The FBI investigation into allegations of sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is looking more and more each day like a complete sham that was ordered to move forward only to be used as a fig leaf for Republican senators too scared to vote for confirmation without being provided with some cover, however flimsy, for their approval of a perjuring sexual predator to a lifetime job on the nation’s highest court.
The ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), said as much, albeit considerably less bluntly, according to a tweet by Kyle Griffin, the producer of MSNC’s The Last Word.
Feinstein: "The White House confirmation that it will not allow the FBI to interview Dr. Blasey Ford, Judge Kavanaugh or witnesses identified by Deborah Ramirez raises serious concerns that this is not a credible investigation."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 3, 2018
Senator Feinstein’s comments are a massive understatement, to say the least. Despite Trump’s protestations that the FBI will have “free reign” in their investigation, his description of the investigation as unencumbered by outside interference comes with many asterisks, including his comments that the FBI is only investigating what the senators (actually the Republican senators in the majority) want to know.
If the result of that caveat means that neither Dr. Blasey Ford nor Judge Kavanaugh nor the 20 credible witnesses to the alleged Yale dorm room assault will be interviewed — not to mention the complete dismissal of the accusations brought by the client of Attorney Michael Avenatti as not credible without actually looking into them — then the bogusness of the FBI supplemental background check is obvious.
That opinion is further confirmed by the news that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has rejected a request by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) that the full Senate be given a background briefing by FBI agents on the results of the investigation. Instead, Senator McConnell is insisting that the full Senate be briefed only by “designated and appropriately cleared staff members of the Senate Judiciary Committee,” ensuring that the Republican majority controls the narrative.
Mitch McConnell is rejecting Chuck Schumer's request for an all senators FBI briefing on the findings of the Kavanaugh background investigation. pic.twitter.com/zZIttsHUi4
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 3, 2018
With Trump already having primed his base by claiming that no matter what the investigation finds Democrats will find it inadequate, he and his cronies have lied about the restrictions they’ve placed on the inquiry and can point to his own self-fulfilling prophecy as a reason to ignore the Democratic protests.
Wow! Just starting to hear the Democrats, who are only thinking Obstruct and Delay, are starting to put out the word that the “time” and “scope” of FBI looking into Judge Kavanaugh and witnesses is not enough. Hello! For them, it will never be enough – stay tuned and watch!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2018
With an increasing plurality of the country opposed to Kavanaugh’s confirmation at this point, the Republican strategy may backfire in a major way at the midterm polls in just a few weeks, but only if everyone who is livid over the GOP’s railroading of the confirmation of an unqualified candidate to the Supreme Court and its disrespect of women actually gets out and votes them out of office.
Just do it.
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.