Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) said in an interview aired Monday that she was well prepared to vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh but decided against it after watching his hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee last month.
North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp was willing to vote “yes” on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. However, then she watched him with the sound off.
Heitkamp, who was considered a swing vote in Kavanaugh’s confirmation process, said that she had her office begin to prepare a statement saying that she was voting for him, up until that hearing.
Heitkamp said that she watched Christine Blasey Ford’s hearing before Kavanaugh’s and then Kavanaugh’s for another time, however with the sound off.
She added that we communicate not only with words, but with our body language and demeanor as well.
Heitkamp noted that she saw somebody who was very angry, who was very nervous, and saw rage that a lot of people said, well of course you’re going to see rage as he is being falsely accused, but it is at all times you are to acquit yourself with a demeanor that’s becoming of the court.
She said the final straw came when Kavanaugh responded to Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) asking him if he had ever passed out from drinking by asking her the exact same question.
Kavanaugh on Saturday got confirmed to the Supreme Court by a 50-48 vote in the Senate.
Heitkamp also said that she believed Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of assaulting her sexually because of her experience as an attorney working with victims of sexual assault.
She said that she certainly thinks she has the expertise beyond a number of people within the United States Senate and that expertise is that she have sat across the desk with victims people which she believed when they told her their story, and she had to say, ‘I trust you but these cases can not be proved beyond certain limit so we can’t proceed with the prosecution’.
Heitkamp, who is one of ten Senate Democrats who are up for reelection in states that President Trump won in 2016, is considered very vulnerable ahead of November’s midterms. Recent polling has shown that she is trailing challenger Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) by a double-digit margin.
