All that is left is to vote now that Judge Brett Kavanaugh has enough votes for confirmation thanks to Senators Susan Collins and Joe Manchin announcing their votes for his nomination this afternoon.
Collins announced Friday she will vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, all but guaranteeing he will become the court’s newest justice. “I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh,” she said at the end of a long speech blasting the character assassination campaign against Kavanaugh.
She said the contentious Kavanaugh confirmation hearings meant that the Senate had reached “rock bottom.” She said that Kavanaugh should be given a “presumption of innocence” despite the unproven claims of sexual misconduct decades ago. The unproven accusations could not outweigh Kavanaugh’s “otherwise exemplary record” as a judge. Although she found Blasey Ford’s testimony to be “sincere, painful, and compelling,” Collins explained that no witnesses could corroborate her story.
She said that “the allegations fail to meet the more-likely-than not standard.”
SIGN THE PETITION: Vote to Confirm Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh
Immediately after her speech, Senator Joe Manchin made the politically-calculated decision to support Kavanaugh.
“I have reservations about this vote given the serious accusations against Judge Kavanaugh and the temperament he displayed in the hearing,” Manchin said. “And my heart goes out to anyone who has experienced any type of sexual assault in their life. However, based on all of the information I have available to me, including the recently completed FBI report, I have found Judge Kavanaugh to be a qualified jurist who will follow the Constitution and determine cases based on the legal findings before him. I do hope that Judge Kavanaugh will not allow the partisan nature this process took to follow him onto the court.”
“With respect to any cases that may come before him impacting the 800,000 West Virginians with pre-existing conditions, Judge Kavanaugh assured me personally that he would consider the human impacts and approach any decision with surgical precision to avoid unintended consequences,” Manchin said.
The Senate voted today 51-49 to advance the nomination of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, voting to invoke cloture and end debate on his nomination. The vote sets up a final vote on Saturday, where Kavanaugh is expected to be confirmed.
Joe Manchin plays both sides of the abortion debate and has voted to fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business, so his Kavanaugh vote machinations are not surprising.
And he’s already indicated he will vote for or against Kavanaugh on Saturday in a way that benefits him politically.
Manchin has kept his “powder dry” for months, giving Schumer and Senate Democrats room to orchestrate their resist and obstruct circus of President Trump’s nominee. But now with a confirmation vote just days away, Manchin is caving to pressure from Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and a majority of West Virginia voters.
“Joe Manchin is waiting until the outcome is decided before he reveals his vote,” Morrisey said. “It’s gutless. Joe is capable of leading, and he’s simply giving Chuck Schumer and the radical liberals more time to obstruct and go after Kavanaugh.”
“The Kavanaugh confirmation process revealed Manchin to be nothing more than a dishonest Washington liberal who gave the resist and obstruct circus room to attempt to destroy President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee,” said Morrisey for Senate spokesperson Nathan Brand in an email to LifeNews. “West Virginians see Joe Manchin for the gutless, calculating politician he is and will see his vote as a craven political calculation in an effort to save his re-election.”
