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Warren: Kavanaugh Prescreened by 'Right-Wing Extremist Groups,' Confirmation Not a 'Done Deal'

August 15, 2018

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) said Judge Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court was not a "done deal" on Tuesday night, blasting "right-wing extremist groups" for prescreening him and saying he could still be stopped.

Democrats led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) have hoped to stop Kavanaugh but have not swung any Republican votes against him. They need at least two, plus all 47 Democrats and two independents, to vote no to block him, and the Washington Post reported they have largely acknowledged they will fail.

On NBC's "Late Night," liberal host Seth Meyers said it seemed progressives weren't making as hard a push to stop his confirmation as they had to block a repeal of Obamacare last year.

"Do you think this is something that enough effort’s being put behind?" Meyers asked. "Or do you think it’s basically a done deal and he’s going to be our next justice?"

"Look, it is not a done deal," Warren said. "Donald Trump has made his nomination. And he picked somebody off a list that has been prescreened, prescreened by not one but two right-wing extremist groups."

The groups Warren referred to were the conservative organizations The Federalist Society and The Heritage Foundation.

"I will say it’s just refreshing that anyone screens someone that Donald Trump picked," Meyers joked. "Usually he just opens the door and like lets in 15 people."

Warren said Kavanaugh's confirmation would be a threat to abortion rights as the replacement of swing vote Anthony Kennedy, but she touted the Women's March as proof that progressives could bind together and stop him from being seated.

"Democracy itself is changing," she said, listing off activists who got "in the face of Republican senators" on various issues. "That's what it takes, and I believe we can do this."

Democratic lawmakers have deployed apocalyptic rhetoric since Kennedy's retirement about the direction of the country if President Donald Trump gets his second pick to the Court in two years.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) said the country was looking at the "destruction of the Constitution of the United States" if Trump's pick was confirmed, before she knew who it was. Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.) said those supporting Kavanaugh's nomination were "complicit in the evil."