Posted on 10/05/2018 11:43:21 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) expressed optimism about the chances of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.
McConnell made the remarks after he and others in the GOP leadership had lunch with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a potential swing vote to put Kavanaugh on the high court.
“We’re heading toward a final vote tomorrow, and I’m optimistic,” he told NBC News.
Senate Majority Leader McConnell after lunch with Republican leaders and Sen. Collins: “We’re heading toward a final vote tomorrow, and I’m optimistic.”
— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) October 5, 2018 Senators voted 51-49 to end debate on Kavanaugh’s nomination, setting up a confirmation vote for Saturday afternoon. Three potential swing votes, Sens. Collins, Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) all voted “yes.” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) was the lone Republican defection.
“I have been wrestling with whether or not this was about the qualifications of a good man or is this bigger than the nominee and I believe we are dealing with issues right now that are bigger than a nominee,” Murkowski told reporters after the vote.
The Senate will ultimately vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation Saturday in all likelihood.
What Republicans hoped would be a smooth confirmation hearing was thrown into tumult after three women went public with allegations of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh while he was in high school and college.
Kavanaugh offered a fiery defense against the accusations, saying at a hearing last week in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee that the allegations were planned “smears” and part of Democrats’ “revenge on behalf of the Clintons.”
Flake, who was later joined by Collins, Murkowski and Donnelly, forced the White House to request an FBI inquiry into the allegations by threatening to withhold his ultimate confirmation vote.
Flake announced earlier Friday he would vote to confirm Kavanaugh.
The FBI returned the results of a week-long investigation into the allegations to the Senate on Thursday.
Many Senate Republicans claim there was no corroborating evidence for any of the claims against Kavanaugh and have vowed to confirm the nominee in a vote over the weekend.
Flake and Collins first hinted they were leaning toward supporting Kavanaugh after they praised the FBI inquiry as thorough.
The White House also expressed confidence Kavanaugh would be confirmed over the weekend.
"We sure hope so. I think we should," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said when asked by reporters if Kavanaugh has enough votes.
"Moving into the weekend, we certainly hope the Senate will vote to confirm him," she added.
Sanders said the White House has been actively whipping votes for Kavanaugh to help push him over the finish line.
"We’ve been in constant contact with a number of senators since this process began and we’re going to continue those efforts right up until the last minute because this is such an important moment in our country’s history," she said earlier in an interview with Fox News.
Whew finally some good news. Lets’ hope she follows through in @ 16 minutes
AMEN.
That still give the a-hole time for three or four more reversals before tomorrow's vote.
Turtle put some icing on the cake for her ...
From Murkowski “I believe we are dealing with issues right now that are bigger than a nominee.” That’s the only issue U stupid bitch. The vote is about confirming a nominee, yes or no.
Impeach her for dereliction of duty.
Senator do you like your committee assignments and chairwomanships???
Someone needs to tell Merkowski that she may have won the women’s vote but she has lost the men’s vote.
Is there any reason Mitch would say this unless he knows Collins is a yes vote? I can’t think of any.
One would hope negotiations were concluded at that lunch, but that might be too optimistic. We may need to watch for the passing of a note during the voting session.
Murkowski’s ‘explanation’ wasn’t even literate. It made no sense.
Flake announced that after giving the left sufficient time to change Collins and Murkowski’s vote, he would now cast his meaningless, cya, vote.
All it took was a sandwich to change her mind LOL..I don’t trust Collins I still think she is doing all this so she can vote NO..a press conference for a drama queen
Someone needs to tell Merkowski that she may have won the women’s vote but she has lost the men’s vote.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Well, not Republican women! And also, is it still true that there are more men in Alaska than women?
Oops, thought we were talking about the Alaska Senator. My bad!!
Someone should remind her that come January, the GOP is going to have enough votes to confirm Kavanaugh without her. She can shoot herself in the foot if she wants.
A certain CA Senator is probably going to call for an immediate FBI investigation-bribery! Who paid for that lunch? Did HE get 2 scoops of ice cream and she gets only 1 scoop?
Has he already told Murkowski that she’s losing her committee chairs next year? Because that should be next.
I think MurCowSki will flip again. Yertle will remind her of ANWAR, chairmanships, etc.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.