Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday he doesn’t believe Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh should be presumed innocent before Thursday’s hearing about sexual assault allegations against him, and said senators should instead be focused on finding the facts.
“No, it’s not a legal proceeding. It’s fact-finding proceeding,” Schumer said of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s claim that Kavanaugh should get a presumption of innocence. “This is not a criminal trial … This is to find the facts.”
“What I believe is we ought to get to the bottom and find the facts in the way that the FBI has always done,” Schumer said. “There’s no presumption of innocence or guilt when you have a nominee before you. There is, rather – find the facts … and then let the Senate and let the American people make their judgment, not whether they’re guilty or innocent, but whether the person deserves to have the office for which he or she is chosen. Plain and simple.”
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McConnell told reporters Tuesday that he expects Kavanaugh to be confirmed by the Senate and expressed confidence that it would happen swiftly, perhaps by early next week.
“I think everybody in America understands there’s a presumption of innocence. That standard of fairness is applied to every American citizen in almost every situation,” McConnell said. “I think we ought to go into these hearings with a presumption of innocence, but hear the argument on the other side, the testimony on the other side so the members of the Senate can make a decision here on a very, very significant matter.”
Senate Republicans are expected to move ahead with plans to vote in committee and on the Senate floor in the days following Thursday’s hearing. GOP senators indicated that McConnell intends to keep lawmakers in town over the weekend to move ahead on the nomination. The Supreme Court’s term kicks off on Monday.
