If one of your claims to fame is moving forward the nomination of an accused sexual harasser to the Supreme Court, calling for the impeachment of a second accused sexual harasser and Supreme Court member might seem like common sense. Not for Joe Biden.
After reporting emerged this weekend about new sexual misconduct allegations against Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a number of Democratic presidential candidates called for Kavanuagh’s impeachment. Instead, Biden raised “questions about the integrity of the confirmation process” that allowed for Kavanaugh to be confirmed onto the nation’s highest court. (Kavanaugh has denied the allegations and refused to speak with reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly for their upcoming book, “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation” where the allegations also appear.)
“We need to get to the bottom of whether the Trump Administration and Senate Republicans pressured the FBI to ignore evidence or prevented them from following up on leads relating to Justice Kavanaugh’s background investigation, subsequent allegations that arose, and the truthfulness of his testimony to the Senate,” Biden said in a statement shared on Twitter by Axois’s Alex McCammond.
Seems like a potential breach of “the integrity of the confirmation process” is Biden might be intimately acquainted with after “running” the confirmation hearing of then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas in the early 90s.
The statement continued, with what I think is the most important part: “We must follow the evidence to wherever it leads. Doing this the right way is critically important in getting the truth and restoring the American people’s faith in their government.”
The system, thus far, actually has worked as intended. Biden should know; he chaired and was a long-time member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. And, impeachment is a part of that system. Biden’s role in the Thomas confirmation process remains a political liability and getting out in front of this new Kavanaugh sexual assault allegations seems like a great way to atone for his lack of actions in the 90s. Especially since expressing regret is the best he can do.
The statement does the bare minimum without calling for any revolutionary or anything that would even cause a ripple. What an apt assessment of his presidential campaign thus far.
Furthermore, while it’s great that Biden remembered the horrific treatment that Christine Blasey Ford suffered as a result of her testimony about Kavanaugh, most of the reporting from The New York Times on Saturday was centered on a different woman: Deborah Ramirez. Would’ve been nice if the long Notes app statement acknowledged her name, too.