McConnell sets test vote on Kavanaugh nomination
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell set a crucial threshold vote for Friday on Brett Kavanaugh’s tottering Supreme Court nomination, moving his polarized chamber toward a potential confirmation roll call over the weekend that would determine which party wins an electionseason battle royale that has consumed the nation.
McConnell, R-Ky., touched off the process late Wednesday and announced that sometime during the evening, the FBI would deliver to an anxious Senate the potentially fateful document on claims that Kavanaugh sexually abused women. With Republicans clinging to a razor-thin 51-49 majority and five senators — including three Republicans — still vacillating, the conservative jurist’s prospects of Senate confirmation remained murky and highly dependent on the file’s contents, which are supposed to be kept secret.
The report was arriving at a Capitol palpably tense over the political stakes of the nomination fight and from aggressive anti-Kavanaugh protesters who have rattled and reportedly harassed senators. Feeding the anxiety was an unusually beefy presence of the U.S. Capitol Police, who were keeping demonstrators and frequently reporters at arms length by forming wedges around lawmakers walking through corridors.
Amid complaints that some lawmakers were being confronted outside their homes, McConnell claimed on the Senate floor that the protesters were “part of the organized effort” to derail Kavanaugh’s nomination.
“There is no chance in the world that they’re going to scare us out of doing our duty,” he said.
In an interview, No. 2 Senate Democratic leader Richard Durbin of Illinois said McConnell was “hellbent on getting this done” this week.
Adding to the uncertainty, the three undecided GOP senators who could decide Kavanaugh’s fate rebuked President Donald Trump for mocking one accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, by mimicking her responses to questions at last week’s dramatic Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
“I would tell him, knock it off. You’re not helping,” Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said of Trump’s Tuesday night tirade.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Trump’s insults marked a “new low.”
Barring leaks, it was unclear how much of the FBI report, if any, would be made public. While senators from both sides have expressed support for revealing at least parts of the findings, FBI background checks on nominees are supposed to remain confidential.
Underscoring rising tensions, Democrats suggested that previous FBI background checks of Kavanaugh may have unearthed misconduct by the nominee.
Democrats wrote to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, challenging a Tuesday tweet by GOP aides saying prior investigations never found “a whiff of ANY issue — at all — related in any way to inappropriate sexual behavior or alcohol abuse.” Democrats wrote that the GOP tweet contained information that is “not accurate.”
Committee Republicans tweeted in response that their prior tweet was “completely truthful” and accused Democrats of “false smears.”
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters that Trump’s lampooning of Ford at a Tuesday night Mississippi campaign rally was “just plain wrong.” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, RAlaska, called it “wholly inappropriate and in my view unacceptable,” and Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said on NBC’s “Today” show that the remarks were “kind of appalling.”
Trump drew laughs Tuesday with his rendition of how Ford answered questions at last week’s hearing. “I had one beer — that’s the only thing I remember,” he stated inaccurately.