Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) praised lawmakers for standing up to mob rule Friday by voting in favor of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
“We’ve been under assault,” McConnell (pictured above right) told Fox News host Laura Ingraham in an exclusive interview Friday night on “The Ingraham Angle.”
“They’ve been after all of us. We’ve sort of been under assault, and everybody decided to stand up to the mob and not be intimated by these people,” he said.
McConnell added that he “just couldn’t be prouder of our members for refusing to roll over under all this intense pressure, all these lies. This was a great day for America.”
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Kavanaugh is close to overcoming the most intensely partisan and divisive nomination battle since what Justice Clarence Thomas called his “high-tech lynching,” which marred his confirmation in 1991.
Senators are expected to complete debate sometime Saturday and then proceed to the final vote.
Kavanaugh has had his record and character constantly scrutinized and attacked by Democrats, media figures, and activists since President Donald Trump nominated him on July 9.
Throughout the process, left-wing political activists, paid community organizers, and protesters have shouted down Kavanaugh supporters, repeatedly interrupted hearings and media interviews, and sought to intimidate undecided senators.
McConnell believes the chaos and confusion will backfire on Democrats when voters go to the polls on November 6 for the 2018 midterm election. Republicans narrowly control the Senate and have a somewhat larger majority in the House of Representatives.
“I think our people are going to be just as fired up as theirs a month from now, and everybody is going to remember what they did to Brett Kavanaugh,” McConnell said. “It’s a wake-up call to why it’s important to hold the Senate.”
Related: Susan Collins’ Extraordinary Speech on Kavanaugh and the Constitution: Full Text
McConnell admitted that he was unsure whether he had the support when he filed the cloture motion, which the Senate approved Friday morning. Cloture is a parliamentary move that limits debate to 30 hours and then requires a final vote. But he said realized last week that the process needed to be brought to a conclusion because, otherwise, the clamor was only likely to worsen.
Kavanaugh had completed four days of often combative testimony before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary the first week of September. Then Christine Blasey Ford became the first woman to come forward publicly September 16, alleging that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her 36 years ago during a high school gathering in Maryland.
A second woman, Deborah Ramirez, then said Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a drunken dorm party when both were Yale University freshmen. A third accuser, Julie Swetnick, followed, claiming Kavanaugh was involved in a gang-rape ring in high school.
Kavanaugh strenuously denied all of the allegations. None of the witnesses the accusers said would verify various details of their claims actually did.
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