We begin today’s roundup with Lachlan Markay, Asawin Suebsaeng, Sam Stein, and Maxwell Tani at The Daily Beast on the Republican strategy to ram through the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh without an investigation:
Judge Brett Kavanaugh and his allies in Congress and the Trump White House concluded last week that time was no longer on their side.
And so, as new allegations against the Supreme Court nominee surfaced alongside unconfirmed rumors, they decided to mount a counteroffensive: demanding solidarity within the ranks and making an aggressive public relations push in Kavanaugh’s defense.
The most overt step came Monday as Kavanaugh and his wife sat down for an interview with Fox News host Martha MacCallum—an almost unheard of foray into the public eye for a Supreme Court nominee.
Ed Kilgore at New York magazine:
[T]here is now a strident and frankly substance-free mood among Kavanaugh’s conservatives defenders that is almost defiant in rejecting the accusations against him, and uninterested in alternative strategies for vindicating their constitutional views. Like the conservatives who came around to support for Donald Trump in 2016, they seem to have focused on fury at their ancient left-of-center enemies. And even though they could pay a high price if Kavanaugh goes down, his confirmation has become for them an end in itself.
These are the same Republicans who shrugged at the credible accusations of assault against Donald Trump, so were we to expect anything less?