Thread by @atrupar

Day 3 of Kavanaugh hearing begins w/@CoryBooker vowing to release confidential Kavanaugh emails -- even if it means he's ejected from the Senate!

"I openly accept the consequences. I am releasing it to expose that emails being withheld have nothing to do the national security."

"'A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy.' That's what we are talking about here," @amyklobuchar says, about Republicans withholding Kavanaugh documents, quoting James Madison

.@SenMikeLee: Kavanaugh's public documents don't actually belong to the public, so get over it, libs

.@CoryBooker to @JohnCornyn after he threatens that Booker could be removed from Senate for releasing Kavanaugh emails: "Bring it. Bring it."

As Grassley begins his questioning, a protester is hauled out yelling, "Americans will die without healthcare! A judge should protect us! Shame, shame, shame!"

Seconds later, another is dragged out yelling, "Save Democracy, say no to Kavanaugh!"

.@ChuckGrassley is devoting his questioning to the big, important issues affecting tens of millions of people, like.... [checks notes] Kavanaugh's thoughts about whether cameras should be allowed in the Supreme Court

CNN cuts away from a historic confirmation hearing so we can listen to some talking heads. I promptly change the channel.

Kavanaugh dodges @SenFeinstein's question about whether he thinks Roe vs. Wade is "correct law"

"As a general proposition the president has to comply with the law." -- Brett Kavanaugh #AsAGeneralProposition

FEINSTEIN: Do you think the Bush admin's torture program was legal? Some of your previous comments indicate you do.

KAVANAUGH: I never meant to suggest that!

Cory Booker says he’ll release confidential document in Kavanaugh hearing, risking Senate expulsion thinkprogress.org/cory-booker-sa…

Republicans worked on covering these up for months and Booker just.... tweeted them out

https://twitter.com/CoryBooker/status/1037718107543011333

Leaked email confirms Judge Brett Kavanaugh doesn’t think Roe v. Wade is ‘settled law’ thinkprogress.org/leaked-email-c…

LEAHY discloses KAVANAUGH received a stolen email marked "highly confidential" in '02, as well as several pages of talking points that were "stolen verbatim from Democratic files"

Kavanaugh's defense is there was no reason for the emails to be confidential in the 1st place 🤔

.@SenatorLeahy: Did receiving these stolen emails -- one with the subject line "spying" -- raise red flags in your mind?

KAVANAUGH: "It did not, because it all seemed consistent with the usual kinds of discussions that happen."

L: "I was born at night but not last night!"

After Kavanaugh tells Leahy that he's "not involved in the documents process" so he can't be sure if he could be caught in lies about his emails, Leahy says, "Well, that is convenient... you don't care but I care. I care about the integrity of the Supreme Court."

Kavanaugh tries to slither his way out of Leahy's questioning, saying of the stolen emails he received, "I obviously recall the emails or have seen the emails, but your question -- your larger question was did that raise a red flag, and I've answered that no." #IveAnsweredThatNo

Lindsey Graham isn't concerned about Kavanaugh receiving stolen emails, because he personally didn't steal them

GRAHAM on Roe vs. Wade: "Last I checked, liberty didn't equate to abortion. The Supreme Court said it did.... people talk about the Founding Fathers, I don't remember [abortion] being part of American history."

.@LindseyGrahamSC: "The war [on terrorism] is coming back to our shores. It's just a matter of time before they hit us again, because we have to be right all the time and they have to be right one of the times... that's just my parting thought to you."

A protester is hauled out while yelling, "This is a stolen seat! This is a stolen seat!"

Kavanaugh tried to downplay his involvement in the hacking of Democrats. It was a disaster. thinkprogress.org/kavanaugh-leah…

Under questioning by @SenWhitehouse, Kavanaugh indicates he will not recuse himself if he's approved to SCOTUS and a criminal matter involving Trump comes before the court

Via @JordanUhl

Of course Ted Cruz couldn't resist asking known sports lover Kavanaugh about basketball

Kavanaugh seems to refer to birth control as "abortion-inducing drugs"

Kavanaugh says his idea that sitting presidents should be above the law stemmed from "three and a half years working in a White House during wartime."

.@ChrisCoons: Judge, even though you once said US v Nixon "may have been wrongly decided," you now think it was correctly decided, right?

KAVANAUGH: Yes

C: So you agree a court can order POTUS to produce records in response to a subpoena?

K: I'm not going to answer that!

Kavanaugh introduces US senators to the girls he's coached in sportsball over the years 🙄

The nation's foremost virtue-signaler, @JeffFlake, is using his questioning time to offer Kavanaugh some free therapy.

"Are there any you look back on and say, 'I just didn't get it right?'... which ones have you struggled with? How did you deal?" #HardHitting

Kavanaugh doesn't provide a straight answer to @SenBlumenthal's repeated questions about whether he's talked to "anyone in the White House" about special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. #slippery

Blumenthal reads two of Trump's unhinged attacks on Ruth Bader Ginsburg and asks Kavanaugh to respond. Kavanaugh says he's "not going to get drawn into a political controversy" and refuses to comment.

Asked for factual basis of his praise of Trump that "no president has ever consulted more widely or talked with more people for more backgrounds to seek input about a SCOTUS nomination," Kavanaugh more or less admits he had none.

Kavanaugh refuses to say if he has "great respect" for Trump. As @CoryBooker points out, he recently had no difficultly saying he feels that for George W. Bush.

BOOKER: "There's a shadow over the independence of the judiciary, bc a POTUS who who has been credibly accused by his former lawyer of being an unindicted co-conspirator has a opportunity to appoint a justice...It's understandable for people to suspect somehow this is rigged."

BOOKER: Why not alleviate the suspicion -- why not just announce right now that you will recuse yourself from any matters coming before SCOTUS involving the Mueller investigation?

KAVANAUGH: Because recusal would indicate I don't have independence. I can't commit to that.

Kavanaugh mansplains to @KamalaHarris, who despite her best efforts can't get him to agree he won't vote to overturn SCOTUS ruling giving LGBTs right to marry.