Retrospective: The Disruption of Congressional Proceedings During Brett Kavanaugh Confirmation
The Supreme Court building even was attacked to try to prevent swearing in.
Since Democrats and their allies in the liberal media have been in virtue-signaling overdrive for the last year since the Capitol riot on how, in so many words, our “institutions should not be disrupted or disrespected,” we thought it would be a good idea to do a flashback to another recent pivotal moment in our nation’s history where they seemed to hold the exact opposite view for reasons that will be obvious to everyone.
It was the fall of 2018 during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, who at the time was a D.C. circuit court judge. The retirement of SCOTUS Justice Anthony Kennedy paved the way for then-President Trump to make the second of what would end up being three nominations and eventual confirmations to the Supreme Court.
One Trump nomination was too much for the radical left, let alone any more than that, and since Kennedy was viewed as a “moderate/swing vote” type by political observers and “safe” on so-called abortion rights, the left was terrified that Kavanaugh would be the type of Justice who would tip the scales rightward.
As a result, the attempted “Borking” of Kavanaugh commenced apace.
We have a comprehensive timeline of the brutal attacks the left launched on Kavanaugh here, but the one that stands out in my mind more than any of the others that happened at the time was how hundreds of “peaceful protesters” stormed the steps to the Supreme Court, something that previously had not been allowed to take place.
Worse, several of them stood nose to nose with the doors to our nation’s highest court, and then proceeded to angrily pound on them as though trying to knock them down and get through so they could forcibly stop the Kavanaugh’s swearing-in ceremony.
CNN, which has been obsessed over the Capitol riot and which has repeatedly and falsely claimed that those who breached the Capitol on Jan. 6th, 2021 were “insurrectionists,” covered the storming of the steps of the Supreme Court and had zero issue with the leftist agitators getting a little too close to the proceedings going on on the other side of the door.
In fact, the in-studio anchor literally referred to angry mobs including those trying to beat down the Supreme Court’s doors as people who were “demanding their voices be heard” and whose “passion was only growing.”
Watch:
Any – and I do mean any – attempted disruption of the confirmation process was viewed by the media and Democrats during that time as citizens simply exercising their First Amendment rights. That includes not just the storming of the steps to the court, but also the activist left’s stalking of fence-sitting Senators like then-Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake in hallways and elevators, as well as takeovers of Senate buildings where “sit-ins” took place included pro-abortion celebrities like then-Democratic Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s cousin Amy Schumer:
US comedian and actor Amy Schumer was one of hundreds arrested during a sit-in on the floor of a Senate building protesting a vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. pic.twitter.com/9TxYKVnm8K
— The Guardian (@guardian) October 5, 2018
Democrat Sen. Richard Blumenthal boasted of his involvement in a similar sit-in:
“Today is an occasion & opportunity to show that we stand with survivors of sexual assault & have their back against the attempts to shame them or stigmatize them. We must make sure they are treated with respect & have an opportunity to be heard.” #BelieveSurvivors pic.twitter.com/bazEaLVmUj
— Richard Blumenthal (@SenBlumenthal) September 24, 2018
One of the women who cornered Flake became such an icon for the left that she was invited to speak at rallies for failed 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders:
But protest can work.
Ana Maria Archila and Maria Gallagher confronted Jeff Flake in an elevator and forced him to support an FBI investigation into Kavanaugh. Now, that investigation was B.S., but the point is: they FORCED a Senator to change a vote. Two people. pic.twitter.com/oyIlUfsFmS
— Daniel Gleick (@dgleick) September 2, 2021
Last year @AnaMariaArchil2 with her own story of abuse, was vulnerable and powerful cornering Jeff Flake in an elevator for his support of Brett Kavanaugh.
This year she's powerful and powerful opening for @BernieSanders #Bernie2020pic.twitter.com/XsvhIjR70m
— raf (@rafaelshimunov) December 22, 2019
I have zero doubt – none – that had anti-Kavanaugh demonstrators broken through those doors, the mainstream media and Democrats would have continued to frame their actions just as they did the violent, deadly Antifa/BLM-led riots last year: as “peaceful protests” from people who are “passionate” enough to risk bodily harm and/or arrest to “make their voices heard.”
There is simply no consistency with these people whatsoever. In reality, rioting should be condemned no matter which side is doing it, but it’s okay with the media and Democrats – who don’t mind stoking the flames here and there, either – as long as it advances left-wing political narratives.
Anyone listening today to Democrats decrying the unfortunate events of a year ago or who is watching the wall-to-wall “news” programming at outlets like CNN and MSNBC, which are somberly commemorating the anniversary of the Capitol riot as the “worst attack on our democracy” in like forever, should always remember that.
On a related note, make sure to check out RCP’s updated database with statistical comparisons in terms of damage, arrests, deaths, etc. between the Capitol riot, the 2020 BLM riots, and Trump’s 2017 inauguration. It’s a fascinating and illuminating read and puts a lot of things – including the left’s and media’s double standards on rioting – in full perspective:
Be sure to check out @RCInvestigates' refreshed and updated political violence database, an in-depth comparison of Jan 6 and the BLM Riots of 2020 https://t.co/AalWUxHwS4
— Benjamin Weingarten (@bhweingarten) January 4, 2022
[Featured Image: Disruption of Congressional Hearing via YouTube]
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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Comments
I patiently await the swing of the pendulum.
Pack a lunch. It’s been swinging leftward for years.
All the Jan 6th Anniversary ‘Festivities’ prove beyond a doubt that even a year later, Washington is TERRIFIED of Donald Trump.
Biden’s speech today was all about Trump. All this bruhaha has nothing to do with “insurrection” or “threats to our democracy”, it’s all about preventing Trump from becoming president again.
And, with Marc Elias walking around a free man with a law license, the Democrats will aggressively push the J6 insurrection/protect Democracy messages to justify the continued use of Dominion Voting machines, in blue states where needed.
Biden had little if any idea of what his speech was about. He was focused, like a laser, on trying to read it just the way he rehearsed it so that he would be rewarded with pudding afterward.
Not just ANY pudding but Banana pudding. If he’s REALLY good he gets the Banana.
Good boy, Joey!
This is pure speculation. How do you know he doesn’t prefer butterscotch? For all you know he doesn’t even like banana pudding, and throws it all over the floor. Maybe banana pudding is even his punishment if he doesn’t perform well.
So let’s stick to known facts and just say that he hopes to be rewarded for a reading job well done. Reading all those long words must have been hard work.
reply to Milhouse
Two thumbs up Milhouse. That was excellent — caused me to laugh out loud. lol.
It does not it shows hatred for Donald Trump, there isn’t a man on planet Earth (except maybe Mitt Romney) who they fear less.
I disagree. Muchly.
The left doesn’t see that as insurrection that was resistance. See how controlling the narrative makes it all better.
They will overplay as they always seem to do. Foolish, childish, mean-spirited. They hurt themselves most because the people have caught on.
We gotta save the whales, & the rain forest, & Tibet. . . ”
Crises invented by the Left that had zero impact on anyone else.
the left’s plan is to completely take over every city and therefore, every city election results
they wil be able to cheat every prezzy election and every senate election
Prepare yourselves gentlemen, Democrats are about to wank themselves stupid right through today 🙄
The decision to create a false narrative that this riotous behavior and criminality on the part of some is an insurrection is patently stupid. The facts do not support it. Moreover the clear precedent that entering the capital grounds and delaying or attempting to delay the work of Congress is now worthy of a nationwide manhunt entering it’s second year, thousands of hours of FBI and other LEO time and the default position that pretrial confinement is necessary for those arrested is going to be deeply regreted.
Consider the next Congress with a r HOR and potentially r majority Senate. The usual d/prog suspects arrive to disrupt them. Will the DoJ refuse to act? If so, what contrast will that provide to the Judiciary still presiding over the cases of the Jan 6 crowd? Now imagine a repeat of the actions during the first DJT inaugural occurring in Jan of 2025 for the inauguration of DJT or DeSantis.
Imagine a DoJ with a MAGA mindset from the various US attorneys taking a far different approach to rioters attacking any federal facility. The d/prog have created another problem for themselves. They sought short-term advantage at the expense of long-term problems and the erosion of norms; just like Reid blowing up the filibuster for nominations.
I have difficulty doing that. The top-level appointees will hopefully be all right, once confirmations are done, but the career civil servants, with their statutory protections, are solid Dems and will resist in every way they can, just as they did in the Trump presidency.
The career guys won’t matter much if the appointed US Attorney for the districts are actively supervising the prosecutions outside DC. Now Justice HQ in DC is another story, they will foot drag, delay and obfuscate, no doubt about that.
Another point is that the 1st DJT admin was plagued by some of it’s appointments. IMO a repeat performance is unlikely. The appointments for a second DJT admin are more likely to be prioritized with solid MAGA credentials first with experience secondary to that.
Do I think the coverage today is necessary? No.
Do I think it’s useless? Yes.
Do I think it will go away? No.
Get ready to see this build it’s own steam. Watch the talking heads to keep this front and center and less and less will we hear about the Covid emergency.
This will continue to build steam because every D will be on board with this being THE reason to eliminate the filibuster.
Ask yourself why Schumer timed is move on the filibuster to next week.
think Selma and Manchin are willing to be associated with protecting 1/6 by voting no to breaking the filibuster?
If the filibuster falls – we ABSOLUTELY have to take back Congress in November.
Then they can reap what they sow.
NPR had a 5 point take away about 1/6. They quote an “un-named police officer” stating all sorts of weapons were used against the cap-cops … maybe they confused Antifa/BLM with the 1/6 people. As for the FBI’s review… not in sight.
They stated that the prisoners did have poor accommodations but somehow missed the two golden words…”solitary confinement”.
Also.. that many were ex-cop/ex-military as is customary of the far right. It’s plain that swearing an oath depends on which constitution one is talking about. The litany of “bad guys” reminds me of Harvey Korman’s monologue from “Blazing Saddles”..
Many had been convicted but with a wide range of sentencing for the same “crimes”. Again, no mention of how long the people were in stir before relenting. The upright and outstanding AG Garland is on the case and the Congress will outdo Sen. Tail-gunner Joe McCarthy (except he was right).
The usual blend of facts to make the narrative palatable while shirting the full truth and nothing but the truth… which they wouldn’t recognize even after they were sent to the gulags with everyone before.
“They stated that the prisoners did have poor accommodations but somehow missed the two golden words…”solitary confinement”.
I thought the two golden words would be “permanent blindness.”
That’s a bonus point. Torture is optional for the prisoners. When we hear reports that some of the cops hate white people, it’s just affirmative action. I did send 16 Christmas cards to the prisoners for distribution… if they ever got them. Where is the Red Cross when we could use them? As to what D.C. and Garland will do with that will be interesting. I see it as a variation…. “Cards to a D.C. jail” in respect (profound respect) in regards to “Letters from a Birmingham jail.”
Don’t forget then Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer’s threat:
““I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.””
The Democrats love to play the comity card, but totally forget their actions are worse and more numerous. Their violence doesn’t count, because they were mad about something.
And the Republicans could put together a great 60 second political video listing and showing clips from all these Democrat “insurrections,” but they’re busy… doing… something else.
Republicans need to get their act together, fast. It’s not enough to just whinge and moan in the minority; they need to wake the hell up and realize that the “democracy” Dems claim is nearly lost is just Democrat electoral victories and power.
Every time I see, democracy is in jeopardy, on the brink, one election away from being destroyed, I know that they mean not “democracy” (we aren’t a freaking democracy to begin with, we are a constitutional republic) but the Democratic Party. Yeah, they are in one for one whale of a beating at the polls, and they want to spin it as a Republican assault on “democracy.”
Newsflash: we, the people, voting in record numbers is not an “assault on democracy,” it’s simply that these assclowns can’t defend their crazy or run on it and can’t hope to win over squishy Republican voters, let alone Indies, with their economy-destroying policies (not limited to destroying America’s self-reliance for fuels), open borders, pro-criminal “defund the police” onslaught, and their racist “antiracist” agenda.
Republicans absolutely need to stand up in some instances (against mandates, packing SCOTUS, federalizing elections, for a few examples), but there is a lot to be said for just feeding the Dems the rope they are eagerly grasping and by which they are hanging themselves. Why should Republicans step in . .. and save these radical lunatics from their own crazy, unAmerican, anti-American America Last agenda? I’m pretty okay with the GOP not stopping Dems from their progressive kamikaze death flight against American parents and against America herself.
“I’m pretty okay with the GOP not stopping Dems from their progressive kamikaze death flight against American parents and against America herself.”
I agree. And parents (and church leaders) (and some “conservatives”) have shown themselves to have trouble paying attention until their faces are rubbed in it by the left.
I was, but I have repented.
January 6th was way worse than Pearl Harbor. Let’s replace remembering the sinking of the Pacific Fleet with Jan 6.
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, “When you memorialize something… you get more of it.”
Democrats have a rather bizarre sense of history
In my lifetime leftwing political attacks have always been met with “the people who incited them aren’t responsible” and the grace we give the other side has never been reciprocated.
Perhaps it is time to revise that? A Bernie Sanders inspired terrorist tried to kill our congressmen, and our side shouted louder than the Democrats not to blame the people who incited him.
Perhaps we could rethink the strategy of Democrats always deserve grace from us in light of what we get in return?