Words. That is the man who sits before us. Nominated to be a justice on the highest court of our land. Judge kavanaugh has the backing of his former law clerks and law students, his colleagues on the bench appointed by both republican and democrat president s and many members of his local community in which he remains so closely involved. He is a man of honor, integrity and well respected in the legal community. There is no dispute he is qualified to serve on our nations highest court. Mr. Chairman, i look forward to the hearing from the nominee himself when we all get done with our statements. [ Protester Talking ] as we discuss with judge kavanaugh for the public to hear, in his own words the proper role of a judge in our constitutional system. I look forward to this hearing and again, judge kavanaugh, thank you for being willing to
be here. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator booker. Thank, mr. Chairman. Welcome judge kavanaugh i want to say welcome to your family sincerely as well. Were all americans taking part in what is truly historic moment. Mr. Chairman, chairman grassley, i hope you do not think earlier this morning that in any way i was questioning your integrity or decency, i was appealing to it earlier before and you have conducted this hearing giving myself and others at least the opportunity to speak and make our case, even though youve not ruled in our favor, of which im disappointed, i do hope you understand that i value your friendship and frankly some of the most valuable moments ive had on the senate i still remember shaking your hand and coming to agreement with you on criminal Justice Reform and ive could have tom a deep respect for you. If you worry about our friendship being affected, it will not be. That gives me an opportunity it Say Something to the public at
large. That is, about this committee. You would think that republicans and democrats dont talk to each other. But id like to remind the public that when they think that happens, they ought to think of the record of this committee. No the just this chairman. But this committee, in the three and a half years, maybe even before i got to be chairman. But in the three and a half years ive been chairman, every bill that got out of this committee has been a bipartisan bill. Proceed, senator. Thank you, very much, sir. I appreciate that. It doesnt detract from the fact that i just fundamentally disagree with the way youve been concluding today. When i first got to the senate i was very fortunate that a lot of senior statesmen, yourself, senator hatch included, pulled me aside and gave me hard wisdom. I came to the senate in a special election at a time we were changing some of the senate rules. Senator levin brought me aside and gave me a hard talking to. Senator mccain gave me a hard talking to. All of them made similar points,
about this idea that sometimes you need to be as objective as possible and see how you would react if the pendulum was swung the other way. In other words they warned me that what goes around in this place, comes around. And to really think that if the shoe was on the other foot and ive been struggling with that, sir, with all honesty of what would the republicans be saying, what would we be saying if we had a democratic president right now, a democratic nominee right now. And this process was in the reverse. And i would like to believe, how i would behave and im pretty confident, i would be a betting man, be willing to bet, that if the republicans were being denied effectively about 90 of the documents about a persons public record, and i actually do believe that some of the analogies that are made to senator, to excuse me Justice Kagan and her solicitorgeneral time, is not a fair analogy. This is a part of the nominees history that he himself has said
was one of his most formative times. I would not hire an intern in my office knowing only 90 of their resume. Theres not a person here that would buy a home only seeing excuse me, only seeing 10 of the rooms. I just believe what were doing here, just on the Objective View of fairness, is sincerely unfair and its insulting to the ideals that we, that we try to achieve with some sense of comity and some sense of rules. I want to go deeper than that. Im trying to figure out what the jeopardy would be, what the jeopardy would be if we just waited for the documents. Last night we had a Document Dump of Tens Thousands of pages. Its been said already theres no judge that would allow a Court Proceeding to go on, no judge that would move forward if one of the parties had just got
documents as of 5 00 last night or potentially as of 11 00. What i dont understand is whats the jeopardy of just waiting, not just for us to digest these documents, but other documents . The reality is, is that senator grassley, you yourself have asked for specific more finite set, more limited set of documents, that you havent even gotten. And so whether its not seeing 90 of the resume of the gentlemen before us or 50 or 40 that should come within time and theres no jeopardy when we have a lifetime appointment. Hell be there for decades and decades, waiting another week or five days or two weeks for those documents that you yourself have requested, which is a more limited subset, for even those documents to come through. I dont understand what the rush is, especially given all that is at stake. And so those are the reasons why i say to you with sincere respect, that this is an absurd
process. It just seems unfair to me and it could easily be solved by us putting a pause here in this process, waiting for the documents, evaluating the documents and it would be a much more robust set of hearings, on this nominee. As i said i would not hire an intern if i had not seen, if i had only seen 10 of their resume. To be a fuller body of the work of this gentleman before us, who as one of my colleagues called popping up in some of the most Interesting Times in the last decade or two, on some of the most important issues, already the limited amount that we call 7 of the documents that ive seen, unfortunately those are things that being held Committee Confidential. Which i dont even know if i can use in my questioning here, i think the penalties is being ousted from the senate. Even the little limited documents that have potentially made my questioning far more rich and substantive to get to
the heart of the issues of this individual nominee. I try to summon the spirit of some of the elder statespeople i had the privilege of serving with from rock feller to levin to mccain, to summon that spirit, to be as objective as possible, i do not think it is unreasonable for us to wait for a week or two to get the full body of those documents. It will cause no harm or damage, except to have more of a full telling of what is at stake here. This is, the stakes are too high on what this nominee represents for us to rush through this process without a full sharing of the documents. And with that, ill continue, sir, with my opening statement. I have said before already th that ill take this opportunity to probably say that you said i didnt get all the documents i requested. You, you probably heard the first sentence of something i
said after our break. And that was, that i could, i first started talking about expecting a million documents. We end up i think with 488,000. But then i went on to explain that the process with all the software and Everything Else that can speed things up, duplicates were, were eliminated, et cetera, et cetera. So weve gotten all the documents i requested. Just to correct you. Sir and to my understanding go ahead with your opening statement. I want to make a point to that if you dont mind. You requested a limited set of documents of his time in the white house counsels office. We have not received all the documents from his time, theyre still being vetted slowly through a system of not a representative from the committee, but the bill burke individual is still reading through those documents as we speak. I imagine some of them will be dumped on to us as this process is going on and predict with quite confidence that some of
those documents might still be trickling out in the days before the actual full senate vote. Please, sir. Youre talking about Committee Confidential. And you have access to them right now. They just, there hasnt been a determination that like, 80 of all the documents are on the website, so the public can see them, but in regard to some, they were forwarded to us. Without a Second Review. The Second Review gives, gives an opportunity then get them out to the public. If theres not no reason that they are excluded under the law and you can read those Committee Confidential documents right now. Well, sir, i submitted a letter days ago asking for that i will resend it in the next 24 hours before tomorrow. We responded to your letter. Again, did you not respond our letter by allowing committee
confidential documents. Lease go to your opening statement. Look i was you know, form former, now former Vice President biden talked about not questioning your colleagues motives and some of the colleagues across the aisle have called the efforts by some of us sincerely to get access to these documents, a sham, a charade. I can go through a lot of the words that were used. To question the motivations i have or doing what i believe, sir, is perhaps the most grave and important duty that i have as a senator. Yes as Senator Cornyn has pointed out. I announced my decision already. But my duty is to fully vet an individual. Thats why i think the documents are important. That the full record is made clear and we have chance to ask questions about them. I also have said that i oppose this nomination happening right now because of the moment we are in american history. Which is very unprecedented. I remind thaw we have had bipartisan statements by senators working in tangent about the attack on the United States of america. Which was an attack going to the core of what our democracy is about. The voting processes. A Special Counsel was put into place and that has led to dozens of people being indicted. People around the president of the United States. It has led to dozens and dozens of charges and that investigation is ongoing. We have seen the president of the United States credibly accused by his own personal lawyer as being an unindicted coconspirator. We have one judge being chosen who was not on the original list. He wasnt on the outsourced federal societys original list. He wasnt on the second version of that list. He got on to that list after this special investigation got going. After the president was in jeopardy. He was added to the list and the president pulled the one person from all of that list, that was added late. That would give him in a sense the ability to pick a judge. That has already spoken vast ly about a president s ability to dismiss or end an investigation. So thats the second reason why ive asked to put a pause on this process. Judge lar were hand said this, as powerful and profound as the documents of this country are, our Founding Documents, theyre not worth much if the people themselves lose faith in them. And i believe the nom nay of a judge from ongoing investigation
prosecution, will shake the faith that millions and millions of americans have in the fairness of the process and the system and ive asked judge kavanaugh time and time again to recuse himself to restore that faith, to alleviate the concerns of americans and he has thus far refused to do so. Now i am upset about the process. And this is not manufactured outrage this is sincere concern for a process that seems wrong and just not objective and fair. I am concerned about as my colleagues are on both sides of the aisle. A russian atag on our nation. But theres a lot more going on here that makes this nomination of great concern. And its frankly some of the things ive heard from both sides of the aisle. When we travel this country and what we are hearing from individuals. And how that relates to a position on the Supreme Court. Right now millions of American Families are watching this, in
sincere concern and fear, ive heard them, ive gotten the calls. Ive traveled the country. Ive talked to republicans and democrats, theyre fearful about where the Supreme Court is going and what it will do when it has the power to shape law, shape the lives and liberties for individuals for decades to come. Ive talked to workers all over my state, all over this nation. Workers that now work in a country where wages are at a 60year low as a portion of our gdp. Whose Labor Protections, workers whose Labor Protections are being diluted and whose unions are under attack. So many of those individuals are asking whether the Supreme Court of their lifetimes will be an institution that elevates the dignity of american workers, or one that allows powerful corporate interests to continue to weaken Labor Protections that didnt just happen. Labor protections that were fought for. That people struggled for. That some, you know the Labor Movement actually died for. Are these labor rights going to
become aggravated . Are they going to become limited . Further increasing the vast disparities of wealth and power in our country . We know this, weve talked to both sides of the ill. Weve talked to cancer survivors, americans with disabilities. Survivors of domestic hay wus, parents with beautiful children that happen to have disabilities, who because of the Affordable Care act can no longer be denied coverage because of quote a preexisting condition. Theres a texas case where thats being challenged right now. Thats moving up. It could likely go before the Supreme Court. Well knowing your record, it is right that these americans, so many of them with preexisting conditions are asking whether the Supreme Court will be an institution that affirms and protects the rights of people with access to health care. Many people who rightfully believe when they read our Founding Documents that talk about life, liberty and the
pursuit of happied in, that health care they believe is fundamental. We all know too many people who have set aside Prescription Drugs because theyre too high because of what corporations are doing there. People who have put off going to see the doctor because a visit is too expensive. That is in the balance with this nomination. Ive gone across the state and senator durbin, i was in your state talking to a republican farmer, about how the farm country is changing so dramatically the livelihoods of so many independent Family Farmers are being threatened by the consolidation of large, multinational corporations. These corporations have acquired so much power this consolidation now from the seeds that they buy, the prices going up to who they have the ability to sell to, the abuse of corporate consolidation is driving so many farmers out of business. You see, one farmer was telling
me about the suicide rates. Now people are saying this is histrionics, this is not life or death. I know these things are. Often a matter of life or death when our insurance rates go down, more people without health care often lose their lives. There are, there is not one senator on the republican side or democratic side who has not seen, ive only been here five years and ive seen the culture of washington change. Because of the obscene amount of dark money pouring in to our political process, corrupting our political processes. Rigging the system. This nomination will have an effect on that. Ive seen americans all over this country, its a bipartisan work that ive done with senators on either side, who feel entrapped by a broken Criminal Justice system. One we know is unassailably
disproportionately targets black and brown americans. Many americans believe, we have a system that treats you better than if youre rich and guilty, than poor and innocent. These issues are in the balance now. And everyone who is concerned about these issues and more are wopdering what the story of america is. We have this great leader, a man named king who said the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. Theres so Many American who is fought for these fundamental rights. Whose family members, union organizersoring, civil rights activists, Womens Rights activists, who fought for, struggled for, and died for these rights. The right for women to make their own medical decisions, including right to an abortion, not a back alley butcher. The right of all americans to marry who they love. The right to vote. And to work free of discrimination regardless of race and the rights of all
americans. These are our rights, these are our american rights. And so we know the answer to these questions, ive looked through the record. Ive had access to, to see the pattern of your decisions. And thats the pattern that really troubles me, judge, and i know were going to get a chance to go through this. And my know my colleagues will as well. It seems so clear that in your courts the same the same folks seem to win over and over again. The powerful, the privileged, big corporations, special interests. And over and over again, folks that lose the folks, why i came to washington to fight, working folks, consumers, women, immigrants, minorities, the disadvantaged, the poor this is, the challenge before us, this is why so much is at stake. I love that my colleagues keep going back to the constitution. But understand this i laud
our founders, i think they were geniuses. But you got to understand that there are millions of american who is understand that they were also flawed people. Were the oldest constitutiona