Hillary Clinton: Kavanaugh swearing-in ‘further undermined the image and integrity of the court’

Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton early Tuesday said the White House’s public swearing-in ceremony for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was a “political rally” that “further undermined” the high court.
“What was done last night in the White House was a political rally,” Clinton told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
“It further undermined the image and integrity of the court,” she added. “And that troubles me greatly, it saddens me, because our judicial system has been viewed as one of the main pillars of our constitutional government.”
.@HillaryClinton told @camanpour the swearing in of Brett Kavanaugh was a “political rally” that “further undermined the image and integrity of the Court”@JeffreyToobin: “Hillary Clinton is right” pic.twitter.com/mIMEBWwGza
— New Day (@NewDay) October 9, 2018
Clinton made the comments after Kavanaugh and President Trump took a victory lap at the ceremonial White House event on Monday night.
Trump during the prime-time event in the White House’s East Room apologized to Kavanaugh “for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure.”
“You, sir, under historic scrutiny, were proven innocent,” the president said to his Supreme Court pick.
Multiple allegations of sexual assault roiled Kavanaugh’s bruising confirmation process. Lawmakers said an FBI investigation found no corroboration of the allegations, which Kavanaugh forcefully denied.
Trump also decried the “campaign of personal destruction” he said the Democrats ran against his Supreme Court nominee in order to keep him off the bench.
“Those who step forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation, not a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception,” he said. “What happened to the Kavanaugh family violates every notion of fairness, decency and due process. In our country, a man or woman must always be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.”
Clinton also hit Trump over his treatment of Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about her allegation that Kavanaugh assaulted her at a high school party in 1982. Trump at a campaign rally mocked Ford for the gaps in her memory of the incident.
“The president’s been true to form,” Clinton said. “He has insulted, attacked, demeaned women throughout the campaign, really for many years leading up to the campaign, and he’s continued to do that inside the White House.”
–Aris Folley contributed to this report.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.