U.S. Rep. Tom Reed said Tuesday he was “disappointed to see extremists” demonstrating Tuesday at the opening of Senate hearings on Judge Brett Kavanaugh to become the next Supreme Court justice.
Reed, R-Corning, said he believed Kavanaugh would be confirmed with the necessary 50 votes in the Senate.
Reed said there has been plenty of time for Democrats to vet the judge for the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee pressed for an adjournment before Kavanaugh’s first remarks. Democrats had been asking the White House for 100,000 pages of documents Kavanaugh was part of during the years when he worked for the George W. Bush White House. Ten hours before the hearing the White House released more than 42,000 pages of the material, Reed said Tuesday.
Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s second Supreme Court nominee, would replace Anthony Kennedy, who retired and was the court’s “swing vote.” No one expects that of Kavanaugh — instead, he is predicted to provide conservative Republicans with a 5-4 majority on the Court.
Reed told reporters on his weekly press call he was “disappointed to see extremists demonstrate their extremism in disrupting” the Judiciary Committee hearing.
Democrats, Reed said, were playing politics with the documents issue, calling Kavanaugh “a judge’s judge” who “believes in the Constitution.”
Does Kavanaugh’s confirmation come down to whether he might vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, the watershed decision that legalized abortion in this country?
Kavanaugh’s “position is well established,” Reed commented. Kavanaugh, who has meet with senators over the past month, told Maine Sen. Susan Collins for example, he considers Roe v. Wade to be “settled law.”
Many Democrats aren’t so sure what “settled law” is in this case, and are likely to push Kavanaugh to comment further on those views.
IN ANOTHER MATTER, Reed stopped short of criticizing president Trump’s tweets regarding the recent arrests of two congressional Republicans, including Rep. Chris Collins of New York, for insider trading and lying to the F.B.I. The other, Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, was indicted for misuse of campaign funds.
“Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department,” tweeted Trump Monday afternoon. “Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff……”
The president’s tweet disparaged both Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department over the arrests of the GOP congressmen so soon before midterm elections.
“I have to disagree with the president on this (tweet),” Reed told reporters. “Our colleagues need to be held accountable for any situation they are involved in.”
Other than that statement, Reed said he would save further comments for a private conversation with the president.
“I think the attorney general and Justice Department have demonstrated their independence,” Reed said. “It shows the system is working.”
Collins and Reed were among Trump’s earliest congressional supporters in the 2016 presidential primary.
(Contact reporter Rick Miller at rmiller@oleantimesherald.com. Follow him on Twitter, @RMillerOTH)
