Four Examples Showing That Trump Opponents Planned To Attack Any Supreme Court Nominee
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Within minutes of President Trump's announcement Monday night of his nomination of Federal Appeals Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, opponents of the president ranging from protesters to activist groups, to the Democratic Party all quickly released statements harshly criticizing the pick.
Tom Perez, the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee wrote that if Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed, that his presence on the court will, "rip health care from American families and deny women their constitutional right to make their own health care decisions."
Activist groups released more extreme condemnations, ranging from calling his nomination an "assault on justice" to a "death sentence for women". Angry protesters were already on the steps of the Supreme Court before the announcement was made, yet had signs at the ready to oppose Kavanaugh (with his name printed on them) within minutes of the announcement.
Since Judge Kavanaugh was on the president's short list of four expected nominees, it would make sense that groups would have researched each and had a response ready to be released shortly after Trump's announcement, but in most cases it was apparent that groups either prepared a generic response and filled in the blank with the nominee, or expected a different name to be announced.
Some protesters at the steps of the Supreme Court wen the old-fashioned route, making their signs on the spot with markers and poster boards. However, as one digital reporter noticed, the signs were already filled out...except for the name.
Other protesters at the Supreme Court were ready with more slickly produced signs, so they had to print several different ones and hope that one of them was the right name, as another reporter documented.
Another reporter noticed that one protester would not let signs go to waste, even if the name on it did not match the nominee. The protester boldly held up a "Stop Hardiman" sign, another name from Trump's top four possible picks.
Once President Trump made his announcement, and Judge Kavanaugh started speaking, news releases from opponents and supporters started flowing into email inboxes at news organizations around the world. While they got their releases out fast, at least a couple of opponents made a misstep that showed they were ready to bash Trump's pick, no matter who he (or she) may have been.
For example, Democracy for America's release stated that the president had nominated a "right-wing ideologue" whose nomination it vowed to fight because "she represents an assault on justice, freedom, and core democratic values."
Clearly, Judge Brett Kavanaugh is a man, so the DFA may have been expecting Trump to nominate another federal appeals court judge named Amy Barrett, another name on the president's top four likely picks.
The Women's March released a much more extreme statement, claiming that President Trump's pick would be a "death sentence for thousands of women in the United States". However, in its first version of that release the group appeared to be ready to make that proclamation about anyone who was introduced Monday night, with its opening sentence: "In response to Donald Trump's nomination of XX to the Supreme Court..."
