He thinks that the fight he fueled will allow him to keep his job as Sen Majority Ldr, but Mitch, hell hath NO fury like the anger voting you're about to witness from Dems, so I wouldn't be so sure. @SaturdayThoughts #VoteBlue wapo.st/2C1s7t9?tid=ss…
2/"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he never considered urging the White House to withdraw Brett M. Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court and called opposition to the judge a “great political gift” for Republicans ahead of next month’s midterm elections. In an
3/"interview with The Washington Post hours before Kavanaugh’s near-certain confirmation on Saturday afternoon, the Kentucky Republican again underscored his confidence in Kavanaugh’s denials of allegations of sexual misconduct decades ago while decrying the protesters who have
4/"challenged senators for days. “I never thought Judge Kavanaugh would withdraw,” McConnell said during the interview with The Post. “When your integrity is attacked like his was, a withdrawal was certainly no solution to that, so we were in the fight to the finish.”
5/"McConnell, overseeing a razor-thin 51-49 GOP majority, said the GOP is already seeing a boost in polling in Senate races due to the Democratic opposition to Kavanaugh combined with the protests. Republicans are on offense in the fight for control of the Senate, with 10
6/"Democrats seeking reelection in states President Trump won in 2016. “It’s been a great political gift for us. The tactics have energized our base,” he said, adding: “I want to thank the mob, because they’ve done the one thing we were having trouble doing, which was energizing
7/"our base.” McConnell said he became confident he had the votes only when the roll call occurred Friday morning, when the Senate narrowly moved to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination. He announced last week that the Senate would vote on Friday following a brief FBI investigation —
8/"a probe demanded by a trio of influential Republican senators who had yet to announce how they would vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination. The White House, McConnell said, “took some grief for a decision they didn’t make” — referring to the scope of the FBI’s background
9/"investigation into allegations that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted two women in separate instances decades ago. Kavanaugh has vehemently denied all accusations of misconduct, and McConnell said the report was “reassuring.”
10/"McConnell — who swiftly declared “I believe the women” when Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore faced allegations of sexual misconduct — declined to answer directly when asked whether he believed any part of the testimony from Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of
11/"sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers more than three decades ago. “Well you know, we had an FBI investigation to follow up. Every one of us had a chance to look at the facts, to listen to the testimony of both witnesses,” McConnell said.
12/"“We made a decision, and Judge Kavanaugh’s probably sitting on the Supreme Court.” McConnell’s full-throated support of Kavanaugh is also notable partly because the federal appeals court judge wasn’t the majority leader’s first choice. Before Kavanaugh was announced July 9 as
13/"President Trump’s nominee, McConnell said had been privately advocating for Amul Thapar, who currently sits on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and is a fellow Kentuckian. The New York Times reported July 7 that McConnell had warned the White House that Kavanaugh’s
14/"lengthy paper trail from his tenure in the George W. Bush White House would be challenging in trying to confirm him. “I said to the White House, the only challenge I thought would be the voluminous paper. And sure enough, it was one of the many tactics the Democrats tried to
15/"use,” McConnell said. “But I think voluminous paper was certainly not a rationale for not making the nomination.” In the Post interview, McConnell praised Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) — who detailed in a lengthy speech Friday afternoon why she decided to back Kavanaugh —
16/"calling her a “very independent” and “very smart” GOP senator who “went through this very thoughtfully.” But McConnell twice declined to comment on Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) decision to oppose Kavanaugh. Murkowski raised questions about Kavanaugh’s temperament for the
17/"bench after watching his combative testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. “Well, I’m just grateful we won and I’m not going to go back and critique every utterance by members on either side,” McConnell said when asked for the second time about Murkowski.
18/"“We’re gonna win this. This was important for the country that we were not steamrolled.” McConnell made several references to the “mob” of energized anti-Kavanaugh protesters who flooded the Capitol this week — many of whom were assembled outside the Senate on Saturday
19/"morning as the chamber prepared to vote on his confirmation. While thanking Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) — the only Democrat who has announced his support for Kavanaugh — McConnell predicted that the opposition to the judge from senators such as Heidi Heitkamp
20/" (D-N.D.) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) is a “big problem” for them and a “great asset for us politically.” “Nothing brings home the importance of the Senate like a court fight and nothing unifies Republicans like the courts,” he said. “Whether you’re a Trump Republican or a Bush
21/"Republican or whatever kind of Republican you are, we all think putting strict constructionists on the courts is important.” ~Seung Min Kim, WaPo, 10/6/18
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Just in case the GOP Sens like Ted Cruz and McConnell are telling the truth @ the GOP being 'fired up', donate to @JackyRosenNev who's win will help us get the Senate back. Donate here:secure.actblue.com/donate/jr-ads?…
2/"The Washington Post calls the Nevada Senate race Democrats’ “best pickup opportunity” in 2018, and POLITICO says we have “almost no shot” at taking back the Senate without it. But with a recent poll showing this race is a dead heat, the GOP is going ALL IN to protect this seat
3/"Mitch McConnell-linked groups are dumping MILLIONS into Nevada, and Donald Trump is actively campaigning for our extremist GOP opponent. That’s why a generous group of donors has offered to DOUBLE every dollar to flip this seat blue and take back the Senate for Democrats.
2/"BEIJING — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo got an earful from senior Chinese officials during a five-hour visit to Beijing on Monday, effectively becoming the whipping boy in the increasingly acrimonious relationship between the two governments. Pompeo is the most senior
3/"official to meet with his Chinese counterparts since President Trump accused Beijing of interfering in November’s midterm elections, and Vice President Pence gave a vitriolic speech charging Beijing with seeking to undermine U.S. interests across the globe. He felt the full
2/"Taylor Swift’s declaration that she plans to vote for Democrats next month fell like a hammer across the Trump-worshiping subforums of the far-right Internet, where people had convinced themselves, for reasons it will take some time to explain, that the world-famous pop star
3/"was a secret #MAGA fan. The news caught 4chan and Reddit trolls mid-post. On the pro-Trump r/The_Donald board, someone had just written out a sexual fantasy in which Swift and Kanye West hooked up because “Trump being the best president is actually something they both agree on
1/ " In a DEMOCRATIC society, majority rule must be coupled with guarantees of individual human rights that, in turn, serve to protect the rights of minorities--whether ethnic, religious, or political, or simply the losers in the debate over a piece of controversial legislation.
2/ "The rights of minorities do not depend upon the goodwill of the majority and cannot be eliminated by majority vote. The rights of minorities are protected because democratic laws and institutions protect the rights of all citizens."
3/ ""When a representative democracy operates in accordance with a constitution that limits the powers of the government and guarantees fundamental rights to all citizens, this form of government is a constitutional democracy. In such a society, the majority rules, and the rights
2/"The midterm elections are a month away! On Nov. 6, citizens across America will head to the polls, hoping to change their country for the better and/or to politically humiliate someone they didn’t realize was alive until a year and a half ago. With the stakes of this election
3/"so high, the famously vague “I Voted” sticker isn’t going to cut it. For 2018, we need stickers that reflect the diversity of America’s rage-fueled motivations for fulfilling their civic duty." Rebecca Caplan, NYT, 10/7/18
Wall Street Is Booming Under Trump. But Many of Its Donors Are Embracing Democrats. nyti.ms/2CvpaCy
2/"When Charles Myers, the chairman of a financial advisory firm, hosted four relatively unknown Democratic congressional candidates at his Midtown Manhattan home last month, he netted more money than he can remember collecting from an event that wasn’t headlined by a
3/"presidential candidate. “More than ever in my 26-year career on Wall Street, donors are willing to look way beyond concerns of overregulation from Democrats,” said Mr. Myers, a longtime Democratic fund-raiser. They just want to elect “Democrats to serve as a check” on