(Reuters) President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans gained confidence on Thursday that his U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh would win Senate confirmation after two wavering lawmakers responded positively to an FBI report on accusations of sexual misconduct against the judge. The report, sent by the White House to the Senate Judiciary Committee in the middle of the night, was denounced by Democrats as a whitewash that was too narrow in scope and ignored critical witnesses. Thousands of anti-Kavanaugh protesters rallied outside the Supreme Court and entered a Senate office building, holding signs such as “Believe Survivors” and “Kava-Nope.”
But Republicans moved forward with plans for a key procedural vote on Friday and a final vote on Saturday on confirming the conservative federal appeals judge for a lifetime job on the top U.S. court.
Comments by two crucial Republican senators – Jeff Flake and Susan Collins – indicated the FBI report, which was the latest twist in the pitched political battle over Kavanaugh, may have allayed their concerns about Kavanaugh. Flake, a frequent Trump critic, was instrumental in getting the president to order the FBI investigation last Friday. Trump, himself accused by numerous women during the 2016 presidential race of sexual misconduct, wrote on Twitter that the FBI report showed that the allegations against Kavanaugh were “totally uncorroborated.”
Collins said the FBI investigation appeared to be thorough. Flake said he saw no additional corroborating information against Kavanaugh, although he was “still reading” it. Another undecided Republican, Senator Lisa Murkowski, did not offer her view on the FBI report.
Republicans control the Senate by a 51-49 margin. If all the Democrats oppose Kavanaugh, Trump cannot afford to lose the support of more than one Republican for his nominee, with Vice President Mike Pence casting a tiebreaking vote. No Republicans have said they will vote against Kavanaugh.
While the comments by Flake and Collins were positive, neither explicitly announced support for Kavanaugh.
A previously undecided Democratic Senator, Heidi Heitkamp, said she would vote against Kavanaugh, citing “concerns about his past conduct” and questions about his “temperament, honesty and impartiality” after his angry, defiant testimony a week ago to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Senator Joe Manchin, the only remaining undecided Democrat, said he would finish reading the report on Friday morning
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein noted that the FBI did not interview Kavanaugh himself or Christine Blasey Ford, a university professor from California who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault in 1982.
“It smacks of a whitewash,” Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal told reporters, saying the report should not give political cover for Republicans to vote for Kavanaugh because “it is blatantly incomplete.”
Most Democrats opposed Trump’s nomination of Kavanaugh from the outset. If confirmed, he would deepen conservative control of the court. The sharply partisan battle became an intense political drama when Ford and two other women emerged to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in the 1980s when he was in high school and college. Kavanaugh has denied the accusations.
The Kavanaugh fight has riveted Americans weeks before Nov. 6 elections in which Democrats are trying to take control of Congress from the Republicans.
Kavanaugh’s nomination has become a flashpoint in the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault. The nomination battle boiled down to a “he said, she said” conflict requiring senators to decide between diametrically opposed accounts offered by Kavanaugh and Ford.
Trump on Tuesday mocked Ford during a political rally in Mississippi.
