Thread by @atrupar

As @ChuckGrassley begins 2nd day of Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing by talking about yesterday's disruptions, loud protests immediately break out in back of the room

In response to Grassley's first question, Kavanaugh cites United States vs. Nixon as "one of the greatest moments in American judicial history." 👀

KAVANAUGH: "No one is above the law in our constitutional system... under our system of government, the executive branch is subject to the law... We make decisions based on law, not based on political pressure, not based on identity of the parties, no matter who you are."

Kavanaugh's second response is disrupted by loud protesters

Feinstein's 1st question to Kavanaugh is about his position that an assault weapons ban is unconstitutional. Kavanaugh justifies himself by arguing assault weapons aren't "dangerous and unusual," like machine guns are.

Feinstein is taken aback by his answer.

FEINSTEIN: How do you reconcile your opposition to regulating assault weapons with the hundreds of school shootings involving assault weapons?

KAVANAUGH: I too am opposed to school shootings. But as a judge, my job was to follow the 2nd amendment opinion of the Supreme Court.

Kavanaugh carefully characterizes Roe vs. Wade as "settled precedent," but does not close the door on overturning it.

Asked about his position on "a women's right to choose," Kavanaugh says, "as a judge, it is an important precedent of the Supreme Court."

Kavanaugh says that September 11 changed his perspective on the power of the presidency, and persuaded him the president should be above any sort of investigation that might interfere with their duties

Kavanaugh rebukes Kavanaugh, distances himself from his past statement that United States vs. Nixon might have been wrongfully decided.

FEINSTEIN: Can a sitting president be subpoenaed?

KAVANAUGH, DODGING: That's a hypothetical question.

FEINSTEIN: You can't tell me if you think the president is subject to the courts?

KAVANAUGH: No.

Brett Kavanaugh disavows Brett Kavanaugh in his very first answer to the Senate Judiciary Committee thinkprogress.org/brett-kavanaug…

Kavanaugh says he had nothing to do with the Bush administration's torture program

KAVANAUGH, SHORTER: Nevermind my judicial record -- women love me, and I've hired many of them over the years.

.@SenatorLeahy's first Q is about what Kavanaugh knew about colleague of his who hacked into Dems' computers, including Leahy's, during Bush years.

Kavanaugh insists he didn't suspect anything untoward, but doesn't deny info from stolen files might've been shared with him.

Things get a bit awkward as Kavanaugh has to take a break to read emails he was included in contained information stolen by one of his Bush-era colleagues

OOF -- Leahy presses Kavanaugh about whether he found it "at all unusual to receive a draft letter from Democratic senators to each other before any mention of it was made public?"

In other words, Leahy is accusing Kavanaugh of having obviously stolen files in his inbox.

Kavanaugh is struggling to deal with Leahy's line of questioning. Leahy seems to think Kavanaugh might've lied about his involvement in Bush-era hacking of Democrats during previous testimony.

LEAHY: Here you are getting obviously very private Democratic emails. You weren't concerned how Mr. Miranda got them?

KAVANAUGH: I guess I'm not sure about your premise.

L: Were you concerned where the emails came from?

K: I don't recall.

🚨LEAHY: When you worked at the WH, did anyone ever tell you they had a mole that provided them with secret info?

KAVANAUGH: I don't recall

L: You never received an email from a GOP staff member w/info claiming to come from spying?

K: I'm not going to rule anything out. 🚨

LEAHY: "I'm concerned because there is evidence that Mr. Miranda provided you with materials that were stolen from me. And that would contradict your prior testimony... there is no reason [those emails] can't be made public."

Again invoking September 11, Kavanaugh weakly tries to deflect Leahy's pointed question about whether he lied during previous sworn testimony about his knowledge of warrantless surveillance

Grassley, who yesterday touted Kavanaugh's process for its purported transparency, won't agree to Leahy's request to make public Bush-era emails that might contain evidence of perjury

LEAHY: Trump claims he has an absolute right to pardon himself. Does he?

KAVANAUGH: I can't begin to answer that Q in this context.

L: Does the president have the ability to pardon somebody in exchange for assurances that they won't testify against him?

K: Can't answer that.

Kavanaugh reads Bible verses in an attempt to prove how much empathy he has for homeless people

Kavanaugh, speaking on behalf of men everywhere, says "I am very proud of my opinions" and urges people to study them.

.@LindseyGrahamSC is very concerned about the alleged rights of Brett Kavanaugh's kids to attend a hearing without having to hear annoying protesters who are worried about reproductive rights or having health care. #civility

Graham makes it clear he's fine with Kavanaugh overturning Roe -- as long as he listens to both sides of the issue first!

Graham gets Kavanaugh to describe how scared he was on September 11, and leads him to acknowledge that he believes in the "war on terrorism" concept.

Kavanaugh on how he would like to be remembered: "Good dad. Good judge. Good husband. Good son. Good friend." 🙄

.@SenatorDurbin is left in disbelief after Kavanaugh, whose White House background was judicial nominations, denies awareness that anything unusual is going on with documents about his background being withheld from public scrutiny.

Kavanaugh makes clear he won't agree to put his hearing on pause so senators can't review all the documents pertinent to his White House work

Durbin catches Grassley in a blatant lie about what the National Archives has said about the lack of transparency surrounding documents pertinent to Kavanaugh's nomination

Durbin, pressing Kavanaugh about possible perjury related to his 2006 testimony, calls out Kavanaugh for answering a question totally different from the one he actually asked him.

Kavanaugh on his opposition to allowing an undocumented immigrant teenager to receive an abortion while in federal care: Don't blame me, blame the policy-makers!

Kavanaugh splits hairs in an attempt to justify an unusual dissent he wrote siding with a business that exploited its workers

"Part 2B of the opinion, you have to read part 2B of the opinion," he says.

Kavanaugh almost seems embarrassed with himself and smirks as he says, lamely, "I have no agenda in any direction on this -- I'm a judge. I'm just trying to resolve the precedent."

Durbin isn't buying it.

A number of protesters have been hauled out of the hearing room in the last few minutes, the most recent of which while yelling, "Our bodies! Our choice! Stop Kavanaugh!"

.@JohnCornyn becomes the latest Republican senator to give Kavanaugh the opportunity to detail where he was on September 11, 2001.

We've already heard about all of it today, but Kavanaugh ticks through his experiences in detail once again.

Cornyn advances an argument that since Kavanaugh ruled in favor of Osama bin Laden's bodyguard, Americans who worry that he is "prejudiced against the small guy" clearly have nothing to worry about.

Kavanaugh refuses to give an assurance that he would uphold a statute requiring insurance companies to cover preexisting medical conditions

Kavanaugh plays dumb about the role the Federalist Society played in selecting him as Trump's SCOTUS nominee

.@SenWhitehouse: Should Americans have concerns about big spenders using dark money to get involved in things like your SCOTUS nomination?

KAVANAUGH: There are a lost of premises in your question... It's a free country... and that's up to Congress.

What you need to know about the ‘stolen email’ allegations against Brett Kavanaugh
thinkprogress.org/what-you-need-…

Kavanaugh contradicts himself about whether presidents are above the law thinkprogress.org/kavanaugh-pres…

.@SenBlumenthal: "Can you commit, sitting here today, that you would never overturn Roe vs Wade?"

KAVANAUGH, DODGING: "So, Senator, each of the 8 justices currently on the Supreme Court, when they were in this seat, declined to answer that question."

Grilled about his position that semi-automatic weapons shouldn't be regulated bc they're in "common use," Kavanaugh absurdly implies he's an expert on gun violence bc he grew up in "murder capital of the world"

(He actually grew up in Bethesda, a wealthy extremely white suburb)

Under questioning from @CoryBooker, Kavanaugh repeatedly refuses to disclose whether he agrees that "race can never be used to remediate clearly proven discrimination"

Instead, Kavanaugh repeatedly falls back on "precedent," even after Booker pointedly asks him for his own view

Kavanaugh is really struggling. Asked about racially loaded language he used in previous writings, Kavanaugh pretends he's unfamiliar with his own work. And instead of expressing his own current views about race relations, he lamely uses "precedent" to deflect Booker's questions.

Challenged by @CoryBooker to defend a transparently racist South Carolina voter ID law he upheld, Kavanaugh deflects by pointing out he wasn't the only judge who concluded it wouldn't have disparate impact on black and poor voters. 🤔

.@KamalaHarris begins by grilling Kavanaugh about whether he discussed the Mueller investigation with anyone working at the law firm founded by Marc Kasowitz, Trump's personal attorney.

Kavanaugh doesn't answer the question and is suspiciously evasive.

Kavanaugh does everything in his power to avoid answering Harris' question about whether he discussed the Mueller investigation with lawyers working at the firm founded by Trump's personal attorney. #ArtOfTheDodge

Kavanaugh refuses to say whether he agrees with Trump that there were "very fine people" marching among white supremacists and neo-Nazis last year in Charlottesville

Kavanaugh says he didn't know the racially loaded term he repeatedly used ("racial spoils system") is actually a racially loaded term

After refusing to say whether he agrees that government shouldn't have the right to control women's bodies, Kavanaugh is dumbfounded when Harris asks him if he can think of any laws giving government power over male bodies. (he can't)

HARRIS: Did someone tell you to say that Trump's process for selecting you was the most thorough in history?

KAVANAUGH: No! Those were my own words. (🙄)

Kavanaugh stutters and stammers before admitting there are no laws that govern the male body thinkprogress.org/kamala-harris-…

Brett Kavanaugh’s ludicrous talking point about gun violence thinkprogress.org/brett-kavanaug…

Brett Kavanaugh wants you to believe he's a gun violence expert because he's from 'the murder capital of the world.'

He actually grew up in the suburbs, and went to an ultra-exclusive prep school featuring an on-campus golf course. thinkprogress.org/brett-kavanaug…

Awkward -- Kavanaugh won’t say if he discussed Mueller probe with former Trump lawyer’s firm thinkprogress.org/kamala-harris-…

Senate Republicans get caught in a major lie about the missing documents on Brett Kavanaugh thinkprogress.org/grassley-false…