A short-lived news story alleging Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch has blown off meetings with certain female Democratic senators is best handled with extreme skepticism.
Gorsuch has tried for some time to schedule meetings with Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., according to his office.
“Judge Gorsuch has met with nearly 80 senators,” Gorsuch spokesman Ron Bonjean told Politico. “The judge was more than willing to meet with the senator and both sides have been trying to find a mutually agreeable date that would work.”
Duckworth and Masto don’t deny that there have been attempts to schedule meetings. Their chief complaint is that Gorsuch hasn’t put in enough effort.
“Unfortunately, Judge Gorsuch has not made the effort to meet with me in person to answer the serious questions I have about his record and he in fact cancelled a meeting we had previously scheduled,” Duckworth said in a statement. “I refuse to vote to end debate on a nominee who refuses to provide any answers to my questions.”
Masto said separately, “Unfortunately, after requesting a meeting with the Judge for several weeks, he has refused to honor this request. The U.S. Constitution has entrusted the Senate with the role of advising the President on the highest court of the land and in refusing to meet with me, he has disrespected our nation’s founding principles and pillars core to our democratic institutions.”
The senators’ story found a home at the Huffington Post, whose White House correspondent presented the issue as one where Gorsuch, who is white, had erred in failing to meet with women of color:
Maybe just sloppiness by Team Gorsuch. But doesn’t look great that he won’t meet with women of color in the Senate. https://t.co/wNSeReZh9O
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) March 31, 2017
At Slate, the following headline was give the go ahead: “Neil Gorsuch Blew Off Meetings with Females Senators of Color. Not Cool.”
Masto’s office claimed they’ve been given the runaround, and that their requests for a private meeting with Gorsuch were denied repeatedly.
“They literally said, give me a good reason why the judge should go sit down with the senator,” Benitez told Politico. “It is disappointing that a judge who is nominated to a lifetime appointment refuses to sit down with a United States senator whose job it is to advise and consent on his confirmation.”
Gorsuch’s spokesman denied blowing off Masto, and said there have been scheduling complications.
“In early February, the White House nominations team reached out to Senator Cortez Masto requesting that a meeting be scheduled,” Bonjean said.
Kelly Ayotte, the former Republican senator from New Hampshire who has played a large role in steering Gorsuch’s Senate meetings, also dismissed the notion that they’re avoiding meeting certain senators.
“No one has been rebuffed,” she told reporters. “We reached out to Senator Cortez Masto in early February and we’ve been trying to come up with a mutually convenient time. But obviously the judge had hearings and everything else.”
“And we were doing meetings as late as last week as well. So no one’s been rebuffed and the judge has made every effort, and gone to almost 80 senators, so I don’t think that that characterization is accurate,” Ayotte added.
