Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) criticized the manner in which Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s hearing proceeded on Tuesday, condemning the "mob rule" behavior of Democratic senators.
"I have not been in as many confirmation hearings as some of my colleagues, but this is the first confirmation hearing for a Supreme Court Justice I have seen basically according to mob rule," Cornyn said. "We have rules in the Senate. We have norms for decorum."
Senate Democrats began interrupting the hearing almost immediately after it began. Democrats on the Judiciary Committee yelled at chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) as he started to welcome attendees.
Protesters also screamed periodically, and Capitol Police swiftly acted to remove them in an attempt to maintain order.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) led a phone call with Democratic senators over the holiday weekend to coordinate a protest strategy, NBC News reported. Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) confirmed that a conference call took place on Monday and did not deny that a protest strategy was discussed.
Cornyn also said Democrats’ complaints about not having access to enough Kavanaugh-related documents, as well as not having enough time to review the documents, ring hollow since Democratic senators on the committee have already made up their mind about the nominee.
"Any one of our colleagues can step out here and talk to the press and make whatever comments they want to the press and tell the world how they feel about this, but the fact is, it's hard to take it seriously when every single one of our colleagues in the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Democratic side have announced their opposition to this nominee even before today's hearing," Cornyn said.
"So it's hard to take seriously their claim that somehow they can't do their job because they have been denied access to attorney-client or executive privilege documents, when they've already made up their mind before the hearing," the Texas senator said.
All of the Democratic senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee have expressed opposition to, or strong concerns with, Kavanaugh.