Good Tuesday morning.
Here is what’s on the president’s agenda today:
- The president receives his intelligence briefing
- President Trump has lunch with the vice president
- The president has a meeting with the United States Travel Association corporate chief executive officers
Welcome to Kava-NOPE week
Brett Kavanaugh, the president’s selection to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, is facing confirmation hearings this week. There’s really no way to stop him from getting confirmed, but the left will do as much collateral damage as possible.
Senate Democrats prepping for this week’s marathon confirmation hearings are zeroing in on the health care views of the man who could pull the nation’s high court to the right for a generation — and determine the fate of abortion rights, the social safety net and Obamacare itself, possibly within months.
Their goal: to box Kavanaugh into committing to preserve those health care pillars. Or, failing that, to get the 53-year-old appellate court justice to validate Democrats’ fear he’d vote to wipe them out — a reveal they hope would prompt a wave of public outcry and the additional two Senate votes needed to sink President Donald Trump’s nominee.
The theatrics are off the charts and we haven’t even started with the hearings yet. “If Americans really knew what he intends to do to our republic, perhaps many more Americans would be speaking out against his nomination,” said Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), one of the Judiciary Committee Democrats who will grill Kavanaugh at the hearings, which start Tuesday. What does he plan to do to our republic?!?! It sounds so horrible.
Expect harassment of Kavanaugh, accusations and ominous warnings during these hearings for the nightly spin show entertainment acts or to be used in campaign commercials. There’s no line the left won’t cross to smear Mr. Kavanaugh.
Trump hits Sessions… again
President Trump tweeted some hate towards Attorney General Jeff Sessions yesterday.
“Obama era investigations, of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department.”
He added: “Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff……”
He’s not wrong.
AP clutches its pearls at the president’s implication: “The president’s striking suggestion that the Justice Department consider politics when making decisions showed his disregard for the agency’s independence. Trump has frequently suggested he views Justice less as a law enforcement agency and more as a department that is supposed to do his personal and political bidding. Still, investigators are never supposed to take into account the political affiliations of the people they investigate.”
Can you imagine the DOJ being politicized? Do you ever hear the media mention these “concerns” at any time other than when a Republican is in the White House? Were they worried about politicizing the DOJ during Fast & Furious? Could you imagine if a bunch of DOJ employees were trash-talking a presidential candidate and planning to use the agency to “stop” him from winning office?
Jeff Flake, the neutered senator from Arizona who is retiring because he would not be able to win a primary election, responded to Trump with some mealy-mouthed claptrap. “This is not the conduct of a President committed to defending and upholding the constitution, but rather a President looking to use the Department of Justice to settle political scores,” Flake wrote on Twitter. He’s really trying to nail down that post-Senate MSNBC gig, I guess.
Historical picture of the day:
Supreme Court nominee Sandra Day O’Connor, right, is escorted by Attorney General William French Smith towards a waiting car as she departs the Department of Justice in Washington on Sept. 4, 1981. O’Connor’s confirmation hearings open next week on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
Other morsels:
Is this a good idea? Colin Kaepernick is starring in a new ‘Just Do It’ ad for Nike
Aretha Franklin’s eulogy was ‘offensive and distasteful,’ family says
Police arrest a dozen anti-violence activists during march near Chicago airport
NBC News boss Andy Lack defends handling of Ronan Farrow’s Harvey Weinstein reporting in memo
French schools say ‘Non!’ to cellphones
New Yorker disinvites Bannon from festival following backlash
Man shoots up home after bad restaurant review: cops
Florida thrift shop gets nearly 5 pounds of marijuana in unusual donation, cops say
And that’s all I’ve got, now go beat back the angry mob!
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