Senate Republicans have learned their lesson from the horror show that was the Kavanaugh hearings by using the current recess as a chance to ram through some of President Trump’s judicial nominees.
According to The Huffington Post, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has held two hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee this week even though most senators were absent for the sake of campaigning for the midterms. Rather comically, not even Grassley attended the hearings and instead permitted Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) and Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) to the chair the hearings.
“Not a single Democrat could attend either hearing,” lamented HuffPo. “Only one other Republican, Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah), was present. That means, between those two hearings, that three of Trump’s circuit court nominees and seven of his district court nominees sailed through without any real questions.”
Given that President Trump’s last judicial nominee was asked by several Democratic senators about flatulence referenced in his high school yearbook, it is highly dubious to say that “real questions” would have been asked of the latest nominee had Democrats been present. The move is a strategic one: ram the nominee through the sham of a committee hearing and vote on it once the midterms conclude. – READ MORE