Green group compares Kavanaugh to Cohen, Manafort

The Sierra Club is targeting President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh by comparing him to other controversial people hired or nominated by Trump.

An advertisement the environmental group is pushing on the web starting Monday quotes Trump’s numerous declarations that he wants to hire the “best people,” juxtaposing Kavanaugh with Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to fraud charges; former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was convicted on tax charges; dismissed officials like former adviser Omarosa Manigault Newman and others.

“Unlike Trump’s other bad hires, this one can’t be fired,” the ad text reads while is heard Trump speaking. “If Kavanaugh is confirmed, he’s in for life.”

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The video doesn’t focus on environmental matters, though it does warn that Kavanaugh on the bench would be “a loss for women’s rights and environmental safeguards.”

“Given Brett Kavanaugh’s extreme track record on presidential power and immunity, public health, women’s rights, and commonsense environmental safeguards, it’s no question that the Senate must reject Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court,” Courtney Hight, director of the Sierra Club’s Democracy Program, said in a statement.

“Americans deserve a justice who will restore the balance on the court and serve as a check on the executive branch, but we know that Brett Kavanaugh will do anything but. That’s why the Sierra Club is mobilizing our 3.5 million members and supporters to stop Brett Kavanaugh and protect the right of the public to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live in safe communities.”

The group said it plans to spend five figures on the ad. The ad is running nationally, but the Sierra Club is promoting it in Maine, Nevada and Colorado, states with senators who are undecided on Kavanaugh and might be the key votes for or against him: Susan Collins (R-Maine), Dean Heller (R-Nev.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.).

The Senate Judiciary Committee is planning to hold confirmation hearings for Kavanaugh next week.