Friday morning, just one day after hearing from a woman credibly accusing him of sexual assault, the Senate Judiciary Committee gathered to vote on the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. As the process gets closer to a full floor vote, another Democrat has now announced that they won’t be supporting the Trump SCOTUS pick.
Florida’s Bill Nelson made the revelation in a brief statement posted to Twitter.
His intent puts the GOP further in the corner than before; with every additional Democrat asserting opposition to Kavanaugh, they’ve got to rely that much more on every member of their own party voting how the leadership wants.
One perceived Republican swing voter — Arizona’s Jeff Flake — has already announced that he’s voting for Kavanaugh’s confirmation, and his support is especially relevant because he sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee. All eyes are on two other Republicans, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins, as the nation waits to see if they’ll believe Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who says she was Kavanaugh’s victim.
Collins has faced a crowdfunded campaign to fund an opponent if she votes no, while Murkowski has faced pressure like the governor and lieutenant governor of her home state asserting their opposition to pushing Kavanaugh’s confirmation through.
Many interests have at this point called for an FBI investigation of the allegations against Kavanaugh, but Republicans have resisted the idea. During Thursday’s lengthy hearings, they claimed that all investigative needs could be served by the U.S. Senate, despite its obviously hyperpartisan nature. Of course, it’s their actions that have driven it into that political minefield, and self awareness just might not be a thing for them.
The FBI, though, could fulfill broader investigative functions than the Senate has done so far in the face of Brett Kavanaugh. Republicans remain paranoid about the process dragging beyond the midterms — when Democrats could take control of the U.S. Senate — but the delay allowing for an FBI investigation doesn’t have to be that long. It could be just one week, Democrats asserted during Thursday’s hearings. Still, thanks to Republican stonewalling, their efforts have gotten nowhere.
They’re protecting a man clouded by metaphorical but bright red blinking warning lights. When pressed over and over during his own Thursday appearance before Congress to explicitly call for an FBI investigation into the claims he’s supposedly so innocent of, Kavanaugh refused. His refusal took different forms, including yelling at California’s Democratic U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, but it remained throughout the hours that he sat in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
At present then, questions remain. Many have believed the compelling evidence that Ford has brought forward — and which Kavanaugh lied about, claiming non-existent during his testimony — but the FBI could help support her case even more. They could interview the witnesses Kavanaugh claimed have explicitly refuted her story (they haven’t) — which might be exactly what he’s so afraid of.
Thus, he’s hellbent on lying his way onto the U.S. Supreme Court, but most Democrats have made it clear they’re uninterested in putting up with that.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
