Cory Booker: To Support Brett Kavanaugh Is To Be ‘Complicit’ In Evil
Senator Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) has recently faced backlash over his comments regarding President Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court. According to The Huffington Post, Booker is urging people to take action against Trump’s decision to fill the empty seat left by former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy with D.C. appeals court judge Brett Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh, Booker said, would “roll back voting rights, gay rights, civil rights, reproductive rights and access to health care for millions of Americans.” If confirmed, Kavanaugh would shift the balance of the Supreme Court to a conservative majority.
“I’m here to call on folk to understand that in a moral moment, there is no neutral. In a moral moment, there is no bystanders. You are either complicit in evil, you are either contributing to wrong, or you are fighting against it. I’m calling on everyone right now who understands what’s at stake, who understands who Kavanaugh is, Maya Angelou says it, when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time,” Booker said.
Booker went on to list out Kavanaugh’s thoughts on women’s rights, his feelings on workers’ rights to unionize, gay rights, and more.
Now, Republicans are calling on Booker to ease up on what they feel is “apocalyptic rhetoric.”
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said that Booker’s speech is easy to dismiss since it’s “completely unhinged and detached from any reality.” He urged Democrats to take it easy and not get wrapped up in Booker’s rhetoric.
On the Senate floor Thursday morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called Booker out for his comments, saying they are overblown, and decrying other Democrats for not speaking out against Booker’s comments.
Most Republicans are anxious to get Kavanaugh confirmed prior to the start of the new Supreme Court term in October. Currently, Democrats are reviewing Kavanaugh’s court documents from his time as an appeals judge, something that may delay Kavanaugh’s confirmation. According to the Washington Post, it is still unclear how many Democrats will vote since Joe Manchin III (W.Va.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.) and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) all supported President Trump in 2016 and voted for Trump’s first Supreme Court pick, Neil Gorsuch.
Phil Bredesen, Democratic candidate for Senate in Tennessee, is calling on Democrats to give Kavanaugh a chance. He says the best approach at this time is to simply meet with him and then “vote their conscience and not a party line.”
