Democrats coordinated and planned over the long holiday weekend to obnoxiously interrupt the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The hearing started Tuesday morning and will likely run through the end of the week.
Right from the start, Democrat members of the Senate Judiciary Committee repeatedly spoke out of order, personally attacked Chairman Chuck Grassley and demanded the hearing be adjourned. Cortney has the details covered here.
None of this happened by accident and was led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Sources tell @Kasie and me that this is a coordinated effort by Senate Dems on the Judiciary Committee, and that it was discussed during the holiday weekend on a call organized by Schumer.
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) September 4, 2018
Democrats plotted coordinated protest strategy over the holiday weekend and all agreed to disrupt and protest the hearing, sources tell me and @frankthorp
— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) September 4, 2018
Dem leader @chuckschumer led a phone call and committee members are executing now
Oh, and look at this.
WOW!! Cory Booker just sent out a fundraising email in the same moment he was interrupting the #Kavanaugh hearing claiming to take this process seriously https://t.co/IYd5I82oO2
— Raj Shah (@RajShah45) September 4, 2018
By 11 a.m., Kavanaugh still hadn't given his opening statement. The hearing started at 9:30 a.m.
Grassley now says Kavanaugh’s opening statement will be delayed because of the democrats objections this morning. “It’ll probably be later this afternoon now,” Grassley says if Kavanaugh’s Opening Stmt.
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) September 4, 2018
“How long you want to go on with this?” - Grassley then asks Dems.
INTERRUPTIONS SO FAR:
— Alyssa E. Hackbarth (@AlyssaEinDC) September 4, 2018
Blumenthal, Richard 13
Booker, Cory 10
Harris, Kamala 8
Hirono, Mazie 6
Klobuchar, Amy 3
Whitehouse, Sheldon 2
Leahy, Patrick 1
Coons, Christopher 1
TOTAL 44
In addition to Democrats, there were a number of interruptions from protestors in the hearing room. They were escorted out by Capitol Police.
VIDEO: Protesters arrested in the hearing room for Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing asking the hearing to end. pic.twitter.com/ZCTcuwq7qZ
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) September 4, 2018
After the arrests at the Kavanaugh Hearing there are plenty of seats open in the hearing room: pic.twitter.com/LV0LC14HEf
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) September 4, 2018
This is the same tactic House Democrats used last month during a House Judiciary Committee hearing where fired FBI agent Peter Strzok testified. At one point Democrats literally cheered Strzok on.
Democrats give disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok a round of applause after his little speech defending his actions. The self-righteous smugness of it all is just astounding. pic.twitter.com/tleEif0dwp
— Nick Short (@PoliticalShort) July 12, 2018