Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, as we approach tomorrow's hearing with Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh, I want to be very clear about how the Republican leadership has handled these incredibly serious and credible allegations of sexual assault. The Republican leadership has handled them poorly, unfairly, and disrespectfully.

Leader McConnell has called this entire issue a ``smear campaign'' cooked up by Democrats. That is a blatant falsehood that demeans the women who have courageously come forward. They came forward, not Democrats. They did it on their own, not Democrats. And when Leader McConnell says that it is a smear campaign, he is demeaning these women. As I have said before--but we have yet to hear--Leader McConnell owes Dr. Ford an apology for what he has said.

After Republicans on the Judiciary Committee learned of a second potential allegation against Judge Kavanaugh, they renewed their request, of course, to accelerate--to speed up--the confirmation process.

Chairman Grassley has prohibited witnesses in tomorrow's hearing, other than Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh, including the one and only alleged eyewitness to the events in question. Chairman Grassley and several of his colleagues on the other side have already proposed a final committee vote on Friday. They proposed the vote before the hearing occurs. Isn't that prejudgment? And they are acting, when they propose the vote before the hearing, as if the conclusion was foreordained and the hearing is just a nuisance to ``plow through.''

Most galling of all: Republican leadership and the White House have blocked the FBI from reopening an independent background check investigation into Judge Kavanaugh, a standard procedure for Federal nominees when new allegations arise. This isn't a new thing that Democrats are pulling out of a hat. This is something we do all the time--except in this case, no.

So this isn't a Democratic smear job, as the Leader so callously and disrespectfully suggested; this is a Republican rush job and, I might add, a rush job to avoid getting to the truth.

Here is the contradiction in Leader McConnell's logic: Leader McConnell keeps saying that the allegations by Dr. Ford and other women are ``uncorroborated''--his word--while, at the same time, he is blockading the obvious avenues to corroborate them, and that would be an impartial FBI investigation calling on witnesses to testify. Senator McConnell's assertion is wrong on its face because sworn statements corroborating Dr. Ford's account were submitted to the Judiciary Committee yesterday. If he doesn't believe those statements, it is simple: Have the FBI go interview those who submitted the statements, and then they would have to tell the truth under the penalty of perjury.

So right here and now, I challenge any Member of the Republican Senate to come to the floor and give one good reason why we shouldn't allow the FBI to follow up on its background investigation--one good reason. I haven't heard one. With all the rhetoric, all the screaming, all the name-calling, all the disrespecting of women who have come forward--something this Nation knows all too well these days--we haven't heard one actual reason why there shouldn't be an FBI investigation.

Will it slow it down? It will take only a few days.

I would remind Leader McConnell that he slowed down a nomination to the Supreme Court for a year, and now a few days is too much? Give me a break.

Dr. Ford has asked for an FBI investigation. That shows the faith she has in her account. Editorial boards across the country have echoed her call for an FBI investigation. Anita Hill, treated so unfairly in her day, said that an FBI investigation is essential. And I have to give some credit: A handful of fair-minded Republican Senators have said that an FBI investigation is warranted because they know it would get to the facts. They know it would keep politics out of it. They know it wouldn't cause much of a delay.

During Justice Thomas's confirmation process, an update to the FBI background check took 3 days--3 days. Leader McConnell held a Supreme Court seat open for over 400 days. So why was that OK, and this is not OK?

Again, I say to my dear friend, Leader McConnell: Give me one good reason--give the American people one good reason--why we shouldn't ask the FBI to investigate. If it is a smear job, as he claims, the FBI will find that out. But they also might find out that it is no smear job; it is the God's honest truth.

Now, another tactic: The Republican leader has just trotted out old quotes by Senator Biden pointing out that FBI investigations don't provide conclusions.

I would say to the leader: That is just the point. The purpose of the FBI investigation would not be to prove definitively who is right one way or the other. That is a judgment Senators are to make. The purpose of the FBI investigation is to provide the Senate with just the facts-- that is what we want, just the facts--to make a more informed decision and one the American people could have some confidence in. Their confidence in Judge Kavanaugh and in the process is slipping daily, and with good reason. Isn't an impartial, fair, timely, and nondilatory FBI background check investigation fair to both Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh, taking this out of the arena of politics and making it just about the facts? You bet it is.

Of course it is the right thing to do. But the Republican leaders and the White House have blocked it and scheduled a hearing for tomorrow anyway because, as Leader McConnell promised last week, he is going to ``plow right through'' these allegations. And the motivation is clear: They want to put Judge Kavanaugh on the bench as quickly as possible because they know their nominee has a gigantic credibility problem, and every day that goes by, more and more Americans realize it.

Judge Kavanaugh has misled the Judiciary Committee on numerous occasions about his involvement in the ugliest Bush-era controversies, including on torture, on the confirmation of controversial judges William Pryor and Charles Pickering, on the sordid affair when Manny Miranda, a Republican operative, stole Democratic emails. Just today, Ranking Member Feinstein said that Judge Kavanaugh misled the Judiciary Committee about an incident with a grand jury during his time working for Ken Starr.

Telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth does not seem to be Judge Kavanaugh's way, but that is what we need on the Supreme Court.

Earlier this week, the Nation watched Judge Kavanaugh swear on national television that he never had so much to drink that he forgot events. That characterization doesn't track with several descriptions given by many of his high school and college classmates and when he says ``I can't recall this, that, and the other thing'' about his youth.

So the question of credibility looms. Is Judge Kavanaugh willing to say anything to get confirmed? And are Republican leaders willing to do anything to get him confirmed? Unfortunately, signs are pointing to yes.

Most importantly, when the credibility of the nominee is so questionable, is that the kind of person we want on the Supreme Court? I don't care if it is a liberal, a conservative, or a moderate. When the question of credibility is so much in doubt, as it is now with Judge Kavanaugh, that person should not be sitting on the highest Court in the land, the arbiter of our laws and often the determiner of right and wrong. It would be a new lower standard for the Court and for America.

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