Kasich blames both parties for tumult over Kavanaugh

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Picking up the pieces after a contentious nomination battle, the Senate’s majority leader said Sunday that the chamber won’t be irreparably damaged by the wrenching debate over sexual misconduct that has swirled around new Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

But Ohio GOP Gov. John Kasich said Sunday he wonders about the “soul of the country” in the long term after the tumultuous hearings.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Kavanaugh’s confirmation was a shining moment for the GOP heading into next month’s pivotal elections.

McConnell, in two news show interviews, tried to distinguish between President Donald Trump’s nomination of Kavanaugh this year and his own decision not to have the GOP-run Senate consider President Barack Obama’s high court nominee, Merrick Garland, in 2016. McConnell called the current partisan divide a “low point,” but he blamed Democrats.

“The Senate’s not broken,” said McConnell. “We didn’t attack Merrick Garland’s background and try to destroy him.” He asserted that “we simply followed the tradition of America.”

The Ohio governor, appearing on CNN on Sunday, blamed both political parties for the debacle over Kavanaugh’s nomination.

“Look, it’s both sides – a pox on both houses for the way this was conducted,” Kasich said. “People in the country are appalled.”

The climactic 50-48 roll call vote Saturday on Kavanaugh was the closest vote to confirm a justice since 1881. It capped a fight that seized the national conversation after claims emerged that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted women three decades ago. Kavanaugh emphatically denied the allegations.

The accusations transformed the clash from a routine struggle over judicial ideology into an angry jumble of questions about victims’ rights and personal attacks on nominees.

Ultimately, every Democrat voted against Kavanaugh except for Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

Kavanaugh was sworn in Saturday evening in a private ceremony as protesters chanted outside the court building.

McConnell said the confirmation fight had energized Republican voters and he praised GOP senators, who he said had “stood up to the mob” in favor of the “presumption of innocence.”

He signaled that a Republican-controlled Senate would act on a fresh Trump nominee to the Supreme Court in 2020 – a presidential election year – should a vacancy arise. The court’s two oldest justices are Democratic appointees: Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 85 and Stephen Breyer is 80.

“We’ll see if there is a vacancy in 2020,” McConnell said.