Rep. Martha McSally (R., Ariz.), the Republican candidate for Senate in Arizona, said in a radio interview on Wednesday that she would vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh unless the FBI investigation unveils new information about the Supreme Court nominee.
"I would vote for Brett Kavanaugh," McSally said during an interview with "Mac & Gaydos" on KTAR News 92.3 FM. Though she said her "heart breaks for" Christine Blasey Ford, who accused the nominee of sexually assaulting her while they were in high school, "we also need fairness where individuals can’t just have one person without any corroboration impact such an important decision."
"The judiciary committee has been trying to work through that, and I think the Republican leadership did as good as they could," she added.
McSally is running for Senate against Rep. Krysten Sinema (D., Ariz.) in a race for the seat currently held by Sen. Jeff Flake (R.). Flake announced earlier this year he would not run for reelection, and it is he who called for a one-week FBI investigation into Kavanaugh last Friday. The investigation took just under a week to complete and involved interviews with nine witnesses, according to current reports.
Senators were reviewing the contents of the report throughout the day Thursday, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) announced he expects a vote on the nominee Friday. Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) said the new report "found no hint of misconduct."
McSally also expressed concerns about how Democrats handled Ford's accusations, which were known to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) in July but only publically revealed in September, and the disconnect over how and when Ford would testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"The fact the she appeared to not even know they offered to come out to California to meet with her, that it could have happened in private, I think is a travesty," McSally said.
"My heart breaks for Judge Kavanaugh and his family, and what they've been through," McSally said. "There's a reality, there are people out there, including many of the Democrats, who just want to destroy this guy, that want him to go down. They want to win the Senate back over, and they want to stop a judge of his caliber of any like – it doesn't matter who it is, it could be your family member. This process has been awful."
McSally, who has discussed her own experience being the subject of abuse in high school and harassment while serving in the military, said on Wednesday, "For me it propelled me to strengthen me to fight for women and for girls and fight for others who are powerless."
"I would hope, as somebody who’s dealt with this personally and dealt with it also in the military, that maybe we could have this conversation about ‘Hey, let’s prevent the next assault and abuse from happening. But let’s make sure that people are not susceptible to false allegations, that just because someone says something, it doesn’t make it true,'" McSally said. "There has to be some sort of process that allows for due process."