Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has threatened to keep Democrats off the campaign trail by delaying the vote on Trump’s Supreme Court nominee until right before the midterm election unless they stop requesting the documents they need to vet Brett Kavanaugh.
The Senate majority leader privately told senior Republicans on Wednesday that if Democrats keep pushing for access to upwards of a million pages in records from President Donald Trump’s high court pick, he’s prepared to let Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote slip until just before November’s midterm elections, according to multiple sources.
Delaying the vote past September would serve a dual purpose for McConnell, keeping vulnerable red-state Democrats off the campaign trail while potentially forcing anti-Kavanaugh liberals to swallow a demoralizing defeat just ahead of the midterms. Senators said McConnell believes the Democratic base will be “deflated†if they raise hopes of defeating Kavanaugh only to lose just days before the election.
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Mitch McConnell and the Republicans are wrong
McConnell and his Senate Republicans have the political calculus wrong. Democrats will be rewarded by their voters for fighting for as long as they can. If Senate Democrats can stretch this nomination out until November, it will allow them to make the argument that there should be no final vote until after the new Congress is sworn in.
Mitch McConnell isn’t rushing the vote to do Democrats a favor. He is trying to push this nominee through before the new Supreme Court term begins. He is also racing the clock on the Mueller investigation and the midterm election. Republicans don’t want Kavanaugh to be an issue for voters, because his views are going to fire up Democrats even more and get them to the polls.
Senate Democrats aren’t going to back down, and Mitch McConnell’s threats deserve to be punished by the voters in November.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
