As Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings begin Tuesday, an ABC News/Washington Post poll finds the public evenly divided, and among the lowest support levels for a high court nominee in polling back to 1987.
Thirty-eight percent of Americans say Kavanaugh should be confirmed, 39% not, with the rest undecided in this poll. Only two nominees have had weaker public support: Harriet Miers, who withdrew her nomination, in 2005; and Robert Bork, rejected by the Senate in 1987.
Also see: Kavanaugh may become the ‘poorest’ Supreme Court justice.
‘Fight back,’ says Chuck Todd: “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd says it’s time for the press to stop complaining “and to start fighting back,” as the title of his Atlantic piece says. Todd writes there’s a campaign ongoing to “destroy the legitimacy of the American news media,” with antipathy towards the media at a level he’s never experienced. He says he isn’t advocating for a more activist press “in the political sense, but for a more aggressive one.”
GOP goal: Avoid shutdown: Politico writes congressional Republicans return to Washington on Tuesday with a singular goal for September: avoid a government shutdown. But any carefully laid plans could be for naught, as President Donald Trump gets contradictory advice from rival factions in the West Wing. Some White House officials are confident that Trump will sign spending bills keeping the government open. But Politico says a smaller subset of immigration hard-liners inside the White House are encouraging Trump to fight on the border wall issue now, while Republicans still control Congress.
Read: Trump calls for tougher immigration laws in wake of Iowa slaying.
Kushner Cos.’ unpaid N.Y. fines: The Kushner family real estate firm has racked up over half a million dollars in unpaid fines for various New York City sanitation and building violations, much of that bill incurred while Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner was running the company, the Associated Press reports.
AP said the hundreds of violations in dozens of Kushner buildings ranged from the seemingly minor — “loose rubbish” — to the serious, such as not getting permits for electrical work or failing to notify authorities of work that could disturb asbestos. The Kushner Cos. said the tally is misleading because many of the fines are actually the fault of tenants illegally renting their apartments through Airbnb, and businesses in its buildings not cleaning up properly.
How Pelosi replied to leadership question: NPR says House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is fed up with speculation about whether she’d have enough votes to retake the speaker’s gavel if Democrats win back control of Congress in November.
“It is the least important question you could ask,” she told NPR, “with all due respect to your list of questions there.” She instead focuses on retaking the House, saying, “Will it be a tsunami or will it be a wave?”, assessing Democrats’ chances of taking back the chamber. “Either case it’s tiny little drops of water, and all of them close races.”
Source : MTV
