Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) broke with his fellow Democrats’ calls for a delay on confirmation hearings for President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in light of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s guilty plea.
“We do our job. Let’s do our job,” Sen. Manchin told reporters Wednesday. "Delaying is not going to help anything.”
He added that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has not reached out to him about delaying a vote on Kavanaugh.
“No one has discussed this with me at all,” he said. “They know my feelings on this, you know? We’ve got a nominee that the president has put forward. We have an advise and consent job.”
Sen. Manchin is a vulnerable red-state Democrat who is facing a lot of pressure to confirm Kavanaugh. He had a two hour meeting with Kavanaugh last month and officially remains undecided.
Sen. Schumer called for Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings to be put off indefinitely on the Senate floor earlier Wednesday in light of Cohen's plea and the verdict in the Paul Manafort trial.
He was joined in these calls by a number of prominent Democrats, including Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) who cancelled her meeting with Kavanaugh and called President Trump an “unindicted co-conspirator.” Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) quickly adopted the term as well.
Americans don't want a president who is an unindicted co-conspirator in a crime to have the power to appoint someone to the Supreme Court. We should not proceed with Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 22, 2018
Trump's personal lawyer has sworn under oath that POTUS directed him to commit a federal crime.
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) August 22, 2018
The Senate must reject any SCOTUS nominee from a president who is an alleged criminal co-conspirator—especially when that nominee may rule to protect Trump from any accountability.