Rehashing the FBI’s sham Kavanaugh 'investigation' is a net plus for Democrats in 2020 and beyond
newsdepo.com
Campaign Action House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler has already thrown cold water on impeaching Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, but he also said Democrats would grill FBI Director Chris Wray about the FBI’s supposed «investigation» intoRehashing the FBI’s sham Kavanaugh 'investigation' is a net plus for Democrats in 2020 and beyond
Campaign Action House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler has already thrown cold water on impeaching Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, but he also said Democrats would grill FBI Director Chris Wray about the FBI’s supposed «investigation» into sexual harassment claims against Kavanaugh. We now know that the FBI entirely ignored one account of harassment from a credible witness. We also know that at least seven people did contemporaneously hear about the allegation made by Kavanaugh's Yale classmate Deborah Ramirez that he shoved his penis in her face at a college party. So yeah, it appears it was «the talk of campus» even though Kavanaugh claimed during a Senate hearing that it wasn’t. But getting to the bottom of just how flawed that FBI investigation was is both important in terms of the Supreme Court’s moral authority and also could be a very potent political tool going into 2020. The conventional wisdom sweeping Washington is that a rehash of Kavanaugh would help Republicans in 2020 because it would fire up their base. The prevailing takeaway from 2018 is that Kavanaugh’s confirmation battle hurt red-state Democratic senators in Missouri, Indiana, North Dakota, and Montana (three of which flipped to Republicans). As the Washington Post's Dave Weigel writes, «A consensus of Republicans and political strategists argued that by echoing accusations against him, Democrats energized conservative voters and tipped key Senate races toward the GOP.» Plenty of Washington analysts appear to have taken that GOP analysis as gospel. But it completely ignores what happened in the House in 2018 and a very different political map heading into 2020. «Democrats also got the biggest number they've ever received in the history of polling among college educated white women in part because of Kavanaugh—and that was why they routed Republicans in suburban seats around the country,» noted CNN analyst Ron Brownstein on The Lead Monday. Revisiting Kavanaugh's confirmation and uncovering whether Senate Republicans rigged the FBI investigation in his favor would only help consolidate that white female suburban flight from the GOP. Democratic presidential candidates also embraced that fight, with six of them calling for Kavanaugh's impeachment following the new revelations. Sen. Kamala Harris, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, gave perhaps the most forceful statement, tweeting, “I sat through those hearings. Brett Kavanaugh lied to the U.S. Senate and most importantly to the American people. He was put on the Court through a sham process and his place on the Court is an insult to the pursuit of truth and justice. He must be impeached.” One could see Kavanaugh becoming part of her stump speech depending on what House Democrats turn up next month. Read more