Democrats Boo Bredesen For Ducking Kavanaugh Question While Blackburn Calls for ‘Honest’ Answer

Marsha Blackburn called on Phil Bredesen to be “honest” and tell Tennesseans how he would vote on Judge Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court after he dodged another opportunity to give his position.

The Democratic former governor was booed by a mostly Democratic audience Monday in Chattanooga when he sidestepped the question about Kavanaugh. The video is available here.

U.S. Representative Blackburn (R-TN-07) and Bredesen are running for the Senate seat that is being left empty by Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), who is retiring.

Blackburn said, “Tennesseans are very clear: they want their next senator to confirm good constitutionalist judges and justices, and they support Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Phil Bredesen, under Chuck Schumer’s direction, has stayed neutral as long as he can. He won’t tell Tennesseans how he’d vote on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination because his past record of shredding evidence of sexual harassment is too shameful and embarrassing to take a stand. And Chuck Schumer, who has bought and paid for Phil Bredesen’s campaign won’t let him support Judge Kavanaugh. Eighty-five days is more than enough, Phil Bredesen should be honest with Tennesseans – that’s what leaders do.”

During the Sept. 25 debate with Bredesen, Blackburn mentioned that when he was governor, sexual harassment claims doubled in one year but the administration shredded the documents, The Tennessee Star reported. Bredesen called that a mischaracterization and said he wanted to protect the women.

After the debate, Blackburn’s campaign issued a press release quoting press reports about her claims.

“As a woman and the mother of a daughter, the hypocrisy of self-proclaimed liberal men who say one thing and do another makes Marsha sick,” the press release said. “Phil Bredesen is a coverup artist with a busy shredder. When he was governor, he cared more about shielding the reputations of his powerful friends than protecting women.”

The Blackburn campaign quoted a 2005 Tennessean story that said, “The governor’s office has become involved in a select number of workplace harassment complaints against top state officials and has put them under a veil of secrecy that does not apply to ordinary state workers, a Tennessean review of case files shows.”

“Routine state cases are generally documented with notes or reports, and the resulting files are available for the public to review and assess whether appropriate action was taken.”

“But when cases are routed through Gov. Phil Bredesen’s office, the files are empty, are shredded or contain only one or two pages with almost no details about the accusations or how the investigations were handled.”

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Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at newspaper outlets of all sizes.