Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) said on Tuesday's "Hugh Hewitt Show" that his Democratic colleagues have undermined due process norms with their handling of accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
"The Democrats and the media have spent a lot of the last couple of years talking about undermining basic democratic norms – they should look in the mirror. Talk about undermining basic democratic norms of due process and the presumption of innocence," Cotton said.
Kavanaugh has faced two allegations of sexual misconduct that, according to the accusers, occurred decades ago. Christine Blasey Ford told the Washington Post that Kavanaugh, then a junior in high school, attacked her when they were at a party in Maryland in the early 1980s. The other allegation is from a woman named Deborah Ramirez who accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself at a dorm party during his freshmen year at Yale.
Neither allegation has been corroborated, and Kavanaugh has issued strong denials to both.
Cotton called out Democratic colleagues Sens. Mazie Hirono (D., Hawaii) and Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) for presuming Kavanaugh is guilty and saying it is on the nominee to prove his innocence.
"And the Democrats, like Mazie Hirono, or Richard Blumenthal, or other senators, are essentially saying that Brett Kavanaugh is guilty simply because he faces an allegation," Cotton said, "allegations in the New Yorker article that are completely unsupported by any evidence and that by the accuser’s own admission, only came to her after she spent six days working with a former elected Democrat and her lawyer."
"And allegations from Ms. Ford that are disputed by the four people she claims were in the house at the time she said what happened, happened," Cotton said. "Now, she’ll have a chance to present her case on Thursday, but some of the statements of my Democratic colleagues truly not just resemble McCarthyism, they resemble the kind of Stalinist show trials you saw in the Soviet Union–that merely making an accusation is enough if it’s in the greater interests of the party and the state, as Mazie Hirono essentially said on Jake Tapper’s show on Sunday."
Hirono told Tapper on CNN that Kavanaugh doesn't get the presumption of innocence and cited his "ideological agenda" as a reason.