The U.S. Senate narrowly voted Friday to limit debate on the nomination of President Donald Trump’s embattled Supreme Court pick, Brett Kavanaugh, advancing his nomination to a final confirmation vote that could come as early as Saturday.
Kavanaugh has been accused of sexual misconduct by a woman who says he assaulted her at a home in suburban Washington when they were teenagers in the 1980s.
He denies the accusation made by Professor Christine Blasey Ford, who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee more than a week ago.
Friday’s procedural vote, an institutional matter unrelated to how the lawmakers will eventually decide, allows for up to 30 hours of Senate debate ahead of a final vote. The 51 to 49 decision was largely along party lines, with Joe Manchin the only Democrat to vote in favor of advancing the nomination and Lisa Murkowski being the sole Republican to vote “no.”
Murkowski later told reporters she had not decided whether she will vote for Kavanaugh’s confirmation but suggested she may not.
“This has truly been the most difficult … decision that I’ve ever had to make,” she said. “I believe he’s a good man. It just may be that in my view, he’s not the best man for the court at this time.”
Republican Senator Susan Collins was also undecided, despite voting to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination. Collins said she would announce her decision later Friday.
Manchin, who is running for reelection in West Virginia where Trump easily won in 2016, said the FBI’s supplemental report would help determine how he will cast his final vote.
Senators have been confronted by protesters who oppose the Kavanaugh nomination and police at the U.S. Capitol have arrested hundreds of demonstrators.
President Trump praised the Republican-led Senate Friday, tweeting he was “Very proud” it managed to advance the nomination.
Throughout the week, Democrats solidified their caucus’s opposition to Kavanaugh, an appellate judge whose elevation to the Supreme Court could cement a decidedly conservative majority for decades.
North Dakota Democrat Heidi Heitkamp announced she would vote against Kavanaugh. She questioned the nominee’s “temperament, honesty and impartiality,” and said, “Our actions right now are a poignant signal to young girls and women across our country. I will continue to stand up for them.”
Heitkamp currently trails in polls as she runs for re-election in North Dakota, a state Trump won handily in 2016.
Friday’s procedural vote came one day after Senate Republicans voiced their impatience to confirm Kavanaugh, asserting that an FBI report did not corroborate allegations the judge committed sexual assault.
A week ago, the Judiciary Committee sent Kavanaugh’s nomination to the full Senate on the condition that the FBI perform a supplemental background check on him.
Senators were duty-bound not to divulge details of the report, which was made available behind closed doors in a secure room of the Capitol; however, numerous Republicans emerged to tell reporters they saw nothing implicating Kavanaugh in sexual misconduct.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said the FBI was unable to locate “any third parties who could attest to any of these allegations.” He told fellow lawmakers on the Senate floor Friday, “It would be a travesty … if the Senate did not confirm the most qualified nomination in our nation’s history.”
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday on the Senate floor, “I do not see how it’s possible for my colleagues to say with perfect confidence that Judge Kavanaugh has the temperament, independence and credibility to serve on the United States Supreme Court.”
Dianne Feinstein, the Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, told colleagues Friday she had attended nine Supreme Court nomination hearings during more than 25 years in the Senate, but never one like Kavanaugh’s.
“Never before have we had a Supreme Court nominee where over 90 percent of his record has been hidden from the public and the Senate. Never before have we had a nominee display such flagrant partisanship and open hostility at a hearing. And never before have we had a nominee facing allegations of sexual assault.”
Democrats argued the FBI report had been hampered by limitations placed on investigators by the White House in conjunction with Judiciary Committee Republicans. News reports say neither Ford nor Kavanaugh was interviewed, and several people who claimed to have known the nominee as a student said they were not able to secure an FBI interview.
Feinstein Thursday said, “Democrats agreed that the investigation’s scope should be limited. We did not agree that the White House should tie the FBI’s hands.”
White House spokesman Raj Shah said that after the “most comprehensive review of a Supreme Court nominee in history,” the White House is “fully confident” Kavanaugh will be confirmed.
Republicans hold a 51-49 majority in the Senate. With Vice President Mike Pence being the tie-breaker if necessary, they would need a minimum of 50 votes to confirm Kavanaugh.
If confirmed, Kavanaugh would replace retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. The nine-member court is currently operating with eight justices.
A Kavanaugh confirmation would tip the balance on the Supreme Court to a 5 to 4 conservative majority.
VOA’s Fern Robinson and Kenneth Schwartz contributed to this report.
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