Democratic Kentucky Senate candidate Amy McGrath has flipped and flopped and flipped again on the question of whether she would have supported the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
And all within 48 hours of launching her campaign to unseat Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“You know, I think that with Judge Kavanaugh, yeah, I probably would have voted for him,” McGrath said Wednesday in an interview with the Louisville Courier-Journal.
She also said, “Well, I mean I think again, I think [Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony is] credible, but given the amount of time that lapsed in between and from a judicial standpoint, I don’t think it would really disqualify him.”
Worthy of note: McGrath held the opposite position last year during her unsuccessful bid for Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District.
“I echo so many of the concerns that others have articulated over the nomination of Judge (Brett) Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court,” McGrath wrote in a July 2018 Facebook post before Ford’s uncorroborated allegations against Kavanaugh went on to dominate multiple news cycles. “He has shown himself to be against women’s reproductive rights, workers’ rights, consumer protections and will be among the most partisan people ever considered for the court.”
She said elsewhere in a tweet that same month that Kavanaugh is a “hardcore partisan.”
If it were just her comments from this week and her social media posts from 2018, that would represent merely a flip-flop on the Kavanaugh issue. But there is more. McGrath has already recanted her remarks to the Courier-Journal, backtracking to the position she staked out originally last year.
“I was asked earlier today about Judge Brett Kavanaugh and I answered based upon his qualifications to be on the Supreme Court. But upon further reflection and further understanding of his record, I would have voted no,” McGrath tweeted Wednesday evening, adding, “I know I disappointed many today with my initial answer on how I would have voted on Brett Kavanaugh. I will make mistakes and always own up to them. The priority is defeating Mitch McConnell.”
I know I disappointed many today with my initial answer on how I would have voted on Brett Kavanaugh. I will make mistakes and always own up to them. The priority is defeating Mitch McConnell.
— Amy McGrath (@AmyMcGrathKY) July 11, 2019
For the record, McGrath did not make a “mistake.” Rather, she changed her position three times on the Kavanaugh question in hopes of finding the answer that would be most politically useful, all within two days of announcing her candidacy.
And people think McConnell is Machiavellian!
What McGrath showed is that she is beholden to voices outside of Kentucky before the voters inside of it, whose support for President Trump and his nominees has been consistently strong.
