What Happened In The Brett Kavanaugh Hearing

If Kavanaugh withdraws, who’s in line to take his place?

Earlier this week, Ollie gave us a nice little recap of the judges who were widely thought to be in contention for the Supreme Court seat along with Kavanaugh. Two — Thomas Hardiman and Raymond Kethledge — are men, though, and after this testimony, it could feel like a big misstep to nominate another man. Meanwhile, 7th Circuit judge Amy Coney Barrett’s past comments on abortion and Supreme Court precedent could put her in hot water with Senate Democrats as well as pro-choice senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. That doesn’t mean Trump wouldn’t nominate her, since she’s popular among his conservative Christian base. But it might be worth keeping other women from Trump’s longer list of potential nominees — like 6th Circuit judge Joan Larsen — on our radar, if things really go south for Kavanaugh today.

I was listening to the same C-SPAN stream that Maggie was during the break. I heard two male callers, both who said they thought Ford was lying. Then a woman called in who said she was 76 and that she had been molested in 2nd grade. Crying, she said that the testimony of Ford was bringing back all her bad memories of it.

Micah, I don’t know. I think it’s always easy to forget how quickly the news cycle moves on to other things. But this is happening close enough to the midterms that even short-term effects could linger. Again, because I think there’s more downside than upside for the GOP, that’s another reason why, were a Republican, I’d have wanted to have Kavanaugh withdraw earlier. If he’d pulled out two weeks ago, you nominate Barrett or something instead, I’m not sure Kavanaugh would be that fresh in voters’ minds by November.