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Kavanaugh closer to Supreme Court with Flake support

Republicans are now on course to take the judge's high court nomination to the Senate floor as soon as this weekend.

By ELANA SCHOR and BURGESS EVERETT

Brett Kavanaugh is one big step closer to Senate confirmation on Friday morning, with the Judiciary Committee expected to advance his Supreme Court nomination to the floor after swing-vote Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) announced his support.

The 53-year-old appeals court judge delivered an emotional and defiant defense amid sexual misconduct allegations on Thursday, a showing that successfully rallied many Republicans behind him. Kavanaugh's next test comes in the Judiciary panel, though Flake's public support all but ensures the judge will sail to the floor with a positive recommendation.

“I left the hearing yesterday with as much doubt as certainty," Flake said in a statement on his support for Kavanaugh after indicating Thursday night that he was wrestling with whether to believe the judge or Christine Blasey Ford. "What I do know is that our system of justice affords a presumption of innocence to the accused, absent corroborating evidence."

Shortly after Flake issued his statement, he was confronted by female protesters who asked him how he could support Kavanaugh after the wrenching testimony of the day before.

As he tried to ride the elevator to the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, Flake mostly nodded and stayed silent as the women urged him to not vote for Kavanaugh.

“You have power when so many women are powerless,” one of the women said.

Republicans are now on course to take the judge's high court nomination to the Senate floor as soon as this weekend. The yes vote from Flake ensures that senators can vote on Kavanaugh without the less-than-full committee endorsement that now-Justice Clarence Thomas received from the committee in 1991 after sexual harassment allegations against him from Anita Hill — despite memorable testimony Thursday by Kavanaugh's initial misconduct accuser, Ford.

Ford's testimony nonetheless has begun pushing red- and purple-state Democratic senators off the fence on the nomination. Sens. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) both announced their opposition to Kavanaugh in the hours after Ford's testimony, although the GOP did not consider either Democrat a legitimately swayable vote in the end.

Two Democrats the GOP is heavily courting, Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, huddled with undecided Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska on Thursday night before a private meeting of majority-party senators on the nomination. Senators and aides expect all four of those key swing votes — Manchin, Donnelly, Collins, and Murkowski — to vote the same way on Kavanaugh, although the direction of their votes remains unclear.

Once the Judiciary panel finishes processing Kavanaugh's nomination on Friday, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to tee up a procedural vote later this weekend in order to line up a final vote as soon as Tuesday.