Brett Kavanaugh took the bench with his new Supreme Court colleagues for the first time Tuesday in a jovial atmosphere that was strikingly at odds with the tension and rancor surrounding his high court confirmation. AP’s Mark Sherman explains. (Oct. 9)
AP
WASHINGTON – The nation might have a new Supreme Court justice but Americans don’t seem too pleased.
A majority of Americans don’t approve of new Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh and would support an additional investigation into his conduct, according to a new poll commissioned by The Washington Post and ABC News.
Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the nation’s highest court managed to divide an already intensely polarized nation with protests for weeks in Washington and rallies planned nationwide in the weeks leading up to the midterms, all planned to have a sharp focus on Kavanaugh. The first set of rallies is planned this weekend in Chicago and Massachusetts.
The poll found 51 percent of Americans disapprove of Kavanaugh being on the Supreme Court while 41 percent approve. It also found a majority of people believed the Senate Judiciary Committee did not do enough to investigate the allegations of sexual assault by Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh was accused by a handful of women of misconduct when he was in high school and college. He has denied all the claims.
More: Donald Trump calls assault allegations against Kavanaugh a Democratic ‘hoax’
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The first was brought by Christine Blasey Ford, who later was brought before Congress to testify about a high school party where she said Kavanaugh groped her and covered her mouth to prevent her from screaming.
The Republican-controlled committee talked with those involved in the accusations but the FBI, who was brought in to investigate, did not talk to Ford, Kavanaugh and a number of others.
Conservatives dismissed the claims, saying there were no witnesses and no proof of any assault. But Democrats pushed the slow the process and have the FBI investigate the allegations.
Those asked in the poll whether they would support Congress in further investigating Kavanaugh, even if it leads to an effort to remove him from the court, a majority of 53 percent said they would support another investigation.
Another 43 percent of those polled said they believed Kavanaugh’s additional to the Supreme Court would make the high court more “politically motivated,” a showing of what some politicians said they feared after Kavanaugh made a number of comments accusing Democrats of a “grotesque” character assassination that ruined his name and spurred death threats against him and his family.
While the poll included a slim majority of Democrats, independents were the largest group questioned in the poll. A slight majority of those questioned signaled they’d be more swayed to voting for a Democratic candidate over a Republican.
The poll was conducted by telephone in a random sample of 1,144 adults. It was conducted during Kavanaugh’ first week on the job and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
As newly-confirmed Judge Brett Kavanaugh arrives at the Supreme Court to be sworn in as an associate justice, he was met by hundreds of protesters demonstrating on the steps of the building. (Oct. 6)
AP
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