Thread by @benwikler

At first, when Kavanagh was nominated, top GOP senators said that “it just seems to be common sense” that all his White House papers should be released.

Then, on July 24, they met with Trump’s counsel. Turned on a dime. Now, releasing the papers would be “a bridge too far.” 1/

What the hell happened at that meeting? What did the senators hear? We don’t know, because only Republicans were invited. Their lips are sealed.

@SenatorLeahy, ex-chairman of Judiciary Committee, wants to find out. Here’s the letter he sent today to Don McGahn, Trump’s counsel.

As @SenatorLeahy notes, he’s been in the Senate for 44 years. 19 SCOTUS nominations. Voted on every current member of the Court.

In that time, he’s NEVER seen the White House interfere with the Judiciary Committee’s doc requests for a nominee.

Seriously: What are they hiding?

It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the GOP has a serious problem. That they know something explosive, something so politically toxic that it could poison Kavanaugh’s nomination, is buried in the hidden papers. And that their solution is to plow forward & white-knuckle it.

There’s a lot of talk about norm erosion in the Trump era. The talk normally focuses on Trump. But what the Republican Senate is doing might well create the most lasting damage. First they blocked Merrick Garland. And now they’re preventing a real review of Brett Kavanaugh.

If Kavanaugh is confirmed, he’ll most likely be with us for a *long* time. Here’s one way to think of it: by the time he’s the same age Ruth Bader Ginsburg is now, it’ll be 2050.

What happens over the next few weeks will determine whether Kavanaugh can shape your life and the life of your country for the next 30-40 years. Whether you’ll have the freedoms that your parents had—or if your kids will have the rights you had but your parents didn’t.

It’s a national scandal beyond words that Trump’s White House appears to have ordered @ChuckGrassley not to ask for Kavanaugh’s crucial records, & that Grassley obediently complied. & then scheduled hearings to being on September 4. We should be in the streets. And we *will* be.

The national protest against Kavanaugh is scheduled for August 26. Mark your calendar. No, literally, open up our calendar app right now and add “Protest Kavanaugh” at noon that day. Done? Okay, great. Now look up the location at UniteForJustice2018.com.

There’s a lot more to do. Check out this thread for some suggestions. Leave your own ideas in the comments. But please don’t do nothing. Don’t let them think they can cover up whatever they want and confirm whoever they want, without consequence.

https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1030287334003101696?s=21

Remember that meeting where McConnell refused to sign the bipartisan statement calling out Russian interference in the 2016 elections?

Well, the July 24 meeting where GOP senators agreed not to ask for three years of Brett Kavanaugh's papers might be that kind of hinge moment.

Conventional wisdom in politics is that process arguments are always secondary to substantive arguments. That's essentially correct. The core reason to oppose Kavanaugh is that he'll shred Roe, end protections for pre-existing conditions, for workers, for the environment.

But.

Beneath substantive outcomes is the set of processes—some statutes, many simply customs—that take inputs like political power, ideology, and specific facts, and alchemically transform them into outcomes. Dems tend to take those for granted. Today's GOP sees them as the ballgame.

Let's not roll over on this. Let's demand that they #ReleaseTheRecords. Let's ask: #WhatAreTheyHiding?—and let's fight until we find out.

leahy.senate.gov/press/081718mc…