Sean Hannity’s call for the Senate Judiciary Committee to give Brett Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasley Ford additional time to decide whether or not to appear suggests the Fox host has at least a shred of decency. Or maybe he just made a cold political calculation.
Sen. Charles Grassley, the Judiciary Committee Chairman, had set a deadline of 10 PM tonight for Ford to decide if she’ll appear. If not, he said he’ll schedule a vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination for Monday.
Surprisingly, Hannity – the unofficial chief of staff for Donald Trump – advised against such a hard line. It came up during a discussion with Tammy Bruce and Alan Dershowitz. As Hannity spoke, Dershowitz repeatedly murmured his agreement.
HANNITY: You know, I know that Senator Grassley, Tammy, has given every consideration – private, public, everything, move the day, Monday to Wednesday, etc. – I do believe Kavanaugh should go second, to respond to his accuser, but my advice to the Senate Judiciary Committee tonight is this: Give them the extra day. 24 hours, if that’s what they’re asking for – 10 o’clock tomorrow night, fine. Give them another 24 hours. But this has to be the last time.
BRUCE: Yeah, I don’t know what, really, the drama is for another 24 hours. If they need it, that’s fine.
Then Bruce set about blaming Sen. Dianne Feinstein for the mess and suggested Ford’s attorney might be trying to provoke a rejection. “It almost seemed as though they wanted [the demands] to be rejected so that they could say the committee didn’t want to hear her,” Bruce said.
“I am told that is the Democratic strategy,” Hannity said, interrupting.
How the heck would Hannity know what the Democratic strategy is? He didn’t say and nobody questioned it.
But maybe Hannity’s decency was a cold political calculation after all.
I report, you can decide by watching the discussion below, from the September 21, 2018 Hannity.
He’s hoping that he can make the Right Wingers in the Senate look like they’re the reasonable ones, and he’s hoping that Dr. Ford’s testimony will be something that he and Kavanaugh can easily pick apart, before watching Kavanaugh fly through on a party line vote and then take his seat on the high court.
The key to Hannity is making the Democratic Senators look like they’re the ones being unreasonable, and making Dr. Ford look as flakey as possible. This not only helps Hannity gloat and bully about Kavanaugh’s upcoming guaranteed confirmation but it also will help ensure that the Right Wing maintains its majorities in both houses of Congress in less than 2 months.
It’s also the typical Fox News segment in that the analysis is total crap.
Hannity saying “Senator Grassley… has given every consideration” is simply a lie. He’s refused all of Ford’s reasonable requests even delaying the hearing until Thursday. Why does Hannity even say such a thing when here he sits advising Grassley to change his mind and give Ford another day?
Though I expect Grassley will take Sean’s advice because, as much as Republicans don’t want Ford to testify, if she doesn’t it’ll look so much worse for them. They know it. So it’s important this kangaroo hearing proceed without taking any additional risks that new evidence will show up. As long as it’s he said, she said featuring a witness with faded memories they’re confident Kavanaugh can survive. Just deny Ford’s request for the FBI to reopen the background check and don’t let any other witnesses show up.
I’d like the Democrats to remind the gloating Republicans ramming this ideological scumbag through the nomination process that if they don’t hold a real, thorough hearing Kavanaugh can be impeached in the future.