How the Kavanaugh hearings will affect the midterm elections
Intensity levels among Republican voters in the upcoming November midterm elections have increased, in part due to the appearances of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on Sunday.
“Prior to the Kavanaugh hearing, the intensity level was really on the Democratic side,” McCarthy, R-Calif., told “Sunday Morning Futures.” “But in the last week there’s been a fundamental shift. That people are now becoming upset. Not just how [Judge] Kavanaugh was treated, but Dr. Ford. That the Democrats knowingly had this letter, held it and then put her through this – you did not have to do this. And so it’s a big frustration.”
Ford, a research psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine and a professor of psychology at Palo Alto University, testified before the committee on Thursday, after alleging she was sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh at a party in Maryland more than three decades ago. She said she was “100 percent” positive that it was the Supreme Court nominee. Hours later, Kavanaugh, nominated by President Trump to fill the seat vacated by Anthony Kennedy – who announced his retirement from the Supreme Court in June – sat before the same committee and vehemently denied the allegations, adding that they have damaged his name and his family.
“If on Nov. 7 we woke up and the Democrats took the majority, what you watched last week would be intensified for the next two years,” McCarthy said. “We wouldn’t be talking about how do we put infrastructure, how do we save Social Security, how do we improve our Veterans Administration. It would be hearing, after hearing, after investigation, after investigation. America’s economy would somewhat come to a stop. Because that really was a view of what will happen if they took the majority.”
The number of absentee ballots and volunteerism at various GOP events has increased over the last week as well, according to McCarthy, who said Republican candidates are at a “disadvantage” because former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and billionaire Tom Steyer have been donating millions of dollars to fund Democratic candidates.
“We raised $15 million that night for people across the country," McCarthy said about a recent GOP fundraising event. “But the difficulty is when you have liberal billionaires willing to write a $100 million check at the time, that’s very difficult to try to equal the playing field. How do we equal the playing field? Results versus resistance.”