Some Democrats auditioned for a 2020 presidential bid while others tried to shore up support from the party’s liberal base ahead of November’s elections as they competed Tuesday to show the most resistance to President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, made it fewer than a dozen words into his opening statement before the first salvo came from Sen. Kamala Harris, a California Democrat eyeing a run for the White House.
“We cannot possibly move forward,” she said, complaining that her demands for documents were stymied and she didn’t feel ready to face the nominee, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh.
Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, another 2020 hopeful, was close behind, also complaining about documents he said are being bottled up at the National Archives, preventing senators from getting a full picture of Judge Kavanaugh’s work in the Bush White House before he became a judge.