Thread by @PaulaChertok

🔥Democrats ask GOP Judiciary Chair Grassley to adjourn Kavanaugh hearing over withheld documents. Blumenthal asks for vote on motion. Booker appeals to decency. Feinstein discusses context of Trump admin corruption. Grassley denies motion as out of order. It is not. GOP=Thieves.

Leahy: I’ve been in the Senate for 19 Supreme Court nominations from Repubs & Democrats. What’s being done here is unprecedented. I’m just sorry to see the Senate Judiciary Cmte descend this way.
🙄GOP Cornyn: This is mob rule.
Blumenthal: We simply ask for regular order.

One after another Democrat raises issue after issue on how rushed, hidden & unprecedented Kavanaugh process is. Chair Grassley reads responses, prepared in advance for the many objections. He knows full well how out of order his process is. Repubs are used to stealing & cheating.

Grassley gives prepared lecture on separation of powers, co-equal branches, independent judiciary, rule of law. All just platitudes to GOP, who have shamefully abandoned all democratic principles. And they’re giving fuel to abusive & corrupt Trump to burn it all down. #Kavanaugh

Another woman protester is hauled out of Kavanaugh hearing. While Orrin Hatch is the next old white man to claim #Kavanaugh doesn’t have a partisan agenda, is a great guy and in the mainstream. Then why must Republicans rush & then conceal 97% of his record working for Bush WH?

“This is the noise of democracy”—Durban on protesters at #Kavanaugh hearing. Yes, they’re necessary voices opposing an unprecedented SCOTUS process & another power grab by unscrupulous Republicans to ram thru an extremist & corrupt agenda against the will of majority of Americans

🔥🔥Brilliant Senator Sheldon Whitehouse addresses corporate capture of SCOTUS. “Roberts 5” 5-4 bloc ruling for wealthy corporate Republican partisan interests “every damn time”—73-0. “Roberts 5 delivered” for polluters, corporations, gerrymandering, NRA, dark money, etc. Wow.

Perhaps the biggest Republican blowhard hypocrite in the Senate, Ted Cruz says Democrats seek to delay #Kavanaugh hearing bc they don’t want documents, they want to undo Trump’s election not. That’s their pillar of democracy—a sleazy election hikacked by Trump, Russia, propaganda

#KavanaughHearing: Another riveting opening statement to go down in history. @AmyKlobuchar: Our democracy is under unprecedented attack. The president’s associates have been convicted of numerous felonies. The article you wrote has an incredibly broad view of executive power.

Republican @SenSasse uses #Kavanaugh hearing fiasco to rail against govt & agencies—“faceless bureaucrats accountable to no one.” Sasse articulates the dressed-up version of Trump’s inaugural address outlining Steve Bannon’s vision of deconstruction of the administrative state.

Jeff Flake, who called out Trump’s Stalinist habits, is just fine w/ #Kavanaugh’s imperial president views. Says Senate Judiciary Cmte received “probative” docs and K’s DC Circuit record is “most relevant.” He fails to mention: Unlike SCOTUS, Circuit judges MUST follow precedent.

.@SenBlumenthal: What’s at stake here is the rule of law. No one can select a judge in their own case. Yet that’s what Trump is doing here by selecting #Kavanaugh, who will be called upon to rule on subpoenas & other matters in Russia probe concerning this president & his friends

Senator Blumenthal renews motion to adjourn #Kavanaugh hearing to receive more documents. “They’ll come out eventually.” Grassley denies it. Blumenthal proceeds under protest that Republican chair disregards regular rules of order & process. Kavanaugh is poker-faced throughout.

Blumenthal: If you’re confirmed after this truncated & concealed process, there will always be an asterisk, a taint to your name. Named by unindicted coconspirator; Question will always be why. It does you a disservice to continue hearing w/o relevant docs from Bush WH.#Kavanaugh

🔥Senator @maziehirono: Trump is packing the courts with ideologically-driven judges who are not following the law on the bench. Why would Kavanaugh on SCOTUS? Trump selected Kavanaugh b/c of self-preservation and b/c Kavanaugh is knee-deep in partisan politics, from Bush v Gore.

Corey Booker passionately discusses the devastating impact on ordinary lives when judges repeatedly rule in favor of corporate interests. Kavanaugh’s so in his ivory tower, he’s spooked instead of empathetic by @fred_guttenberg’s hand. (daughter killed in Parkland FL) @andyharnik

Purveyor of false equivalence, whataboutism & gaslighting propaganda Lindsey Graham: This is shaping up to be the hypocrisy hearing. So what, Kavanaugh was picked by Trump? Bill Clinton was under investigation when he nominated Breyer. Ginsburg was picked by ACLU. (Uh no)

😒Graham: You had a chance & you lost. If you want to pick judges from your way of thinking, then you better win an election.

He admits SCOTUS is political game. But his outrage is BS. Obama won & GOP refused Garland a hearing. Now they hang everything on a tainted 2016 election