WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – A deeply divided U.S. Senate yesterday confirmed Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, as Republicans dismissed accusations of sexual misconduct against the conservative judge and delivered a major victory to President Donald Trump.
By a vote of 50-48, the Senate gave a lifetime job to Kavanaugh, 53, after weeks of fierce debate over sexual violence, privilege and alcohol abuse that convulsed the nation just weeks before congressional elections on November 6.
The Senate vote takes the highest U.S. court down a more conservative path, perhaps for many years, and is a bitter blow to Democrats already chafing at Republican control of the White House and both chambers of the U.S. Congress.
Kavanaugh’s confirmation gives conservatives a 5-4 majority in any future legal battles on contentious issues such as abortion rights, immigration, transgender rights, industry regulation, and presidential powers.
He was sworn in almost immediately yesterday by Chief Justice John Roberts.
Adding to the day’s drama, women protesters in the Senate gallery shouting, “Shame on you!” briefly interrupted the confirmation vote.
Another group of protesters stormed toward the doors of the nearby Supreme Court building with raised fists. Police stood guard at the doors.
Kavanaugh’s nomination became an intense personal and political drama when university professor Christine Blasey Ford accused him of sexually assaulting her in the upstairs bedroom of a home in a wealthy suburb of Washington in 1982.
Two other women accused him in the media of sexual misconduct in the 1980s.
Kavanaugh fought back against the accusations, denying them in angry and tearful testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee that was viewed live on television by around 20 million people.
Trump said yesterday he was “100 percent” certain that Ford named the wrong person when she accused Kavanaugh.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while flying to a campaign rally in Kansas, Trump said of Kavanaugh: “We’re very honored that he was able to withstand this horrible, horrible attack by the Democrats.”
Trump watched the confirmation vote on a large-screen television tuned to Fox News in a wood-paneled cabin on the plane. He flashed two thumbs up when the final vote was declared and aides on board applauded.
Trump is seeking a legacy as the president who put a strongly conservative stamp on the court. He stood by Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge with a history of advancing Republican causes.
This week, Trump mocked Ford’s account of what she says was a drunken attack on her by Kavanaugh when they were teenagers.
WOMEN PROTESTS
Hundreds of protesters against Kavanaugh gathered on the grounds of the Capitol and at the Supreme Court. A total of 164 people were arrested in the protests, U.S. Capitol Police said.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Twitter: “Confirming Brett Kavanaugh in the face of credible allegations of sexual assault that were not thoroughly investigated, and his belligerent, partisan performance…undermines the legitimacy of the Supreme Court.”
A townhouse near the Washington residence of Republican Senator Susan Collins, whose backing for Kavanaugh helped get him over the line yesterday, flew the flag of her home state Maine upside down in protest.
The confirmation allows Trump to hit the campaign trail ahead of the congressional elections saying that he has kept his 2016 promise to mold a more conservative American judiciary.
Democrats said Kavanaugh’s partisan defense of himself, in which he said he was victim of a “political hit,” was enough itself to disqualify him from the court.
Repeatedly during the Senate debate, Republicans accused Democrats of staging a smear campaign against Kavanaugh to prevent a conservative becoming a Supreme Court justice.
Accusations against Kavanaugh energised the #MeToo social media movement that emerged after high-profile accusations of sexual assault and harassment by men in politics, the media and the entertainment industry.
Furthermore, the dispute over Kavanaugh has added fuel to campaigning for the elections in November when Democrats will try to take control of Congress from the Republicans.
Several polls show that Republican enthusiasm about voting, which had lagged behind, jumped after the Kavanaugh hearing last week.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told Reuters that the political brawl over Kavanaugh will help Republicans at the elections.
“Nothing unifies Republicans like a court fight,” McConnell said in an interview ahead of the vote. “It’s been a seminal event leading into the fall election.”
But Democrats hope women angered at the Kavanaugh accusations will turn out in large numbers to vote out Republicans.
During yesterday’s vote, senators were showered with cries of “We will not forget,” and “Survivors vote” from protesters in the Senate gallery.
