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Key Senators Announce How They Will Vote on Kavanaugh
Murkowski and Manchin were the two finalists to decide how they would vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation, alongside Republican Sens, Susan Collins and Jeff Flake. Flake announced Friday morning that he would support Kavanaugh's confirmation, reiterating his statement of support the previous week. However, some Republicans feared that Flake would change his mind as he called for delaying Kavanaugh's confirmation vote to allow the FBI to conduct a brief investigation into the charges against the judge.
Flake, like Collins, felt that the FBI's investigation, which did not corroborate allegations of sexual assault, was thorough.
Collins announced his decision in a lengthy speech to the Senate on Friday afternoon, much of which was dedicated to refuting Democratic critics that Kavanaugh would cancel the Affordable Care Act or Roe v. Wade. Manchin issued his statement declaring his support for Kavanaugh shortly after the end of Collins' speech – and after the Republicans had already secured enough votes to confirm the judge, which means that Manchin would not be the deciding vote.
Murkowski opposed resistance to his party by voting "no" during a procedural vote to advance Kavanaugh's confirmation in the Senate. She later stated that the decision was very difficult, but that she did not believe that the "right time" was chosen for Kavanaugh to be sitting on the ground.
The senator from Alaska expressed his consternation at the acrimony of Kavanaugh's confirmation process and said in the Senate: "I am really worried that this will become the new normal, where we find new ways and even more creative to separate us from each other, I'm just going to forget, it's just not worth it. "
She explained her vote of "present" as a courtesy to Daines, saying that she hoped that "it reminds us that we can make very small steps to be kind to each other, and maybe those Little graceful steps can lead to more. "
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