Senate Nears Kavanaugh Confirmation Vote After Ending Debate

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh (pictured above) took a major step toward confirmation Friday, with the Senate voting 51-49 to limit debate to 30 hours, thus clearing the way for the decisive roll call sometime late Saturday.

Among the surprises in the Friday count were Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) voting “yes” on the motion and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) casting a “no” ballot. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) also voted “yes.”

It is unusual for a senator to vote against ending debate and then vote for a nominee, so Murkowski is expected to oppose Kavanaugh to the end.

If all of the senators vote on the final confirmation decision as they did Friday on the cloture motion, Kavanaugh will likely be sworn in to the nation’s highest tribunal within a few hours after the senators depart the upper chamber for the weekend.

President Donald Trump nominated him to the top court July 9, as part of his pledge to pick conservative judges. But the nomination process since has been consumed by bitter political fights and scandals.

Senate Republicans were able to overcome the opposition by approving what is known as a cloture vote.

Trump tweeted his elation with the cloture vote shortly after it was announced.

Very proud of the U.S. Senate for voting “YES” to advance the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2018

“We want to express our thanks and gratitude to all of those senators who voted to move Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to the floor for a final vote,” Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director at Judicial Crisis Network, told LifeZette.

“A vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh is a vote for an immensely qualified judge who has a long record of fairly applying the law and adhering to the Constitution. A vote against Judge Kavanaugh would simply be an endorsement of a false smear campaign and mob rule,” Severino said.

The cloture vote is a parliamentary move that limits debate on the nominee to 30 hours. That would mean the final vote on the nomination could come as early as Saturday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) set up the vote in his push to advance the nomination on Wednesday amid Kavanaugh’s facing sexual misconduct accusations.

“Before the ink could dry on Justice Kennedy’s retirement, our Democratic colleagues made perfectly clear what this process would be about: delay, obstruct and resist,” McConnell said right before the cloture vote.

“A clear declaration, plain as day, nothing could get most Democrats to consider this nominee with an open mind. It would be delay tactics, obstruction, and so-called resistance until the final vote was called,” the majority leader said.

Senate Democrats have been passionately opposed to the nomination ever since it was announced. They cited several reasons since for why the confirmation process needed to be delayed or abandoned outright, with the sexual misconduct allegations’ taking center stage toward the end. The FBI conducted an investigation, but it wasn’t enough to quell critics.

California psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford accused the nominee of sexually assaulting her while they were high school students during the 1980s. Kavanaugh immediately and passionately denied all of the allegations against him.

Related: Contrite Kavanaugh Felt ‘Overwhelming Frustration at Being Wrongly Accused’

The Senate Committee on the Judiciary had already conducted its own review of the allegations when the FBI launched its final inquiry. Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and other Republicans resisted calls for a federal investigation, arguing that the bureau had already conducted six reviews, and the committee was capable of handling it.

Flake leveraged his swing position on the committee to call for a limited investigation September 28. He joined the other Republicans who voted to advance his nomination with a warning he wouldn’t do the same during the final vote unless the FBI had a week to conduct an investigation that would be limited to the current and credible accuser.

Flake has found himself in an influential position as one of the few swing votes alongside Collins and Murkowski. Republicans control the Senate but by only a razor-thin 51-49 margin.

The majority could easily become a minority, killing the nomination, if just two Republicans vote against Kavanaugh. Vice President Mike Pence, who serves as the presiding officer in the Senate on such occasions, would cast the deciding vote should the final tally deadlock.

The FBI released the confidential findings of its investigation to senators after a little less than a week early Thursday, with Republicans saying the bureau was unable to find any corroboration of the allegations against Kavanaugh. Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and other Democrats argued the report isn’t credible since it was limited.

“The well was poisoned from the outset when President Trump selected Judge Kavanaugh from a list of names preapproved by hard-Right special-interest groups,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said before Friday’s vote.

“The rot worsened when the Republican majority on the judiciary shielded the bulk of Judge Kavanaugh’s records from the public, disregarding decades of bipartisan precedent and norms of transparency and fairness. And finally, the dam broke under the weight of credible allegations that Judge Kavanaugh committed a sexual assault,” Schumer said.