Melania Trump praises Kavanaugh but says ‘I have my own voice’

Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh is beginning his first full day as a member of the Supreme Court. “I believe she was and that that terrible experience has upended her life, but it does not mean that Brett Kavanaugh was her assailant”.

President Trump: “You don’t hand matches to an arsonist”.

The hashtag BeersforBrett quickly gained momentum on Twitter. Kavanaugh is expected to be a more consistent conservative and cement a five-justice conservative majority. His nomination was marked by allegations of sexual misconduct when he was a high school and college student.

Trump, flying to Kansas for a political rally, flashed a thumbs-up gesture when the tally was announced and praised Kavanaugh for being “able to withstand this awful, frightful attack by the Democrats”.

After Republican Senator Susan Collins announced she would vote “yes” to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh for Supreme Court Justice, plans were already in motion to find her replacement in the 2020 election.

By a vote of 50-48, the Senate gave a lifetime job to Kavanaugh, 53, after weeks of fierce debate over sexual violence, privilege and alcohol abuse that convulsed the nation just weeks before congressional elections on November 6.

Yet Kavanaugh’s path to confirmation seemed unfettered until Ford and two other women emerged with sexual misconduct allegations from the 1980s. She had spoken about Kavanaugh with Collins and other colleagues before deciding to go her own way.

Flake, R-Ariz., who has repeatedly battled Trump and will retire in January, said he’d vote for Kavanaugh’s confirmation “unless something big changes”. “These are highly principled people”, Verrilli says, “and Roe is incompatible with their most deeply held views about how you ought to understand and interpret the Constitution”.

In the end, Republicans were able to use their stranglehold on Capitol Hill and the White House to muscle through the confirmation in a power play that reflected the momentous importance of Trump’s 2016 election victory over Hillary Clinton.

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.

Ahead of the Senate vote, protesters vented their rage on the steps of the US Capitol.

Hundreds of protesters against Kavanaugh had gathered on Saturday on the grounds of the Capitol and at the Supreme Court.

On Tuesday morning, he will sit to the left of Justice Elena Kagan, in the most junior spot on the high court’s bench, and will hear arguments in three criminal cases before the court.

Then, on Friday Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from ME who Democrats thought might derail the Kavanaugh train, said she would vote for him. “They have been seared into my memory and have haunted me episodically as an adult”, Ford said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in September.

“It unleashed something inside me”.

Federal agents are believed to have spoken to five witnesses regarding Prof Ford’s accusations and another four other witnesses involving a separate accusation by Deborah Ramirez, who said the nominee had exposed himself to her when they were both at Yale University.

“It’s turned our base on fire”, declared Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Basically, it’s the final arbiter of United States law.

So, if it was Kavanaugh as Ford alleges, why not file a police report?

Kay Coles James, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, called the vote “a victory for liberty in America” and called Kavanaugh “a good man and good jurist”.

Kavanaugh forcefully and tearfully denied the accusations in a fiery opening statement and was openly hostile toward Democrats as they questioned him about the alleged assault and his drinking habits.

In Kansas, Trump seized on the moment to skewer his opponents.

“I was surprised”, said Senator Lindsey Graham.

But Conway said Trump’s campaign promise had not been broken.

“Republicans are the party of law and order and justice”.

Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, the only Republican to oppose the nominee, voted “present”, offsetting the absence of Kavanaugh supporter Steve Daines of Montana, who was attending his daughter’s wedding.