Thread by @Heritage

⚡️LONG THREAD ⚡️

@SenateDems have done an about-face on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s #SCOTUS nomination.

At first, they had no doubt he was anything less than an existential threat to the Constitution. If he were confirmed, they said, millions of lives would be lost...

Now, they are claiming we have no idea who Kavanaugh is or what kind of #SCOTUS justice he would be. Solving that mystery, they say, requires putting the confirmation process on hold while they access more than 1 million documents related to Kavanaugh’s service in the Bush WH.

This demand raises an obvious question: What is the point of this demand, since the Democrats making it announced their opposition to Kavanaugh before President Trump even announced that he was the nominee?

The answer is equally obvious. The conflict over the Kavanaugh nomination in general, or these documents in particular, is not about Kavanaugh or his qualifications. The left is using this confirmation as a proxy for Trump—fighting his nominee means fighting him.

So it’s no wonder Democrats want to talk about anyone but Kavanaugh.

They want to look at anything but his judicial record.

That’s not only the best evidence for the kind of justice he would be, but it is already publicly available for anyone to examine.

Let’s take a look at five things Democrats have claimed (and failed to mention) about Kavanaugh’s record in the last few weeks.

CLAIM: He “got his judicial philosophy from the Bush White House.”

First, @SenateDems tweeted part of a speech in which he called his White House experience “instructive.” Aha, they said—we won’t understand Kavanaugh as a judge until we learn more about that phase of his career.

But it turns out that what Kavanaugh actually said was that his White House experience gave him insight into the legislative and administrative process, not that it formed his judicial philosophy.

CLAIM: We “need to unearth Kavanaugh’s record in the executive branch.”

Democrats say they should get records of Kavanaugh’s executive branch service because Republicans requested records for Elena Kagan when she was working as solicitor general during the Obama administration.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said: “What is good enough for Justice Kagan is good enough for Judge Kavanaugh.”

But Schumer (conveniently) left out two very important things.

Unlike Kavanaugh, Kagan in 2010 had no judicial record to scrutinize.

She had worked in the Clinton WH, she was dean of Harvard Law School, and was President Obama’s first solicitor general.

Kavanaugh has written 300+ judicial opinions and joined hundreds more—Kagan had none.

And while Republicans did obtain documents from Kagan’s time in the Clinton admin, they did not get them from her time as Obama’s SG.

Why spend months unearthing Kavanaugh’s record in the executive branch when the most relevant material is already publicly available?

CLAIM: Democrats say Kavanaugh’s records will show that he was involved in controversial Bush-era policies. This is more of a fever dream than a real argument. As others have explained, as staff secretary, Kavanaugh was a gatekeeper, not a policy adviser.

Asking to see all documents that he handled in the White House might serve to reignite disputes with that administration, but it could not possibly reveal anything about Kavanaugh’s qualifications to serve on the Supreme Court.

CLAIM: In a floor speech last week, Schumer said: “There is a lot we don’t know about Judge Kavanaugh.”

This is perhaps the most misleading claim of all.

Not only does he have hundreds of written opinions, law review articles, and speeches that reveal his method...

... he already received TWO Senate confirmation hearings when he was under consideration for the U.S. Court of Appeals, receiving more scrutiny than 97% of appeals court nominees over the past several decades.

Schumer should know—he served on the Judiciary Committee for both.

CLAIM: When nothing else works, Democrats resort to scare tactics. Schumer asked in a statement last week, “What are Republicans hiding in Judge Kavanaugh’s record?”

Schumer wants people to believe that @SenateGOP or the Trump admin control all of the records. They don’t.

Many of them are housed in the George W. Bush library and are not public records.

This strategy is the political equivalent of a magician’s misdirection.

The last thing Democrats want to talk about is the nominee...

The last thing @SenateDems want the American people to examine is the nominee’s judicial record because it will show what a fair and impartial judge he really is, a judge that follows the law rather than his own preferences or agenda.

That’s the kind of judge the American people deserve. Democrats may go looking for other records, but Kavanaugh’s record already speaks for itself. heritage.org/courts/comment…