LESS than six weeks before the consequential midterm elections, President Donald Trump and the members of the Republican Party are urgently scrambling, moving heaven and earth to confirm Trump’s nominee for Supreme Court (SC) Justice after the retirement of Justice Robert Kennedy.
Brilliant legal mind with stellar credentials Kavanaugh has, they assert, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the SC nominee will get up-or-down vote in the “near future”, blasting Senate Democrats for delaying the confirmation of Trump’s chosen one.
“The Democrats have already made up their minds and chosen their tactics,” McConnell said on the august chamber of the Senate. “Delay. Obstruct. Resist.”
Such strong words against his Democratic colleagues are so antithetical and even hypocritical for the party that would not even conduct confirmation hearings for President Barack Obama’s highly qualified Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland to fill the seat vacated by the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the most conservative members of the highest court.
President Obama said when he announced Garland’s nomination:
“I have selected a nominee who is widely recognized not only as one of America’s sharpest legal minds, but someone who brings to his work a spirit of decency, modesty, integrity, even-handedness and excellence. Presidents do not stop working in the final year of their term; neither should a Senator.”
Obama stated: “To suggest that someone as qualified and respected as Merrick Garland does not even deserve a hearing, let alone an up-or-down vote, to join an institution as important as our Supreme Court, when two-thirds of Americans believe otherwise—that would be unprecedented.”
The Senate Republicans nevertheless obstructed and resisted to vote on Garland’s nomination. McConnell then said “the decision the Senate made weeks ago remains about a principle, not a person.”
That newly hatched principle he was referring to was that no nomination should be confirmed for a lifetime position like that of a Supreme Court Justice during an election year, and that President Obama was a lame duck president.
“The American people are perfectly capable of having their say on this issue, so let’s give them a voice. Let’s let the American people decide,” argued McConnell. “The Senate will appropriately revisit the matter when it considers the qualifications of the nominee the next president nominates, whoever that might be.”
That nominee now happens to be Kavanaugh, whom Trump picked so speedily and wanted confirmed right away, despite allegations of sexual assault he made against women years ago.
Trump, Kavanaugh and the Republicans immediately dismissed the allegations as “tactic” and “lies”, despite the call of one credible woman who spoke out to give material information she believes the American people to know about Trump’s nominee to be SC Justice. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s called for an FBI investigation on Kavanaugh and expressed her willingness to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The same vilification, victim blaming and shaming had also been done by Trump and his Republican cohorts against the second woman who came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh – Deborah Ramirez – who attended college with the SC nominee.
See the pattern here from Trump and the party who claim they value and respect women, fair investigation and transparency?
Senate Democrats assert that no vote on Kavanaugh should be in order until these serious allegations and questions against the Supreme Court nominee had been looked into, but Trump and the GOP want to railroad the due process to really examine the man vying for the lifetime job of being a Supreme Court Justice.
WHY THE RUSH?
Because Trump needs Kavanaugh to be sworn in as SC Justice so that if Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicts Trump to testify in the Russia probe and this legal battle goes all the way up to the SC, then the vote of Kavanaugh— who has written about his legal opinion that no sitting president should be indicted — could save Trump.
Because Trump and the Republicans know that if Kavanaugh is not confirmed before the midterm elections and the Democrats take over the majority of the Senate and the House, then Kavanaugh would never be in the Supreme Court.
The Dems taking over the majority could also mean they will have the numbers to impeach Trump.
Now who are these Republicans in Congress really serving and protecting – we, the American people, or Trump and their political agenda?
Think about it.
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
