CQ Roll Call
Kavanaugh Appears Poised for Confirmation to Supreme Court
By Todd Ruger
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was expected to get confirmed by the Senate as soon as Saturday, after key senators announced they would back President Donald Trump’s embattled pick.
The pivotal moment came Friday during Sen. Susan Collins’ lengthy speech on the Senate floor, when the Maine Republican addressed controversies that have dogged Kavanaugh and turned the confirmation process into what she called a “dysfunctional circus.”
She spent the first portion of her speech on Kavanaugh's judicial philosophy on contentious issues such as access to abortion and the 2010 health care law (PL 111-148, PL 111-152). Then she spoke for another 30 minutes about allegations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh and why she saw no corroborating evidence for them.
In the end, Collins said, she could not abandon her sense of fairness, due process and presumption of innocence for the federal appeals court judge's otherwise exemplary record.
“I worry that departing from this presumption could lead to a lack of public faith in the judiciary and would be hugely damaging to the confirmation process moving forward,” Collins said, with many of her colleagues in their chairs turned toward her.
Collins’ announcement appeared to give Republicans the 50 votes they need to confirm Kavanaugh. Immediately after she finished, Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., who faces a tough re-election in a state handily won by Trump in the 2016 presidential election, announced he would also back Kavanaugh to make it 51.
“I have reservations about this vote given the serious accusations against Judge Kavanaugh and the temperament he displayed in the hearing,” Manchin said in a news release. “However, based on all of the information I have available to me, including the recently completed FBI report, I have found Judge Kavanaugh to be a qualified jurist who will follow the Constitution and determine cases based on the legal findings before him.”
Kavanaugh, a reliably conservative federal appeals court judge in Washington, would become the justice confirmed with the fewest votes in recent decades. He is expected to solidify the Supreme Court’s conservative tilt.
Collins and Manchin were among a quartet of senators who faced increased pressure as the Senate neared a weekend confirmation vote that could reshape their political careers as much as the country’s legal landscape.
Earlier Friday, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., told reporters he would support Kavanaugh unless something big changes.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said in a floor speech Friday night that she opposes Kavanaugh's confirmation. While she said she agreed with many of the points Collins made in her speech, Murkowski said she did not believe that Kavanaugh had displayed the proper temperament of impartiality that a judge must have "at all times."
"I could not conclude that he is the right person for the court at this time," she said.
However, Murkowski said she will ask to be recorded as "present" instead of a "no" vote as a courtesy to Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., who supports Kavanaugh but will be attending his daughter's wedding in Montana on Saturday. That would likely mean Kavanaugh can be confirmed without Daines needing to fly back to Washington to vote.
Intense Pressure on Undecideds
Kavanaugh's opponents always had listed Collins among the most likely to peel away from her party on the nomination, since she has supported abortion rights and legal experts widely expect those to be eroded with a Justice Kavanaugh.
Collins had signaled that she did not think Kavanaugh jeopardized the Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 decision establishing the right to an abortion, Roe v. Wade, in part because he assured her in a private meeting that it was “settled law.”
Then, the decades-old sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh led to more pressure from activists, as the controversy morphed from a legal argument to a cultural moment and a national debate about how the Senate would treat accusers.
Collins, with Republican Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi sitting behind her, spoke of the cultural importance of the moment. She spoke of hearing from victims of sexual assault — a common occurrence for senators during this confirmation process — and rejected the idea that the Senate confirming Kavanaugh would condone sexual misconduct.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Collins said. “Every person, man or woman, who makes a charge of sexual assault deserves to be heard and treated with respect. The Me Too movement is real. It matters. It is needed. And it is long overdue.”
Murkowski, who revealed her own experience with sexual assault and met with victims in her office this week, voted against a procedural motion on Kavanaugh on Friday and told reporters she made up her mind on the way to the floor.
After Collins’ speech, Republicans including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley of Iowa approached her. Grassley was one of several who got a hug from Collins, who appeared relieved after tense weeks of run-up where she got a security detail to move around the Capitol.
Later, more composed, Collins said she struggled with the decision for a long time because she found Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony of her sexual attack at a high school party heart-wrenching and compelling.
Ford testified she was “100 percent” certain Kavanaugh, decades ago, had pinned her to a bed, groped her over her clothes and put his hand over her mouth. Collins said the FBI’s background investigation, which delayed a floor vote for one week, was important and there was no evidence to corroborate Ford’s allegation.
“So, I felt it was really important that we have a fair approach and I hope going forward that we can really rethink the nomination process,” Collins said. “And come up with an approach that treats everyone with far more dignity and compassion than was the case here.”
Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.
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