Eric Holder Cartoons

Trump unloads on Sen. Bob Casey at fiery Pennsylvania rally: 'He's banking on the name of his father'

At a fiery rally in Erie, Pennsylvania on Wednesday night, President Trump unloaded a series of broadsides on two-term Sen. Bob Casey, characterizing him as a pale shadow of his late father who values illegal immigrants more than U.S. citizens.
Trump also reiterated his commitment to the state's coal industry and promised immediate support to Floridians impacted by Hurricane Michael.
Trump opened the rally by saying that "all of Pennsylvania, and all of America sends its unwavering love and support" to those in the path of the hurricane. Offering his "thoughts and prayers," he vowed that "we will spare no expense" to address the storm, and that he'd traveling to Florida "very, very shortly."
"We are unleashing the power ... of clean, beautiful Pennsylvania coal," Trump said to applause, after touting the economic growth under his administration. "We are putting our miners back to work. We are putting our steelworkers back to work."
Trump has made several visits to Pennsylvania since becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to carry the far-left state since George H.W. Bush in 1988. He was stumping for Republican Reps. Mike Kelly, Glenn "GT" Thompson, and Lou Barletta, among others, as well as gubernatorial candidate Scott Wagner.
"The best thing I can say about Scott Wagner is he has the endorsement of Judge Jeanine," Trump said, referring to Fox News host Jeanine Pirro. He acknowledged that Wagner, who is far behind in the polls, is up against a "tough" opponent.
Kelly is facing a challenge from Democrat Ron DiNicola, while Barletta is mounting an uphill campaign to unseat two-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey.
"While Lou is fighting for you, Bob Casey is fighting to protect violent criminal aliens," Trump said Wednesday, to loud boos. "Bob Casey voted in favor of deadly sanctuary cities that release thousands upon thousands of illegal alien criminals and vicious gang members to prey on Pennsylvania's streets. No good."
"Bob Casey even voted against Kate's Law, named for Kate Steinle, who was gunned down by a five-time-deported illegal alien who should never have been in our country," Trump said. The legislation, which is stalled in the Senate, would hike the penalties for illegal immigrants who attempt to re-enter the country. Casey has opposed it, saying the best solution is to focus on securing the border.
"Bob Casey puts criminal aliens ahead of U.S. citizens. Always has. ... He's banking on the name of his father," Trump said. Casey's father, who died in 2000, previously served as the state's governor from 1987 to 1995.
Trump has long attacked Casey. At a rally in Pennsylvania in August, Trump mocked Casey as "Sleepin' Bob" and said the longtime Democratic senator was a truant who is "so overrated."

"He's banking on the name of his father."
— President Trump on Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa.

"I'm not sure I ever met Bob Casey," Trump said. "Now, his father was a good man. Knew him a little bit. But we're dealing with a totally different person. I don't know this man."
"He's not an obstructionist, he's worse: He will do whatever Schumer, Pelosi, and the new star of the Democrat Party tells him to do," Trump said, referring to Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. "Very low IQ," Trump added.
WATCH: ERIC HOLDER URGES DEMOCRATS TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST REPUBLICANS: 'WHEN THEY GO LOW, KICK 'EM'
Staring down tough midterm elections, the president and top Republicans have sought to characterize mob tactics as a hallmark of modern progressivism, in the wake of comments by Waters encouraging protesters to confront and "push back on" White House officials in public places. Trump has often mockingly called Waters a "leader" of the Democratic Party, even as he said her IQ hovers in the mid-60s.
In recent weeks, liberal fury over the nomination and eventual confirmation of Associate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh reached a tipping point, with groups of demonstrators shouting at senators on Capitol Hill and even attempting to claw their way inside the Supreme Court building. Protesters also chased Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and his wife out of a restaurant, and activists have sent death threats to Kavanaugh and top Republicans.
Trump on Wednesday night called Democrats' behavior a "disgrace" and said he "never even thought" about abandoning Kavanaugh in the face of several uncorroborated sexual misconduct allegations. He also took a shot at the so-called #MeToo movement that opposed Kavanaugh, implying that its proponents are so politically correct that they would insist on the gender-neutral phrase "the person that got away."
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Trump also published an op-ed in USA Today that attacked Democrats over "Medicare for All" health care proposals. In his op-ed, Trump said Democrats have moved away from centrism, claiming the "new Democrats are radical socialists who want to model America's economy after Venezuela."
Before he flew to Erie, Trump said he faced a lose-lose "quagmire" because of the timing of the hurricane. Last month, the White House canceled rallies in Mississippi and Missouri because of Hurricane Florence, which hit the Carolinas.
The president's rallies have increasingly given him a platform to test-fire new attacks against high-profile Democratic rivals, as well as to introduce new policies.
At a rally Tuesday night in Iowa, Trump announced that he would remove a federal ban on summer sales of gasoline with high-ethanol blends, permitting year-round sales of gasoline with 15 percent ethanol or E15.
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"We’re going with E15 year-round. I made that promise to you during the campaign. I made that promise to you during the primaries," he said. "Promises made, promises kept."
The long-expected announcement is something of a reward to Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman led a contentious but successful fight to confirm Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The veteran Republican lawmaker is the Senate's leading ethanol proponent and sharply criticized the Trump administration's proposed rollback in ethanol volumes earlier this year.
At the rally Wednesday, Trump again mocked Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., for her denial last week that she had anything to do with the leak of Christine Blasey Ford's letter accusing Kavanaugh of sexual assault.
Ford, who sent the letter to Feinstein's office in July, publicly revealed herself just days before a planned Judiciary Committee vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation when news of her letter leaked to The Intercept. Senate Republicans have strongly implied that, because no Republicans had access to the letter, Feinstein or a member of her staff was involved in the leak.
JUDICIARY CMTE CHAIRMAN CONDEMNS FEINSTEIN'S HANDLING OF FORD LETTER: 'I CANNOT OVERSTATE HOW DISAPPOINTED I AM'
As Trump imitated Feinstein's denial in Iowa on Tuesday, the crowd chanted, "Lock her up,"  a phrase that Trump supporters previously applied almost exclusively to former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
For her part, Feinstein, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, suggested that one of Ford's friends had leaked information about the letter. She also, in no uncertain terms, condemned Trump's rhetoric.
"Dr. Blasey Ford knows I kept her confidence, she and her lawyers said so repeatedly," Feinstein said Wednesday. "Republican senators admit it. Even the reporter who broke the story said it wasn't me or my staff. The president's remarks are ridiculous and an embarrassment."
Trump is scheduled to attend another rally Friday evening in Ohio and on Saturday evening in Kentucky.
Fox News' Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Biden not planning 2020 run 'at this point,' but bitter feud with Trump continues

Former Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday pointedly refused to rule out a presidential run in 2020, telling an audience in London only that he has no plans "at this point" to take his war of words with President Trump to the voters.
"I think there are many people in the Democratic Party that can defeat Trump and not a single aspiring candidate that I can think of for the nomination -- and I am not one at this point -- does not have a better understanding and formulation of American foreign policy than President Trump," Biden said at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a think tank commonly known as Chatham House.
He continued: "I'm not being rankly partisan here -- the president acknowledged at the outset he didn't know a lot about foreign policy. ... I think there are any number of potential candidates seeking the nomination, from [Sen.] Kamala Harris [D-Calif.] to a whole range of people in my party, who would pursue a much more enlightened foreign policy than the president."
WATCH: ERIC HOLDER REJECTS MICHELLE OBAMA'S CALL FOR CIVILITY: 'WHEN THEY GO LOW, WE KICK 'EM'
The 75-year-old Biden, who would be the oldest living president at 79 if he took office in January 2021, has been unrelenting critic of the Trump administration. Earlier this year, Biden vowed that he would have "beat[en] the hell out of" Trump in high school because of the Republican's boasts about women in the leaked "Access Hollywood" tape.
RAND PAUL WARNS OF 'ASSASSINATION' IN D.C. AS LIBERAL RHETORIC BECOMES INCREASINGLY HEATED
This summer, Biden panned the family separations resulting from the White House's "zero-tolerance" policy on illegal immigrants as "one of the darkest moments in our history." And in September, Biden openly mocked Trump's claims about his own intelligence.
For his part, Trump -- who often uses his campaign-style rallies to test-fire new broadsides against potential 2020 rivals -- has hit back at Biden's physical and mental prowess, saying it would be no trouble at all to rough up the former vice president.
“Remember, he challenged me to a fight," Trump said last week at a rally in Kansas. "'I’d like to take him behind the barn.’ I’d love that. That wouldn’t last long. That would not last long. That wouldn’t last long,” Trump told the crowd. Then, after imitating a punch, he continued: "He's down, and he'll never get up."
Trump has also variously called Biden "crazy" and "sleepy," referring to videos apparently showing Biden falling asleep during speeches.
Owing to what he said was rising anti-Trump sentiment, the former vice president on Wednesday was bullish on Democrats' chances in the upcoming midterm elections in November. He predicted that progressive candidates could realistically take back not only the House, but also the Senate --  where the 35 seats up for election are in GOP-leaning states.
FOX NEWS POLLS SHOW KAVANAUGH SLUGFEST BOOSTING GOP ENTHUSIASM IN KEY SENATE RACES
"I predict to you the Democrats will win 40 seats in the House. And I predict to you there's a slightly better than even chance we win the Senate," Biden said.
Political headwinds normally work against the party of incumbent presidents in their first midterm elections. According to an analysis by former George W. Bush administration official Bruce Mehlman, in the past 11 such midterm seasons, new presidents saw their party make net gains only once in the House, four times in the Senate and zero times in state gubernatorial contests.
However, Fox News battleground polls released last week show a marked increase in Republican voter enthusiasm in the wake of the heated and bitterly partisan confirmation battle over Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
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That enthusiasm has strengthened Republicans' already-strong odds of retaining control of the Senate, even as the House remains contentious.
"President Trump is the only president — and I've been there for nine now — who when things are going very well in terms of the economy, his numbers aren’t going up," Biden said Wednesday.
Still, poll numbers for Republican Senate candidates have become significantly more favorable. Compared with early September, the number of Republican voters feeling “extremely” interested in the upcoming election is up by 2 points in Arizona, up by 9 points in Indiana, up 8 points in both Missouri and North Dakota, and up 11 points in Tennessee. In each state, Republicans are now just as likely as Democrats to say they are extremely interested -- erasing an edge Democrats had in several states last month.
"The fight over Judge Kavanaugh is increasing base intensity for both parties, helping Democrats with white college-educated women in suburban House districts while bolstering Republicans among evangelical voters in the many rural red state Senate contests," Mehlman told Fox News.
Biden, who has repeatedly refused to rule out a 2020 presidential run in the past year, was briefly considered a possible challenger to Trump during the 2016 campaign. However, he ultimately decided to back eventual nominee Hillary Clinton, saying it would have been taxing to mount a campaign so soon after the 2015 death of his 46-year-old son Beau.

Jeb Bush wasn’t invited to Barbara’s surprise wedding

The daughter to George and Laura Bush got hitched in a secret, private ceremony in Maine. Here’s a look at some of the special moments with the happy couple.

Jeb Bush wasn’t invited to niece Barbara Bush’s surprise weekend wedding, it was revealed Wednesday.
Former first lady Laura Bush said the former Florida governor and failed presidential candidate didn’t make the cut for the small-scale, and short notice, Oct. 7 nuptials — in which her eldest daughter with former President George W. Bush married actor Craig Coyne.
“Well, I think Barbara just kept it a secret, plus so few people were invited,” the former FLOTUS told journalist Cokie Roberts, who interviewed her on stage at an event in Washington, DC.
“It was just our family and Craig’s family. And we didn’t invite Jeb, or Neil, or any of those Bushes.”
President George W. Bush’s sister, Dorothy Bush Koch, did make the cut – as she served as the couple’s officiant.
The 36-year-old bride chose the family home so her 94-year-old grandfather, former President George H.W. Bush, could be there.
“And so we had a wedding outside, looking at the ocean. And then we went in and had dinner at the dining room table, there were 20 of us at the dining room table,” Laura Bush said. “So it was just perfect. It was Barbara and Craig, her new husband – who we like a lot. And his family and our family.”
Twin sister Jenna Bush Hager’s older daughter Mila was a flower girl, as was Coyne’s niece Emma.
Laura Bush also revealed that Poppy, Jenna Bush Hager’s 3-year-old daughter, played the part of ring bearer.
She “was very proud of being a ring bearer. Of course, the box was empty because they knew that she couldn’t have the ring so Craig had it in his pocket,” Laura Bush described.
“So during the entire ceremony she walked around with the ring box,” Laura Bush said.

Dem senator Heitkamp slams Clinton call to abandon civility with GOP

Lock Her Up!

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's incendiary suggestion this week that liberals "cannot be civil" with Republicans any longer is unproductive and simply "ridiculous," a top Democratic senator said Wednesday.
The stark repudiation of Clinton's comments by Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., a vulnerable red-state Democrat seeking re-election this year, comes as Republicans have lined up in recent days to criticize Democrats' fiery rhetoric amid the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
“You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about,” Clinton told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday. “That’s why I believe, if we are fortunate enough to win back the House and/or the Senate, that’s when civility can start again. But until then, the only thing Republicans seem to recognize and respect is strength.”
WATCH: ERIC HOLDER TELLS DEMS, 'WHEN THEY GO LOW, WE KICK 'EM'
Heitkamp, whose "no" vote on Kavanaugh seemingly caused her already-wavering popularity to plummet in North Dakota, minced no words in response Wednesday night.
"That's ridiculous," Heitkamp said on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360." "I mean, I can't imagine how you get anything done if you don't bring civility back into politics, and that goes for both sides."
"I hope that we can find common ground in this country that sexual assault is more prominent than people thought it was," Heitkamp continued.
Fox News' polling shows Republican challenger Kevin Cramer now leading Heitkamp by 12 points (53 percent to 41 percent). Last month, before Heitkamp voiced her reluctance to support Kavanaugh, he was up by only 4 points.

"That's ridiculous. ... I hope that we can find common ground."
— Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.

“That spectacle proved to be perhaps the greatest political gift I’ve been given in a very long time,” Cramer said. Heitkamp has said she was leaning toward voting for Kavanaugh until she re-watched his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month with the sound off, and analyzed his "body language."
President Trump enjoys a 64 percent approval rating in North Dakota, but part of the Democratic plan to keep Heitkamp’s seat is to exploit uncertainty over agricultural tariffs favored by the White House. Republicans are looking to take the seat to expand their narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate.
Senior Republican strategists and politicians lined up to echo Heitkamp's sentiment on civility this week, which could help her regain some standing among conservatives with less than a month before November's midterm elections.
Speaking on "Fox & Friends," White House adviser Kellyanne Conway called Clinton's comments "dangerous."
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Protests outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday, the first day Kavanaugh publicly sat on the bench for oral arguments, were relatively sparse. On Saturday, when Kavanaugh was formally sworn in, demonstrators outside banged on the Supreme Court's doors and attempted to claw their way inside.
Hundreds of protesters have been arrested by Capitol Police in the past three weeks, with some briefly staying in jail. Kavanaugh, his family, his accusers and lawmakers all received death threats.
Meanwhile, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who last year was beaten in his yard and shot at while participating in a GOP congressional baseball practice, blamed Democrats for potentially inciting violence.
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"I fear that there's going to be an assassination," Paul told a Kentucky radio show on Tuesday. "I really worry that somebody is going to be killed, and that those who are ratcheting up the conversation ... they have to realize they bear some responsibility if this elevates to violence."
He continued: "When I was at the ballfield and Steve Scalise was nearly killed, the guy shooting up the ballfield, and shooting I think five or six people, he was yelling, 'This is for health care.' ... When I was attacked in my yard and had six of my ribs broken, and pneumonia, lung contusion, all that -- these are people that are unstable, we don't want to encourage them."
Paul specifically called out Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., for saying this summer that his supporters should "get up in the face of some congresspeople." President Trump and other Republicans have also criticized Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., for urging protesters to harass Trump administration officials in public, with Trump calling Waters an unusually "low IQ" individual who represents the new face of the Democratic party.
There are signs that Republicans are being targeted with increasing frequency in recent days. Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., revealed to Fox News on Sunday that his wife had received a graphic text message with a video depicting a beheading, and that someone has publicly posted the names and addresses of his family members.
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The apparent intimidation efforts follow reports from Capitol Police that the Democratic congressional aide accused of publishing the private information (known as "doxxing") of at least three Republican lawmakers last month also allegedly threatened to leak senators’ children's health information if a witness told anyone about his activities.
Jackson Cosko, who recently worked for Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, was arrested for allegedly doxxing Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Mike Lee and Orrin Hatch, both of Utah, on Wikipedia -- with information such as their home addresses and phone numbers. Graham, Lee and Hatch's information was published in September.
Fox News' Alex Pappas contributed to this report.

Noncitizen Voting Cartoons

Unclear if noncitizens voted in primary, California's top election official says

Alex Padilla, California's top elections official, said Tuesday he doesn't yet know if any of the roughly 1,500 people mistakenly registered to vote by the Department of Motor Vehciles cast ballots in the June primary.

 California's top elections official said Tuesday he doesn't yet know if any of the roughly 1,500 people mistakenly registered to vote by the Department of Motor Vehicles cast ballots in the June primary, according to reports.
Secretary of State Alex Padilla said his office is investigating and working with counties to ensure ineligible people don't vote in the November election.
"I remain deeply frustrated and disappointed that persistent errors by the DMV and CDT [California Department of Technology] have undermined public confidence," Padilla wrote in a letter calling for an audit, according to San Diego’s KNSD-TV.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said his office is investigating the roughly 1,500 people mistakenly registered to vote by the Department of Motor Vehicles. (California Secretary of State website)

The DMV said the mistakes occurred because of a processing error affecting people who are not legal U.S. citizens, Fresno’s FOX 26 reported.
The incorrect registrations occurred between April 23 and Sept. 25, according to the DMV. California held its primary election June 6.
“These mistakes from the DMV are absolutely unacceptable,” Padilla said. "My concern is it risks jeopardizing confidence in the electoral process."

“These mistakes from the DMV are absolutely unacceptable. My concern is it risks jeopardizing confidence in the electoral process."
— Alex Padilla, California secretary of state

The roughly 1,500 people either told the DMV they were ineligible or didn't confirm their eligibility but were registered anyway, Padilla said.
The group included at least one noncitizen living legally in the state and perhaps many more. It could also include people under 18 or those ineligible to vote because of a criminal conviction, Padilla said.
The DMV said none of the people mistakenly registered are people living in the country illegally. The secretary of state will cancel incorrect registrations, Jessica Gonzalez, DMV spokeswoman, told KNSD-TV.
People were mistakenly registered through no fault of their own, Padilla said, and his office is removing them from the voter rolls. The department is working quickly to fix the problem, DMV Director Jean Shiomoto said.
Early voting for the Nov. 6 election began this week. California's motor voter law letting residents automatically register to vote through the DMV took effect in April. Since then, people have newly registered or updated their voter registration more than 3 million times, Gonzalez said.
The new law is aimed at making it easier for people to register and boosting voter turnout.
Suspending the Motor Voter program is "certainly on the table" given a spate of problems, Padilla said.
“We’re doing the homework as we speak of what does that mean and what it would take,” Padilla said at a Tuesday news conference, the San Luis Obispo Tribune reported.
Last month, the department announced it may have botched about 23,000 voter registrations because of a separate error. As a result, the DMV sent the secretary of state's office incorrect information for some voters, mostly affecting people's vote-by-mail, language and political party selections, according to the department.
The DMV discovered the roughly 1,500 mistaken registrations after the Los Angeles Times inquired about a Canadian who was incorrectly registered, the paper reported.
The green card holder contacted the Times because he was mailed a voter registration notice after he tried to replace his driver's license at the DMV, the paper reported Monday.
Neither the DMV nor Padilla's office said how many noncitizens were registered.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Rand Paul warns of 'assassination' peril after Kavanaugh confirmation: 'I really worry someone is going to be killed'

Following the bitterly partisan, acrimonious confirmation battle over Associate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., warned in an interview on Tuesday that heated political rhetoric has the potential to turn deadly.
"I fear that there's going to be an assassination," Paul told a Kentucky radio show. "I really worry that somebody is going to be killed, and that those who are ratcheting up the conversation ... they have to realize they bear some responsibility if this elevates to violence."
Paul's comments came the same day former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton declared that Democrats "cannot be civil" with Republicans any longer.
Paul's wife, Kelley, revealed in a Breitbart News interview on Friday that she sleeps with a "loaded gun by my bed," has updated her home's security system and has "deadbolts all around my house." Kelley also wrote an op-ed published by CNN in which she called on Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., to tone down his rhetoric; in June, Booker suggested his supporters “get up in the face of congresspeople.”
The Kentucky senator reiterated his wife's criticism on Tuesday. "When people like Cory Booker say get up in their face ... What he doesn't realize is that for every 1,000 persons who want to get up in your face, one of them is going to be unstable enough to commit violence," Paul said.

"I fear that there's going to be an assassination."
— Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

Last week, Paul was chased and verbally harassed by anti-Kavanaugh activists at Washington's Reagan National Airport. And last fall, Paul was attacked and beaten in his yard in Kentucky by his neighbor -- an episode that a Kentucky Democrat joked about earlier this year.
Paul was attending the congressional baseball practice last summer when a gunman opened fire, hitting House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., in the hip and injuring two Capitol police officers and an aide. The episode was very nearly a "massacre," lawmakers said.
"When I was at the ballfield and Steve Scalise was nearly killed, the guy shooting up the ballfield, and shooting I think five or six people, he was yelling, 'This is for health care,'" Paul told host Leland Conway on Tuesday. "When I was attacked in my yard and had six of my ribs broken, and pneumonia, lung contusion, all that -- these are people that are unstable, we don't want to encourage them."
REPUBLICAN SENATOR RECEIVES GRAPHIC TEXT MESSAGE OF BEHEADING, SEES PERSONAL INFORMATION LEAKED AFTER 'YES' VOTE ON KAVANAUGH
The uncorroborated sexual assault accusations against Kavanaguh, Paul said, didn't justify keeping him off the Supreme Court, much less the partisan rancor surrounding his confirmation. (Paul, who was initially skeptical about Kavanaugh's constitutional views on privacy, ultimately became one of the 51 senators who supported his confirmation.)
"We don't want this to be the standard, that anyone can accuse anybody of anything," he continued. "That would sort of be the standard they had in Venice in the 15th century, when people would put their complaints into the mouth of the lion .... And you'd put your complaint in, and people would lose their head over that."
Paul then echoed President Trump's comments at a ceremonial swearing-in for Kavanaugh in the East Room on Monday evening, as well as dramatic remarks by Maine moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins last week. The president apologized to Kavanaugh "on behalf of our nation" and, before thanking Collins, emphasized that "in our country, a man or a woman must always be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty."
"You are presumed to be innocent," Paul agreed. "I just feel really sorry for Kavanaugh and his wife and his children for having to go through that."
Hundreds of protesters have been arrested by Capitol Police in the past three weeks, with some briefly staying in jail. Kavanaugh, his family, his accusers and lawmakers all received death threats.
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Protests outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday, the first day Kavanaugh publicly sat on the bench for oral arguments, were relatively sparse. On Saturday, when Kavanaugh was formally sworn in, demonstrators outside banged on the Supreme Court's doors and attempted to claw their way inside.
And a teacher in Minnesota announced she had resigned this week after asking on Twitter, "So whose gonna take one for the team and kill Kavanaugh?" Supreme Court justices receive protection from the Supreme Court Police and the U.S. Marshals Service while in Washington, D.C., although they must ordinarily request protection on domestic or international trips outside that metropolitan area.
On Tuesday, President Trump suggested some of the demonstraters in the nation's capital were paid to protest, and were angry primarily because "they haven't gotten their checks." Some of the anti-Kavanaugh protesters who accosted senators on Capitol Hill have ties to liberal billionaire George Soros.
A 27-year-old Democratic congressional intern was arrested last week and accused of posting the personal information of at least one Republican senator during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Kavanaugh. The intern, who has since been fired, was denied bail on Tuesday.
Also speaking in a radio interview on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he was proud of his Republican colleagues for standing up to what he called "mob tactics" during the Kavanaugh confirmation battle.
McConnell also said that he would have no problem appointing a conservative justice in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election if Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg were to retire from the bench. He distinguished that hypothetical from the situation with failed Obama nominee Merrick Garland in 2016 because at that time, different parties controlled the White House and the Senate.
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"It will depend largely if the Senate is in Republican hands or Democratic hands," McConnell said, saying it is exceedingly rare for a lame-duck president whose party does not control the Senate to nominate a Supreme Court justice.

"I think they overplayed their hand."
— Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

The GOP is currently favored to retain control of the Senate after November's midterm elections, buoyed in part by a newly energized base after the Kavanaugh fight.
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"This has been like a shot of adrenaline to Republican voters who probably were not as interested or energized in an off-year election with the president not on the ballot," McConnell said. "I think they overplayed their hand. I think the tactics turned off people and turned on our base."