[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 164 (Wednesday, October 3, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6484-S6485]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     Nomination of Brett Kavanaugh

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, across the country, women and survivors 
are angry; they are energized; and they are making their voices heard. 
They are inspired by Dr. Ford, and they are sharing stories of their 
own, often of the worst moments of their lives--some for the first time 
ever with their families, with their friends, and their Senators. There 
are too many to share in one speech on the Senate floor, but I want to 
touch on just a few.
  I heard from a woman in Sequim, in Washington State, who wrote to me.
  She writes:

       There have been rare moments in my life when I have felt 
     compelled to speak out. This is one.

  She told me, when she was in junior high school, she dated a boy she 
thought was ``one of the nicest guys ever.'' Then, one day, she went to 
his house while his parents were at church, and he assaulted her--he 
tried to rape her. She only barely managed to escape and run from his 
house. She said she never told anyone about this because she didn't 
know who would believe her. She was worried that people would think it 
was her fault. She told me that after Dr. Ford found the courage to 
come forward with her experience, she found the courage to share her 
own.

  Another woman from Everett, WA, reached out to me to share that she 
was sexually assaulted in a hotel elevator in the early 1970s. She 
didn't tell a soul for 40 years--until just a few days ago. She said 
that since that day all those years ago, she has avoided getting into 
an elevator alone with another man if she possibly could, taking the 
stairs instead. She told me: ``It happened a long time ago, but it 
still matters,'' that she was inspired by the women who had so bravely 
spoken out about Judge Kavanaugh, and that she shared her story with me 
in the hopes that I could make sure her voice and the other voices of 
so many women were heard.
  I heard from another woman who lives on the Olympic Peninsula in my 
home State of Washington. She told me that when she was in college, she 
was raped by a man with whom she was out on a date. She remembered his 
name, but because she believes she was drugged, there were a whole lot 
of details she didn't remember. She didn't tell anyone about her 
experience for years. She reached out to tell me that she understood 
why Dr. Ford didn't come forward and to express her anger that people 
continue to attack survivors, doubt them, and say they are ``just mixed 
up.''
  There are so many more. I have received tens of thousands of letters 
and calls on this nomination with hundreds and hundreds of personal 
stories that my staff and I are still working to get through. They are 
heartbreaking, they are real, and they are just one small slice of the 
experiences being shared, the stories that are being told, and the 
voices that are bravely speaking up.
  While these women and survivors are so bravely sharing experiences 
and while so many of us in the Senate are making it clear we do believe 
them and support them, others are going in a very different direction.
  Last night, the President of the United States stood on a stage and 
openly mocked Dr. Ford for not remembering some details of what she has 
described as the most traumatic moment of her life. It was disgusting. 
Some of my colleagues in the Senate are doing everything they can to 
undermine the women sharing their experiences, saying they are ``mixed 
up.'' They say that the Senate is going to ``plow right through this.''
  The word coming out from the White House is that they are doing 
everything they can to limit and rush the FBI investigation that they 
assured Democrats and Republicans would be full and thorough.
  I come to the floor today to ask three questions.
  When this is all said and done, will the Senate--the U.S. Senate--be 
a place where women are heard, where their voices are respected, or 
still a place where women are ignored, undermined, and attacked?
  Will the Senate do its job--truly do its job--to properly vet and 
investigate the President's nominee for a lifetime position on our 
Nation's highest Court, including pushing for a full FBI investigation 
where at least Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh are interviewed, making 
sure all relevant witnesses are heard and all relevant information is 
brought forward, or will we allow politics and partisanship to take 
over and rush this through before our job is complete?
  Finally, will the Senate make sure we don't put someone on the Bench 
who has repeatedly had problems with the truth under oath, who has 
displayed truly serious temperament issues, who has not demonstrated 
the judicial independence that we expect for a nominee to the Supreme 
Court, and who has displayed a shocking lack of fitness for that role?
  Those are the questions I believe we need to be asking today, and 
there is a lot of work that needs to be done before we can answer them.
  There have been a whole lot of distractions in the past few weeks--
from yelling and screaming and outrage, real and feigned, to the 
finger-pointing, to the partisanship, to the spin and the kicking up of 
mud--but if you cut through all of that and focus on what is real and 
what is important, there are some things we do know.
  First and foremost, we all saw Dr. Ford testify under oath. I can't 
imagine anyone watching her and not being moved by her honesty, how 
real she was, her pain, and her commitment to what she described as her 
``civic duty.'' I believe her, and I know so many others watching that 
day here in the Senate and across the country did as well.
  Then we had Judge Kavanaugh. He came into that hearing angry, 
defensive, and aggrieved. He clearly acted as if he is owed a seat on 
the Supreme Court and didn't understand why the U.S. Senators had the 
audacity to question him.
  Even worse than his rage, even worse than his condescension and 
arrogant entitlement, and even worse than the raw partisan bitterness 
from someone who would be entrusted to make impartial decisions 
regarding the biggest issues facing our Nation were the serious 
challenges he had with the truth under oath, in public, to the U.S. 
Senate, from his small, seemingly unnecessary mistruths about what 
words used in his yearbook meant--words I will not repeat on the Senate 
floor, but the people who went to school with him don't understand why 
he would say what he said; to those about his connections to Dr. Ford, 
such as claiming he and Dr. Ford didn't ``travel in the same social 
circles,'' when we know that is just not true; to claiming that he 
never attended a gathering like the one Dr. Ford described, when there 
is one very similar to that on the calendar that he himself released; 
to those my colleagues have talked through before, such as those 
involving his level of involvement in the confirmation of President 
Bush's judges, which we learned about as emails to and from him were 
uncovered and released; to

[[Page S6485]]

those involving emails stolen from my Senate colleagues that he denied 
knowing he had received, when, again, his emails show that wasn't the 
case; to another we just recently learned about--his claim that the 
first time he heard about Ms. Ramirez's allegations against him was 
when he read about them in the press, although we have now heard from 
people who have seen text messages showing Judge Kavanaugh personally 
working to coordinate a defense against the allegations before that 
story was ever published; to his denials over and over in different 
ways that he drank to extreme excess in high school and college, that 
he never ``blacked out'' or had memory lapses from drinking, when we 
know from so many people who have now come forward to share stories of 
his high school and college days that his version simply doesn't align 
with reality.

  The Washington Post laid this out yesterday. I will read a few of the 
quotes from their reporting.
  One friend of his from college said that Judge Kavanaugh was ``a 
frequent drinker and a heavy drinker.''
  Another classmate of his in college said, ``Brett was a sloppy drunk, 
and I know because I drank with him'' and ``It's not credible for him 
to say that he has had no memory lapses in the nights that he drank to 
excess.''
  Another classmate said: ``There is no doubt in my mind that while at 
Yale, he was a big partyer, often drank to excess. And there had to be 
a number of nights where he does not remember.''
  I could go on and on. I have other, numerous stories from classmates 
that you can find yourself in the Washington Post.
  It is not disqualifying to drink in college. It is not disqualifying 
to drink too much in college. But it is absolutely disqualifying to not 
tell Senators the truth under oath about doing those things. It speaks 
to the kind of person Judge Kavanaugh is, and it speaks to the kind of 
Supreme Court Justice he would be if he were to be confirmed--someone 
who thinks they are above the law, above the truth, and above the oath 
they have raised their hand and sworn by. That should absolutely be 
disqualifying.
  Those are just a few of the honesty and credibility issues that we 
know about. There are many more I am sure my colleagues will discuss, 
and I am sure there are others that can be uncovered in a full 
investigation. That is the most important point. As I said before, we 
don't know everything just yet, but we do know some things, and 
everyone should agree that what we know is enough to want to dig deeper 
and get more information. That is why it is so telling that Judge 
Kavanaugh and his Republican defenders and protectors so clearly did 
not want any further investigation.
  We had Dr. Ford willing to share her story, take a polygraph, and 
open herself up to any questions and further investigations to help to 
get to the truth. Then we had Judge Kavanaugh doing everything possible 
to sweep this under the rug, move through it as quickly as possible, 
and prevent any information from coming out. That tells us a lot.
  I am so glad a few of my Republican colleagues have done the right 
thing and slowed down this nomination to allow further investigation. 
There should have been more of them speaking up, and doing our jobs 
shouldn't be such a brave act. But in this moment in the Republican 
Party, it is, and I do commend them.
  Here is the bottom line: Any of my colleagues can yell and scream 
until they are blue in the face about how aggrieved they are about this 
process. They can point fingers, push conspiracy theories, call it a 
sham, and say that this has gone on for longer than anyone wanted it 
to. They can do all that. I think they are wrong, and a lot of what 
they are complaining about is the ranking member of the committee 
respecting the wishes of Dr. Ford herself. Sure, they can do that, but 
at the end of the day, we are talking about a lifetime seat on the 
highest Court in the land, the Court making final decisions about our 
laws, our rights, and our freedoms. Surely we should take the time to 
do this right. Surely we should all want to make sure we don't put 
someone on the Court who sexually assaulted someone. Surely we should 
want to take the full amount of time promised to fully investigate 
credible allegations and determine whether Judge Kavanaugh told us the 
truth under oath. That is common sense, and it happens to be our job.
  My Republican colleagues held a seat open on the Supreme Court for 
more than a year for no reason at all other than to prevent President 
Obama's nominee from getting on the Court--more than a year. Now, all 
of a sudden, these same colleagues are in a rush? It is absurd.
  We need to do this right. What does that mean? What is doing it 
right? First of all, it means making sure the FBI thoroughly 
investigates right now, that it is not limited in scope or pressured to 
not follow leads wherever they go.
  As my colleague, the Senator from Arizona, said, ``We certainly want 
the FBI to do a real investigation. It does no good to have an 
investigation that just gives us cover.
  Even President Trump said, ``I think the FBI should do what they have 
to do to get to the answer. I want them to do a very comprehensive 
investigation.''
  I completely agree.
  I am very concerned by some of the reporting coming out of the FBI 
investigation--especially hearing about the witnesses who have not yet 
been contacted. I am hoping they are allowed to do their jobs, and I am 
hoping the White House fulfills its commitment to the Democrats and 
Republicans focused on getting this done right.
  Secondly, as we learn more, we should take that information into 
account. We should make sure all relevant witnesses are heard from, 
that all relevant information comes out--nothing swept under the rug--
because there is one other thing we can be pretty sure of: Whether the 
information comes out now or comes out later, it will come out. We can 
either make sure we stop someone from getting on the Court who 
shouldn't be on the Court, or we can find out later that we--the 
Senate--didn't do our job.
  This started as a look into whether Judge Kavanaugh assaulted women 
and whether the U.S. Senate would listen to women sharing their 
experiences. It is still about that--very much so--but now it is about 
even more than that. It is about Judge Kavanaugh's temperament, his 
anger, his rage, and his entitlement. It is about his telling the truth 
or not to the public and to us here in the Senate.
  So I say to my colleagues, as we learn more from this investigation 
and as more and more people come out to share their stories, even if 
you don't think you can determine conclusively that Judge Kavanaugh 
committed sexual assault, do we want someone on the highest Court in 
the land with this kind of relationship with the truth, and do we want 
someone with that much rage and bitterness and entitlement? I think the 
answer is clear right now, and I think there is a reason Judge 
Kavanaugh was so desperate to stop the full investigation.
  I hope we don't allow corners to be cut and a nominee jammed onto the 
Supreme Court without truly doing our jobs. I hope we take seriously 
the anger, the pain, the voices, and the experiences of women across 
the country today. I hope we do this right.

  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at the 
conclusion of my remarks, Senator Merkley be recognized for associated 
remarks, followed by a brief colloquy between the two of us.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.