U.S. Senator Doug Jones of Alabama talking to a member of his staff in his office in the Russel Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.: Glynn Wilson

By Glynn Wilson –

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The right-wing Republican pro-Russia National Rifle Association (NRA) is interfering with our democratic, electoral process again, this time targeting U.S. Senator Doug Jones of Alabama in television ads trying to get people to pressure him to vote for President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Many Democrats in the state who supported the candidacy of Senator Jones have been letting him know in phone calls and social media posts that they may not support him for reelection in 2020 if he votes to confirm the president’s nominee, which could turn the court to the radical political right for a generation.

A woman’s right to choose is on the line, for example, along with other rights. There is some indication in Kavanaugh’s past that he may not support the right of prosecutors to investigate a sitting president, making a president above the law, an idea that is anathema to constitutional democracy. Senators are poised to ask about that when hearings begin in the fall.

The NRA has also been implicated in colluding with the Russians to hack the 2016 election in favor of Trump. A U.S. grand jury recently returned an indictment against a Russian woman accusing her of acting as a Russian government agent while infiltrating the NRA.

Then Democrats have not forgotten that Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to bring President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland up for an up or down vote in the last Congress, claiming it was too close to an election, in a move that many experts consider a violation of the Senate’s constitutional advice and consent role.

So far Senator Jones is resisting all the pressure and trying to do due diligence and do the right thing, even though the Republicans say they are planning to begin holding hearings on Kavanaugh’s appointment beginning September 4, just two months before the November 6 midterm elections.

On Thursday morning, Senator Jones sent out an email blast to supporters asking for their help in reaching out to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, the Republican from Iowa, to slow down on confirmation hearings for Kavanaugh.

“I asked my Republican colleagues in the Senate to press “PAUSE” on Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation process. The events of the past two days simply cannot be overlooked,” Jones said, referring to the guilty verdict of Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort and the guilty plea by Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, implicating the president in a conspiracy and coverup to fool the American people and change the outcome of the 2016 election and violate campaign finance laws.

“The NRA bought commercials in Alabama this month trying to disrupt and shortcut my Constitutional responsibility,” Jones said. “They want to buy a ‘rubber stamp’ in Alabama. I am the Senator for this great state – not a rubber stamp for anyone.”

See the ad here:

“For the past several weeks, I have told all groups that I take my shared Constitutional responsibility – providing advice and consent for a Supreme Court Justice – very seriously,” Jones said. “Some groups don’t have the patience for that type of review.”

Senator Jones says he’s been reading a great deal of Judge Kavanaugh’s writings this summer, but the National Archives estimates that it will be October before the documents that the Republicans and Democrats on the Judiciary Committee requested will be available.

“And yet, as I write this, hearings are scheduled to begin September 4,” Jones said. “I need your help. We need to tell Chairman Grassley to hit Pause on this process and give us more time to review the documents he says we need – and give us time to understand the unfolding revelations that may be critical to the questions asked of Judge Kavanaugh.”

Join me and tell Chairman Grassley: Pause the confirmation process! >>

“We need your voices as we look to build for 2020,” Jone said. “We are already seeing special interest money being spent, and the best way to stand up against it is for all of us to make our voices heard.”