not this time
Ketanji Brown Jackson hearings won't be a 'spectacle' like the Kavanaugh hearings, Sen. Grassley says
The confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson will not be "a spectacle" like the hearings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Monday.
"I've continually emphasized the need for a thorough, respectful process by the committee," said Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in his opening remarks.
"Now I want to talk a bit about what everyone watching should expect from this hearing and what they shouldn't expect at the hearing," he continued. "We will conduct a thorough, exhaustive examination of Judge Jackson's record and views. We won't try to turn this into a spectacle."
During the 2018 Kavanaugh hearings, protesters and Democratic senators repeatedly interrupted Grassley, who chaired the Judiciary Committee at the time, as he attempted to deliver his opening statement, Vox reported.
"Good news on that front: we're off to a very good start," Grassley said Monday. "Unlike the start to the Kavanaugh hearings, we didn't have repeated choreographed interruptions of Chairman [Sen. Dick] Durbin [(D-Ill.)] during his opening statements like Democrats interrupted me for more than an hour during my opening statement on the Kavanaugh hearings."
Grassley was referring to interruptions by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) as well as then-Sen. Kamala Harris, all of whom called for the Kavanaugh hearings to be postponed to give them more time to review 42,000 pages of documents they'd received the previous night. Several protesters also shouted over Grassley before being removed from the chamber.
Two days later, Grassley interrupted Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) after she used her opening statement to criticize Grassley for failing to introduce Christine Blasey Ford — who accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in high school — earlier in the hearing process, according to CNN.