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Democratic Senator Cory Booker has released e-mails from Supreme Court candidate Brett Kavanaugh, even though it puts him at risk of being expelled from the Senate. In response to the threat of deportation, several Democrats said: (6 September)
AP

WASHINGTON – The four days of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court candidate Brett Kavanaugh included loud demonstrations, partisan fighting and a lot of drama.

Here are some of the most important moments when the Senate Judiciary Committee considered the candidacy of President Donald Trump:

Survivor at shooting school

Aalayah Eastmond, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Survived the February shooting in her school by hiding under the body of her dead comrade, Nicholas Dworet. At Friday's hearing, she implored the senators to look into her story by deciding whether Kavanaugh is the person they want to try in the gun control cases before the Supreme Court.

"When he (Nicholas) fell, I fell with him," she said. "I then placed myself under his lifeless body, placing his arm on my body and my head under his back.The bullets continued to fly.I kept my eyes on the ground so I knew when to hold my breath and close your eyes close. "

"I told God I knew I was going to die," said Eastmond, who has become a gun control advocate. "I asked him: do it quickly, I did not want to feel anything, I asked that the bullet go through my head so that I could not bear any pain … after the shooting took place. was arrested in my class, his body became very heavy, I could not breathe, I rolled him out of me and put his head on his arm so that he did not touch the cold soil. "

She asked senators – some in tears – to "remember my story, to remember that my classmates who have died, to remember the victims of color who face shootings every day, remember all of them. victims of armed violence ".

& # 39; Law of the mob & # 39;

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Democratic senators divert Brett Kavanaugh's audience against Republicans, precipitating the process and dumping thousands of documents a few hours earlier.
USA TODAY & # 39; HUI

Angry Democrats tried unsuccessfully to postpone hearings after the White House refused more than 100,000 documents from Kavanaugh's work in the Bush administration.

While Democrats and Republicans were debating, dozens of anti-Kavanaugh protesters in the audience were arrested by Capitol police after getting up and shouting while senators were speaking. The demonstrations continued throughout the week.

Tuesday's hearing was so chaotic that Senator John Cornyn of Texas, Senate Republican No. 2, called it a "rule of the populace" and "contrary to what I've seen before. a confirmation hearing ".

"We have rules in the Senate, we have standards for decorum," said Cornyn.

The handshake that was not

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When Brett Kavanaugh moved away from the father of a Parkland shooting victim after attempting to shake his hand, many people wondered exactly where the Supreme Court's candidate stood for laws on gun control.
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Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter, Jaime, was killed in the Feb. 14 shootout at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, attempted to shake Kavanaugh's hand during a break at the hearing. Tuesday.

"Put my hand to introduce me as Jaime Guttenberg's father," he tweeted. "He withdrew his hand, turned his back on me and went away, I guess he did not want to face the reality of gun violence."

The White House spokesman, Raj Shah, proposed an alternative version of the event, tweeting that "an unidentified person" approached Kavanaugh and that the judge was "able to shake hands".

Moment "Spartacus" by Cory Booker

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During the third day of the Supreme Court's confirmation hearing by Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Senator Cory Booker challenged his colleagues to deport him for breaking a rule to which he took a stand. opposes by publishing confidential e-mails.
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Senator Cory Booker, D-N.J., Spoke on Thursday when he challenged Republicans to try to deport him for publicly disclosing some of Kavanaugh's emails that the majority of the GOP had found to be confidential.

Cornyn said it was "irresponsible and dangerous" that a senator violates Senate rules for disseminating classified information. Booker stated that the public had the right to view Kavanaugh's e-mails, including a 2002 paper in which Kavanaugh appeared to support the use of racial profiling temporarily after the September 11th terrorist attacks.

Booker, considered a presidential candidate in the 2020 presidential election, said he was living for a moment "I am Spartacus" when his action was supported by fellow Democrats. He was referring to a line from the 1960 movie "Spartacus", in which former slaves protected their leader from the Romans by stating that they were all Spartacus.

Critics ridiculed the moment as nothing more than the show. Booker was unlikely to be expelled from the Senate because the severe sanctions required the approval of 67 senators. Republicans hold only a slim majority 51-49. In addition, the Republicans declassified the documents several hours before Booker published them.

Dramatic silence on Trump's power

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The Supreme Court's candidate, Brett Kavanaugh, believes that the first thing that makes a good judge is "independence". In the midst of the protesters' constant disruption, Kavanaugh answers questions before the Senate Judiciary Committee. (September 5th)
AP

The Democrats pressed Kavanaugh for several days on the issue of presidential power. Kavanaugh could become the deciding vote on whether Trump can be charged or compelled to testify as part of the investigation of Special Adviser Robert Mueller on Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

"Can a sitting president be required to answer a summons?" Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Asked the judge Tuesday.

Kavanaugh replied, "I can not give you an answer on this hypothetical question."

Likewise, he refused to answer a question about the fact that the president could forgive himself, as Trump said.

Birth control called "drugs causing abortion"

Kavanaugh called "birth control" an "abortion-causing drug" during his testimony on Thursday, sparking controversy among abortion rights activists.

He used this term in response to a question from Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, about Kavanaugh's dissent in a 2015 case involving a Catholic group that opposed contraception.

Kavanaugh testified that the group was obliged to provide medical coverage for birth control "in relation to their religious objection". He stated that the group would have been obliged to fill out a form that "would make them complicit in the provision of the abortion-causing drugs" to which they opposed.

Democrats said Kavanaugh should not confuse birth control with abortion. Feinstein called his comment "further proof of Kavanaugh's hostility to women".

Contributors: Richard Wolf, Herb Jackson, William Cummings

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