GOP hopeful on Kavanaugh
Key procedural vote planned in Senate today
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Confidence grew among President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans on Thursday that Brett Kavanaugh would win Senate confirmation to the US Supreme Court, after positive comments from two wavering lawmakers about an FBI report on accusations of sexual misconduct by the judge.
The report, sent by the White House to the Senate Judiciary Committee in the middle of the night, was denounced by Senate Democrats as a whitewash.
The reaction to the report, the latest twist in a pitched political battle over Trump’s nomination of the conservative federal appeals court judge, by two crucial Republican senators – Jeff Flake and Susan Collins – indicated it may have allayed concerns they had about Kavanaugh.
Republicans control the Senate by a razor-thin margin, meaning the votes of those two could be crucial in securing Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the lifetime post on the country’s highest court.
Collins said the investigation appeared to be thorough, while Flake said he saw no additional corroborating information against Kavanaugh, although he was “still reading” it.
Democrats have opposed Trump’s nomination of Kavanaugh from the outset. If confirmed, he would deepen conservative control of the court. The sharply partisan battle became an intense political drama when three women emerged to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in the 1980s when he was in high school and college. Kavanaugh has denied the accusations.
Even before the FBI report was given to lawmakers, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took steps to hold a key procedural vote as early as Friday, which could pave the way for a final vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation over the weekend.
The battle over Kavanaugh has riveted Americans weeks before November 6 elections in which Democrats are trying to take control of Congress from the Republicans.
Democrats complained that the FBI probe, ordered by Trump last week at the request of Flake and others, was too narrow in scope and left out critical witnesses.
“It smacks of a whitewash,” Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal told reporters, saying the report should not give political cover for Republicans to vote for Kavanaugh because “it is blatantly incomplete.”
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein noted that the FBI did not interview Kavanaugh himself or Christine Blasey Ford, a university professor who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault in 1982.
Trump said on Twitter the FBI report showed that the allegations against Kavanaugh were “totally uncorroborated.”
The report was not released to the public. Senators were allowed to read it behind closed doors in a secure location in the Capitol, without taking notes or making copies.
Collins, Flake and Lisa Murkowski, a third undecided Republican, were seen entering the secure room on Thursday afternoon.
Amid the accusations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh, Republicans have stood by the judge. The party leadership said on Thursday the FBI report had not changed their view of Kavanaugh’s fitness for the job.
A senior Senate Republican aide said there was growing confidence that Collins, Flake and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin - all swing votes would support Kavanaugh. If so, that could be enough for a Trump victory in this battle. Murkowski has been heavily lobbied in her home state of Alaska to oppose Kavanaugh.
Republicans control the Senate by a 51-49 margin. If all the Democrats oppose Kavanaugh, Trump cannot afford to lose the support of more than one Republican for his nominee, with Vice President Mike Pence casting a tiebreaking vote. No Republicans have said they will vote against Kavanaugh.
Two Democrats, Manchin and Senator Heidi Heitkamp, are undecided.
“When the noise fades, when the uncorroborated mud washes away, what’s left is the distinguished nominee who stands before us. An acclaimed judge,” McConnell said on the Senate floor after the report’s release.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said after receiving a staff briefing on the report:
“There’s nothing in it that we didn’t already know. These uncorroborated accusations have been unequivocally and repeatedly rejected by Judge Kavanaugh, and neither the Judiciary Committee nor the FBI could locate any third parties who can attest to any of the allegations.”
White House spokesman Raj Shah said the Trump administration was “fully confident” Kavanaugh had the necessary support.
The White House believes the FBI report addressed the Senate’s questions about Kavanaugh, Shah told CNN, adding that the FBI reached out to 10 people in its investigation and “comprehensively interviewed” nine of them.
“The White House didn’t micromanage the FBI,” he said.
Trump said on Twitter the investigation was the seventh by the FBI into Kavanaugh’s background, adding, “If we made it 100, it would still not be good enough for the Obstructionist Democrats.”
Attorneys for Deborah Ramirez, who also has accused the judge of sexual misconduct in the 1980s, wrote a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray saying they were “deeply disappointed” that agents had not followed up on their interview with her by talking to the more than 20 witnesses she identified as being able to corroborate her account of his behavior.
Ford, who testified last week at a dramatic Judiciary Committee hearing, accused Kavanaugh of pinning her down, trying to remove his clothing and covering her mouth when she screamed. He denied the allegation and painted himself as the victim of a “political hit.”
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