Sen. Tom Cotton ripped the “extreme rhetoric” and the “laughable political game” that the Democratic Party is playing to keep President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh off the bench.
In an interview on Monday, conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt asked the Arkansas Republican if he believed the conspiracy theory that retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy made a deal to put Kavanaugh on the high court.
“Hugh, no, that’s the first I’ve heard of such a deal,” Cotton said. “And I’ll evaluate this nomination on its merits, on Judge Kavanaugh’s record and his character and his jurisprudence. Justice Kennedy served our country for a very long time, and we should thank him for that service. But he’s going to take senior status now, and what we have to do as senators is evaluate Judge Kavanaugh’s record, and Judge Kavanaugh’s jurisprudence when we vote on his nomination. The relationship between the President and Justice Kennedy, in my opinion, is really not relevant to that consideration.”
Later, Cotton criticized the Democrats’ grandstanding on the selection of Kavanaugh.
“The Democrats in the Senate have kind of gone around the bend already on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination if you look at some of the extreme rhetoric, or my favorite part was some of the senators standing out in front of the Supreme Court last night protesting the nomination,” he said.
“And you could see in the background they had signs premade not just for stopping Kavanaugh, but stop Barrett and stop Hardiman and stop Kethledge as well. So it’s clear they’re just playing a somewhat laughable political game, and they would have opposed for partisan reasons anyone that President Trump nominated.”