The Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh have not been dull. Here’s a rundown of the first two days.

The hearings kicked off Tuesday with disruptions from both demonstrators and Democratic senators. The antics delayed the start of proceedings by over an hour and Kavanaugh’s opening statement by two hours.  The protesters interrupted the hearing 63 times on Tuesday alone. At least some of the protesters were paid. The Women’s March took credit for the outbursts. And no, those weren’t early trick-or-treaters. Women dressed in Handmaid’s Tale outfits stood outside the hearing room. 

We're disrupting the Kavanaugh hearings every few minutes, with hundreds of women prepared to get arrested to prevent these hearings from moving forward.

Make a donation today to support the brave women organizing to #SaveSCOTUS and #CancelKavanaugh!https://t.co/z8qeZlrJHt

— Women's March (@womensmarch) September 4, 2018

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) confirmed that Democrats planned the disruptions. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) arranged a conference call the weekend before, settling on disruptions rather than the left’s preferred tactic: Having Democrats simply walk out.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) interrupted Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) just as he was starting his opening. She asked if the hearing could be delayed since there wasn’t time to review all of the 42,000 documents that had been released the night before. Grassley said she was out of line. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) moved to adjourn the hearings. Grassley denied their requests and began the hearing.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and attorney Lisa Blatt introduced Kavanaugh. Blatt called herself an “unapologetic” defender of a women’s right to choose and said she voted for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama twice. She said, “Judge Kavanaugh is the best choice liberals can reasonably hope for” in these circumstances.

Each senator got 30 minutes for the first round of statements and questions and 20 minutes for the second round. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) scolded the Democrats for staging “TV clips” to be used for a future presidential run.

Ted Cruz (R-Texas) observed that the Kavanaugh battle was an attempt to “re-litigate” the 2016 presidential election. In response to accusations that Kavanaugh might choose to overrule Roe v. Wade, Cruz noted that Hillary Clinton specifically said she would appoint Justices to overturn the Second Amendment ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller.

Cory Booker (D-NJ) complained about not receiving more documents, but he had already made up his mind not to support Kavanaugh. He suggested that Trump nominated Kavanaugh in order to stave off Mueller’s probe. Booker asked Kavanaugh to “recuse himself” to help restore Americans’ faith in its founding documents. This was only the beginning of Booker’s grandstanding at the hearings.

The Republicans were clearly cautious questioning Kavanaugh. They didn’t want to make him look bad by asking troublesome questions. Cruz asked him what he had learned from coaching his daughters’ basketball team. 

Cruz tweeted about the first day, “In the entire day, I didn’t hear a single Democrat raise even one concern about Judge Kavanaugh’s qualifications to be a Supreme Court justice.” 

Day Two

On Wednesday, Durbin accused Kavanaugh of lying about his role in crafting the Bush administration’s torture policy. Kavanaugh said he was not making policy but deciding whether the policy was consistent with Supreme Court precedent.

Several Democratic senators tried to get Kavanaugh to reveal what position he would take on possible future issues. Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif) asked him whether a sitting president should be required to respond to a subpoena. Kavanagh said he couldn’t answer, citing the Ginsburg Standard. The Ginsburg standard refers to SCOTUS Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s decision during her confirmation hearing not to answer how she would rule on cases.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) tried unsuccessfully to get Kavanaugh to say whether the president has the authority to fire the independent counsel. 

Several of the Democrats complained that Republicans hadn’t turned over all the relevant documents regarding Kavanaugh’s past work history. The Trump administration withheld 102,000 documents based on executive privilege. However, as was pointed out repeatedly by Republicans, Judge Kavanaugh produced more documents for the Senate than the past five nominees combined. 

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) asked Kavanaugh what his favorite Federalist Paper was. Kavanaugh impressively rattled off six, he knew the number and the topics of each.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb) questioned Kavanaugh on whether a sitting president could be criminally charged or civilly sued. Kavanaugh said a president isn’t immune, but it should be addressed after the president leaves office. 

The hearing on the second day went overtime, with questioning continuing until after 6:30 p.m. There are two days left of the hearing, but it could extend longer. 

Follow Rachel on Twitter at Rach_IC. Follow the confirmation hearing on Twitter at #KavanaughConfirmation.