Senator Kennedy Says Impeachment Is Kavanaugh Without ‘Vagina Hats’

(Bloomberg) -- Senator John Kennedy said Tuesday the House impeachment process reminds him of the hearings into Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court -- but “without the vagina hats” -- and he dismissed the inquiry as a partisan exercise.

“You know what these proceedings look to me like right now? They look like the Kavanaugh hearing without the vagina hats,” the Louisiana Republican said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “This is going to be the most partisan -- no strike that, this will be the only partisan impeachment proceeding in the history of the United States.”

Kennedy appeared to be referring to the pink knitted caps with ears evoking a cat that protesters adopted as a symbol of defiance to President Donald Trump following his election.

Kennedy, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, called the House proceedings a “gross violation of due process” because Republicans and the White House haven’t been allowed to call the witnesses they want.

“All Speaker Pelosi and her team are doing is weaponizing impeachment as a political weapon,” he said.

“When we get it in the Senate, we’ll do it right,” Kennedy said.

If the House votes to impeach Trump, it will be up to the Senate to put him on trial to determine whether he should be removed from office.

Kennedy, who has become a close Trump ally, previously argued that conditioning aid to Ukraine on an investigation of the Bidens would be within Trump’s rights as president provided Trump had a “good faith” belief that they engaged in corrupt behavior.

To contact the reporters on this story: Steven T. Dennis in Washington at sdennis17@bloomberg.net;Kevin Cirilli in Washington at kcirilli@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, Anna Edgerton

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