Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) announced Wednesday that she has cancelled a planned meeting with President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, in light of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s guilty plea and testimony.
In a scathing statement during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and in a tweet Wednesday morning, Sen. Hirono called President Trump an “unindicted co-conspirator.”
“This president who is an unindicted co-conspirator in a criminal matter does not deserve the courtesy of a meeting with his nominee, purposefully selected to protect, as we say in Hawaii, the President’s okole,” she said, employing a crass, colloquial Hawaiian term.
“These are not normal times and these are certainly not the times for this committee to consider a Supreme Court nominee of this president especially a nominee who thinks the president should be immune from investigation,” she emphasized in the hearing. “We cannot abandon common sense in this dangerous time for our democracy so as I and others have said before we should delay this hearing of Judge Kavanaugh for many reasons.”
I have cancelled my meeting with Judge Kavanaugh. @realDonaldTrump, who is an unindicted co-conspirator in a criminal matter, does not deserve the courtesy of a meeting with his nominee—purposely selected to protect, as we say in Hawaii, his own okole.
— Senator Mazie Hirono (@maziehirono) August 22, 2018
Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty Tuesday on multiple charges and faces up to five years in prison.
He told the court that he violated campaign finance laws in the arrangement of payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, saying he’d violated federal law "in coordination with and at the direction of a federal candidate for office," in an apparent reference to President Trump.
President Trump has since responded by dismissing Cohen’s guilty plea as related to campaign finance violations that are “not a crime” and comparing it to a campaign finance violation that was settled by the Obama administration.
Michael Cohen plead guilty to two counts of campaign finance violations that are not a crime. President Obama had a big campaign finance violation and it was easily settled!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2018
Hirono is not the only one looking to delay Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings in light of the news. Several of her Democratic colleagues in the Senate have released similar statements.
After bombshell convictions of key Trump cohorts—& identification of President Trump as an unnamed, unidicted co-conspirator—Judiciary Committee must postpone Kavanaugh nomination hearing.
— Richard Blumenthal (@SenBlumenthal) August 22, 2018
Judge Kavanaugh’s refusal to say a POTUS must comply w a duly issued subpoena & Mr Cohen’s implication of POTUS in a federal crime make the danger of Kavanaugh's nomination to the SCOTUS abundantly clear.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) August 22, 2018
It's a game changer & Chairman Grassley should delay confirmation hearings