Executive Session
Floor Speech
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Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the impending confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. It now appears that tomorrow, Judge Brett Kavanaugh will become Justice Brett Kavanaugh, an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court.
It is worth pausing for a moment to reflect why that is of such great consequence for our country. In recent decades, the courts have seized more and more policymaking authority, have intruded into the authority of the democratically elected legislature, and have taken policy issue after policy issue from the hands of the American people and usurped it instead into the hands of five unelected judges.
Given those stakes, the 2016 election in a very real sense was waged over what direction the Supreme Court would go, and there was a markedly different vision, a markedly different promise that was made by Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump promised to nominate constitutionalists who would defend the Constitution and who would defend the Bill of Rights. That is what the people of Texas want, and I believe that is what the American people want--judges who will follow the law, who will be faithful to the Constitution, who will uphold our fundamental liberties--free speech, religious liberty, the Second Amendment, the 10th Amendment--the fundamental liberties protective of every American in the U.S. Constitution.
The stakes here are high, particularly with this seat--the seat that was held by Justice Kennedy, a Justice who has been the swing vote for three decades now.
Even though the stakes are high, what we have witnessed the last several weeks is unprecedented in the annals of confirmation battles. We saw initially a confirmation hearing that was relatively straightforward. It was marred by protests, coordinated with Democratic Senators, according to media reports. On the first day of the hearing, 70 individuals were arrested for protesting and disrupting the hearing.
But at the end of that opening week of hearings, not a single Senator on the committee had made the argument that Justice Kavanaugh was not qualified to be a Justice--by any measure, he is one of the most respected Federal appellate judges in the country--nor did any of the Senators on the Judiciary Committee make any meaningful argument that raised serious concerns about Judge Kavanaugh's jurisprudence. He has been a court of appeals judge for over a decade.
It appeared at that point that the confirmation was a forgone conclusion and that indeed Judge Kavanaugh was likely to get a substantially bipartisan confirmation. Then, on the eve of the vote, it was leaked in the press that there were allegations of sexual misconduct and sexual assault. Those allegations sadly had been in the possession of the ranking Democratic member of the committee since July 30 in the form of a written letter that had been submitted by Dr. Ford on July 30 detailing the allegations. The allegations were serious. The allegations deserved to be treated with respect.
In that letter, Dr. Ford requested to stay confidential. She did not want her name thrust into the national news. The Judiciary Committee has a process for handling allegations. As nominations go forward, there are all sorts of allegations that are raised, and the ordinary process would be for the ranking member to refer that letter to the full committee, to the chairman, refer it to the FBI for an investigation, and then the committee has a standing process to engage in a confidential hearing--a closed hearing--where the allegations raised by Dr. Ford could have been considered without dragging her name into the public.
That would have been the right way to do that. That would have been the Senate operating the way it is supposed to operate, but sadly it didn't operate that way. Instead, it appears the Democratic Members of Congress made the decision to leak the letter to the press and to drag Dr. Ford unwillingly into the public square. That did enormous damage to Dr. Ford and her family, and it did enormous damage to Judge Kavanaugh and his family.
When that happened, the Judiciary Committee--the Republican members of the committee met, and I urged my colleagues, once these allegations were made public, that there needed to be a public hearing and that Dr. Ford deserved a full and fair opportunity to tell her story; that she needed to be treated with respect. That, I am glad to say, is exactly what happened.
I also believed Judge Kavanaugh deserved a full and fair opportunity to defend himself and that he, too, should be treated with respect. That, sadly, is not what happened. The hearing we had last week featured one Democratic member of the committee after another dragging Judge Kavanaugh and his family through the mud, raising smear after smear after smear--not just the allegations that Dr. Ford had raised but other, more farfetched and in some cases absurd allegations. Apparently, the threshold for dragging a man's character and besmirching his family in Washington is nonexistent.
At that Thursday hearing, we heard powerful testimony from two witnesses--Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh. It was clear that both were hurting. It was clear that both had been done enormous damage by the politicized way in which Democratic Members of this body launched these allegations in the media. But even though we were seeing political games, that didn't relieve any Members of this body from the solemn obligation we have to advise and consent, the obligation we have to have a fair process, to consider the allegations, and to make the best judgment we can.
After two witnesses presented powerful testimony, it became clear that their testimony was directly contradictory, so we were called to assess the evidence before us. Typically in a court of law, when you have conflicting testimony, the way a court of law will assess that is to look to other corroborating evidence--what other evidence is there that indicates whether particular allegations are true.
In this instance, Dr. Ford had identified three fact witnesses--three named fact witnesses--all of whom gave statements to the Judiciary Committee under penalty of perjury. All three of the named fact witnesses--not only did they not corroborate the allegations, but they affirmatively refuted the allegations. They did so on penalty of perjury, meaning if they were lying, they could face up to 5 years in prison.
For me, the fact that all of the corroborating evidence contradicted the allegations and the fact that Judge Kavanaugh has a many-decades- long record as a distinguished public servant with no allegations whatsoever prior to the eleventh-hour political allegations that were launched by the Democrats--the balance of that, I believe, leads a fair decision maker to make the decision that I have made and that this body is preparing to make, which is to confirm Judge Kavanaugh.
Even so, at the insistence of a number of Senators, the Judiciary Committee went further: Last week, it asked the FBI to conduct a supplemental background investigation, investigate these allegations. The instructions to the FBI were to investigate all current, credible allegations.
The FBI did 10 interviews. I flew back to DC from Texas last night. At 10 o'clock last night, I came to the Capitol and in a classified setting read all 10 of those 302s--the reports the FBI agents prepare coming out of those interviews. Having read every single one of those reports, not a one of them provides additional corroborating evidence for Dr. Ford's allegations. Indeed, the key fact witnesses who had previously given statements--unsurprisingly, their statements are very much the same. They are more detailed, and they are more extensive because the FBI agents questioned them at greater length, but at the end of the day, all three named fact witnesses still continue to refute the allegations. That means that this body, if we are to be fair and impartial, I believe, should confirm Judge Kavanaugh.
That does not mean, as some have seen in this deeply politicized time in our country, that allegations of sexual assault should not be taken seriously--to the contrary. The fact that we had an extensive public hearing to hear those allegations, to treat Dr. Ford with the utmost respect, that the FBI investigated those allegations, sought out the fact witnesses, looked for corroborating evidence--all of that demonstrates the seriousness with which those charges should be taken.
Sexual assault is a growing problem in our Nation. It is a pervasive problem in our Nation. The #MeToo movement--we have seen powerful men in Hollywood, powerful men in journalism, powerful men in politics, and powerful men in business abusing their position of power and harassing or assaulting women. That is unacceptable.
I am glad to have worked with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in passing legislation through this body ensuring that there are tough standards and that we end the process of secret taxpayer settlements if a Member of Congress is guilty of harassment or assault. We should have no tolerance for that sort of misconduct.
So anyone at home who is watching these proceedings, it would be a mistake to take the politicized charge of Democrats who wanted to defeat Judge Kavanaugh before these charges came along--virtually every Democrat who is voting no was going to vote no before any allegation had been made. Indeed, a great many of the Democratic Senators announced their opposition to Judge Kavanaugh within minutes or hours of his being named. Every Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee announced their opposition to Judge Kavanaugh before the opening minutes of the confirmation hearing, before hearing a word Judge Kavanaugh had to say.
The circus we saw last week was a whole lot of political theater. It featured some Democratic Senators, I believe, vying for the 2020 Presidential nomination and seeing who could be more extreme and put on a bigger spectacle. But the American people expect this body to be fair. The American people expect this body to respect the law and the rule of law. We have been through a process that I believe has been fair, has heard out these claims.
It is my hope that, coming out of this, the anger and rage that have been stoked dissipates. It is my hope that Members on both sides of this aisle and, more importantly, Americans on both sides of the political aisle across the country can remember who we are, can remember how to disagree, to disagree passionately. We can have passionate arguments about whether taxes should be higher or lower. We can have passionate arguments about immigration policy or any other policy matter. But I hope that we can remember how to disagree without being disagreeable, to disagree while being civil, to disagree while respecting each other, while respecting each other's humanity.
It would have been wrong to vilify and demonize Dr. Ford, and I am glad the Judiciary Committee did not go down that road, but it is equally wrong for Democratic Senators to demonize and vilify Judge Kavanaugh based on a lone accusation without corroborating evidence. That is not fair, and that is not right. It is empty politics. And if we continue down this politics of personal destruction, we are going to find fewer and fewer people willing to step forward and serve, fewer and fewer people willing to serve on the Federal judiciary, willing to serve in the Cabinet.
There was a time when this body was called the world's greatest deliberative body. That was a long time ago, but I do think it is possible for us to get back to that, for us to keep disagreements focused on substance and issues and remember the fundamental humanity even of those who disagree with us.
The American people--certainly the people of Texas--I think a great many were horrified by what they saw last week. Some in the media have characterized that women should necessarily oppose Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation because they are women. I don't think that is right--that is certainly not true from the women I have heard from the State of Texas--because women, like men, want the Constitution followed faithfully, want the Bill of Rights protected, and want our fundamental liberties upheld. Women, like men, want a system of rule of law and a presumption of innocence that is fair. Yes, if there is serious, credible evidence of sexual assault, it should be dealt with seriously. But women and men are mothers and fathers, are husbands and wives, are sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters. Every parent of sons should want a system where due process is protected and where one lone and uncorroborated allegation is not enough to end the career and reputation of their son. And every parent of daughters--and I am the parent of two daughters--should want a regime where your daughters are protected and their lives can't be ruined with an uncorroborated allegation either. But if, God forbid, they face assault or harassment, there is a system of accountability, and the wrongdoers are held accountable.
We want a fair system. We want a just system. We want a system that recognizes the rule of law. There are many countries that are ruled by mob, ruled by accusation, and ruled by insinuation. But we need a process. In this case, we have gone through a process that was designed to be fair. And given the evidence, the right decision, I believe, is the decision this body will make tomorrow to confirm Judge Kavanaugh as Justice Kavanaugh, the newest Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
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