Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, on Thursday accused Democrats of being “mad” to block President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
“To Bork, or not to Bork? For Senate Democrats, that is the question,” Hatch writes in a column for USA Today, referring to Judge Robert Bork, whose confirmation to the Supreme Court was blocked in 1987.
The term is defined by Merriam-Webster as, “to attack or defeat (a nominee or candidate for public office) unfairly through an organized campaign of harsh public criticism or vilification.”
“Like Judge Bork, Judge Kavanaugh is among the most qualified individuals ever nominated to the Supreme Court,” Hatch continues. He notes later in the op-ed that he has known Kavanaugh since the judge was nominated to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2003.
“As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time, I oversaw every step of his confirmation. Throughout the process, Judge Kavanaugh proved himself to be an individual of exceptional kindness, character and compassion.”
Hatch claims that “Democrats know they can’t derail Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination on the merits. Instead, they attack a straw man — a gross caricature of the real Judge Kavanaugh, a fictitious being born of rank hyperbole and liberal lies.
“In their zeal to portray Judge Kavanaugh as the embodiment of our greatest fears, Democrats have gone borking mad.”
He then quotes Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who described Kavanaugh as no less than “your worst nightmare,” Kamala Harris of California, who said his confirmation would lead to the “destruction of the Constitution,” and Cory Booker, who said anyone who supported the judge’s nomination is “complicit [in] evil.”
The senator concludes, “Of course, reality won’t deter Democrats from further attempts to Bork Judge Kavanaugh… Even so, I trust the American people to see through the ruse. Judge Kavanaugh is both a gentleman and a jurist of the highest quality. He is an eminently qualified nominee who deserves swift confirmation to the Supreme Court.”
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