Kamala Harris gave a tour de force of questioning against Kavanaugh. He literally looked like a deer in headlights.
What she did was to put Kavanaugh in a position where he might have to recuse from any Trump related matters that come before the Supreme Court. I guarantee you that if Trump gets any inkling that Kavanaugh will recuse from a Trump related matter, he will drop him in a second. He doesnât want to nominate someone who will do what Sessions has done. The chances of Kavanaugh not making it through this nomination process have gone upâŚsignificantly so.
By challenging Kavanaugh to directly answer whether he had spoken to anyone at Kasowitzâs firm, Senator Harris was implying that he had, because few prosecutors ever ask questions that they donât already know the answer to. Even if she had skimpy evidence, she put him on the spot by playing her hand aggressively and he blinked.
If Kavanaugh spoke to Kasowitzâs firm, it leads one to the conclusion that he corruptly obtained Trumpâs endorsement and nomination for the SCOTUS by giving Kasowitz attorneys assurances that Trumpâs personal and business interests would be taken care of. Kasowitz wouldâve communicated to Trump that Kavanaugh would be loyal to him, and thatâs why Trump picked him.
If she exposes information to support her point and Democrats demand his recusal, that puts Kavanaugh on the spot.
Thank you for completing the circle for me. I couldnât figure out what the implication was of her questioning, and now I get it. I hope she has something to back this up, and that they are able to draw a recusal assurance out of him. Thus far, when asked, he has declined to commit to recuse himself from Trump-related matters.
I believe there are things within the â committee only â papers â
Thanks. I hope youâre right, & Iâd bet serious money you are.
Sheâs way too smart & too experienced for a fishing expedition.
Kavanaugh looked utterly confused by Harrisâ line of questioning.
He did not look confused. He looked evasive.
Every question to every Trump nominee or appointee is a potential perjury trap. Iâm not sure why itâs considered a âtrapâ; perjury is seldom accidental.
Yes.
The adherence-to-procedure part of me would just prefer that Kavanaughâs nomination fail because a few Republicans had an attack of conscience. That said, his withdrawing/being withdrawn would be completely in keeping with how this administration does things, and itâd have the added advantage of signaling to everyoneâas if it hadnât been clear beforeâthat Trump is going judge-shopping, which would, I suspect, greatly impede the nominating procedure for a new candidate.
Yes. Iâd read on Twitter that a reporter had spoken to someone on Harrisâs staff about this, and the staffer said Harris âhas reason to believeâ such a conversation took place. The next move will be to try to present that evidence in open session.
Yesâas Harris said to him, âI believe you have someone in mind but you donât want to tell us.â I wonder, as well, if that look of his (not to mention his asking for a list of all the lawyers on the firm) isnât a sign that heâs had conversations with more than one of the lawyers and/but he doesnât know if Harris knows which of all of them heâs spoken to.
Either way, heâs stuck. Harris clearly knows the answer to her question, but in a sense Kavanaugh doesnât quite know what the question is in the first place.
Recusal? Hell it would be Mueller Time.
Dying to see how she plays this hand; does she have the winning card or is she bluffingâŚ
âUh, could you please just give me the answer to your question? Asking for a friend.â
This is beautiful. Nothing gets the racists bent out of shape more than a brilliant African-American woman sticking it to The Man.
As a longstanding member of the TPM IANAL Club, I always look forward to your insightful and helpful analyses for things like this where I lack the background to be able to understand the contextual importance of what is happening.
If Kamala Harris has indeed set something in motion here which could lead to a possible recusal, and thereby Spankee dropping Kavanaugh like a hot potato, she would be doing us all a tremendous service.
And if it works, I am opening a bottle of bubbly in celebration.
I would not be surprised if Brett Kavanaugh was also advising Giuliani on the Russian treason, election outcome rigging matter. He has been likely lying and obfuscating on the Leahy questions and on the Harris question he was not fully honest and not being forthcoming.
Yeah, thatâs the icing on the cake here.
Thank you for the excellent analysis. What is the enforcement mechanism for recusal? Supposing he doesnât recuse and the need to do so is clear cut, as you say: in that case, could he be impeached?
It was his âDid you have someone in mind?â responses that were damning here.
Imagine that youâre asking someone âDid you have any conversation about me with any members of my family?â and the person answers âWellâŚdid you have someone in mind?â Even if he really meant look the firm employs a lot of people then the answer might be âNot as far as I knowâ, but notably, thatâs now how he answered.
It was also damning and in fact comical when he puckers his brow and stares off into space and says âKaso-witzâŚâ as if he canât remember if heâs ever heard of the place. That part reminded me of this.
As noted above thereâs some careful prosecutorial strategy at work here but more than that he looked like a complete weasel in that segment.
For the Supreme Court, itâs up to each justice to decide whether he or she needs to recuse himself/ herself on a particular case. The other justices canât force a colleague to recuse; thereâs no appeal mechanism.
Overwhelming public pressure might make a justice reconsider; donât think thatâs ever happened.
Impeachment would be an after-the-fact remedy. Highly unlikely given the court is one of the main reasons the GOP made its peace with Trump.