Doug Jones says he is keeping ‘open mind’ on Brett Kavanaugh
U.S. Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama said he is keeping an “open mind” on President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and is not worried about a flurry of advertising pressuring him to confirm or reject the nominee. The Democratic senator told reporters Friday evening that he wants to do his “due diligence” on Kavanaugh’s work. “I want to keep an open mind on every aspect of it and look at a number of different things,” Jones said. Jones said the one concern he has is getting documents out of the White House. Democrats have asked to see records from Kavanaugh’s time there as White House staff secretary to President George W. Bush. With past nominees, everything was “turned over” unless there was a technical reason that it should be privileged, Jones said. “We need the information out of the White House,” Jones said. “We didn’t nominate him. The President did. He nominated him with a full knowing of his background. I would like to see them just say, ‘Look, OK, we will get this to you.’” The conservative Judicial Crisis Network has launched advertising in Alabama pressuring Jones, a Democrat in a red-leaning state, to confirm Kavanaugh, saying the vote “will show who Doug Jones really is.” Jones said he was not concerned about the advertising. “I’m not worried about the ads. I tell folks, ‘Ads on both sides, they are really wasting their money.’ I have a process I’m going through to do what I think is my job and ads from interest groups really don’t mean that much to me at all,” Jones said. After graduating law school in 1979, Jones worked for the Senate Judiciary Committee during his time as a staffer to the late Sen. Howell Heflin. He said the process today is “much, much, much, much more political” and partisan. “That’s very unfortunate. The framers of the Constitution wrote in an independent judiciary. And it’s hard to see how a Supreme Court is considered independent when you see so much money spent on advertising to get 51 votes,” Jones said. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Ads supporting Jeff Sessions seek to pressure Dems for AG confirmation
A new ad campaign produced by a conservative advocacy group is supporting Jeff Sessions’ confirmation as attorney general. As reported by POLITICO, the ads will run primarily in three conservative-leaning states with Democratic senators who will be pressured to confirm Donald Trump’s pick for top cop. The first round of pro-Sessions spots – coming from the Judicial Crisis Network – will start this weekend with a 30-second ad highlighting Alabama residents who praise Sessions as U.S. senator from Alabama. “Senator Sessions saw that there was a real need for the families that were losing their loved ones,” said Johnny Spann, an Alabama resident whose son, Mike, was the first American combat casualty in the 2001 war in Afghanistan. “For him to be in charge of the highest law enforcement agency, he’s the kind of person that needs to be there.” In honor of Mike Spann’s sacrifice, Sessions spearheaded legislation in 2002 to help facilitate private funds to be donated to widows and orphans of military and national security personnel killed during the U.S. war on terrorism. The digital and cable ad campaign, which POLITICO estimates at more than half a million dollars, will also run in Missouri, Indiana and North Dakota – states with Democrats targeted to bring bipartisan support of Sessions’ nomination. The three Democrats are Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a red-state Democrat seeking re-election in 2018, has confirmed he would support Sessions. The ads will also appear in the Washington, D.C. area. “Senator Sessions is a good man whose service to his state makes it clear that he will turn DOJ around and make it an agency that every American can be proud of,” JCN chief counsel Carrie Severino told POLITICO. “He will abide by the Constitution, he will put public safety ahead of political agendas, and he will prosecute corrupt public officials regardless of political party.” The first ad, titled “Getting it Right” is now available on YouTube:
With confirmation fight on horizon, pro-Jeff Sessions website launches
Scheduled to make its internet debut on Wednesday, the new website ConfirmSessions.com has just one goal: to see Alabama U.S. Jeff Sessions confirmed as America’s next Attorney General. A project of conservative, legal group Judicial Crisis Network, the site will serve as a clearinghouse for information on Sessions in efforts to fend of Democratic attacks against the Alabama Senator. “We think people deserve to have the full story on Sen. Sessions, and not a one-sided view,” Carrie Severino, a former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas who now serves as Judicial Crisis Network’s chief counsel and policy director told the Washington Examiner. “We want people to know about Sen. Sessions’ great story, his integrity, his public service, his whole career from a prosecutor to his time in the Senate.” Severino told the Examiner, the site will feature biographical information on Sessions, in-depth material on his record, a collection of endorsements of his nomination, like those from several former attorneys general and the Fraternal Order of Police, and also be a source for pro-Sessions articles or pieces rebutting attacks on him. A veteran of Senate confirmation battles for the Supreme Court, Severino said she expects Sessions will in fact be confirmed. The prime reason is that Senate Democrats will not be able to filibuster Trump’s nominations to executive branch positions, having had that option removed from the Senate rules back in 2013. “Thanks to Sen. Harry Reid, there is no filibuster on presidential appointments,” Severino told the National Catholic Register last month. “I am confident that Sessions will be confirmed.”
