Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said on Friday that the Senate would have an opportunity to advance the nomination of a "incredibly well qualified and well respected" jurist in Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
"We have the opportunity to advance the nomination of an incredibly well qualified and well-respected jurist to the post that demands such excellence," McConnell said. "We have the opportunity to put Judge Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court where his distinguished service will make us and our nation proud for years to come."
Kavanaugh approaches the end of his confirmation process after it was delayed due to several women coming forward with accusations of sexual misconduct.
Christine Blasey Ford told the Washington Post that Kavanaugh, then a junior in high school, attacked her when they were at a party in Maryland in the early 1980s. A second allegation came from a woman named Deborah Ramirez who accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself at a dorm party during his freshmen year at Yale. Another allegation was brought forth from a woman named Julie Swetnick, who is represented by anti-Trump lawyer Michael Avenatti. Swetnick claimed Kavanaugh was involved in a series of "gang rapes" when he was in high school, but she offered no additional evidence or witnesses to support her allegations.
Kavanaugh has vehemently denied all accusations and there have been no corroborating witnesses to the alleged assaults.
Democrats have used the allegations as a reason to oppose the nomination, but McConnell noted how even before Kavanaugh was nominated, they indicated they would oppose whoever President Donald Trump picked.
Before the ink had dried on Justice Kennedy's retirement, our Democratic colleagues made it perfectly clear what this process would be about. Delay, obstruct, and resist. And before the ink had dried on Judge Kavanaugh's nomination, colleagues across the aisle, including Democrats members of the Judiciary Committee, were racing to announce they had made up their minds and were totally opposed to his confirmation. Mere hours after Judge Kavanaugh was nominated, my friend the Democratic leader promised, "I will oppose him with everything I've got," he said – hours after [Kavanaugh] was nominated.
It was, thus, abundantly clear that his number-one political goal was to defeat the nomination by any means necessary. It was right there from the beginning, madam president. A clear declaration, plain as day – nothing, nothing could get most Democrats to consider this nominee with an open mind. It would be delaying tactics, obstruction, and so-called resistance until the final vote was called. For a few weeks, their efforts played out along the lines that sadly have become somewhat ordinary around here. There were excuses for delay. Those fell flat. There were gross distortions of Judge Kavanaugh's record, that were batted down by outside fact checkers. and there were all the usual phony, apocalyptic pronouncements that are shouted whenever a Republican president dares to nominate a Supreme Court justice: 'hostile to women, hostile to vulnerable people, hostile to workers. Same old tricks. same old playbook.
But here was the problem: the old plays weren't working. The distortions were being literally drowned out by the facts.
The Senate voted Friday to push forward with Kavanaugh's nomination in a close 51-49 vote. A final vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation could occur as early as Saturday.