Sen. Joe Manchin will become the first Congressional Democrat to meet with Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, this week.
The West Virginia Democrat told WAJR that he has more than 2,000 inquiries from residents of his state, and is fielding more.
“We’ll meet Monday and be able to go through all of the concerns,” Manchin said. “I’ve had over 2,000 inquiries from West Virginians saying, ‘Please ask this. Please check this out.’ We’ve assembled all that, we’ve gone through his record, and we have questions assembled to ask him.”
He also took to Twitter on Sunday to solicit more questions.
Tomorrow I am meeting with #SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Are there questions you’d like me to ask him on your behalf? I encourage every WVian to send your questions to [email protected] or through the page I set up on my website: https://t.co/BcEEhvQ5yo #WV
— Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) July 29, 2018
[Related: Kavanaugh confirmation enters new territory as first meeting with Democrat looms]
Ad buys promoting Kavanaugh’s confirmation have been playing throughout West Virginia, North Dakota, Indiana, and Alabama.
Manchin said that though Democrats don’t have much leverage in the fight over confirming Kavanaugh if the GOP unifies and votes in his favor, he said he still does not feel pressure to vote any particular way.
“I’m not getting that pressure because they know it doesn’t work on me,” he said. “Now other people, they think they can sway them? They might. A lot of money is being spent on television. I would have recommended they saved their money, because I am going to make what I think is the best informed decision.”
“After I get clarification, after we see what he testifies under oath and what he’s told me [in this meeting], putting all that together and I’ll make a decision,” Manchin added.
Manchin expects Monday’s meeting to last for at least one hour.