WASHINGTON—With Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing underway in the Senate Judiciary Committee, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), spoke on the Senate floor this afternoon in support of Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination, highlighting the broad, bipartisan support he enjoys from many in the legal community.
Cassidy also slammed Senate Democrats’ coordinated disruption of the hearing, saying Congress is not a “not a third world legislative body where they toss decorum out the window, scream and shout, throw chairs and punches in order to thwart the legislative process. Those who are interested in preserving and protecting our democratic process and institutions should shun the chaos Senate Democrats appear intent upon creating.”
A key excerpt of Cassidy’s remarks on the Senate floor today are transcribed below.
CASSIDY: Let’s be absolutely clear: Judge Kavanaugh’s professional record is the most transparent record the Senate has ever had for a Supreme Court nominee, and it’s not even close.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has received more pages of executive branch records for Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination than for the last five confirmed Supreme Court nominees combined.
The committee has reviewed more than 440,000 pages of documents submitted from Judge Kavanaugh’s time in the executive branch — the largest volume of records for any Supreme Court nominee, ever.
During his time on the bench, Judge Kavanaugh authored more than 300 opinions and heard more than 2,000 cases.
No less than nine Senate Democrats cited their review of his opinions when they announced weeks ago that they would oppose him. They said they’d seen enough of his record.
Now we’re supposed to believe they want to see more of his record? It’s obvious that this argument is not in good faith.
And indeed I think it’s fair to say that the Democratic senators’ disruptions show desperation.
And if you will, we see this desperation in some of the most shameful political theatrics that we have seen, and those were those from the Senate Democrats in the committee hearing today.
It’s clear they are increasingly desperate to resist this incredibly qualified nominee. They’re throwing anything and everything against the wall, but nothing is sticking.
Today we learned that the Democratic Minority Leader plotted a coordinated protest strategy over the weekend with his members, and they all agreed to disrupt and protest the hearing.
They would like to think it was a spontaneous outburst of righteous anger, and indeed it was a strategy in order to draw attention to themselves.
I would remind my colleagues across the aisle that this is the United States of America, not a third world legislative body where they toss decorum out the window, scream and shout, throw chairs and punches in order to thwart the legislative process.
Those who are interested in preserving and protecting our democratic process and institutions should shun the chaos Senate Democrats appear intent upon creating.
In this country we debate and evaluate ideas and nominees on the merits. I urge my colleagues to do just that. And if they do, I am confident they will understand the broad support, the justified support that Judge Brett Kavanaugh has for his nomination to the Supreme Court.
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