Brett Kavanaugh’s Contentious Confirmation Proceedings Show a Process ‘Damaged Perhaps Beyond Repair,’ Experts Say

The White House also withheld over 100,000 pages of information linked to the judicial nominee. That, said Chiraag Bains, the director of legal strategies at the think-tank Demos, is “something that’s never happened before.” About 42,000 pages of White House documents were released just hours before the questioning started.

Further, the approach taken by senators during the hearings has been transparently political. Democrats have pressed Kavanaugh on his record on racial equality and his views on abortion. Republicans have deflected the concerns and have sought to "make Kavanaugh into some racial hero," which his record doesn't show, Bains said. Senator Ben Sasse said Democrats were making “deranged comments” about Kavanaugh and referred to critics as “hysterical.”

Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader of the Senate, elevated partisanship in the judicial process to a new height, Bains said, by blocking the nomination of Merrick Garland, President Obama’s chosen replacement for Antonin Scalia.

“The nomination process has corroded as senators put party above the American people,” Bains said. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader of the Senate, took the process to a new low, he said, by blocking the nomination of Merrick Garland, President Obama’s chosen replacement for Antonin Scalia. "That was just a pure political power move in the hopes that a Republican would win the presidency.”