WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today called on Senate Republicans to support a nonpartisan, independent FBI investigation into the serious and credible sexual assault allegations against President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Brett Kavanaugh. In a speech on the Senate floor, Durbin pushed back on claims made by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) that the sexual assault allegations against Judge Kavanaugh are simply a “shameful smear campaign,” by Democrats.
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“The Republicans refuse an investigation of the charges by Dr. Ford. Dr. Ford has called for the FBI to investigate her own charges. They [Republicans] refuse. If they truly believed that there was no evidence, no witness to back up the charges of Dr. Ford, wouldn’t they obviously have called the FBI and said ‘Do your job. Find what you can, and we are confident at the end that Judge Kavanaugh will be exonerated?’ But they haven’t. And despite all the calls for fairness, fairness over and over again by Senator McConnell, fairness would dictate that a nonpartisan investigative group like the FBI look into this matter and come to conclusions, whatever they may be.”
Durbin continued, “No one, not any single American, is entitled to a seat on the Supreme Court. It’s a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land. The person who fills that seat can make decisions which swing history one way or the other. Decisions that can affect justice, privacy, and fairness in American life. And for that reason, all of us – all the members of the Senate and certainly the Senate Judiciary Committee – have to take that seriously. I’m going to take it seriously, and I hope members on both sides of the aisle will.”
Video of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate Floor are available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate Floor are available here.
