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Senate Republicans currently do not have votes to confirm Kavanaugh, several senior aides and senators told CNN. But the GOP leaders are seeing a way towards 50 votes – which means that they could lose a Republican and that Vice President Mike Pence would break a potential tie – so they will play with a damaged candidate who is viscerally opposed by the democrats.
Before the vote in committee, Senator Jeff Flake of R-Arizona, alleged to be the rotating vote of the committee, said he would support Kavanaugh. The panel has 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats.
The vote is fixed at 1.30 pm AND.
Friday's vote follows a heartbreaking partisan hearing Thursday when Christine Blasey Ford detailed her allegations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh and he vehemently denied them. It sets off days of great drama at Capitol Hill, with the prospect of a conservative Supreme Court for a generation in the balance.
The committee's action will be the first step in a series of votes to determine whether the Conservatives maintain a 5-4 majority in the field. After the committee votes, the current plan is to proceed to a procedural vote on Saturday morning in the Senate and hold the final vote early next week.
Shortly after the Republican vote of the commission Friday at a meeting that began at 9:30 am and the president of the judiciary, Chuck Grassley, began reading Kavanaugh, the Californian Senator Kamala Harris led several Democrats to leave the courtroom. She was joined by Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and later, Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy.
The Democrats also made one last push for Grassley to summon Mark Judge to appear – the man Ford told the senators was in the room with Kavanaugh when she says she was assaulted.
In total, GOP leaders seem to have 49 strong yes votes. Two Republicans – Meaning. Susan Collins from Maine and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska – and three Democrats in the Red States – Sense. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana – hold the future of Kavanaugh's appointment in their hands.
Murkowski, Collins, Flake and Manchin huddled in an office in Capitol Hill after Thursday's hearing. When they emerged, they only told reporters that they were undecided and wanted to think about their imminent decision.
Hearing Hearing
During an intense hearing that lasted one day on Thursday, Ford, a teacher from California, said Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her while they were both teenagers in the early 1980s. Kavanaugh then offered a defense noisy and emotional, shouting and tearing alternately on national television.
On Thursday, Ford told the committee that she was "100%" certain that Kavanaugh had attacked her at a party while the two teenagers were in 1982.
As the nation watched, she said that she "believed that he was going to rape me". She told the senators that she "haunted me episodically as an adult."
Kavanaugh then denied this allegation and other allegations of sexual misconduct he has faced in recent days. He blamed the Democrats for what he called a "calculated and orchestrated political coup" meant to keep him out of the Supreme Court. He also refused to support a Democratic campaign for an FBI investigation into the allegations.
"I have never done it," Kavanaugh said of Ford 's accusation. "It's not who I am, I'm innocent."
"The fundamental principles that underline the Senate's constitutional duty to advise and consent on federal judicial candidates require nothing less than a careful review of the FBI's accusations and facts," Robert said. Carlson, president of the organization.
"Every nomination to the highest court of our country (as for all others) is simply too important to be in a hurry," wrote Carlson. "The decision to prosecute without further investigation would not only have a lasting impact on the reputation of the Senate, but would also negatively affect the great trust the US people have in the Supreme Court."
CNN's Manu Raju contributed to this report.
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