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Spoiling for a fight, a trio of Democratic senators weighing 2020 presidential campaigns seized upon the opening moments of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearings Tuesday in a show of force aimed at countering President Donald Trump. One by one, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Cory Booker of New Jersey, demanded that Republicans delay Kavanaugh’s hearing after a last-minute release of more than 40,000 pages of documents and the withholding of more than 100,000 others. (Thomas, 9/4)

There was also about an hour of straight-out campaign speeches, given that there are at least four future and former presidential candidates on the committee. This led to the curious moment in which Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), proud son of Newark, channeled the concerns of those who toil the land, telling Kavanaugh that “farm country is being threatened by the consolidation of huge corporations” and recalling the farmer who told the senator about the soaring suicide rate in the American heartland. (Fisher, 9/4)

The Republican National Committee deployed a rapid-response effort spotlighting Harris and Booker’s status as White House contenders, accusing them of capitalizing on the moment to boost their own profiles. Senate Majority Whip Sen. John Cornyn on Tuesday night tweeted “All about 2020 presidential politics” with a link to an Associated Press story highlighting the roles of Booker, Harris and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) in the hearings. Booker already had riled Republicans for suggesting that backers of President Donald Trump’s nominee are “complicit in the evil” his ideology represents, July comments that Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) referenced anew on Tuesday. (Schor, 9/4)