{"id":628421,"date":"2018-09-22T11:44:45","date_gmt":"2018-09-22T17:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=628421"},"modified":"2018-09-22T16:10:20","modified_gmt":"2018-09-22T22:10:20","slug":"rich-johnson-still-support-kavanaugh-but-want-to-hear-from-accuser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/09\/rich-johnson-still-support-kavanaugh-but-want-to-hear-from-accuser\/","title":{"rendered":"Rich, Johnson still support Kavanaugh but want to hear from accuser"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_628424\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-628424\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_6765-771x579.jpg\" alt=\"The U.S. Supreme Court\" width=\"771\" height=\"579\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_6765-771x579.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_6765-336x252.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_6765-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_6765-1170x878.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_6765-800x600.jpg 800w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_6765.jpg 1250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Laura Paskus \/ New Mexico Political Report<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Following an allegation of sexual assault, the confirmation of U.S. Circuit Judge and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh became more controversial.<\/p>\n<p>Now some Democrats, including New Mexico\u2019s two senators, want an investigation into what happened between Kavanaugh and college professor Christine Blasey Ford at a party in high school, where Ford alleges Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her.<\/p>\n<p>New Mexico U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, a Democrat, issued a statement this week calling for an FBI investigation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe sexual assault allegation made against Judge Kavanaugh deserves a thorough, professional investigation by the FBI before proceeding with any vote on his nomination to the highest court in the land,\u201d Heinrich said.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpoliticalreport.com\/879855\/rich-johnson-still-support-kavanaugh-but-want-to-hear-from-accuser\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Mexico Political Report<\/a>,\u00a0a nonprofit news organization\u00a0focused on promoting a greater public understanding of politics and policy in New Mexico.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Heinrich is facing re-election this year and his two challengers both previously said they would vote to confirm Kavanaugh if given the chance. Those two candidates still support Kavanaugh, but also want to hear more from Ford and Kavanaugh about what happened almost 40 years ago. Neither candidate questioned Ford\u2019s allegation.<\/p>\n<p>Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mick Rich said the Senate needs to hear from Ford.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s come forward and said that there was an incident that happened. That needs to be addressed, it needs to be discussed,\u201d Rich said.<\/p>\n<p>But, the Albuquerque construction contractor said, Kavanaugh\u2019s age when the assault allegedly took place should be considered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like to see Martin Heinrich go to a high school and tell those students, \u2018If you went to a party and behaved inappropriately, you have no future,\u2019\u201d Rich said.<\/p>\n<p>Rich also accused Democrats, namely Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, of over-politicizing the issue and added that Ford\u2019s name being leaked to the public \u201cwas about as abusive as what happened to her back then.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s all politics,\u201d Rich said. \u201cDianne Feinstein coming in at the last minute, it\u2019s politics. She\u2019s struggling for her election, it\u2019s about politics, across the board, I get it, I understand it. It doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s acceptable.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>A spokesman for Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate Gary Johnson said the two-term Republican governor and two-time Libertarian presidential candidate also thinks politics are in play.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDr. Blasey\u2019s accusations, that\u2019s not political, that\u2019s important,\u201d Johnson campaign spokesman Joe Hunter said. \u201cThe way it\u2019s being handled on Capitol Hill is entirely political.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The blame, Hunter said, is on both parties.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDemocrats are using this as a way to try to delay the process. The Republicans are, at the same time, trying to use the process to move the confirmation as quickly as they can,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cThat\u2019s all very predictable and it\u2019s unfortunate that it is so predictable that politics are playing into it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hunter said Johnson still has faith in Kavanaugh\u2019s ability to sit on the Supreme Court, with the caveat that the Senate takes the time to hear both sides of the story.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBased on what is actually known, based on the record, the hearings and the process to date, Gary still believes Kavanaugh to be the kind of, loyal-to-the-constitution-nominee that he would support,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cBut at the same time, clearly Dr. Blasey deserves to be heard as does Judge Kavanaugh as it relates to the current accusations and the process needs to play out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both Rich and Johnson have praised Kavanaugh for his originalist view of the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>Executive Director of Southwest Women\u2019s Law Center Pamelya Herndon said the constitutional consideration that should be taken is the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote. Further, Herndon said, the Senate should take special care in considering Kavanaugh given Ford\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re looking at a person who might be sitting on the highest court of our country and we wouldn\u2019t expect to see a criminal record behind him, sitting on the Supreme Court,\u201d Herndon said. \u201cWhether you\u2019re in high school or college or wherever you are, you still are responsible for being a law-abiding citizen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Herndon called Ford \u201cvery brave\u201d and said she hopes the Senate will consider the difficulty of bringing such accusations to the public eye.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the things that\u2019s really important is that Dr. Ford decided to come forward,\u201d Herndon said. \u201cIt\u2019s always very difficult for women, when they have been abused or hurt or sexually assaulted in any manner, to come forth because they always tend to end up being more victimized.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Both candidates have praised Kavanaugh for his originalist view of the Constitution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":628424,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2238,3706,297,161,3332,3651,3272,116],"class_list":["post-628421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2018-election","tag-brett-kavanaugh","tag-gary-johnson","tag-judiciary","tag-martin-heinrich","tag-mick-rich","tag-u-s-supreme-court","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}