Top Democratic senator mocks push for impeachment on Kavanaugh: 'Get Real'

Zachary Stieber - The Epoch Times

Top Democrats are dismissing calls to impeach Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, which were sparked by a new article that rehashes old allegations against the justice and included one newly reported claim that the alleged victim doesn't recall.

Asked about the push, Sept. 16, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told Politico, "Get real."

"We've got to get beyond this 'impeachment is the answer to every problem.' It's not realistic," Durbin said. "If that's how we are identified in Congress, as the impeachment Congress, we run the risk that people will feel we're ignoring the issues that mean a lot to them as families."

"Mitch McConnell would block any impeachment. So that's a moot point," Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, said.

In an interview Monday with New York radio station WNYC, current House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said the House is focused on trying to impeach President Donald Trump.

"We have our hands full with impeaching the president right now and that's going to take up our limited resources and time for a while," Nadler said in response to a question about the allegations against Kavanaugh. "Frankly, we are concentrating our resources on determining whether to impeach the president. Personally I think the president ought to be impeached but we have to concentrate on that for the next few months."

Kavanaugh has denied all the allegations against him and all of the accusers have been unable to provide evidence from witnesses to support their claims.

The first woman, Christine Blasey Ford, for instance, named four people she said were present at the alleged incident. All four denied knowledge of what happened or ever being at a situation like the one she described.

A prosecutor who questioned Ford for the Senate Judiciary Committee noted that Ford's account had multiple inconsistencies and that she had long-term and short-term memory problems.

Ford contradicted herself on the stand multiple times, such as admitting she's flown frequently over the years when she said previously that she was scared of flying.

Julie Swetnick, another woman who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault, was referred to the Department of Justice after she revised her claim. A witness Swetnick named also contradicted her account.

While top Democrats dismissed the push for impeachment, other lawmakers said they were hopeful there would be an investigation.

"I'm pretty sure Jerry Nadler cares if somebody, particularly somebody is getting a lifetime appointment, whether that person lied to Congress," Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, who supports an impeachment inquiry, told Politico. "I hope he'll change his mind."

Impeaching Kavanaugh would require a majority vote in the House, which is controlled by the Democrats, and a two-thirds vote in the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans. Kavanaugh was nominated by Trump, a Republican, after the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.