Just minutes into Brett Kavanaugh’s unhinged opening statement, something clicked for me. I understood what he was doing with his enraged, hysterical performance: he was performing for an audience of one, Donald Trump. Many federal employees do that now, they’ll go on Fox News – because that’s all Trump watches – and they’ll “perform” for him on TV, to get his approval or to send a message directly to him. That’s what Brett Kavanaugh was doing yesterday – he wasn’t performing for the American people. He was only partially performing for the Republican senators. He was trying to speak to Trump, because he knew that Trump had been unimpressed by his Fox News interview earlier this week.
Kavanaugh’s unhinged gamble paid off – Trump watched Dr. Ford’s testimony, and there were many in the White House who were unsettled by how authentic she seemed. But then Kavanaugh came on and screamed and threw his sucky baby tantrum and Trump and his aides were “ebullient,” according to Politico. There was a sense of “relief” that Kavanaugh came out as a screeching political hack who would blatantly lie and deny anything and everything. It was like looking in a mirror for Trump. Trump avoided tweeting throughout the dual testimonies, but after Kavanaugh’s performance concluded, he tweeted this:
Judge Kavanaugh showed America exactly why I nominated him. His testimony was powerful, honest, and riveting. Democrats’ search and destroy strategy is disgraceful and this process has been a total sham and effort to delay, obstruct, and resist. The Senate must vote!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2018
I don’t know what to say. My feeling is that there will be some big stories this weekend. I’ll say this: if you have information about Brett Kavanaugh, please come forward. This situation is dire, and the Republicans really are going to put a rapist on the court.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red and Backgrid.
I wonder who was in charge of explaining to the president all the ‘big words’ Dr Ford used that he didn’t understand
Hah! But lets be real…they probably distracted him with cartoons until they were certain kavanaugh’s performance wouldn’t upset cheeto.
This whole process was so sickening from the very start. The withhold of information during the confirmation proccess, his lying and ill temper, the display of lack of respect – it all shows he is not the person fit to serve a lifetime on the highest court in the land. I accept at this point that republicans have no interest in protecting or respecting women but they are republicans who are supposed to care about the health of the Republic. How this sham of the confirmation process is in line with that? They are so sold out at this point they are not even pretending anymore…
If a woman gave testimony in the same manner as KavaNO, there probably would have would have been some old white man there telling her to stop being hysterical or to calm down. I’m basing this conclusion on the experience of Kamala Harris.
Of course he’s happy-his hand picked monster is about to be confirmed and he and the GOP have their big prize-a Supreme Court that is heavily stacked for extreme conservatives. They have gotten exactly what they wanted.
So remember (assuming we all survive the next two years) – this is why you vote. This is why vote in state and local elections, not just presidential ones. This is why you don’t assume everyone else will just take care of it because putting a stamp on a ballot is haaaaard. This is why you don’t throw temper tantrums at the ballot box and demand purity tests because you think it’s better to be self righteous instead of grounded in reality.
+1
I feel that all was lost when Trump won. This is the serious consequences of not voting. This angry woman-hating rage monster will now get to dictate laws pertaining to women and women’s bodies. But Trump is harmless I’amirte?!
I wouldn’t trust this nominee to be a dog sitter. He is temperamentally unfit for many jobs, not the least being the SC.
He is definitely playing to Bigly, but I think they are birds of a feather anyway. He just let his real self partially show.
Yeah, I’m wondering how he got the federal position he has NOW, forget moving up.
Just this morning, the American Bar Association has called for an FBI investigation before they take a vote.
Expensive schools and connections, maybe? Mommy was a lawyer and I think a judge.
Interesting that Gorsuch has a very similar educational background, yet didn’t have all these issues. This guy was in the pipeline for 20 years, yet no one realized he was a loose cannon?
He went to Yale and grew up wealthy. Network access gets a lot of mediocre white men to places they’d never get to otherwise.
Of course MOST people watched Kavanaugh and were anywhere from disturbed to horrified, but Trump watched him and was like, “Awesome!”
Of course.
The Senate panel doesn’t care that he’s a rapist. In fact, they prefer it; a normal man who respects women might not overturn Roe.
There is actually a requirement for someone to have the proper judicial temperament to be appointed to the USSC. The scariest part for me was hearing him blame the Clintons and the left. That is deranged.
HRC needs to sue Kavanaugh for slander. He’s the one that came up with that story that she had Vince Foster murdered.
That orange bastard only understands and appreciates bullying.