Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer
Chuck SchumerThe bizarre back story of the filibuster Hillicon Valley: Biden signs order on chips | Hearing on media misinformation | Facebook's deal with Australia | CIA nominee on SolarWinds House Rules release new text of COVID-19 relief bill MORE (D-N.Y.) warned on Sunday that Brett Kavanaugh will allow President Trump
Donald TrumpNoem touts South Dakota coronavirus response, knocks lockdowns in CPAC speech On The Trail: Cuomo and Newsom — a story of two embattled governors McCarthy: 'I would bet my house' GOP takes back lower chamber in 2022 MORE to "overreach" his authority if he is to be confirmed to the Supreme Court.
In an interview with AM 970 in New York, Schumer told host John Catsimatidis that, of a list of 25 potential Supreme Court nominees, Kavanaugh was the one "most willing" to allow the president to overstep his authority.
"With a president who seems to want to overreach in terms of his power, Kavanaugh, of the list of 25, was the one who is most willing to allow the president to overreach," Schumer said. "He said a president should never be investigated or subpoenaed."
Schumer said that he "hopes" the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Kavanaugh, which began last week, will demonstrate to the American people that Kavanaugh's views on presidential power are inappropriate and that the nominee would supposedly vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.
"If the American people truly believe that Kavanaugh would overturn Roe and undo health care, there will be a bipartisan majority, Democrats and Republicans, to defeat him," Schumer says. "Whether the hearings prove that sufficiently to people, we will see."
Kavanaugh this week underwent a days-long, heated confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee amid a barrage of Democratic criticism.
Democrats took issue with the timing of the hearings, which came shortly after President Trump was implicated in a felony by his former attorney, Michael Cohen.
"It's a game changer. It should be. ... In my view, the Senate Judiciary Committee should immediately pause the consideration of the Kavanaugh nomination," Schumer said from the Senate floor late last month. "At the very least, the very least, it is unseemly for the president of the United States to be picking a Supreme Court justice who could soon be effectively a juror in a case involving the president himself."
Democrats have raised alarms that Kavanaugh has a broad view on executive authority and could try to protect Trump from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible obstruction of justice charges.
Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court depends on Senate Republicans preventing more than one defection against the nominee.
