Political Quotes

On the recordSeptember 20, 2021
Madam President, I return to the Senate floor to again discuss the scheme to capture our Supreme Court; in this case, it will be through the lens of how recent Justices got on the Court. And I will choose Brett Kavanaugh. I think we all remember the famous list--the Federalist Society list--that Donald Trump promised to follow in Supreme Court appointments. The first interesting thing about Brett Kavanaugh is that he was not on the list of candidates that Donald Trump had offered up-- this list that bought peace between house of Trump and house of Koch. Trump had promised he would appoint off that scheme-approved Federalist Society list. He didn't, and yet no one complained. That is a telltale right there. There was no complaining because Brett Kavanaugh knew this terrain. He knew the central operative at the heart of this scheme, Leonard Leo. He had worked on judicial nominations in the Bush White House with Leonard Leo, who coordinated big donors' support for judicial nominees. I have described before a judge who bemoaned to me what he called his colleagues auditioning--auditioning for higher office, auditioning for the Supreme Court. ``Auditioning'' was a telltale word that stuck with me. You don't audition without someone to audition to. Well, Kavanaugh knew the guy at the center of the scheme, and he knew that the donor turnstile to the Supreme Court was run out of the Federalist Society.…
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Sheldon Whitehouse
Democratic · Rhode Island

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