Vice President Mike Pence on Friday mocked Senate Democrats’ tactics in trying to prevent confirmation of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
“Despite that record, despite that obvious character and temperament, it’s extraordinary to look at the attacks against Brett Kavanaugh since his nomination,” Pence told a meeting of the Republican National Lawyers Association.
“Some have gone after Judge Kavanaugh for literally doing his job while he worked in a prior administration. They found evidence of his supposedly extreme views based on sports articles that he wrote for his college newspaper.”
The RNLA meeting was focused on the 2018 mid-term elections and Kavanaugh, who Trump nominated to the nation’s highest court July 9.
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“They criticized his so-called elite world while in the very same article quote his bartender calling him a middle-aged guy who likes to stop by for a Budweiser and a burger,” Pence said. “And my personal favorite, the media actually went after Judge Brett Kavanaugh for being a middle-class American with a middle-class budget who likes baseball.”
If Kavanaugh is confirmed by the Senate, he will replace the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy and give the court a solid conservative majority for the first time in several generations.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has led the Democrats’ opposition effort, focusing mainly on tactics designed to delay the confirmation process until after the November election in the hope Republicans will lose their slim 51-49 majority.
“The truth is, if we lived in a more respectful time, Judge Kavanaugh would be overwhelmingly confirmed by the United States Senate,” Pence said. “Sadly, Senate Democrats have no intention of giving this good man and brilliant jurist the consideration and support he deserves.”
Schumer and other Democrats claim the confirmation process should be delayed until they have an opportunity to review an estimated 1 million documents from Kavanaugh’s time working in the White House for President George W. Bush. Schumer threatened August 16 to sue the National Archives for the documents.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and other Republicans reject the Democrats’ demand, noting that Kavanaugh has already filed the most extensive committee questionnaire ever submitted, along with 250,000 documents from the White House period, with more expected to come.
“What the Constitution says is advise and consent, as opposed to obstruct and oppose,” Pence said. “The truth is, it’s not just limited to our nominee to the Supreme Court. Senate Democrats have tried to defeat or delay almost every judicial nominee President Trump has sent out for confirmation.”
Pence argued that the Democrats’ opposition tactics have resulted in an unprecedented 42 federal district court nominees waiting for a Senate vote. He also pointed to Justice Neil Gorsuch, who got a mere three Democratic votes after Trump nominated him for the Supreme Court last year. Gorsuch replaced Justice Antonin Scalia, who had died.
Kavanaugh has met with a handful of Senate Democrats who did so despite Schumer’s call for boycotting such meetings. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) was the first to do so, meeting with Kavanaugh on July 30. Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) have also met with Kavanaugh. Those four Democrats are seeking re-election in states that Trump carried by big margins in 2016.
Related: Schumer Finally Meets with Trump’s Supreme Court Pick
“They’re pulling out all the stops on Judge Kavanaugh,” Pence said. “How long ago was it unthinkable that a United States senator who actually announced their opposition to a nominee even before the nominee was announced. But that actually happened.”
Schumer was among numerous Democrats who said they would vote against Kavanaugh even before his nomination was announced. He has argued that delaying the nomination until after the midterms would be appropriate considering what happened to Judge Merrick Garland in 2016.
Former President Barack Obama nominated Garland toward the end of his term in 2016, following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell delayed the vote, claiming voters should have the opportunity to select the next president before the vacancy was filled.
If he is confirmed, Kavanaugh will leave the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, on which he has served on since 2006. He was nominated to the circuit court by former President George W. Bush, for whom he was working as a senior associate counsel and assistant.
Democrats have also called for delaying the confirmation process as a result of the conviction of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort on eight counts related to bank and tax fraud, and former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen’s plea deal with federal prosecutors.
A Quinnipiac University Poll found that 44 percent of voters support Kavanaugh’s nomination, while 39 percent oppose him. The survey was conducted from August 9 to 13.
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