Brett Kavanaugh investigation: Senator Susan Collins returns to review FBI report as protests rage against Supreme Court nominee
Trump administration 'confident' Senate will back nominee — but some swing vote senators have yet to tell what they plan on doing
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Your support makes all the difference.Senators are reviewing the FBI’s latest background check on Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, in a secret Capitol Hill location.
They are expected to vote on Friday on whether to move forward swiftly on Mr Kavanaugh’s nomination to a likely confirmation vote at the weekend.
White House spokesman Raj Shah said senators “have been given ample time to review this seventh background investigation” into Mr Kavanaugh, who denies accusations of sexual misconduct when he was in high school and college. The White House was “confident the Senate will vote to confirm” the judge, he added.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley tweeted early Thursday that he had received the FBI file. He and his colleagues began reviewing the documents on Thursday morning.
Republicans agreed to ask the FBI for an additional background check on Mr Kavanaugh after his first accuser, Dr Christine Blasey Ford, testified last week that he had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers. Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, voted to move the nomination to the full Senate but had asked that the FBI investigation be conducted.
Dr Ford’s attorneys have said she was not contacted for an interview. But the FBI spoke to a second woman, Deborah Ramirez, who claims Mr Kavanaugh exposed himself to her when they were in college. Mr Kavanaugh says that accusation is false.
Senator John Cornyn, the Senate majority whip, bemoaned the confirmation process for Mr Kavanaugh, and criticised what he said were "shameful intimidation tactics" brought forth to derail the nominee.
"If this is the new normal woe be to the Senate and any nominee that would be subjected to the unacceptable character assassination you've seen directed at this nominee in this case," Mr Cornyn said. "If that's the new normal, I don't know who would want to serve".
Mr Cornyn said that women should be listened to and respected — suggesting that he would ask the same for his wife or daughter — but that Mr Kavanaugh also deserves to be given a fair shake.
"We have to remember that Judge Kavanaugh is entitled to a fair process too, and he has not been subjected to a fair process," Mr Cornyn said.
Senator Mike Lee said that he and his colleagues have spent "hours upon hours" reviewing documents related to the accusations of sexual misconduct levied against Mr Kavanaugh.
He noted that the nominee has been investigated by the FBI on six previous occasions, and said that the Kavanaugh family has been subjected to repeated embarrassment in recent weeks.
"I'm convinced of htis man's character, of his truthfulness, of his qualifications to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States," Mr Lee said.
Senator Thom Tillis echoed his colleagues regarding Mr Kavanaugh's character, but took one step further to say that he believes that Dr Ford was subjected to some form of trauma — but that he does not believe that evidence shows Mr Kavanaugh was the culprit.
Mr Tillis has defended Mr Kavanaugh against the suggestion that his performance during his most recent testimony — where he shouted and became tearful — showed that the nominee does not have the right demeanor for the Supreme Court.
He noted that Mr Kavanaugh had previously been subjected to hours of questions during his confirmation process, and that he was professional throughout that period.
"He maintained his poise," Mr Tillis said of Mr Kavanaugh's original behaviour.
Mr Cornyn has suggested that the confirmation process has devolved from an inquiry into Mr Kavanaugh's past and into an attack on the nominee.
He suggested that the FBI investigation into the allegations was thorough, and said that Democrats are only trying to push the confirmation down the line for political reasons.
"The whole purpose of this is to delay. This is not a search for the truth anymore," Mr Cornyn said.
Mr Cornyn says that he hopes that history will look back on the Senate testimony of Dr Ford and remember the hearing as one in which the Senate treated both the accuser and Mr Kavanaugh with respect.
Mr Cornyn also suggested that Dr Ford's case was mishandled by Democrats, and that she should not have been subjected to the "circus" of a broadcasted hearing.
"I hope we did the best we could under an awful set of circumstances to treat her with respect an dignity and listen to her," Mr Cornyn said.
Groups are maintaining the pressure on senators to vote against Mr Kavanaugh, with staff for Senator Ben Sasse reportedly telling a group of protesters in Nebraska that he has not yet made up his mind.
Mr Sasse said recently that he had urged Mr Trump not to nominate Mr Kavanaugh.
Senator Heidi Heitkamp has signaled that she will vote against confirming Mr Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
Ms Heitkamp is a Democrat, but is running a tight re-election race in North Dakota, and was thought as a potential supporter of Mr Kavanaugh's election in face of that tough battle back home.
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