During Thursday’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Judge Brett Kavanaugh, New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker held the proceedings hostage with a dramatic display over the release a 12-page email conversation between Kavanaugh and several other people with the subject “racial profiling.”
The email in question was part of a massive Monday night document dump from a Bush administration lawyer, hours before Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings began.
The Democratic Senator huffed and puffed and blew hot air all over the chamber – claiming “this is the closest I’ll get to an “I am Spartacus’ moment” – adding “I am right now before your process is finished, I am going to release the email about racial profiling and I understand the penalty comes with potential ousting from the Senate.”
Booker’s bloviating frustrated other Senators – as Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) asked him: “How many times you going to tell us that?”
Dramatic moment when Booker pledges to release committee confidential documents whether Republicans agree or not and Cornyn threatens to to try to expel him from the Senate
“Bring it,” Booker says
(via @atrupar)pic.twitter.com/0WMOrUAdl5
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) September 6, 2018
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) admonished Booker as well, telling Booker – a 2020 Democratic hopeful: “Running for president is no excuse for violating the rules of the Senate,” adding “This is no different from the senator deciding to release classified information. … That is irresponsible and outrageous.”
This was Booker’s moment, where he would reveal Judge Kavanaugh as a conservative racist… except Booker apparently didn’t read, or understand the email.
After Booker released the emails, pundits and politicians alike rushed to digest the 12-page “bombshell” – only to discover that booker chose an incredibly stupid hill to die on.
In the 2002 email discussing airline security after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, Kavanaugh wrote that he “generally favored” race-neutral security measures, adding that his colleagues would need to “grapple” with “the interim question of what to do before a truly effective and comprehensive race-neutral system is developed and implemented” in order to prevent another terrorist attack.
Kavanaugh wrote that the “interim question” is of “critical importance to the security of the airlines and American people in the next 6 months or so, especially given Al Qaeda’s track record of timing between terrorist incidents.”
As the Washington Examiner noted Thursday, the emails were a “total dud,” as they “don’t show Kavanaugh cheerleading racist tactics. Quite the opposite, actually.”
As Booker considers his 2020 run for President, he might consider having competent attorneys review and translate any complicated emails with dog-whistle titles before he cuts off his nose to spite his face.
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