McConnell said Tuesday that senators would vote "after the FBI shares what they’ve found."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed that the Senate would vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination this week as he brushed aside new questions about the judge’s past drinking habits.
The Kentucky Republican is in a precarious situation on timing a final vote on President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick, with three undecided senators in his own party preferring to wait until after the FBI finishes an inquiry into sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh. McConnell said Tuesday that senators would vote “after the FBI shares what they’ve found,” but reiterated that a floor vote would happen “this week.”
McConnell also dinged Democrats for embracing the allegations of a third woman coming forward with misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh even though Democrats initially hesitated last week. That woman is a client of Michael Avenatti, the well-known attorney also representing Stormy Daniels whom the GOP leader slammed as “a tabloid lawyer.”
McConnell then mocked a New York Times report centering on police questioning Kavanaugh after a 1985 bar fight.
“Talk about a bombshell?” McConnell asked on the floor.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said senators expect to have reviewed the FBI findings before voting.
“People will know what the FBI said before we end up voting,” Cornyn said.
Democrats are trying to keep their Kavanaugh fight focused on this week’s FBI inquiry, which they view as their strongest possible chance to coax Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) into the opposition camp. They have refrained from making a specific request for a perjury investigation into Kavanaugh’s statements under oath, instead asserting that the 53-year-old appeals court judge has misrepresented himself enough to demonstrate he lacks the temperament to join the Supreme Court.
“Frankly, Judge Kavanaugh’s testimony was better suited for Fox News than a confirmation hearing for the august United States Supreme Court,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday on the floor.
“It should give us all pause to consider what it means to elevate such a partisan worldview to the Supreme Court, whether it be a Democratic or a Republican partisan view, where rulings must be made on the legal merits, not on the side of the aisle which most benefits,” Schumer added.
Before Avenatti’s client, Julie Swetnick, claimed that Kavanaugh was involved in sexual misconduct in the 1980s, Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez came forward with separate allegations of their own. Both Ford’s alleged high-school-era sexual assault claim and Ramirez’s college-era misconduct claim against Kavanaugh are part of this week’s FBI probe.
Republicans have sought to poke holes in the narrative Ford laid out during riveting testimony last week about her allegation against Kavanaugh, but Schumer challenged McConnell to directly address whether or not she was a credible witness.
“Does he believe or not believe Dr. Ford?” Schumer asked. “Yes or no. I happen to believe her. He refuses to answer that one way or the other because he knows that Dr. Ford had tremendous credibility.”
If the FBI finishes its Kavanaugh inquiry before Friday, McConnell could move to end debate on the nomination and tee up a final vote by then. But if investigators don’t complete their investigation into claims against the nominee before the Friday deadline, the Senate could stay in session through the weekend in order to meet McConnell’s timeframe for a final vote.
