During Strategy Talks, Senate Dems Weighed A Mass Walk-Out During Kavanaugh Hearings

WASHINGTON, DC - Senators Corey Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) speak quietly during Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on Tuesday September 4, 2018. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
WASHINGTON, DC - Senators Corey Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) speak quietly during Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington... WASHINGTON, DC - Senators Corey Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) speak quietly during Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on Tuesday September 4, 2018. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

In the hours leading up to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s hearings, Senate Democrats debated the best strategy to show their disapproval, weighing walk outs and boycotts before settling on organized and sustained disruption.

According to a Tuesday Politico report, the younger, aggressive Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee compromised with the older ones who hew more closely to tradition and decorum, deciding to attend but to hijack the proceedings less than a minute into Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) opening statement.

The Democrats interrupted, one after another, with monologues about the lack of transparency surrounding the process, as well as the paucity of Kavanaugh’s records they had been given, with 42,000 pages of those documents only deposited on their doorsteps hours before the hearings began.

Though the organized ruckus projected a strong and unified front to viewers, one Democrat not on the Senate Judiciary Committee (and facing a tough reelection campaign in his red state), was not on board.

“Not how I was raised,” quipped Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to Politico.

However, the pack on the Senate Judiciary Committee is remaining in lockstep, reportedly huddling in Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-IL) office Tuesday night to hammer out strategy for the next day of hearings.

Latest News
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: