Senate Set to Close Debate on Kavanaugh Supreme Court Nomination

Moments after Collins spoke on the Senate floor announcing her intention to vote for the nominee, Manchin said in a statement he would also vote to confirm Kavanaugh.

The protest was one of many throughout the week.

Brian Fallon, executive director of Demand Justice, a group that opposes Trump’s judicial nominees, said Kavanaugh would join the court “with a cloud over his head”.

After remaining undecided on whether Kavanaugh’s nomination should move forward, Murkowski rendered her decision Friday in dramatic fashion. The pair was surrounded by colleagues from both parties after the vote.

A final vote has been set for Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

“Millions of Americans, millions of women are watching us today”, said New York Sen. Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan.

If confirmed, he would replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement early this year. But on Friday, he followed his party’s leadership in voting for cloture and reportedly signaled he would vote to confirm Kavanaugh in the end. White House officials have said Kavanaugh would be sworn in swiftly.

Republicans control the Senate by a 51-49 margin, and Saturday’s roll call vote seems destined to be almost party-line, with just a single defector from each side. The session was presided over by Pence.

Yet Kavanaugh’s path to confirmation seemed unfettered until Ford and two other women emerged with sexual misconduct allegations from the 1980s. “I think she feels like she did the right thing”, Banks said. In addition, Republican Senator Jeff Flake has also indicated he is a yes vote. If confirmed, Kavanaugh could tip the court’s balance toward conservatives for a generation.

“We will get you out of office”.

In the hours before the vote, police arrested demonstrators who had broken through barriers around the Capitol and tried to climb the building’s steps. On Friday morning, he was reported to be arranging travel back to Washington DC for the final vote.

“If people who are victims, if people who feel there is no fairness in our system of government, particularly within our courts, we’ve gone down a path that is not good and right for this country”.

The vote Friday significantly bolsters Kavanaugh’s prospects, but some votes could change. A few Democrats sat stone-faced nearby.

Most obviously, that Murkowski is nearly certainly a “no” on Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

“I never thought Judge Kavanaugh would withdraw”, McConnell said during the interview with The Post. But I think Sen. She next faces voters in 2022.

Two key senators, Republican Susan Collins and Democrat Joe Manchin, both seen as swing votes, said they would support Kavanaugh, after weeks of debate about sexual violence and the nominee’s temperament that gripped the nation. And to cut them off in the Senate, you need 60 votes to do it.

She has been lobbied by sexual assault survivors to vote against the judge and represents a state with the highest sex crime rate by far in America, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation data.

After over 45 minutes on the Senate floor, Collins ended by describing Kavanaugh as an “exemplary” public servant, teacher, judge, father and husband.

Trump took the brutal battle to a new stage earlier Friday when he dismissed female anti-Kavanaugh protesters who have cited their own experiences of sexual assault as “elevator screamers”.

“I do not believe these charges can fairly prevent Judge Kavanaugh from serving on the court”, Collins said. He said he was not “questioning that Dr. Ford may have been sexually assaulted by some person in some place at some time”.

“I would love to know the backstory of how long it took her to write that speech”, he said.