A Democratic senator said that with Brett Kavanaugh now on the Supreme Court she expects the court to chip away at the right to abortion rather than to directly overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl on "This Week" Sunday that she doubts the court will "actually overturn Roe v. Wade" but "even if they don’t, they will nullify it, pretty much."
Hirono said she opposed the elevation of Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court before his confirmation hearings due to his judicial record, including on reproductive rights.
"I actually studied his cases, and I read his, particularly his dissents, which are very telling, very much against reproductive choice," Hirono said.
"Of course it matters if [justices] go over there and actually overturn Roe v. Wade, which I doubt they’re going to do," the Hawaii senator said.
Rather, Hirono suggested that the court is likely to greatly weaken the right to abortion by allowing more state restrictions on it.
"The states are very busy passing all kinds of laws that would limit a woman’s right to choose," she said. "It’s those things that will go before" the justices.
Kavanaugh was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice late Saturday after a tense 50-to-48 vote in the Senate that was repeatedly interrupted by protesters shouting in the gallery against senators voting to confirm him.
His nomination had been rocked by decades-old sexual misconduct allegations against him. Christine Blasey Ford alleged he sexually assaulted her at a small house party when they were both teens. A former Yale University classmate of Kavanaugh's alleged he exposed himself to her at a college party where there was drinking.
Kavanaugh strongly and categorically denied all accusations of sexual misconduct.
"He's going to be on the Supreme Court with a huge taint and a big asterisk after his name, and the partisanship that he showed was astounding," Hirono said. "The conspiracy theory he accused us of behaving in was bizarre."
After repeated calls from Democrats, joined by a handful of Republicans led by Sen. Jeff Flake on Sept. 28, the FBI conducted a supplemental inquiry into the allegations against Kavanaugh, which concluded late Wednesday.
Hirono called the investigation a "sham."
"But, with regard to this sham FBI investigation, everyone knows that when you just interview a small number of people, and not the dozens of others who wanted to be interviewed by the FBI, that is a sham," Hirono told Karl. "And it raises more questions than it answers."
Last week, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, told George Stephanopoulos on 'This Week' that a Democratic-controlled House could pick up the investigation into Kavanaugh.
When asked about Nadler's comments, and the potential for impeachment of Kavanaugh, Hirono said that is an issue for the House.
"The confirmation battle may be over, but the court packing is definitely not over," Hirono said. She added, "Jerry Nadler will do what Jerry Nadler will do, but I'm totally focused on all of the angry women and the men who listen to women and support the credible accounts of sexual harassment and sexual assault… they're going to go to the polls and they're going to vote differently."
When asked by Karl whether she approves of tactics on the part of Kavanaugh opponents, what Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, called a "mob," Hirono said people are certainly angry.
"The anger is real. There are a lot of people who feel very, very strongly," Hirono said. She added, "People are making their own decisions, because as you know in our country, civil disobedience is very much a part of our country. And of course, if you go over a line, then you have to be held accountable."
And on the politics of the confirmation battle, Hirono said she disagreed with Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, who said in an interview with Fox News on Saturday that Democrats "made a tactical mistake that really helped me unify my conference and turn all the Republican base going into the election."
"With Mitch McConnell, everything is political, starting from after President Obama got elected," Hirono said. "Everything with Mitch McConnell is political, and I have to say, he's very ruthless about it."
According to FiveThirtyEight, Democrats currently have a 3 in 4 chance of taking control of the House, and a 2 in 9 chance of taking control of the Senate in the upcoming midterms.
from ABC News: Politics https://ift.tt/2ObOKmh
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