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Resistance Leader Melts Down Over Democratic Senate Candidate’s Flip Flop on Kavanaugh

Brian Fallon, a former aide to Hillary Clinton, leads a progressive judicial advocacy group

Brian Fallon / Getty Images
July 11, 2019

Brian Fallon, a former top aide to Hillary Clinton and now executive director for Demand Justice, expressed his dismay over Kentucky Senate candidate Amy McGrath’s initial stance on whether or not she would have supported the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. 

When McGrath first announced her candidacy on Tuesday morning, Fallon, who has been described as a "Resistance Leader" because of his devoted social media following, taunted Senate Majority Mitch McConnell and his campaign staff over suggesting the five-term senator and his team were fearful of McGrath’s candidacy. In her 2018 congressional race for Kentucky’s 6th Congressional district, McGrath outraised her Republican incumbent opponent by $3 million but still ended up losing the closely watched race by three percent.

Later on Tuesday evening, Fallon continued his twitter taunts to the McConnell team after President Donald Trump tweeted out his endorsement of McConnell. 

"Team McConnell probably grovelled for this tweet today," Fallon tweeted about Trump’s endorsement. 

Fallon quickly changed his tune on McGrath’s candidacy Wednesday afternoon after she revealed she would have voted to confirm Justice Kavanaugh after saying she would not have during her congressional race. 

"Oh. Never mind then," Fallon tweeted after McGrath’s remarks about Kavanaugh. Fallon on Thursday morning then retweeted a message calling for McConnell to face "a credible challenger," following McGrath’s fumbling of the Kavanaugh answer. 

Demand Justice, led by Fallon, launched last year to counter efforts by conservative groups who have focused on building public support for President Trump’s judicial nominees. Fallon at the time of the group’s launch said his new group aimed to educate progressive votes about why they should be prioritizing battles over the federal judicial nominations and vacancies and said his group would maintain a scorecard of which Democratic senators voted for the President’s judicial nominees. 

McGrath would again change her position on Kavanaugh’s nomination Wednesday evening after facing the ire of progressives. 

"Upon further reflection and further understanding of his record, I would have voted no," McGrath declared. She added that she understood she had "disappointed many" with her initial answer on Kavanaugh but said her "priority is defeating Mitch McConnell."

Senator McConnell’s campaign twitter account reveled in McGrath’s ever-changing position on Kavanaugh on Wednesday including sending out a donation link to McGrath’s campaign. 

McGrath’s stumbling entrance into the race against McConnell does not seem to have warded off other potential Democratic challengers. Kentucky Sports Radio host Matt Jones has indicated he is continuing to assess whether to jump into the Democratic primary.