susan] Collins among the Republicans? Just a quick answer.
CASSIDY: Everybody will make their own decision. Based on what I’ve seen about these two minutes in time that are being alleged to be the issue here, everything seems to support Brett Kavanaugh. But the others will make their own decision. I hope they make the one that attests to the man’s character.
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