An intensely divided Senate moved toward a procedural vote on Friday morning that seemed likely to bring them one step closer to sending Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
The vote, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on Friday, will decide whether Senators would limit debate on the nomination of Kavanaugh, who faces multiple accusations of sexual misconduct from his time in high school and college. Under Senate rules, there will then be a 30-hour window of debate before the Senate officially votes on his confirmation, meaning that the final vote will likely take place over the weekend.
The vote came one day after the FBI released its new report into the sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh. The bureau re-opened its background check into the nominee after Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake and other undecided Republican Senators called for more information before voting on Kavanaugh.
The Kavanaugh vote still hinges on a handful of undecided Senators, most notably Republicans Flake, Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski; and Democratic West Virignia Sen. Joe Manchin. As of a 30 minutes before the vote, none of the undecided Senators had expressed which way they were leaning—with the exception of Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, who as expected, announced he was supporting the nomination.
Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, who had been undecided on the nomination, said Thursday after reading the FBI report that she would vote against Kavanaugh’s nomination.
In an unusual step, Kavanaugh himself wrote an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday night, trying to reassure lawmakers that he would be an “independent, impartial judge.”
Even before the vote began, the partisan tensions in the room were evident. “Before left wing outside groups and Democratic leaders had him in their sight, Judge Kavanaugh possessed an impeccable reputation and was held in high esteem,” Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said on the Senate floor Friday morning.
