'Look in the mirror and do the right thing': Brian Fallon to red-state Democrats on SCOTUS nominee

He told the Powerhouse Politics podcast Democrats shouldn't "reserve judgment."

July 11, 2018, 7:07 PM

Brian Fallon believes Democrats shouldn’t “reserve judgment” when it comes to opposing President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.

On Wednesday, the former press secretary for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign told ABC’s Powerhouse Politics podcast hosts Jonathan Karl and Rick Klein that “there's more than a million pages of documents” from Kavanaugh’s time working under President George W. Bush.

PHOTO: Judge Brett Kavanaugh listens to Sen. Rob Portman talk about Kavanaugh's qualifications before a meeting in the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill July 11, 2018 in Washington.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh listens to Sen. Rob Portman talk about Kavanaugh's qualifications before a meeting in the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill July 11, 2018 in Washington.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

In Wednesday’s podcast, Fallon said he believes Kaine is “one of the most honorable men in politics” but disagrees with his approach to Kavanaugh’s nomination.

“As a point of comparison, look at Bob Casey who is also up for re-election in the Trump-won state of Pennsylvania. He came out in the hours before Trump even made the selection and said you know what? This process is not on the level,” Fallon said, referring to the Democratic senator’s quick rejection of any Trump nominee.

Karl asked Fallon if he and other Democrats are “entirely misstating” Kavanaugh’s view of executive power, noting that in a 2009 Minnesota Law Review article, Kavanaugh explicitly said that Congress “might consider exempting a president” from criminal prosecution and investigations because there is “no constitutional protection.”

“No, we’re not. [That article] is not the only time that Brett Kavanaugh has weighed in on this subject,” Fallon responded, referring to two statements Kavanaugh made affirming executive power in 1998 – more than a decade before the 2009 article was published.

Fallon hopes Democrats will “look in the mirror and do the right thing” with respect to Kavanaugh. He believes that even in red states, Democratic senators can cite preserving the Affordable Care Act as the “number one” reason they’d vote against Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

“I don't concede the point that it's somehow counterproductive to the goal of winning in the midterms to fight like hell to stop Brett Kavanaugh,” Fallon said.

He also hopes Democrats will unite to “put pressure on the Republican moderates” and salvage the “future of the Supreme Court for the next 40 years.”

“You know what? We can't just live from one election to the other. Some things are worth fighting for,” Fallon said.

“I would hate to have a decision come out, in like, two years where the Supreme Court overturns Roe and suddenly you have 20 or 30 states across the country where abortion is illegal and look back and say, well, you know, the future of abortion in this country has been changed forever and women's rights have been shrunk forever, but at least we gave it a go in terms of trying to win the 2018 midterms.”

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