Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican, took a shot at Democrats on the Judiciary Committee during the opening statements in the…
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican, took a shot at Democrats on the Judiciary Committee during the opening statements in the confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh saying that the hearing was being run by « mob rule. »
« This is the first confirmation hearing that I’ve seen basically according to mob rule. We have rules in the Senate. We have norms for decorum, » Cornyn said.
Cornyn added that it was « hard to take seriously their claim that somehow they can’t do their job… when they’ve already made up their mind before the hearing. »
Cornyn’s comments come as the Judiciary Committee’s hearing quickly hit the skids on Tuesday as Democrats almost immediately began interrupting Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) as he tried to kick off the first day of the hearing.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) fired back that Democrats were simply asking for the « regular order. »
Democrats tried repeatedly to get a vote on adjourning or postponing the committee hearing to give them more time to review documents on Kavanaugh’s White House tenure and get documents from his three-year period of staff secretary.
But Grassley repeatedly shot down that motion arguing it was « out of order » because they aren’t in executive session.
Both sides appeared to seize on Cornyn’s comments.
Grassley noted that he had been accused of « having a mob rule session. »
« Now if we have a mob rule session it’s because the chairman’s not running the committee properly, » Grassley said.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), replying to Grassley, noted that the « mob » accusation came from Cornyn, a Republican senator.
« The accusation that this is a mob rule hearing was made by your colleague by the state of Texas. I think you’ve been conducting this in a respectful, appropriate, deliberative way, » he said.
