ANSWERING REPEATED CALLS FOR A SUPPLEMENTAL FBI INVESTIGATION: Senate Democrats repeatedly said a supplemental FBI investigation was the only way to get to the truth.
- Senate Democrat Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer and Democrat Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Sen. Dianne Feinstein wrote in a letter to President Donald J. Trump that background investigations are “FBI’s standard practice.”
- Chuck Schumer: “There is really only one way to get to the bottom of these allegations and prevent the Nation from being thrown into further turmoil: an independent background check by the FBI.”
- Dianne Feinstein: “I think we need to do this investigation.”
- Mazie Hirono: “How do you get to the truth if you won’t even allow an investigation?”
- Dick Durbin: “If there is no truth to her charges, the FBI investigation will show that.”
- Chris Coons: “It is my hope that we could work together on a bipartisan basis to diligently pursue an FBI investigation within the next week.”
- Richard Blumenthal: “My view is that the FBI is an investigative agency of consummate skill and integrity. It will follow the facts and the law and the evidence where it leads them.”
- Amy Klobuchar: “Just ask the President to reopen the FBI investigation.”
MEETING THE DEMOCRATS’ OWN TIMELINE: In their calls for a supplemental FBI investigation, Senate Democrats touted that it could be completed in a week or less.
- In their letter to President Trump, Sens. Schumer and Feinstein claimed the FBI “has almost a full week to do its work” and “it will not take a ‘tremendous amount of time.’”
- Chuck Schumer: “It will only take a few days.”
- Chuck Schumer: “The FBI has ample resources to do this within the one-week period requested by the members of the Judiciary Committee. No one is asking that it take longer than a week…”
- Patty Murray: “That is exactly why we have been pressing for an FBI investigation that should only take a few days, so there are other facts out there, that there are other witnesses.”
- Chris Coons: “I do think it’s possible for us to have the FBI do a prompt and appropriate professional questioning of some of the core people here.”
- Chris Coons: “And I have conveyed to my friends and colleagues that I had wished we would take a one-week pause, one week only.”
MOVING THE GOAL POSTS: Now that Senate Democrats have gotten exactly what they called for, they are moving the goal posts once again.
- Chuck Schumer: “This is not a thorough investigation.”
- Feinstein: “The most notable part of this report is what’s not in it…. It looks to be a product of an incomplete investigation…”
- Kamala Harris: “The FBI report on Judge Kavanaugh is entirely incomplete and insufficient.”
- Richard Blumenthal: “There is nothing, absolutely nothing about this deadline that’s been imposed by the majority leader makes any sense.”