Brett Kavanaugh vote: Trump orders FBI background investigation into Supreme Court nominee after Jeff Flake calls for Senate vote delay
After the committee decision attention will turn to moderate Senate Republicans like Susan Collins and their possible voting intentions in a full chamber vote
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Your support makes all the difference.The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved Donald Trump's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, in a vote 11-10 on party lines.
However, moderate Republican Senator Jeff Flake called for an FBI investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against the judge before a final Senate vote. Mr Trump later ordered the FBI to conduct that understanding.
Mr Flake's intervention means a final Senate vote on the nomination could be delayed for up to a week so that the FBI investigation can be completed. Mr Kavanuagh denies the allegations from three different women.
“I will vote to advance the nominee to the floor with that understanding,” Mr Flake said.
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We are about 15 minutes away from a vote that will decide whether Mr Kavanaugh will get a lifetime appointment to set the precedent on US law in the country's highest court.
The American Bar Association, who had endorsed Donald Trump's second nominee to the bench, has actually called for a delay in the vote.
Mr Kavanaugh is a devout Catholic and the high school he had attended during the alleged assault is the Jesuit-founded Georgetown Prep. In America, a magazine about all aspects of the sect, did not just call for a postponed vote but asked the nominee to withdraw his nomination all together.
He was repeatedly adamant, even visibly angry, during his statement yesterday when he said: "I will not be intimidated from this process...your coordinated effort to destroy my family and my good name...will not drive me out".
They are not the only ones, though, and the call for a delayed vote is not partisan either.
Three Republican governors - Larry Hogan of Maryland, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, and John Kasich of Ohio - have called for a delay in the vote as well.
All three governors have had their disagreements with Mr Trump and have been in the practice of distancing themselves with a more moderate stance on certain issues.
Senator Jeff Flake has also said he will vote to confirm Mr Kavanaugh.
Mr Flake is retiring from the Senate and as such does not have to "play politics," meaning he could have voted no without political pressure according to Washington insiders.
Protestors are screaming at Mr Flake in a lift in the Senate building at the moment.
One woman tearfully describes how no one believed her when she tried to report a sexual assault.
Another woman, blocking the lift door for several minutes, launched into a several-minute tirade against Mr Flake's decision to put "a man who violated a woman on the Supreme Court, to a lifetime appointment. I have children...you have children!"
"Don't look at me and tell it doesn't matter what happens to me," another woman shouted at Mr Flake.
Mr Flake repeatedly whispered "thank you" and said "I need to get to the hearing. You will hear more from me".
The woman blocking him on the elevator said: "Thank you isn't an answer".
Senator Richard Blumenthal reasserts his belief of Dr Ford's testimony and again brings up the matter of the committee not hearing from Mark Judge, the other man Dr Ford said was present during the alleged assault.
Mr Judge submitted a "cursory six-sentence letter, not even signed by him," Mr Blumenthal pointed out.
"We should hear from the other sexual assault survivors also," he said.
"Today I move we subpoena Mark Judge," Mr Blumenthal said.
Mr Grassley reads a letter from Mr Judge.
"I did not ask to be involved," Mr Judge wrote in the letter.
He said he is a recovering addict, cancer survivor, and suffers from depression, he said, as a reason why he avoids public speaking.
"That letter is no substitute for an FBI interview," Mr Blumenthal said.
Democrats motion to bring Mr Judge before the committee or the FBI has been defeated, with a vote along party lines.
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