Ayanna Pressley to introduce legislation for Kavanaugh impeachment inquiry
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Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) is set to introduce legislation Tuesday demanding impeachment proceedings against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh after a weekend report expanded allegations of sexual misconduct against him, The Hill reports.
- "Sexual predators do not deserve a seat on the nation’s highest court and Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation process set a dangerous precedent," Pressley said in a statement. "We must demand justice for survivors and hold Kavanaugh accountable for his actions."
Driving the news: A number of presidential candidates and lawmakers over the weekend began calling for Kavanaugh's impeachment. A New York Times report Saturday unveiled that a Yale classmate of Kavanaugh's, Max Stier, told the FBI and Senators that he'd once seen Kavanaugh take his pants down at a party and that his friends thrusted his penis into a woman's hand.
- The FBI did not investigate the event.
- The Times ultimately corrected its story to note that "the book reports that the female student declined to be interviewed and that friends say she does not recall the incident."
- The NYT also outlined details of an incident against Deborah Ramirez, who alleges Kavanaugh once swung his exposed penis at her, causing her hand to touch it as she attempted to ward him off. Ramirez had publicly accused Kavanaugh of misconduct during his confirmation process.
Reality check: Some senior Democrats have deemed the idea as unrealistic, Politico notes.
- “We’ve got to get beyond this ‘impeachment is the answer to every problem.’ It’s not realistic,” Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin said Monday. “If that’s how we are identified in Congress, as the impeachment Congress, we run the risk that people will feel we’re ignoring the issues that mean a lot to them as families.”
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