“Because they want to win.”
Jeffrey Toobin, CNN’s chief legal analyst and a writer for The New Yorker, said Thursday that part of the reason that Senate Republicans are so eager to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is that they are eager to have a court that would “overturn Roe v. Wade” and make “gay people not allowed to shop everywhere they want to shop.”
Toobin said this during a panel responding in real-time to the Senate hearing of Christine Blasey Ford, the first of three women to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.
John King, who was guiding the panel, wondered out loud: “If you take Professor Ford as credible — How can you move forward and confirm somebody to the swing seat of the Supreme Court without getting a potential eye-witness under oath. I do not know how they can answer this question.”
Toobin responded with derision. “Because they want to win,” he said. “Because they want to overturn Roe v. Wade. Because they want Citizens United expanded. Because they want gay people not allowed to shop everywhere they want to shop. That’s why they’re doing this.”
Ford told the Senate Judiciary committee on Thursday that she is “100 percent” certain that it was Kavanaugh who tried to force himself on her when they were both in high school.
Ford delivered an emotional testimony, holding back tears at times. Even commentators on Fox News — a network that has generally staked strong support for President Donald Trump’s nominee — admitted that she came across as credible.
“I think Dr. Ford is exceptionally credible,” said Judge Andrew Napolitano, Toobin’s Fox News counterpart.
But as Kavanaugh’s supporters reel from what Fox News’ Chris Wallace called a “disaster for the Republicans,” liberals are dealing with growing frustration with what some see as Kavanaugh’s inevitable confirmation.
Toobin’s cynical retort captures how distrustful liberals are at the moment of Republicans actually taking Ford’s testimony — no matter how credible-sounding — into account.
But many Republicans decidedly approach Ford’s interrogation as a trial, wherein presumption of innocence is granted to the accused. Viewed this way, Ford’s testimony runs directly against Kavanaugh’s denials, and, in lieu of additional supporting evidence, will ultimately be ignored.
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