McConnell vows to do nothing about latest Brett Kavanaugh sexual assault allegations

A day after the New York Times published a report including a new allegation of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and finding some corroboration for previously reported claims against him, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made it clear that he has no interest in doing anything about it.

“For anybody who’s been reading the news the past few days, it’s probably felt a little like Groundhog Day,” McConnell said in a Monday afternoon speech on the Senate floor. “Because over the last couple of days, leading Democrats have tried to grab on to yet another poorly sourced, thinly reported, unsubstantiated allegation against Justice Brett Kavanaugh.”

“There they go again. Call it a one-year-anniversary reenactment: Senate Democrats reopening the sad and embarrassing chapter they wrote last September,” he continued, before attacking the New York Times report as “so thin” that it ran “not in the news section but on the opinion page.”

McConnell accused the paper of using a “shoot first, correct the facts later” pattern, while mocking Democratic candidates for calling for Kavanaugh’s impeachment. “This laughable suggestion,” he claimed without evidence, “is already earning scorn throughout the country, across the political spectrum.”

McConnell’s claim that “a majority of senators and the American people rightly rejected the politics of unsubstantiated personal destruction just last year,” is directly contradicted by polling that showed 51% of American adults opposed the confirmation of Kavanaugh.

McConnell concluded by dismissing the calls for action against Kavanaugh a “deliberate attempt to attack judicial independence.”

“This is my commitment, Mr. President, and the commitment of all my Republican colleagues: As long as we remain in the Senate, we will fight to preserve our fair and independent judiciary.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.