A member of the infamous Congressional “squad,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), says she will introduce a series of resolutions in the House of Representatives designed to kick start impeachment proceedings against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The Hill reports that Pressley, who along with Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Rashida Talib (D-MI) makes up the progressive, female “squad” intent on resisting the Trump administration inside Congress, is calling for an official inqurity to be opened in light of a recent, new allegation against Kavanaugh that appeared in The New York Times over the weekend.
That allegation, of course, has mired the Times in something of a credibility disaster. The allegation — that Kavanaugh dropped his pants at a college party during his time at Yale and then enlisted his friends to grasp his penis and rub it on an unsuspecting female classmate — is unsupported and was reportedly offered to two Times journalists by a Democratic operative with no corroborating evidence. The female “victim” of the incident does not, the two journalists write in an extended excerpt from a forthcoming book, remember it happening.
The New York Times updated its Saturday night scoop with a Monday correction, noting that its two reporters could not get comment from the female victim and that those close to her are adamant that she denies the attack ever happened. Further clarifications indicate that the Times’ news bureau (and The Washington Post’s) turned down the story for lack of evidence.
But like several 2020 Democratic presidential contenders, including frontrunner Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Pressley took the allegation at face value and believes that Kavanaugh must be accordingly impeached and removed from the Supreme Court bench.
“I believe Christine Blasey Ford,” Pressley said in a statement. “I believe Deborah Ramirez. It is our responsibility to collectively affirm the dignity and humanity of survivors.”
“Sexual predators do not deserve a seat on the nation’s highest court and Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation process set a dangerous precedent,” Pressley continued. “We must demand justice for survivors and hold Kavanaugh accountable for his actions.”
Oddly enough, if Pressley is intent on “believing all women,” as the motto of the opposition went during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, she’d have to support Kavanaugh on this allegation, since the only one insisting Kavanaugh engaged in a strangely complicated sexual assault during his college years is a male, attorney and former classmate Max Stier.
That matters not to Pressley, who has already, it seems, submitted a draft of her proposed measure. The Hill reports that impeaching Kavanaugh would first require the formation of a committee to take testimony, either live or written, and that could wield the power of the Congressional affadavit. And taxpayers, of course, would not be spared: “there shall be paid out of the applicable accounts of the House of Representatives such sums as may be necessary to assist.”
Pressley’s fellow squad member, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, is likely more than willing to help her Massachusetts colleague in handling the impeachment effort. Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Sunday that she believes Kavanaugh should be impeached over the new allegation, which she feels drives home the veracity of claims made during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings — claims that were similarly unsubstantiated.
Impeaching and removing a Supreme Court Justice is difficult by design, though some on the left have argued that an impeachment process isn’t necessary to removing Kavanaugh from the bench. Only one justice has ever been impeached.