Trump court nominee clears first hurdle as key Senate vote looms
Senator calls for week-long inquiry Trump: ‘Let the Senate handle that’
A Senate committee has voted to approve Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the us supreme Court as discussions continue over a possible FBI inquiry into allegations of sexual misconduct.
Mr Kavanaugh won the backing despite hours of dramatic testimony on Thursday in which the judge was accused of having sexually assaulted a psychology professor when the pair were both at high school.
The vote came as a key Republican senator said he wanted a week’s delay in confirmation hearings for Mr Kavanaugh to allow an inquiry to take place.
However, Jeff Flake supported a vote to pass the nomination from the judiciary committee to the full Senate. The final vote was 11-10 in favour. All the Republicans voted in favour, while all the Democrats voted against the motion.
US president Donald Trump, who has accused the Democrats of obstruction and delay and has opposed the FBI probing the allegations against his nominee, said merely that he would “let the Senate handle that”.
The dramatic scene unfolded a day after Mr Kavanaugh and his accuser Christine Blasey Ford testified in an emotional, hours-long hearing.
Mr Kavanaugh angrily denied the allegations he assaulted Dr Ford in a locked room at a high school house party. She she said she was “100 per cent” certain he was her attacker. Senator Flake, a key moderate Republican, was at the centre of the drama and uncertainty.
He yesterday announced he would support Mr Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Shortly after he was confronted in an elevator by two women who, through tears, implored him to change his mind.
After huddling privately with his colleagues, Senator Flake announced he would vote to advance Mr Kavanaugh’s nomination to the full Senate only if the FBI were to investigate the allegations against the judge.
Democrats had been calling for such an investigation, though Republicans and the White House had insisted the probe was unnecessary.
Republicans control the Senate by a narrow 51-49 majority.
Vice-president Mike Pence has the deciding vote in the event of a tie.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said it was going to fall to him to lay out to Mr Trump why the Supreme Court confirmation vote had been delayed.
Mr Trump told reporters yesterday during a meeting with the president of Chile that undecided Republican senators “have to do what they think is right” and “be comfortable with themselves” on the Kavanaugh vote.
But he said he had not thought at all about a replacement, adding “not even a lit- tle bit”. The dean of Yale Law School, where Mr Kavanaugh received his undergraduate and law degrees, had earlier called for additional investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations.
Dean Heather Gerken said in statement she agreed with the American Bar Association that more investigation was needed. Ms Gerken said proceeding with the confirmation process without more review was not in the best interest of the Supreme Court or the legal profession.
Mr Kavanaugh had angrily denied ever sexually assaulted anyone in his earlier testimony.
The judge had declared his confirmation process had become “a national disgrace” and a “character assassination” after Dr Ford recounted her allegations to Congress.
She said Mr Kavanaugh trapped her on a bed and tried undressing her, grinding his body against her and muffling her cries with her hand.
“I believed he was going to rape me,” she said.
Democrats had rallied strongly behind Dr Ford.