Collins says she put herself ‘in his shoes’ when considering Kavanaugh’s temperament

This is the second Supreme Court appointment by President Donald Trump, who said Judge Kavanaugh would be sworn in the same day. The ceremony will take place at the court and will allow Kavanaugh to “begin to participate in the work of the Court immediately”, a press release stated.

President Donald Trump told reporters Saturday that his decision to mock Christine Blasey Ford at a campaign rally had a “great impact” on Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh’s eventual confirmation.

“The Brett Kavanaugh hearings have been a sad commentary on the politicization of the confirmation process for U.S. Supreme Court Justices”.

The 53 year old will be sworn in later on Saturday at the Supreme Court.

The choice of Kavanaugh to replace retired justice Anthony Kennedy was controversial from the start – but the initial focus was exclusively on the conservative views held by the married father of two.

“We reached an agreement that it had to be done in seven days, the Federal Bureau of Investigation needed to talk to anyone Dr. Ford mentioned, and also Ramirez and anyone she mentioned”, McConnell said.

She also alleged that at some parties, boys lined up by a bedroom to “gang-rape” incapacitated girls and claimed those in the lineup included Kavanaugh and Judge.

While his accuser, Ford, a research psychologist at a California university, had written to her Congressional Representative with her allegations against Kavanaugh in July, it was publicised by the Democrats only in September after the Senate Judiciary Committee had grilled him and was about to vote on recommending his nomination to the entire Senate.

Ultimately with no evidence from 36 years ago, the Ford-Kavanaugh hearing convinced only one Republican and one Democrat to switch sides. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations against him.

It is a triumph for conservative groups, some of which spent millions to support Judge Kavanaugh and this past week defend him against accusations of sexual assault in his high school days.

“Shame on you!” protesters yelled from the Senate gallery.

Collins told Bash that while she found Ford’s testimony “heart-wrenching”, the fact that both Ford and Kavanaugh said they were “100 percent certain” of their statements meant that she had to look to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for additional corroborating evidence.

If senators do not change their voting intentions, Judge Kavanaugh will be appointed to the top USA court.

“An FBI investigation that did not include interviews of Dr Ford and Judge Kavanaugh is not a meaningful investigation in any sense of the word”, they said in a statement quoted in U.S. media.

Republicans “conducted one of the least transparent, least fair, most biased processes in Senate history, slanting the table from the very beginning to produce their desired result”, he added.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, the only Republican to oppose Kavanaugh, said it was time for the Senate – and Americans – to “heal” after such a divisive few weeks. But two other key senators, Senators Susan Collins of ME and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, voted for cloture, with Collins indicating that she would announce her final decision on how to vote by 3 pm on Friday. Susan Collins several times ahead of her announcement Friday that she would support Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court – and he’s been out of office for almost a decade. Manchin announced a short while later that he would also vote for Kavanaugh, essentially guaranteeing that Kavanaugh would be confirmed.

Hundreds of protesters were arrested on Capitol Hill this week – including several dozen in the hours leading to the final vote.

The Democrats are still smarting from the previous Supreme Court appointment.

Protesters could be heard shouting in the Senate chamber as Vice President Mike Pence presided over the final vote.

The upper house is split 51-49 in favour of the Republicans and the vote was largely along party lines.

Ms Murkowski had earlier said that although Mr Kavanaugh was a “good man”, he was “not the right person for the court at this time” and his “appearance of impropriety has become unavoidable”. Under Senate rules she can mark herself as “present” for a senator who is unable to attend.

He said Saturday he thinks Republicans “are going to do incredibly well” in the midterm elections after Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

She quickly climbed the ranks in the Senate and became a junior member of now-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s leadership team, developing a reputation for her devotion to delivering resources to her far-flung state.