MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Richard Blumenthal
Interview
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MADDOW: So, this week Democrats in the Senate made history in a way they are not happy about. For what is believed to be the first time ever, senators on the Judiciary Committee, Democratic senators on the committee, took this unprecedented step to try to vet a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. They filed FOIA requests. Freedom of Information Act requests, the kind thing journalists do when nobody gives us information we're asking for.
U.S. senators don't usually have to do that to get documentation related to a nominee for the judiciary. But that's what they're trying to do. To get documentation and records related to Brett Kavanaugh's work in the George W. Bush White House. I mean, this is vetting somebody for one of the most important jobs in the country, certainly the most pivotal job at this particular point in our country's history.
But Republicans are blocking Democrats from getting most of the documents from Kavanaugh's long record in public service. Republicans quite clearly just want to get this done and get him on the court quickly. Democrats are doing even stuff they've never done before that nobody has ever done before to try to get all the paperwork that Kavanaugh has produced in his long Washington life.
Joining us now, Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. He's a member of the Judiciary Committee. He's one of the members who's been trying to learn these new tricks to get access to Kavanaugh's records.
Senator, thank you for being here tonight.
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Thank you.
MADDOW: And I as far as we can tell, there's never been -- members of the Senate have never filed FOIA requests to try to get access to documents for a Supreme Court nominee before. Am I right that this is unprecedented?
BLUMENTHAL: Never before have any Republican or Democratic senators had to file Freedom of Information requests for these kinds of documents. The reason is quite simply, Senate Republicans are hiding and concealing massive number of documents. Tens of thousands of pages of documents relating to Judge Kavanaugh's service as staff secretary to President Bush.
Remember, he served for three years in that capacity. That was the time that a lot of these detainee issues arose, other kinds of civil rights and civil liberties issues that will come before him as a justice on the Supreme Court. It is unprecedented and very unfortunate because unfortunately, the Senate Republicans have really shattered the norms and they're violating the intent and letter of the Presidential Records Act.
MADDOW: There are a lot of different elements of Judge Kavanaugh's record and his positions on the law that are going to come under scrutiny and that have already been the subject of various degrees of controversy. But on this point, just as a matter of how we're supposed to do this as a country, it's -- we do have recent experience of there being a nominee for the court who has an extensive paper trail because of work in the White House.
Elena Kagan, one of President Obama's nominees had extensively worked in the White House, had a long record in Washington and there was no issue in terms of receiving all of the documentation, all of the records from her time working in the administration.
What's the justification for treating Elena Kagan completely opposite from how they're treating Judge Kavanaugh?
BLUMENTHAL: There is absolutely no principled explanation for it. And the only reason is that the Republicans obviously want to rush through this nomination. They have not only limited the scope of the documents that they will allow access to, but they've also even as to those limited number of documents that they're willing to make available, they have delegated or outsourced the prescreening cherry picking process to a Republican lawyer, Bill Burck, who just coincidentally happened to work as a subordinate for Judge Kavanaugh when they were both working in the Bush White House.
Bill Burck is now Bush's lawyer. He is also Don McGahn's lawyer. Don McGahn was involved in picking Judge Kavanaugh. There is a kind of --
MADDOW: Isn't Bill Burck also representing is Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon in the Russia investigation?
BLUMENTHAL: Exactly.
MADDOW: That's the person they're having produce all the records related to Brett Kavanaugh?
BLUMENTHAL: In effect, sanitizing all these documents, cherry-picking the ones he's going to allow us to see without any explanation, by the way, any log or any record of the ones that he is withholding.
MADDOW: The -- we had a story last night that involved some audio recorded as a Republican fund raiser where Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, who's in the House leadership on the Republican side, they were talking about the potential impeachment of Rod Rosenstein and the need to shut down the Mueller investigation. And they seemed to be talking about timing that in relation to the Kavanaugh confirmation.
This is -- the story was controversial and we believe news worthy because of the linkage of those two issues among these influential members of Congress on Republican side.
What do you think is going to happen in terms of timing of the confirmation? Republicans seem to be making it clear in different terms in public and behind closed doors that they want to get this done very fast definitely before the election.
BLUMENTHAL: First, understand that very few of us are ever going to cast a more important vote. I will never cast a more important vote than this one on this nomination. And it's one that is going to live with us for history. It's the one that our grandchildren are going to say, how did you vote on the Kavanaugh nomination?
And we need to approach it with that kind of deliberation. It's going to affect the air and water you drink, whether you can marry the person you love, whether you can decide when and whether you want to become pregnant, all these fundamental rights and liberties will depend on Brett Kavanaugh as a potential swing vote on the court.
So, what do I think is going to happen in terms of timing? I think the Republicans are going to try to rush through this nomination. And my question is, what are they hiding? What are they afraid of the American people seeing in those thousands of pages of documents?
MADDOW: Republicans think they may have an election issue that could swing either way in terms of this coming up before the election. They think the Democratic fight against Kavanaugh is likely to be the Democrats potentially the most potent issue for the Democratic party in this election, as well.
Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, thank you so much for being here.
BLUMENTHAL: Thank you.
MADDOW: I really appreciate you being here.
BLUMENTHAL: Thank you.
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