GOP candidate Hawley releases ad slamming Senate “circus” on Kavanaugh nomination

Missouri Attorney General and Republican Senate candidate Josh Hawley released an ad titled “Circus” Wednesday slamming the Senate confirmation process for Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh. 

“People in our Senate today, they’ve created a circus. Liberals like Claire McCaskill and Chuck Schumer, they don’t want the truth. They only want power. And too many Republicans won’t stand up,” Hawley says in the ad. 

{mosads} “I’m Josh Hawley, and I will fight for the Supreme Court. It’s the last line of defense for our values. It’s worth the battle,” he adds. 

Hawley, who is running in a tight race to unseat Sen. Claire McCaskill (D), does not mention Kavanaugh by name in the 30-second ad. 

Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing was thrown into tumult after three women went public with sexual misconduct allegations against him while he was in high school and college.

McCaskill announced her opposition to Kavanaugh’s nomination last month, citing his positions on the “avalanche of dark, anonymous money that is crushing our democracy.” 

She added that she is also “uncomfortable about his view on Presidential power as it relates to the rule of law, and his position that corporations are people.”

McCaskill also voted against Justice Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation in April 2017.

Hawley announced at a debate last month he would support Kavanaugh.

The ad comes amid signs that Republicans are seeking to use his nomination as a campaign issue, including by attacking Democrats for trying to derail his confirmation.

Democrats, however, are also likely to use the nomination as a way to turn out their base.

Hawley has defended Kavanaugh after he was accused by Christine Blasey Ford of sexual assault when they were both at a high school party in the early 1980s.

Ford and Kavanaugh both testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.

“I don’t doubt her sincerity for a moment,” Hawley told reporters on a conference call Monday “But it’s a matter of evidence. And it just isn’t there.”

“This is a man who has been falsely accused … This has ruined his reputation,” he added, according to The Kansas City Star.

He also slammed calls from Democratic senators for supporting an up to one-week investigation by the FBI into the allegations.

“I don’t think the point of this investigation was to gather facts,” he said. “I think the point was to delay and stall further.”

The Senate candidate had released an ad in July saying he had gotten “his start” at the Supreme Court defending religious liberty and touting it was also where he met his wife. 

The ad was released on the same day Kavanaugh was nominated.

Non-partisan prognosticator The Cook Political Report currently rates the Missouri Senate race as a “toss up.”