Senate drama
Senator Collins backs Kavanaugh, paving way for confirmation
WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine declared Friday she will vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, all but ensuring that a deeply riven Senate will elevate the conservative jurist to the nation’s highest court despite allegations that he sexually assaulted women decades ago.
The dramatic Senate floor announcement by perhaps the chamber’s most moderate Republican ended the suspense over a tortuous, election-season battle that had left Kavanaugh’s fate in doubt for nearly a month after the first accusation against him. It assured a victory for President Donald Trump’s quest to move the Supreme Court rightward, perhaps for decades, and a satisfying win for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and the GOP’s conservative base.
Moments after Collins finished talking, the only remaining undeclared lawmaker, Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia, said he, too, would vote “yes” in the showdown confirmation roll call expected Saturday afternoon. Manchin, the only Democrat supporting Kavanaugh, faces a competitive reelection race next month in a state Trump carried in 2016 by 42 percentage points.
Support by Collins and Manchin gives Kavanaugh at least 51 votes in the 100-member Senate for an election-season victory against the backdrop conflict of the #MeToo movement and staunch conservative support for Trump. Both parties are hoping the bitter struggle will energize their most loyal voters to stream to the polls in less than five weeks, when GOP control of the House and perhaps the Senate is in play.
“We will be ill-served in the long run if we abandon the presumption of innocence and fairness, tempting though it may be,” Collins said in remarks that stretched for more than 40 minutes but addressed the sexualabuse allegations only near the end. “We must always remember that it is when passions are most inflamed that fairness is most in jeopardy.”
Collins said Christine Blasey Ford’s dramatic testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week describing Kavanaugh’s alleged 1982 assault on her were “sincere, painful and compelling.” But Collins said witnesses Ford had identified who were interviewed by the FBI last week and included in a report the agency gave lawmakers had failed to corroborate Ford’s claims.
“I do not believe that those charges can fairly prevent Judge Kavanaugh from serving on the court,” Collins said.