Hirono cancels meeting with Kavanaugh and will oppose Supreme Court nomination

U.S. Sen. Mazie K. Hirono announced Wednesday that she will oppose the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Donald Trump long ago announced his intention to nominate a judge off of a list prepared by the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation,” the Hawaii Democrat said in a news release.

“When it became clear he chose the one person from that list who believes presidents should not be subject to criminal investigations or civil suits, I knew that nominee would have a very heavy burden of proof. Given his lengthy record of partisan political activity, I could not give him the benefit of the doubt.”

Hirono said she spent the last six weeks reading Kavanaugh’s opinions and dissents from his time on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, along with his law reviews, speeches and the “relatively few documents” from his federal service that Judiciary Committee senators have been allowed to see.

“It is clear to me that he is not a fair-minded judge and would not be a fair-minded justice,” she said.

Hirono went on to say Kavanaugh favors big business and polluters and has ruled against protections for the environment, workers and women.

On Wednesday morning, she also had some strong words for Trump before the Senate Judiciary Committee in response to news about his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen’s guilty plea as well as the conviction of his past campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

“These are certainly not the times for this committee to consider a Supreme Court nominee of this president, especially a nominee who thinks the president should be immune from investigation,” she said. “We cannot abandon common sense in this dangerous time for our democracy.”

Hirono is traveling home to Hawaii to be with family and constituents in advance of Hurricane Lane.