Rick Santorum: Trump ‘bowed to the elite’ with Brett Kavanaugh pick – By Al Weaver (washington examiner) / July 9 2018
Former Sen. Rick Santorum said Monday night that President Trump “bowed to the elite” with his nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court and labeled him the “establishment pick” that will not energize the president’s base.
Santorum argued that some within the president’s base are “turned off” with the choice. The former Pennsylvania senator was a vocal supporter of Judge Thomas Hardiman, the runner-up to the nominations of Kavanaugh and Justice Neil Gorsuch last year, a justice based in Western Pennsylvania.
“Donald Trump said he was going to energize the base with this pick. I don’t think he did that. I think a lot of the folks in the base were really sort of turned off to Brett Kavanaugh,” Santorum told CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “He is from Washington. He is the establishment pick. He was the Bush pick.”
“It just seems like Trump, in this case, bowed to the elite in Washington, and I think that’s going to rub a lot of people the wrong way,” Santorum said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a game changer, but I think it’s not a ‘yeah, let’s go get em!’ moment for Trump.”
Kavanaugh was nominated to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court at an event at the White House Monday evening and beat out the like of Hardiman, Judge Amy Coney Barrett and Judge Raymond Kethledge for the nomination.
Kavanaugh has served on the D.C. circuit court of appeals since 2006, when former President George W. Bush nominated him to the bench.
