Cruz: “Secondly, the 15 months that your nomination has been pending, you’ve made not one, not two, not three, you’ve made 12 separate political contributions to senators running for office. I’ve been in the Senate 10 years, I have never seen a nominee make contributions to senators while your nomination is pending. I’ve never seen that once. I had my staff search the records. If we could find anyone in the Trump Administration who had done that, my staff was unable to find that. You’ve been a significant political donor over the years giving over $32,000. You gave — do you believe it was poor judgment to give 12 separate political contributions to Democrat senators while your nomination was pending?”
SOHN: “Senator, I’m a citizen who just wanted to participate in the Democratic process.”
Cruz: “So, is that yes or no?”
SOHN: “The answer is no.”
Cruz: “Do you think it’s poor judgment to cut checks to senators who were voting on your nomination while it’s pending? No other nominee that we can find has ever done that. Do you think it was poor judgment?” [crosstalk]
SOHN: “Relatively small donations, no, I don’t.”
Cruz: “It was over $1,000, $32,000 over your life.”
SOHN: “Well, that’s over my life.”
Cruz: “Well over $1,000 while your nomination was pending. All right.”
SOHN: “But not to one person. Most —“
Cruz: “Oh, no, no, that were to a dozen senators, to a dozen different senators, including senators who have been critical of your nomination and senators who have not. You managed to cover the waterboard of Democrats running for office. All right.”
[Is that illegal? Of course not. Is it good judgment? Of course not. That’s one reason why Sohn failed to get confirmed on her previous two nominations. I suspect that Cruz’s argument is aimed at Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, and possibly a few of the red-state Democrat incumbents that will have to face voters in 2024. — Ed]
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