Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley would only give a "rough guesstimate" Wednesday about when confirmation hearings would begin for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, while hitting back at Democrats' call to postpone the hearings until after the November midterms.
"If you look at the last two or three, from the time they were nominated until the Senate voted on them, was about 65 to 70 days. So a hearing would come somewhere about two-thirds along that road," the Iowa Republican told CNN's "New Day" co-host Alisyn Camerota.
He added that his hope is to have "at least the hearing" by early September, but he can't be certain about that.
"This person has been on the bench for 12 years," said Grassley. "He's got a lot of paperwork and stuff when he worked at the White House. I don't know how much of that we have to go through, but I have to keep an open mind, so we have a thorough and constitutional approach to this, to meet our responsibility."
Democrats are demanding to see documents from Kavanaugh's time during President George W. Bush's administration, when he served as a staff secretary, and Camerota asked if that was "fair."
"What would be fair for me, starting out as chairman of the committee, would be what documents have we required of other people being appointed to the Supreme Court," said Grassley.
"We will start at that point, and beyond that, I can't make predictions or judgment or decisions as you might want me to make, because I don't know what the global evidence is out there that people might want."
Many Democrats, though, have already said they'll vote against Kavanaugh, said Grassley, and he wonders how much more they'll need to know to vote no.
He also shot back at Democrats calling for the vote to be delayed, and if this was a presidential election year, he'd "do just like I did in 2016" when the decision was made to delay a Supreme Court nominee until after the presidential election.
But this time around, "the president is not up for election and the president makes the appointment," said Grassley. "Don't forget both [Elena] Kagan was approved in August of 2010 and [Stephen] Breyer was approved in the election year. A lot before that have been approved during a midterm election.
"Where would the Democrats think they get enough evidence to stand on that we couldn't consider this nominee during a midterm election?"
Grassley, meanwhile, told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo on "Mornings With Maria" that he finds Kavanaugh to be a person "that is well-versed in the law, very respected by other judges," and one who is dedicated to interpreting the law, not stretching it.
He also told Bartiromo that he expects Kavanaugh will have enough votes to confirm him before the Supreme Court session starts on Oct. 1, but Democrats will "smell blood" if Republicans don't stick together.
"I don't think we will get any Democrats, so I think we've got to work from the standpoint that most of the Democrats have said they are going to vote no," said Grassley. " They were against this regardless of who it was."
He also told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" that something will have to go "dramatically wrong" for Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski to vote against Kavanaugh, as has been feared.
"I think we have to worry more about the Democrats, but I think that we can't count on any Democrats until we get the 50 votes we need," said Grassley, "and then, we'll get five or six of them. Otherwise, I don't think we can count on them."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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