Tag: Joe Manchin

The big two lessons of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination and confirmation are that U.S. politics right now is party politics – and that the Republican Party has fully absorbed the style and principles of Newt Gingrich, the Tea Party, and other influences that tell it to never compromise and always exploit all short-term advantages as much as possible. Parties are (among other things) networks of individual partisans, and that means that within specialized areas – such as the top lawyers and the politicians who work with them – strong personal relationships develop. That helps a lot when things go wrong. That explains why Democrats, including several up for election in Republican states, almost unanimously opposed Kavanaugh (and the only exception, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, was widely thought to be an available “no” vote if needed). On the Republican side, meanwhile, things are the same as with the Democrats, except more formalized with the role of the Federalist Society as the arbiter and protector of Republican orthodoxy in judicial selections. George W. Bush and Donald Trump have nominated people from the most conservative edge of the conservative mainstream. That’s why his nomination to the D.C. Circuit Court was bitterly opposed by Democrats when George W. Bush was president. Faced with a Republican majority in the Senate in 2016, Obama sought to compromise – nominating an older moderate liberal, Merrick Garland. We’ll know more after the 2018 and 2020 elections.

(Oct. 6) AP WASHINGTON – Brett Kavanaugh's ascension to the Supreme Court over the weekend, far from settling the fierce debate over his confirmation, has inflamed the nation's political and cultural fissures for the midterm elections next month and well beyond. Sen. Joe Manchin, running for re-election in West Virginia, a state that Trump carried by a wide margin in 2016, was his party’s only vote in favor of Kavanaugh’s nomination. Another Democratic incumbent running in a red state, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, acknowledged that her vote to oppose Kavanaugh bolstered the odds that Republican challenger Rep. Kevin Cramer would defeat her on Election Day.One Democratic senator running for re-election in a state that Trump carried in 2016, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, became the only person in his party to vote in favor of Kavanaugh's nomination. "The politically expedient vote here was a 'yes' vote," Heitkamp said on CBS' "60 Minutes." Democrats said Kavanaugh's confirmation could boost the party's efforts to gain control of the House, however, by rallying voters who believe the president and Senate Republicans refused to treat seriously women's accusations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh. Democrats need to flip 23 Republican-held seats to win a majority. VOTE REPUBLICAN!" If Democrats win the House, the Judiciary Committee will open an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and perjury against the justice, according to New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who is in line to be the committee's chairman. Meanwhile, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan expressed concern about whether Americans would continue to have faith in the high court as independent and fair-minded. "In other words, people thinking of the court as not politically divided in the same way, as not an extension of politics, but instead somehow above the fray."

The US Senate has voted to confirm judge Brett Kavanaugh to the supreme court, handing Donald Trump a major victory and America a bench expected to tilt to the right for the next generation. 'I feel outraged, exhausted and betrayed': Kavanaugh nomination – the feminist response Read more The vote was almost a foregone conclusion after the dominant Republican party secured majority support during a procedural vote on Friday amid crackling tension, furious protests and high drama on Capitol Hill. Kavanaugh has strongly denied all allegations of such misconduct. At the supreme court, where protesters continued to chant on the court steps, Kavanaugh was poised to be sworn in by chief justice John Roberts and the retired judge he is replacing, Anthony Kennedy, later Saturday night. The vice-president, Mike Pence, who was presiding over the Senate vote, repeatedly banged his gavel down and called out: “The sergeant at arms will restore order in the gallery”. Moments before the vote, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said “Brett Kavanaugh does not deserve to be on the bench” and said he had “repeatedly misled the Senate”. Kavanaugh was nominated by Trump in July to replace the retiring and traditionally more liberal swing vote justice Anthony Kennedy. Women aren't a monolith – and the white women supporting Kavanaugh prove it Read more “I might have been too emotional at times. And the 53-year-old federal judge squeaked through, also surviving an FBI investigation into the allegations against him, which Republicans called “thorough” and Democrats called “incomplete” and a “cover up”. Trumphimself has been accused by more than a dozen women of sexual harassment or assault.

On the eve of a Senate vote likely to result in the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, two of the three sitting female justices said the court must guard its own reputation for being impartial, neutral and fair. Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor shared concerns that widespread polarization in the country's political environment could affect public perceptions of the court's legitimacy. Speaking at a question-and-answer session during a conference at Princeton University dedicated to celebrating women, Kagan and Sotomayor did not directly address the prospect of Kavanaugh's confirmation but said there was value to maintaining a "middle position" on the court's bench. "This is a really divided time," Kagan said. "Part of the court's strength and part of the court's legitimacy depends on people not seeing the court the way they see the rest of the governing structures of the country now." Their pre-scheduled appearance at the "She Roars" conference came just hours after Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-Virginia, announced they would support Kavanaugh's nomination. Sotomayor said she sought out "the good" in her colleagues and that the court's members had a practice of maintaining collegial relationships even in times of disagreement. "If you start from the proposition that there's something good in everyone it's a lot easier to get along with them," she said. "It's just the nine of us," Kagan added. The two justices, both Princeton graduates, were interviewed before an audience of more than 3,000 by another alumna, Heather Gerken, who currently serves as the Dean of Kavanaugh's alma mater, Yale Law School.

From Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s all-but-assured confirmation to revelations about President Trump’s wealth, here are some of this week’s biggest stories in American politics. Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation is all but assured. After devastatingly divisive confirmation hearings and an F.B.I. review of sexual misconduct allegations, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court was secured Friday after Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia said they would back him. [Here’s how they voted Friday on advancing the confirmation.] [Read Friday’s On Washington here.] [Read the story] New York officials said on Thursday that they had joined state regulators in investigating whether taxes had been underpaid on the elder Mr. Trump’s wealth. [Read the story] Additional Reading • Sanders Dismisses The Times’s Trump-Tax Story as ‘Very Boring’ • How the Trump Family Got Rich • 11 Takeaways From The Times’s Investigation Into Trump’s Wealth No more Nafta: The United States, Canada and Mexico signed a new trade agreement. [Read the story] The president’s advisers are planning an aggressive campaign schedule for Mr. Trump to help woo voters — and are warning candidates against distancing themselves from him. • Everything You Need to Know for the Midterm Elections • How to Vote Early in the 2018 Midterm Elections Other Washington updates: Melania in Africa, Pence on China, and Trump in rallies.

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Kimberly Atkins of the Boston Herald and Bethany Mandel, editor of Ricochet, about the battle over Brett Kavanaugh, #MeToo and impacts on midterm elections. SHAPIRO: And also Bethany Mandel joins us. BETHANY MANDEL: Hey. SHAPIRO: Kimberly, what do you think? It's not about - I mean, a lot of these women - we were talking the anger of women. I mean, we saw Bret Stephens in The New York Times applaud President Trump, and that's something that I don't think anyone thought that they would have seen three weeks ago, let alone now. But this is really I think going to drum up a lot of enthusiasm on the right in a way that hasn't existed since 2016... SHAPIRO: Kimberly, do you think... MANDEL: ...Since before then. SHAPIRO: ...That enthusiasm will last for the next month if Kavanaugh is confirmed to the court this weekend as expected? I don't know if that's enough to counteract the energy that we are seeing right now on the other side that is spurred by the sort of gender war it seems that's being exacerbated by the president with the comments that you played. SHAPIRO: That's Bethany Mandel, editor of Ricochet and columnist for The Forward, and Kimberly Atkins, chief Washington reporter and columnist for the Boston Herald.

Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia will vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news…

Sen. Joe Manchin speaks after announcing he will vote 'Yes' to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc About: MSNBC is the premier destination for in-depth analysis of daily headlines, insightful political commentary and…

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia signals his attention to vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, appearing to give Kavanaugh enough 'yes' votes to be confirmed. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news…

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin joins Sens. Jeff Flake and Susan Collins to advance Brett Kavanaugh's nomination; Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski voted no. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as…