2020 Democratic Contenders Demand Kavanaugh Withdraw

Last updated on October 12th, 2018 at 04:07 am

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Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), both possible 2020 Democratic Party candidates for president, on Sunday night demanded that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh withdraw his nomination. They made their demands after a second sexual misconduct allegation emerged against the right-wing judge who Donald Trump chose for the high court.

Gillibrand and Merkley tweeted their support for Deborah Ramirez, the woman who went public in The New Yorker Magazine with sexual misconduct accusations against Kavanaugh. Ramirez is alleging that Kavanaugh exposed himself without her consent when the two attended Yale University together in the 1980s.

Ramirez told her story just one week after Dr. Christine Blasey Ford described in a Washington Post interview that Kavanaugh had attempted to rape her when they were attending high schools in Maryland in 1982.

“Senate Republicans were trying to rush a vote while they knew Deborah Ramirez would come forward with her story,” Gillibrand wrote.

“They deny Dr. Ford an FBI investigation, won’t subpoena corroborating witnesses, and now, this,” Gillibrand wrote. “It’s an embarrassment. They have absolutely no interest in the truth.”

“Enough is enough,” she continued. “One credible sexual assault claim should have been too many to get a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court and make decisions that will affect millions of women’s lives for generations.”

“Two is an embarrassment,” she added. “It’s time for a new nominee.”

Merkley also on Sunday evening tweeted that Kavanaugh should “step aside immediately,” hours after The New Yorker published their article about Ramirez.

“The additional information provided by Deborah Ramirez regarding Kavanaugh’s behavior in college presents a pattern of conduct that makes it absolutely clear that he is entirely unsuited to serve on the Supreme Court,” Merkley tweeted.

“I call upon Brett Kavanaugh for the good of the country and the integrity of the court to step aside immediately,” he wrote. “It is time to set aside partisanship and for all 100 senators to join together and acknowledge that this individual is not the right person to serve on the highest court of the land.” 

The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), on Sunday evening called for Kavanaugh’s nomination to be postponed and renewed her call for the FBI to investigate the accusations against him.

“Today, Deborah Ramirez came forward with serious allegations of sexual misconduct by Judge Kavanaugh,” Feinstein said in a statement. ” An investigation needs to be conducted as part of Judge Kavanaugh’s background investigation by career professionals at the FBI – not partisan staff of the Committee.”

Ramirez also called for an investigation by the FBI, saying she believes her account warrants a federal probe.

“The FBI must investigate these claims and Dr. Blasey Ford’s,” she said. “It is also more clear than ever that Mark Judge must be compelled to testify in front of the Judiciary Committee.”

Ramirez is accusing Kavanaugh of thrusting his penis in her face, causing her to touch it without her consent. Ford is alleging that he pinned her down and groped her over her clothes during a high school party a few years before Ramirez’s account.  

Kavanaugh and Ford are set to testify on Thursday. Kavanaugh has forcefully denied all accusations against him from Ford and Ramirez.

Attorney Michael Avenatti tweeted information Sunday night indicating he was representing another woman who was making new allegations about Kavanaugh’s inappropriate and possibly illegal behavior in Maryland when he was young.

Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.