Senator confronted by angry protester, calls for delay on key Kavanaugh vote
WASHINGTON — Senators voted Friday to send Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination for a broader vote on Capitol Hill — but not before the man holding the swing vote helped negotiate a last-minute caveat: a week-long FBI investigation into Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations of sexual assault.
An often bitter and partisan hearing of the Senate Justice Committee, the memory of explosive testimony from the two main players still fresh in their minds, ended in a chaotic and confusing flurry of closed-door negotiations led by Arizona Republican Jeff Flake.
Flake said he, Delaware Democrat Chris Coons and others agreed to ask for the broader Senate to delay a final vote for no more than a week to allow the FBI to look into Blasey Ford’s allegations of being sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh when the two of them were teenagers.
“I think it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to, but not more than, one week, in order to let the FBI to do an investigation, limited in time and scope, into the allegations that are there,” Flake told the committee.