Skip to main content

Key Swing Vote Says 'No' on Kavanaugh, Ex-Senate Aide Reveals Democrat 'Playbook'

Share This article

A key Democrat senator who political analysts expected to vote for Brett Kavanaugh has now said she will not vote for him. Sen. Claire McCaskill was considered a possible swing vote for Kavanaugh because she's facing a tough reelection bid in Missouri which voted for Trump, but now she’s announced she’s going to risk the race by opposing Kavanaugh.

It's all because of the sex allegations against President Trump's Supreme Court nominee.

Now a former Republican Senate aide says he could see the Democratic plan to smear Kavanaugh coming before he was even accused of sexual abuse. Former aide Manny Miranda told CBN News he believes the sexual abuse allegations raised against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh are all a part of a scheme in the Democrats' "playbook."

Miranda explained that Democrats were trying to discredit Kavanaugh's character before Sen. Dianne Feinstein even made the abuse allegations public by trying to tie Kavanaugh to a 2003 incident when Senate Democratic memos were allegedly "stolen."

Democrats accused Miranda of stealing a batch of Senate Democrat memos in 2003. Those memos detailed their strategy for obstructing the confirmation process of some of President George W. Bush's judicial nominees. During that time, Kavanaugh worked as a lawyer for the Bush administration.

While  Miranda denies that the memos were ever stolen and extensive investigations support his claims, Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) brought up the incident during Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing, asking him if he had any knowledge of the memos at the time.

Kavanaugh said he wasn't aware that the memos were private.

Manny Miranda believes the reason Democrats brought up the e-mail scandal is because they were building a case challenging Kavanaugh's credibility and character knowing they were going to drop the sexual harassment bomb on him at the 11th hour.

"It is clear to me that they wanted to build up a foundation strategically to make Judge Kavanaugh look as if he had something to hide, as if he wasn't credible. To go after his honesty. And we now know why they were doing that. In my view, because they knew full well that this allegation of sexual assault would be coming up," Miranda told CBN news.

"I know that we're supposed to be sensitive to these sorts of charges, and I feel that I am sensitive. But I uniquely have a right to say that this is part of their playbook," he added. "They keep files on nominees that are nominated or confirmed to the appellate court who are young, and they slowly build a case in preparation for the moment that those nominees, those appellate judges get a little bit older and get nominated to the Supreme Court."

Miranda also said Sen. Feinstein's timing in releasing the sexual abuse allegations is suspicious.

"The Democrats' strategy has been to delay this. and she knew that bringing this up at the 11th hour would cause the delay that it has caused, and they also knew that to…set this whole thing up they had to lay a foundation of attacking Brett Kavanaugh's credibility because they knew that at the end his credibility would be at stake as it is now," he explained.

Miranda has worked with Kavanaugh before and said he has the "highest character" and "ethical standards." He believes the 11th-hour allegations against Kavanaugh is a warning for future judicial nominees.

"The notion that someone like Brett Kavanaugh could be attacked in this way at the 11th hour – if it's allowed to stand it is a hit on our American Constitution because all that the Senators are supposed to do is give their advice and consent they're not supposed to have the opportunity to malign a public servant and a sitting judge," he said.

 

Share This article

About The Author

Emily
Jones

Emily Jones is a multi-media journalist for CBN News in Jerusalem. Before she moved to the Middle East in 2019, she spent years regularly traveling to the region to study the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, meet with government officials, and raise awareness about Christian persecution. During her college years, Emily served as president of Regent University's Christians United for Israel chapter and spoke alongside world leaders at numerous conferences and events. She is an active member of the Philos Project, an organization that seeks to promote positive Christian engagement with the Middle