The Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday voted to send the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination to the full Senate.
Brett Kavanaugh has been accused by three women of sexual assault. On Thursday, his first accuser, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, delivered powerful testimony accusing Kavanaugh of attempted rape 36 years ago when she was 15 years old. Kavanaugh followed Dr. Ford’s testmony with an emotional, vehement denial of her accusation.
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote came Friday afternoon after several hours of heated statements from the panel, which has 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats.
Democrats, a few Republican governors and the American Bar Association had urged the committee to hold off on the vote until an FBI investigation of the sexual assault accusations against Kavanaugh is completed. Republican Senator Jeff Flake, who had been on the fence about Kavanaugh’s nomination, said he would vote in favor of Kavanaugh. But on Friday afternoon, Flake called for a week-long delay on the Kavanaugh full Senate floor vote so the FBI could conduct an investigation into the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh.
Drama On The Hill Over Brett Kavanaugh Nomination
Earlier Friday, angry Democrats walked out as the Republican-led Senate panel set a vote over their objections for later on Friday on President Donald Trump’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, who won the support of a key senator, Jeff Flake.
Trump’s fellow Republicans had appeared to have the votes to approve Brett Kavanaugh the sharply divided Judiciary Committee after Flake, a moderate Republican, announced his position. The full Senate must confirm Supreme Court appointments. But with the vote looming Friday, many of the committee members were absent from the room, bringing new drama to the proceedings.
The committee, with tempers flaring on both sides, met the morning after a jarring and emotional hearing into sexual misconduct allegations against Brett Kavanaugh that gripped the country, with a university professor named Christine Blasey Ford accusing him of sexual misconduct. He denied the accusation.
One Republican, Senator John Kennedy, called Kavanaugh’s confirmation process “an intergalactic freak show.”
A committee advancement to approve Kavanaugh paves the way for a final debate and vote on the Senate floor next week.
It remained unclear if Republicans have the votes to confirm Brett Kavanaugh on the Senate floor. Republicans hold a slim Senate 51-49 majority, making the votes of two other so-far undecided Republican moderates crucial: Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins.
Republican committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said he found Thursday’s testimony from both Ford and Kavanaugh “credible,” but added, “There’s simply no reason to deny Judge Kavanaugh a seat on the Supreme Court on the basis of evidence presented to us.”
The timing of the panel’s session gave committee members little time to review Thursday’s extraordinary testimony from Kavanaugh and Ford, who accused him of sexually assaulting her when they were high school students in 1982. Kavanaughforcefully denied the accusations and accused Democrats of a “calculated and orchestrated political hit.”
Senator Dianne Feinstein, the committee’s senior Democrat, called Kavanaugh’s remarks unseemly for a judicial nominee.
“This was someone who was aggressive and belligerent. I have never seen someone who wants to be elevated to the highest court in the country behave in that manner. In stark contrast, the person who testified yesterday and demonstrated a balanced temperament was Dr. Ford,” Feinstein said.
Another Democrat, Amy Klobuchar, noted that Grassley had thanked Ford for her bravery but nevertheless failed to back any further investigation.
“Where is the bravery in this room?” Klobuchar asked.
Reuters contributed to this report.
