{"id":184225,"date":"2018-10-04T06:29:11","date_gmt":"2018-10-04T10:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=184225"},"modified":"2018-10-04T06:29:11","modified_gmt":"2018-10-04T10:29:11","slug":"senate-gets-fbi-kavanaugh-report-initial-vote-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/10\/04\/senate-gets-fbi-kavanaugh-report-initial-vote-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate gets FBI Kavanaugh report, with initial vote Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
\u201cThere is no chance in the world that they’re going to scare us out of doing our duty,\u201d he said. (File Photo<\/a>: Ninian Reid\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Senate braced for a crucial initial vote Friday on Brett Kavanaugh’s tottering Supreme Court nomination after Majority Leader Mitch McConnell set his polarized chamber on a schedule to decide an election-season battle that has consumed the nation. A showdown roll call over confirmation seemed likely over the weekend.<\/p>\n

McConnell, R-Ky., cemented the process late Wednesday, several hours before the FBI delivered to an anxious Senate the potentially fateful report on claims that Kavanaugh sexually abused women. With Republicans clinging to a razor-thin 51-49 majority and five senators \u2014 including three Republicans \u2014 still vacillating, the conservative jurist’s prospects of Senate confirmation remained murky and dependent, in part, on the file’s contents, which are supposed to be kept secret.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be plenty of time for members to review and be briefed on the supplemental material\u201d before Friday’s vote, McConnell said to the nearly empty chamber.<\/p>\n

In a rare moment of randomness in what’s been a deadly serious process, the normally meticulous lawmaker’s cellphone emitted a ringtone during part of his remarks.<\/p>\n

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said early Thursday that he had the Kavanaugh FBI report: \u201cSupplemental FBI background file for Judge Kavanaugh has been received,\u201d he tweeted.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers were planning to begin reading the FBI report Thursday morning, with senators and a small number of top aides permitted to view it in a secure room in the Capitol complex. Senators are not supposed to divulge the contents of the agency’s background reports.<\/p>\n

The report arrived at a Capitol palpably tense over the political stakes of the nomination fight and from aggressive anti-Kavanaugh protesters who have rattled and reportedly harassed senators. Feeding the anxiety was an unusually beefy presence of the U.S. Capitol Police, who were keeping demonstrators and frequently reporters at arm’s length by forming wedges around lawmakers walking through corridors.<\/p>\n

Amid complaints that some lawmakers were being confronted outside their homes, McConnell claimed on the Senate floor that the protesters were \u201cpart of the organized effort\u201d to derail Kavanaugh’s nomination.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no chance in the world that they’re going to scare us out of doing our duty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Adding to the uncertainty, the three undecided GOP senators who could decide Kavanaugh’s fate rebuked President Donald Trump for mocking one accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, by mimicking her responses to questions at last week’s dramatic Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would tell him, knock it off. You’re not helping,\u201d Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said of Trump’s Tuesday night tirade.<\/p>\n

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Trump’s insults marked a \u201cnew low.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barring leaks, it was unclear how much of the FBI report, if any, would be made public. While senators from both sides have expressed support for revealing at least parts of the findings, FBI background checks on nominees are supposed to remain confidential.<\/p>\n

Underscoring rising tensions, Democrats suggested that previous FBI background checks of Kavanaugh may have unearthed misconduct by the nominee.<\/p>\n

Democrats wrote to Grassley, R-Iowa, challenging a Tuesday tweet by GOP aides saying prior investigations never found \u201ca whiff of ANY issue \u2014 at all \u2014 related in any way to inappropriate sexual behaviour or alcohol abuse.\u201d Democrats wrote that the GOP tweet contained information that is \u201cnot accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Committee Republicans tweeted in response that their prior tweet was \u201ccompletely truthful\u201d and accused Democrats of \u201cfalse smears.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters that Trump’s lampooning of Ford at a Tuesday night Mississippi campaign rally was \u201cjust plain wrong.\u201d Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, called it \u201cwholly inappropriate and in my view unacceptable,\u201d and Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said on NBC’s \u201cToday\u201d show that the remarks were \u201ckind of appalling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those senators, along with Democrats Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, have yet to declare how they will vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us need to keep in mind there’s a few people that are on the fence right now. And right now, that’s sort of where our focus needs to be,\u201d said Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, who has traded barbs with Trump and will retire at year’s end.<\/p>\n

Trump drew laughs Tuesday with his rendition of how Ford answered questions at last week’s hearing. \u201cI had one beer \u2014 that’s the only thing I remember,\u201d he stated inaccurately.<\/p>\n

As he flew aboard Air Force One to the Mississippi rally, Trump was enraged by New York Times articles about Kavanaugh’s high school and college years and alleging tax avoidance efforts by the president and his family, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway on Wednesday echoed the president’s newly aggressive approach. She said Ford has \u201cbeen treated like a Faberge egg by all of us, beginning with me and the president,\u201d and said Trump was merely \u201cpointing out factual inconsistencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump himself didn’t respond publicly to the criticism. On Twitter, he hailed Kavanaugh as \u201ca fine man and great intellect\u201d and insisted, \u201cThe country is with him all the way!\u201d<\/p>\n

The California psychology professor has testified that a drunken Kavanaugh sexually abused her in a locked room at a high school party in the 1980s and has said she believed he was trying to rape her. Kavanaugh has denied her assertions and those of two other women, who have accused him of other instances of sexual misconduct in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Democrats argued that the investigation has been insufficient, lacking interviews with her, with Kavanaugh and others who his accusers have said could know about the alleged incidents.<\/p>\n

In a statement Wednesday night after McConnell set the vote in motion, Ford’s counsel wrote: \u201cAn FBI supplemental background investigation that did not include an interview of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford \u2014 nor the witnesses who corroborate her testimony \u2014 cannot be called an investigation. We are profoundly disappointed that after the tremendous sacrifice she made in coming forward, those directing the FBI investigation were not interested in seeking the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corker and Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said senators were expecting the document to contain reports that FBI agents compile on their interviews with subjects, perhaps accompanied by a cover letter. Background checks do not traditionally contain investigators’ conclusions about who they believe is credible.<\/p>\n

Washington has been awaiting completion of the investigation since last week, when Flake, Collins and Murkowski pressured a reluctant Trump and GOP leaders to order the FBI to renew its background check of the 53-year-old Kavanaugh.<\/p>\n

The FBI interviewed several people, including three who Ford has said attended a 1982 high school gathering in suburban Maryland where she says Kavanaugh’s attack occurred, plus another Kavanaugh friend. The agency has also spoken to a second woman, Deborah Ramirez, who has claimed Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a Yale party when both were freshmen.<\/p>\n

In an interview, No. 2 Senate Democratic leader Dick Durbin of Illinois said McConnell was \u201chell-bent on getting this done\u201d this week.<\/p>\n

Democrats also demanded that the FBI privately brief the Senate about the investigation before the chamber votes. McConnell rejected that request in a letter Wednesday to Schumer, saying Democrats would use it to delay Kavanaugh’s confirmation.<\/p>\n

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