The White House urged the Senate Tuesday to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court within the next 66 days.
The administration is citing the average time it took to confirm his two most recent predecessors to the high court and is betting that the current confirmation process will go as smoothly as President Trump’s initial reveal.
“The last two Supreme Court confirmations occurred in 66 days,” principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah said in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt Tuesday morning, noting that Justices Elena Kagan and Neil Gorsuch were both confirmed in less than 70 days.
“We think that’s a good benchmark,” Shah later told reporters.
Much of the planning surrounding the president’s campaign to confirm Kavanaugh took place prior to Monday night, when Trump named the Yale grad and top conservative judge his pick to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. Almost instantaneously, groups aligned with the White House launched ConfirmKavanaugh.com, a website designed to inform voters about the circuit court judge’s background and credentials, and flooded the airwaves in states with vulnerable Senate Democrats up for reelection, pressuring them to support Trump’s nominee.
Inside the West Wing, communications officials distributed talking points to allies about Kavanaugh’s esteemed reputation in conservative legal circles and rounded up statements of support from prominent Republican lawmakers and outside organizations.
At least two senior officials from the White House – Shah, who was charged earlier this month with overseeing communications related to the Supreme Court battle, and counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway – spent much of Tuesday morning touting Kavanaugh in both regional and national television interviews.
And Vice President Mike Pence is slated to join them with an appearance of his own on Fox News Tuesday evening.
Kavanaugh himself indicated in his acceptance Monday night that he planned to visit Capitol Hill immediately, aiming to get a head start on the dozens of meetings he will conduct with bipartisan lawmakers over the coming weeks ahead of his confirmation hearing. That process will be guided by former Republican Arizona Sen. Jon Kyle, whom the White House selected as its so-called “sherpa” hours before the Supreme Court announcement Monday night.
“Tomorrow, I begin meeting with members of the Senate, which plays an essential role in this process,” Kavanaugh said, adding that he plans to tell every member he meets with he “revere[s] the Constitution” and views an “independent judiciary as the crown jewel of our constitutional republic.”
Those meetings are expected to span several weeks, as Kavanaugh works to earn the support of crucial Republicans and Democrats whom he will need to vote ‘yes’ when his confirmation is brought to the Senate floor shortly before the midterm elections this fall.
Because the GOP claims only a narrow majority in the Senate, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., could be absent for the confirmation vote, the White House and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are aiming to secure the support of every Republican member, and some Democrats facing tough re-election battles in red states this November.
According to Conway, the president is prepared to meet with any senator of either party who might be on the fence once he returns from his 11-day swing through Europe. Members who are widely seen as fitting into that category include Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, two moderate Republican women who support pro-abortion rights but have a track record of supporting Trump’s judicial nominees, and Democratic Sens. Doug Jones of Alabama, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota.
“The president is always open to meeting with whomever in the Senate would like to meet with him on any issue,” Conway told reporters at the White House on Tuesday, adding that Trump “will be fully engaged” and was pleased that Pence was able to accompany Kavanaugh for his visit to the Hill Tuesday.
Another Republican, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, has already discussed his reservations about Kavanaugh with Trump. The libertarian-leaning senator is said to be concerned about Kavanaugh’s senior role in the George W. Bush administration, whose surveillance program and detention tactics Paul has long opposed.
“I look forward to the upcoming hearings, reviewing the record, and meeting personally with Judge Kavanaugh, with an open mind,” Paul tweeted Monday.
[Read more: Brett Kavanaugh’s defense of NSA phone surveillance looms as confirmation question]
A White House official said Kavanaugh’s forthcoming preparation process would be very similar to what Justice Neil Gorsuch underwent during his own confirmation battle last spring: extensive hearing preparation punctuated by routine meetings on Capitol Hill.
“He’s a judge’s judge,” former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said of Gorsuch during an interview with Politico last year, remarking on the Supreme Court nominee’s willingness to spend time preparing on his own, in addition to participating in “murder boards” led by the White House Counsel’s office.
Trump used the same phrase to describe Kavanaugh in his address Monday night.
“Throughout legal circles, he is considered a judge’s judge – a true thought leader among his peers,” the president said, noting that Kavanaugh has offered “over 300 opinions, which have been widely admired for their skill, insight, and rigorous adherence to the law.”
But Kavanaugh’s expansive record might require him to spend even more time preparing for his Senate showdown, as Democrats are expected to dig deeply into his prior opinions and probe his attitude toward Roe v. Wade, the 1973 abortion rights case that Kavanaugh once said he would follow “faithfully and fully” during a confirmation hearing for the appellate court in 2006.
While Kavanaugh works the Senate, White House officials and conservative outside groups are prepared to saturate the airwaves with a unified message about his qualifications, and one that is likely to play up his role as an advocate for women. The judge himself was quick to mention on Monday that the first law school dean who hired him to teach was liberal Justice Elena Kagan, who previously served at the helm of Harvard Law.
“As a judge, I hire four law clerks each year… I am proud that a majority of my law clerks have been women,” Kavanaugh, a father of two daughters, added in his remarks.
One of the groups handling a portion of the messaging campaign is the Republican National Committee, which ran a war room throughout Gorsuch’s confirmation and sent a Wall Street Journal editorial around Tuesday morning endorsing Kavanaugh as a judge who has demonstrated “judicial modesty” and “a deep respect for the free exercise of religion and speech.” The RNC and National Republican Senatorial Committee are both expected to heavily pressure some Democrats to vote in favor of Trump’s nominee.
Even so, the White House still expects Kavanaugh’s confirmation process to be especially draining, noting that top Senate Democrats announced their opposition to the Supreme Court nominee even before Trump revealed his identity.
“The ramifications of this battle will last a generation or more. I’m going to fight this nomination with everything I’ve got,” Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, who grilled Kavanaugh during his 2006 appearance before the Senate Judiciary committee, said from the steps of the Supreme Court Tuesday morning.
