McConnell’s Democratic challenger says she likely would have voted for Kavanaugh

Amy McGrath, who announced this week she will challenge Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in 2020, said in an interview Wednesday that she would have likely voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“I was very concerned about Judge Kavanaugh, what I felt like were the far-right stances that he had. However, there was nothing in his record that I think would disqualify him in any way,” McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot, told the Louisville Courier-Journal.

“And the fact is when you have the president and the Senate, this is our system, and so I don’t think there was anything that would have disqualified him in my mind,” she said, adding when pressed on how she would have voted: “yeah, I probably would have voted for him.”{mosads}

McGrath later flipped her position, tweeting in the evening that “upon further reflection” she would not have voted for Kavanaugh‘s confirmation.

I was asked earlier today about Judge Brett Kavanaugh and I answered based upon his qualifications to be on the Supreme Court. But upon further reflection and further understanding of his record, I would have voted no.

— Amy McGrath (@AmyMcGrathKY) July 10, 2019

Kavanaugh’s nomination became a flashpoint after psychology professor and research psychologist Christine Blasey Ford said he sexually assaulted her when both were teenagers, allegations which he denied. Senators eventually voted 50-48 to confirm Kavanaugh, ending a rancorous debate over his nomination.

McGrath told the newspaper that she thought Ford’s allegations were “credible” but “given the amount of time that lapsed in between and from a judicial standpoint, I don’t think it would really disqualify him.”

Three Democrats who voted against Kavanaugh’s confirmation — Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Joe Donnelly (Ind.) — lost their seats in the 2018 midterms.

McConnell has touted his ability to advance President Trump’s judicial nominees, including Kavanaugh and Justice Neil Gorsuch, as one of his biggest accomplishments as he seeks reelection to the upper chamber.

In 2018, when McGrath was running against Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) in a House race, she spoke out against Kavanaugh in a Facebook post two months before Ford’s allegations were made public.

“Kavanaugh will likely be confirmed and we are starkly reminded, again, that elections have consequences, and this consequence will be with us for an entire generation,” McGrath said in 2018, although she did not say then whether she would have voted to confirm him.

Updated: July 11 at 10:40 a.m.