Washington (AFP) – The US Senate on Thursday stepped closer to a weekend confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh but angry protesters converged on Capitol Hill demanding his withdrawal over sex assault allegations.
While Republicans confidently declared that a week-long FBI investigation found nothing to corroborate the allegations against President Donald Trump’s court pick, opposition Democrats assailed the latest FBI probe as “incomplete” and constrained by a White House determined to push through the lifetime appointment of the conservative 53-year-old judge.
Furor over Kavanaugh’s nomination has overshadowed next month’s midterm elections in which control of Congress by Trump’s Republican Party could be at stake.
A sea of women, thousands of protesters, marched on the Supreme Court and many infiltrated Senate office buildings to hold loud sit-in protests against the judge. Some held signs calling Kavanaugh a liar and “unfit” to serve.
“I believe Dr Ford, and I believe Kavanaugh is part of a Big Old Boys club that is going to protect him no matter what,” said Angela Trzepkowski, 55, from Delaware.
With the FBI report apparently favorable to Kavanaugh, two of the three Republican lawmakers undecided on the nominee boosted his confirmation chances by signalling they believed the FBI had done a thorough probe.
“This investigation found no hint of misconduct,” Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley said in a statement. “There’s nothing in it that we didn’t already know.”
Grassley said the full Senate should vote Saturday on Kavanaugh’s nomination — an appointment that could shift the nine-member panel to the right for decades to come.
“Hopefully we’re 48 hours away from having a new person on the Supreme Court,” he told reporters.
The Senate, where Republicans hold a slim 51-49 majority, will first hold a procedural vote Friday.
All eyes are on the key Republicans who could make or break the nomination — Jeff Flake of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
Speaking to reporters after reviewing the FBI report, Collins said it “appears to be a very thorough investigation.”
Flake, a vocal Trump critic who pushed the White House into giving the FBI an additional week to look into the accusations against Kavanaugh, signalled his apparent satisfaction, saying the report contained “no additional corroborating information.”
The top Senate Judiciary Democrat, Dianne Feinstein, said the report appeared insufficient to lay to rest concerns about Kavanaugh.
“It looks to be a product of an incomplete investigation that was limited perhaps by the White House, I don’t know,” Feinstein told reporters.
“We had many fears that this was a very limited process,” added Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “Those fears have been realized.”
California university professor Christine Blasey Ford testified last week that Kavanaugh groped her and attempted to take her clothes off in what she believed was a rape attempt when they were teenagers decades ago.
Kavanaugh has vehemently denied the allegations.
“These uncorroborated accusations have been unequivocally and repeatedly rejected by Judge Kavanaugh, and neither the Judiciary Committee nor the FBI could locate any third parties who can attest to any of the allegations,” Grassley said.
“It’s time to vote,” he said.
– ‘Partisan histrionics’ –
Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, urged an end to what he called “partisan histrionics” and called for a vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination.
“This process has been ruled by fear and anger and underhanded gamesmanship for too long,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.
Trump said the FBI report exonerated Kavanaugh, and he expressed optimism about Republican chances in the November midterm elections.
Experts are split about whether the Kavanaugh uproar will fuel Republican or Democratic turnout, but Trump insisted that the “harsh and unfair” treatment of Kavanaugh by Democrats is having “an incredible upward impact on voters.”
Trump nominated Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who had been a swing vote on a panel now equally divided between four conservative and four liberal justices.
Republicans like Senator Lindsey Graham left the secure room, where they studied the FBI report, to declare they were even more confident now that “no corroboration” of the allegations was found.
But several Democrats lit into the process, with Senator Ron Wyden branding it a “whitewash” and Senator Mazie Hirono wincing at Republican claims of comprehensiveness.
“There are dozens of people out there that they could have questioned,” Hirono told AFP.
Blasey Ford testified last week that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a house party in the early 1980s while they were in high school.
Kavanaugh, in a fiery response which critics branded partisan, rejected the allegations and further misconduct claims against him from two other women.
In the new background probe, the FBI contacted 10 people to interview, Republicans said.
They include three people Blasey Ford says were in the house at the time of the party. One is Mark Judge, who the professor says was in the room when Kavanaugh lay on top of her, ground his body against hers and covered her mouth to keep her from screaming.
On Wednesday, the three Republican senators key to Kavanaugh’s approval blasted Trump for mocking Blasey Ford’s memory lapses at a political rally.
As they mulled Kavanaugh, a Democrat up for re-election in a state which traditionally votes Republican came out against the nominee.
“After doing my due diligence and now that the record is apparently closed, I will vote against his confirmation,” Senator Heidi Heitkamp said Thursday.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.