As in 1991, unverified allegations threaten to derail a Supreme Court nomination.
If you thought the first round of Senate hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was a hot mess of spectacle and cynicism, if you thought we learned more about Cory Booker’s and Kamala Harris’s presidential ambitions than we did about Judge Kavanaugh’s jurisprudence, if you thought political theatrics couldn’t get any worse or more obvious—wait until Monday’s reboot.
“We’re delaying the vote strictly to get all the facts out on the table,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley Tuesday. The facts in question surround an allegation by Christine Blasey Ford, who says a teenage Brett Kavanaugh drunkenly groped her at a party more than 3½ decades ago when they were in high school. He has “categorically and unequivocally” denied the claim, which Democrats have known about since July but declined to make public until after the Senate’s hearings concluded and days before a scheduled committee vote on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, didn’t ask Judge Kavanaugh about the accusation in private discussions or while he was under oath, despite multiple opportunities to do so. Other Democrats were similarly coy, which smells. Did they not take Ms. Ford’s allegations seriously, or were they sitting on this information until releasing it could do the most political damage? Mr. Grassley and other Republicans say they want to allow Ms. Ford to air her claims and Judge Kavanaugh to respond to them. The Democrats’ goal, however, is now to delay a vote until after the November midterm elections, when they hope to win back control of the Senate and sink any and all of President Trump’s picks for the high court.
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Jason L. Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and a Fox News commentator. Follow him on Twitter here.
This piece originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal