On Friday, Senator Susan Collins, in a 43-minute speech, announced she will vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. “He has been an exemplary public servant, judge, teacher, coach, husband, and father,” she said.
In a nauseating, long-winded speech, Collins stressed that Kavanaugh—despite all evidence to the contrary—has the “judicial temperament” to serve on the highest court of the land.
As for the future of abortion rights, Collins argued that Kavanaugh promised her that he would respect Roe v. Wade as settled precedent. This, despite her noting that precedent has been overturned in the past and Kavanaugh’s own writings on the issue. She then went on to call concerns over Kavanaugh’s record on abortion and other issues alarmist. (“Suffice it to say, prominent advocacy groups have been wrong,” she said.)
“I have been alarmed and disturbed, however, by some who have suggested that unless Kavanaugh is rejected, the Senate is somehow condoning sexual assault,” she said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
“If we abandon the presumption of innocence and fairness, tempting though it may be,” she said toward the end of a speech that bordered on calling women hysterical for their concerns over Kavanaugh’s judicial record, “we must always remember it is when passions are most inflamed that fairness is most in jeopardy.”