Senate Democrats say they are planning to meet with Brett Kavanaugh, adding to a short list of party lawmakers who have now sat down with President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.
“We are trying to work something out,” Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Tuesday when asked if she would be meeting with Kavanaugh.
For weeks it appeared Democrats were resisting the traditional sit-down with the high court pick. They appeared to be following the lead of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who argued against in-person meetings until Republicans turned over requested documents from Kavanaugh’s past.
But Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., broke the stalemate by agreeing to meet with Kavanaugh earlier this month. Manchin is running for re-election in a state that voted for President Trump by a 42-point margin.
Red-state Democrats Heidi Heitkamp, of North Dakota, and Joe Donnelly, of Indiana, met with Kavanaugh on Wednesday. Now other Democrats are planning their meetings.
“I’ve certainly indicated that I’d be willing to,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told the Washington Examiner, when asked if he would meet with Kavanaugh. “It’s up to him to ask for a meeting.”
A spokesperson for Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said a meeting with Kavanaugh is in the planning stages. “We are working on it,” the spokesperson said.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, announced he plans to begin Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing on Sept. 4, so it’s likely Kavanaugh will hold many meetings with Senate Democrats in August, when the chamber is in a rare summer session.
Kavanaugh’s meetings with Democrats will take place as Schumer continues to battle with the GOP over access to Kavanaugh’s lengthy work history.
In addition to a dozen years serving as a judge on the D.C. Court of Appeals, Kavanaugh also worked as a staff secretary and assistant counsel for President George W. Bush.
In a lengthy floor speech Tuesday, Grassley lashed out at Democrats for demanding what he said would amount to every single Bush White House document.
About 200,000 pages of Kavanaugh documents have flowed into the Senate so far.
Democrats, Grassley argued, “want to bury us in a mountain of paper so we can’t vote on nominations any time this year.”
Schumer has argued the GOP is trying to hide negative information about Kavanaugh by refusing to produce information about his past.
Republicans plan a vote to confirm Kavanaugh in time for the Oct. 1 beginning of the Supreme Court’s new term.
