(CNN) -- Comedian Amy Schumer and model-actress Emily Ratajkowski were among more than 300 people arrested Thursday in protests over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.‏

Hundreds of people turned up at a US Senate building in the nation's capital to challenge Kavanaugh's nomination after three women accused him of various forms of sexual misconduct. Schumer and Ratajkowski were among them.

Capitol Police said they arrested 302 people during the demonstrations. Video from the scene shows the two actresses being detained after an officer asks if they want to be arrested.

Additional footage shows them waiting to be processed near a wall with officers. Schumer told a CNN producer she was arrested. Ratajkowski said on social media that she was arrested, too.

"Today I was arrested protesting the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, a man who has been accused by multiple women of sexual assault. Men who hurt women can no longer be placed in positions of power," Ratajkowski tweeted.

Schumer and Ratajkowski appeared in the 2018 comedy "I Feel Pretty."

The two were among crowds of activists who descended on Capitol Hill while lawmakers reviewed the FBI report on the allegations against Kavanaugh.

Protesters gathered at the Hart Senate Building atrium after Capitol Police barricaded the front of the Capitol. The Women's March, a liberal organization that originated as a grassroots movement in opposition to President Donald Trump, was one of multiple groups tweeting from the protest at the Capitol building.

Following Kavanaugh's nomination and his initial hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Christine Blasey Ford came forward with an allegation that Kavanaugh sexually and physically assaulted her while they were both at a party during high school more than three decades ago.

Kavanaugh and Ford both appeared before the committee last week, where lawmakers and a sex crimes prosecutor asked the two questions about the alleged incident.

The day after the hearing, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee agreed to ask Trump to call on the FBI to conduct another supplemental background investigation into the allegations.

Trump did so -- and on Thursday, the Senate began reviewing the FBI's results after receiving the report early that morning. Lawmakers are expected to vote on Kavanaugh's nomination in the coming days.</s>A high-stakes partisan row quickly broke out Thursday over a confidential FBI report about allegations that Brett Kavanaugh sexually abused women three decades ago, with Republicans claiming investigators found “no hint of misconduct” and Democrats accusing the White House of slapping crippling constraints on the probe.

The verbal battling commenced as the conservative jurist’s prospects for winning Senate confirmation to the Supreme Court remained at the mercy of five wavering senators, with an initial, critical vote looming Friday. It followed the FBI’s early-morning release of its investigation, which President Donald Trump reluctantly ordered under pressure from a handful of wavering GOP senators.

“There’s nothing in it that we didn’t already know,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a written statement. He said he based his view on a briefing from committee aides and added, “This investigation found no hint of misconduct.”

Top Democrats fired back after getting their own briefing.

The Judiciary panel’s top Democrat, Dianne Feinstein of California, said it appeared that the White House had “blocked the FBI from doing its job.” She said that while Democrats had agreed to limit the probe’s scope, “we did not agree that the White House should tie the FBI’s hands.”

READ MORE: Senate gets confidential FBI files on Kavanaugh allegations

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has already started a process that will produce a crucial test vote in his polarized chamber Friday on Kavanaugh’s fate. Should Republicans get the majority of votes they need — and Vice-President Mike Pence is available to cast the tie-breaker, if necessary — that would set up a decisive roll call on his confirmation, likely over the weekend.

Feinstein complained Thursday that agents had not interviewed Kavanaugh or Christine Blasey Ford, who has testified that he sexually attacked her in a locked bedroom during a high school gathering in 1982. Feinstein also said attorneys for Deborah Ramirez, who’s claimed Kavanaugh exposed himself to her when both were Yale freshmen, had no indication the FBI had reached out to people she’d offered for corroboration.

Grassley said the FBI could not “locate any third parties who can attest to any of the allegations,” and he said there is “no contemporaneous evidence.” He provided no specifics.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Democrats’ fears that the “very limited process” laid out for the investigation would restrain the FBI “have been realized.”

He also said, “I disagree with Sen. Grassley’s statement that there was no hint of misconduct.” Neither side provided any detail about what the report said, constrained by years-old arrangements that require the results of FBI background checks to remain confidential.

Earlier, White House spokesman Raj Shah rebuffed Democrats’ complaints, saying, “What critics want is a never-ending fishing expedition into high school drinking.” He said the FBI reached out to 10 people and interviewed nine, including “several individuals at the request of the Senate, and had a series of follow-up interviews … following certain leads.”

While the FBI interviews were to focus on sexual assault allegations, Democrats have also questioned Kavanaugh’s drinking habits during high school and college and dishonest comments they say he has made about his background. Kavanaugh has said stories of his bad behaviour while drinking are exaggerated.

Three women have accused him of sexual misconduct in separate incidents in the 1980s. Kavanaugh, 53, now a judge on the powerful District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, has denied the claims.

The White House received the FBI report around 3 a.m. Thursday.

Trump weighed in hours later in a tweet in which he denounced what he called “the harsh and unfair treatment” of Kavanaugh. “This great life cannot be ruined by mean” and “despicable Democrats and totally uncorroborated allegations!”

Ford, now a California psychology professor, has testified that when the drunken Kavanaugh attacked her, she believed he was trying to rape her.

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.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter</s>WASHINGTON -- The Trump era has, at times, been uncomfortable for Republican women, especially the six senators who will be asked to vote for Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation by week's end.

On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump ridiculed Christine Blasey Ford, who accuses Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in high school -- a claim Kavanaugh denies.

Recent polls show a majority of women think the Senate should not confirm Kavanaugh. But Republican women, like GOP men, are overwhelmingly sticking with the nominee.

A look at how it's playing out for female Republican senators:

In the Senate, the savage national debate over power and who to believe has above all been about the math. Two GOP votes against Kavanaugh's confirmation sink it if every Democrat votes no.

That's put a pair of female Republican senators, Maine's Susan Collins and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, under excruciating pressure.

Neither has said how she will vote. Each wants to see the results of the FBI investigation.

Collins on Wednesday called Trump's scoffing at Ford "just plain wrong."

Added Murkowski a few hours later: "I thought the president's comments yesterday mocking Dr. Ford were wholly inappropriate and in my view unacceptable."

Neither senator is up for re-election this year.

TWO ON THE BALLOT

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith was rushing to a vote Wednesday when a woman shouted at her, "Do you believe survivors?"

Hyde-Smith didn't answer. The Mississippi Republican, sworn in last April for a seat the GOP needs to keep, hopped on a Senate subway that sped her toward the Capitol. But she's left no doubt where she stands on Kavanaugh. In her first speech on the Senate floor, she announced that it was her "duty" to support Kavanaugh. She made time to appear at Trump's rally Tuesday night in Southaven, Mississippi.

Also on the ballot is Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska, who is campaigning for a second Senate term. Protesters shouted at her on the way in and out of a hearing Wednesday.

Fischer has said she intends to support Kavanaugh, but added, "We're going to see what the investigation brings, and let's get the vote."

THE OTHER TWO

The two other Republican female senators say victims should be heard, but they want Kavanaugh confirmed.

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said Ford's story hasn't been corroborated and people should be presumed innocent until proved guilty.

West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito -- like Ford, a graduate of the Holton-Arms School -- has said she supports Kavanaugh.

ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

The Kavanaugh question followed some female Republicans on the campaign trail Wednesday.

Outside Phoenix, Rep. Martha McSally, a sexual assault survivor herself, said the issues raised by Ford are "pretty personal." She's running for a Senate seat in Arizona against Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.

McSally said that, if no additional information emerges from the FBI review, she supports confirming Kavanaugh. "Based on the information we have, we're unable to corroborate with any other account what the allegations are," she said Wednesday.

She added that she has sympathy for Ford and that people need to understand why sexual assault survivors stay quiet for years. Asked about Trump's mockery in Mississippi, McSally said, "I'd prefer that we all have some grace here."

The bad news for Republicans: Recent polls show that a majority of women do not think Kavanaugh should be confirmed. The good news: Republicans, women and men, are overwhelmingly sticking by the nominee.

A Quinnipiac University poll conducted in the days after Ford and Kavanaugh testified showed that public opinion had started to tilt against Kavanaugh, with 48 per cent of voters opposed to his confirmation and 42 per cent in favour. A September Quinnipiac poll found a nearly even split in opinions on the confirmation.

Women were far more likely than men in the poll to oppose Kavanaugh, 55 per cent to 40 per cent. But 84 per cent of Republicans said Kavanaugh should be confirmed.

Nearly 8 in 10 Republicans said they approve of how Trump has handled the allegations in the new poll, which was conducted before Trump mocked Ford at Tuesday night's rally. About 6 in 10 said they approve of how Senate Republicans are handling the situation.

But there's more: One recent poll even suggested the GOP's enthusiasm, battered for months by the MeToo movement and Trump-related controversies, may be rebounding after Ford and Kavanaugh's testimony last week. Some Kavanaugh allies tweeted the hashtag .Brettbounce.

An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released Wednesday suggested that a "Democratic enthusiasm advantage" about the midterm elections may have dwindled. In July, there was a 10-point gap between the number of Democrats and Republicans saying the November elections were "very important." Now, that is down to 2 points. The one-day poll of 1,183 adults was conducted Oct. 1.

Associated Press writers Emily Swanson, Hannah Fingerhut, Lisa Mascaro and Padmananda Rama in Washington and Nicholas Riccardi in Phoenix contributed to this report.</s>President Donald Trump posted a tweet railing against the "very rude" protesters who have been flooding Capitol Hill ahead of the expected cloture vote to end debate on Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination.

"The very rude elevator screamers are paid professionals only looking to make Senators look bad. Don’t fall for it! Also, look at all of the professionally made identical signs. Paid for by Soros and others. These are not signs made in the basement from love! #Troublemakers," Trump wrote in a tweet, referencing unsubstantiated claims that Democratic donor George Soros is involved.

The mention of an "elevator screamer" could be a reference to the woman who confronted Sen. Jeff Flake as he was on his way to the Senate Judiciary Committee's vote on Sept. 27. The protester, who is an activist and identified herself as a sexual assault survivor, yelled at Flake for supporting Kavanaugh, who has denied accusations of sexual assault.

Trump's tweet came after Capitol Police arrested 302 people for unlawfully demonstrating in the Senate office buildings on Thursday.

The names of the protesters have not been confirmed by police "due to the large number being processed," but some famous faces in the crowd have identified themselves.

Comedienne Amy Schumer and model Emily Ratajkowski posted on their Instagram accounts about how they were arrested while protesting.</s>Today, a letter signed by more than 900 law professors across the country will be sent to the Senate urging it not to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh following allegations that he sexually assaulted Dr. Christine Blasey Ford when they were both teenagers. 11 of the signatures on the currently growing list belong to professors in Cornell’s Law School.

In a hearing on Sept. 27, Ford — the first woman to accuse Kavanaugh for sexual misconduct — said that during a summer party in their high school years, he pushed her onto a bed, groped her against her will and covered her mouth with his hand as his friend, Mark Judge, witnessed the assault. In a fiery opening statement, Kavanaugh asserted that he denied any sexual interactions with Ford and stated that he has no recollection of the party.

President Donald Trump authorized the FBI to launch a supplemental background check into Kavanaugh on Sept. 28 so long as the investigation satisfies Senate Republicans. News outlets like The New York Times and Washington Post have reported the investigation could end on Wednesday.

Since Dr. Ford’s testimony garnered international attention, universities like Yale, where Kavanaugh completed his undergraduate and law school years, have become platforms for professors and students to debate whether someone under such social and judicial scrutiny is fit for office. At Yale, over 400 people protested his confirmation on Sept. 24, according to The Yale Daily News. On Monday night, Harvard sent an email to law students confirming that Kavanaugh would not be returning to teach in the winter.

At Cornell, professors who signed the letter to the Senate are Cynthia Grant Bowman, Elizabeth Brundige, Sherry Colb, Angela Cornell, Michael C. Dorf, Odette Lienau, Andrea J. Mooney, Saule T. Omarova, Aziz Rana, Chantal Thomas, Gerald Torres.

The Sun reached out to nine professors in the law school and government department and received comment from four, one of whom signed the letter.

The following transcripts have been lightly edited for clarity.

Both Dorf and Kavanaugh clerked for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Dorf clerked 2 years prior to Kavanaugh and is one of the signatories on the letter being sent to the Senate.

The Sun: You previously told the New York Times that the controversial confirmation process may make Kavanaugh more skeptical of arguments that are either advanced by Democrats or in favor of expanding congressional power. What are some other cases where Kavanaugh’s contentious confirmation process could influence his ruling as a supreme court justice? (For example, legal cases regarding the media or sexual assault?)

Michael Dorf: To be clear, my main point is that one cannot trace a straight line between the confirmation experience and the decision of particular cases. That’s especially true with respect to Kavanaugh, whose views were already very conservative. Because I believe that the phenomenon I’m describing will likely operate unconsciously, I think it’s actually somewhat less likely to show up in cases that directly involve charges of the sort that Kavanaugh has faced as a nominee, where he would be very much aware of the issue.

The Sun: Kavanaugh has been accused of lying under oath during his testimony. If the FBI finds these accusations to be true, do you think there is a realistic chance he will be convicted of perjury?

MD: I cannot imagine that the Trump Justice Department would seek an indictment against Kavanaugh for perjury. However, the statute of limitations for most federal crimes (including perjury) is five years, so if a Democrat becomes president in 2021, it is possible that his or her administration could seek such an indictment. A perjury conviction requires that one have lied about a “material” fact. Some of Kavanaugh’s pretty clearly false statements concern matters that are arguably tangential and thus not material, such as the meaning of various terms in his high school yearbook.

Dorf has shared more of his thoughts on his blog.

The Sun: From your perspective, will the intense public scrutiny that Kavanaugh has been subjected to affect his work as a judge? Is his emotional performance at the Supreme Court hearing typical of other supreme court nominees frustrated by a rocky confirmation process?

Jeffrey Rachlinski: Every bit of research ever done on the subject concludes that judges are human beings with emotional reactions that influence how they decide cases. This process clearly has ignited a passionate reaction in Judge Kavanaugh that will doubtless influence him for the rest of his life. Research on how emotions influences judges suggest that he will be unable to set this experience aside when deciding cases involving relevant subjects or parties who are closely align with those he has today treated as personal enemies.

The Sun: There are some concerns that the accusations are infringing on the rule of law by judging Kavanaugh in a people’s court. Are these concerns well-founded?

David Bateman: The complaint that Kavanaugh is being judged in the court of “public opinion” is deeply uninformed, and is entirely backward. He is to be judged by public opinion — and rightly so since he is not on criminal or civil trial but is being nominated to serve on the SC. There is no question here of rule or law, just as there is no question of rule of law when President Trump was accused of sexual assault — if the allegations were to go to trial that would be different, but this is not even an impeachment hearing. It is a political proceeding, and necessarily and rightly so.

The Sun: Have there been confirmation processes in the past that were as controversial due to sexual misconduct allegation(s)?

DB: The most important and obvious one is Clarence Thomas’s hearings. I doubt very much whether he would have been able to get away with the breakdown Kavanaugh showed yesterday, but wealthy, upper-class, white men can get away with a lot. Anita Hill was attacked in a way that Dr. Ford was not. This is possibly a sign of improvement in public ethics, but it could also be that white women are treated better than black women.

The Sun: Given the current accusations, from a legal and constitutional perspective, should Kavanaugh’s confirmation process be suspended or proceed as planned? Please explain your reasoning.

Joseph Margulies: I have a bit of time now to pen some thoughts about this. I want to preface them, however, with some general remarks about the Supreme Court. I think many people labor under the impression that the Supreme Court is the place we go to protect our freedoms, which leads them to believe the fight over the Court is exceedingly important. I believe they are mistaken. Apart from a very brief period in the second half of the last century, the Supreme Court has never been a force for progressive change. On the contrary, for much of American life, the Supreme Court has been a source of hidebound, reactionary thinking. Most of the time, it has done much more to block progressive change than to champion it. And yet, the country seemed to survive.

I don’t know whether Judge Kavanaugh assaulted the women who have accused him. But I strongly suspect he will be confirmed regardless of what he may have done, and that as a result, the Court will continue its movement toward becoming a reactionary force against progressive change. It has been on that trajectory for decades — at least since the 80s. And as it becomes more of what it has always been, the country will survive. To put it simply, I do not attach nearly as much significance to this debate as others because I have never pinned much hope on the Supreme Court. I believe that those who do are yearning for a Court that has not existed for many years and was always an exception.

Nothing in either the law or the constitution requires that the confirmation process be suspended. It may be important to slow things down for political reasons, but that has nothing to do with the law or the constitution. People who seize upon the law at moments like this conflate law with politics.

Paris Ghazi ’21 and Anu Subramaniam ’20 contributed reporting to this article.</s>The Senate is poised to take a crucial vote Friday on whether to advance Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court as key Republican senators remain undecided amid allegations of sexual misconduct and intense protests that have divided the nation.

The 53-year-old judge made what were in effect closing arguments by acknowledging that he became "very emotional" when forcefully denying the allegations at a Judiciary Committee hearing last week. "I said a few things I should not have said," he wrote in an op-ed published Thursday evening. But he said he remains the same "hardworking, even-keeled" person he has always been. "Going forward, you can count on me," he wrote in The Wall Street Journal.

The op-ed, as well as a late boost from President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Minnesota, appeared aimed at winning over the three wavering senators from the slim GOP majority — Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — and one Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who has yet to announce his position.

Ahead of Friday's voting, Republicans emerged confident that an FBI investigation into the allegations unearthed no new corroborating details, they said. But a level of uncertainty lingered as Collins and Flake spent hours Thursday pouring over confidential FBI documents in the secure basement briefing room long after others had left seemingly satisfied with the findings.

Even without locking in support, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed ahead with trying to move Trump's nominee forward in what would be an election year win for his party. The Republican leader has little room for error with his party's slim 51-49 hold on the Senate, even if Vice President Mike Pence is called in to break a tie. A final vote is expected Saturday.

Tensions have been high at the Capitol with opponents of Kavanaugh, including survivors of sexual assault, confronting senators in the halls and holding vigil across the street at the Supreme Court. Supporters of Kavanaugh also turned out.

Trump said the protesters' "rage-fueled resistance is starting to backfire at a level nobody has ever seen before." He was referring to polling that shows some improvement for Republicans heading into the midterm election.

Friday's vote is a procedural one to end the debate, and some fence-sitting senators could conceivably vote to advance Kavanaugh's nomination but still hold out their support ahead of a final confirmation roll call over the weekend.

Two of the undeclared Republicans emerged from the secure briefing facility Thursday accepting the FBI report as "thorough," bolstering GOP hopes for confirmation.

Flake told reporters that "we've seen no additional corroborating information" about the claims against Kavanaugh.

Collins also expressed satisfaction, calling it "a very thorough investigation." She paid two visits to the off-limits room where the document was being displayed to lawmakers.

Murkowski said she was "still reviewing" her decision.

Democrats complained that the investigation, running just six days after Trump reluctantly ordered it, was shoddy, omitting interviews with numerous potential witnesses. They accused the White House of limiting the FBI's leeway.

Those not interviewed in the reopened background investigation included Kavanaugh himself and Christine Blasey Ford, who ignited the furor by alleging he'd molested her in a locked room at a 1982 high school gathering.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the Judiciary Committee's top Democrat, said while her party had agreed to a weeklong FBI probe with a finite scope, "We did not agree that the White House should tie the FBI's hands."

A hefty police presence added an air of anxiety, as did thousands of anti-Kavanaugh demonstrators. U.S. Capitol Police said 302 were arrested — among them comedian Amy Schumer, a distant relative of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, issued a statement late Thursday that said the FBI reached out to 11 people and interviewed 10. Six of the witnesses involved Ford's claims, including an attorney for one of them, and four were related to Deborah Ramirez, who has asserted that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her when both were Yale freshmen. Grassley said the FBI concluded "there is no collaboration of the allegations made by Dr. Ford or Ms. Ramirez."

Senators said the documents they examined totaled about 50 pages.

The underlying material from the FBI included text and Facebook messages, said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., including screenshots that "were very helpful" in understanding the communications between various people discussing the situation.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said nine of the pages were about Mark Judge, the Kavanaugh friend who Ford said also jumped on her while Kavanaugh assaulted her. Judge has said he doesn't recall the incident.

White House spokesman Raj Shah rebuffed Democrats' complaints, saying, "What critics want is a never-ending fishing expedition into high school drinking."

Barring leaks, it was unclear how much if anyhttps://tegna.lakana.com/ of the FBI report would be made public.

AP reporters Mary Clare Jalonick, Matthew Daly, Kevin Freking, Padmananda Rama, Juliet Linderman, Eric Tucker, Michael Balsamo, Catherine Lucey and Zeke Miller in Washington and John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia, contributed.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>With Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination speeding toward a Senate confirmation vote, demonstrators descended on Washington, D.C., to declare their urgent opposition to his bid.

The throng of protesters gathered in the early afternoon outside the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse — where Kavanaugh serves as a federal appellate court judge — and then marched to the steps of the Supreme Court building less than a mile away. All the while they carried signs and shouted slogans rejecting President Trump's nominee, who has been the subject of several sexual misconduct allegations in recent weeks.

There, on the steps of the Supreme Court, a series of speakers drove home their central theme: "We believe survivors."

The protest comes precisely a week after Kavanaugh and one of his accusers, Christine Blasey Ford, delivered dueling testimonies to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Ford alleges that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while the two were in high school in the 1980s. Kavanaugh, for his part, flatly denies the allegation, and he has the backing of Trump and dozens of GOP senators.

The protest also comes the same day that senators reviewed the FBI inquiry into the accusation, an inquiry that Democrats have rejected as too limited. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey had some particularly harsh words for it — including one we can't use here.

As this political drama unfolded among senators, the protesters made their way into the Hart Senate Office Building's atrium. "Hey, hey, ho, ho — Kavanaugh has got to go," the black-clad demonstrators shouted in the cavernous central area, circled by police officers.

Those officers eventually detained a number of those protesters and led them out of the building, while some Senate staffers watched from the hallways above them.

Others gathered in the offices of Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, whose votes are likely to be decisive when it comes to Kavanaugh's future. The moderate senators are two of just a handful of politicians who have not yet announced whether they will be voting for or against his confirmation.

Sarra Khlifi of Anchorage, Alaska, was among the protesters who made the trek to D.C. to lobby Murkowski, her state's senior senator. Khlifi told Alaska Public Media's Liz Ruskin that she took the American Civil Liberties Union up on its offer to fly women to the nation's capital. Several others joined Khlifi on her trip.

"We had this unspoken understanding of, like, 'this week has been terrible,' " she told Ruskin. "So when the opportunity came up to do something about it and come talk to Sen. Murkowski, I didn't hesitate."</s>NASHVILLE — Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Phil Bredesen says he would support Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination for the U.S. Supreme Court, a key choice in Tennessee’s tight race.

The ex-Tennessee governor announced his decision Friday in a news release, capping weeks of questions about whether he would back President Donald Trump’s high court pick despite accusations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh from high school that have thrown the nomination in doubt.

Bredesen said he was prepared to say “yes” to Kavanaugh’s nomination before Christine Blasey Ford came forward. He said that though subsequent events make it a closer call and he’s missing key pieces of evidence that senators have, he’s still a “yes.”

Bredesen called Ford a “heroine” and said he was “disgusted” by the Senate’s treatment of her.

Bredesen is in a tough contest against Republican U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn.</s>The country remains deeply divided on the question of whether Brett Kavanaugh should – or should not – be confirmed as the nation’s next Supreme Court justice. But now that the FBI has concluded its latest background check on Kavanaugh and the Senate is again poised to vote on his confirmation, the online betting odds that Kavanaugh will secure the 51 or more votes he needs take a seat on the High Court appear to be trending in the Judge’s favor.

Consider the online political market PredictIT, which has been accepting “trades” on the odds of Kavanaugh getting a set number of “Yea” votes during the confirmation process. In the one week since Kavanaugh, and his accuser Christine Blasey Ford, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the price to buy a “Yes” trade on Kavanaugh getting 49 votes or fewer (by October 31,) has fallen from 45 cents to 20 cents. The price to buy “No,” meanwhile, has risen from 57 cents to 84 cents.

PredictIT chart shows odds improving on likelihood that Judge Brett Kavanaugh will receive the votes to get confirmed for the Supreme Court by the U.S. Senate.

Meanwhile, you’d get 16 cents to sell a “Yes” share you already owned; a week ago, you’d get 43 cents upon selling that share. Similarly, you’d get 80 cents now to sell that “No” share; a week ago, you’d get 55 cents.

More: You can bet online on the likelihood Brett Kavanaugh will be confirmed

More: Even when Supreme Court isn't at stake, bad acts in high school can haunt decades later

More: The Kavanaugh hearings triggering painful memories? How to mute sexual assault on Twitter

The latest price overall on the likelihood of 49 "Yes" votes has declined from 43 cents to 15 cents. In fact, the price on 49 "Yes" votes dropped 13 cents from just the day before.

If the prediction comes true, PredictIt will redeem all Yes shares at $1. Shares in No will have zero value. Conversely, if this prediction does not come true, PredictIt will redeem all No shares at $1, and shares in Yes will have zero value.

The most likely outcome, at least according to PredictIT, is that Kavanaugh will secure 53 "Yes" votes, currently valued at 40 cents, or up 7 cents from the day before. The price on 52 "Yes" votes is now at 22 cents or up a nickel. And the price on 51 votes is at 13 cents, down 4 cents.

Of course, you can also bet on Kavanaugh getting 60 votes or more, a share of which is currently valued at just a penny.

PredictIt was born out of a project at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. The site allows you to make predictions about various political events or elections – besides Kavanaugh, the odds of whether the Democrats or Republicans will control the House or Senate, for example – by buying shares in the outcome, either Yes or No. Each outcome has a real-time probability between 1 and 99 percent, converted into U.S. cents.

The latest price is determined by the most recent trade made between two players. As PredictIt explains, very often, players will want to buy or sell shares at a price slightly better for them, usually a cent or two, than the most recent trade.

Incidentally, if it turns out that no vote is taken on Kavanaugh’s nomination – should President Donald Trump, as is almost certainly not going to happen, withdraws his nomination at the last minute – that will be considered a “Yes” outcome for people who bet on 49 votes or less.

Of course, given all the drama surrounding the Kavanaugh nomination, anything is still possible.

As Will Jennings, the head of public engagement at PredictIT put it a week ago: “Given the nature of this event, and the amount of new information that has come to light throughout the confirmation process, forecasting the outcome has been a moving target. There are few comparisons for considering the odds on something like this. This is not like forecasting an election where you have a lot of historical data to base your projections on.”

A separate online betting site, BetDSI, also suggests Kavanaugh will ultimately get the blessing of the Senate. BetDSI puts the odds he gets confirmed at "-500," compared to "+300" that he is denied the necessary votes. (By way of explanation, "-500" indicates a bettor must risk $500 to win $100; "+350" indicates a bettor must risk $100 to win $350, and thus is considered the "underdog.")</s>(CNN) — Comedian Amy Schumer and model-actress Emily Ratajkowski were among more than 300 people arrested Thursday in protests over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.‏

Hundreds of people turned up at a US Senate building in the nation’s capital to challenge Kavanaugh’s nomination after three women accused him of various forms of sexual misconduct. Schumer and Ratajkowski were among them.

Capitol Police said they arrested 302 people during the demonstrations. Video from the scene shows the two actresses being detained after an officer asks if they want to be arrested.

A Day Of Fury And Mistrust As Kavanaugh Drama Hits Final Stretch

Additional footage shows them waiting to be processed near a wall with officers. Schumer told a CNN producer she was arrested. Ratajkowski said on social media that she was arrested, too.

“Today I was arrested protesting the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, a man who has been accused by multiple women of sexual assault. Men who hurt women can no longer be placed in positions of power,” Ratajkowski tweeted.

Schumer and Ratajkowski appeared in the 2018 comedy “I Feel Pretty.”

The two were among crowds of activists who descended on Capitol Hill while lawmakers reviewed the FBI report on the allegations against Kavanaugh.

Protesters gathered at the Hart Senate Building atrium after Capitol Police barricaded the front of the Capitol. The Women’s March, a liberal organization that originated as a grassroots movement in opposition to President Donald Trump, was one of multiple groups tweeting from the protest at the Capitol building.

Following Kavanaugh’s nomination and his initial hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Christine Blasey Ford came forward with an allegation that Kavanaugh sexually and physically assaulted her while they were both at a party during high school more than three decades ago.

Kavanaugh and Ford both appeared before the committee last week, where lawmakers and a sex crimes prosecutor asked the two questions about the alleged incident.

The day after the hearing, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee agreed to ask Trump to call on the FBI to conduct another supplemental background investigation into the allegations.

Trump did so — and on Thursday, the Senate began reviewing the FBI’s results after receiving the report early that morning. Lawmakers are expected to vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination in the coming days.
Hundreds of protesters against U.S. President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh are arrested at the Hart Senate Office Building, including Amy Schumer and model Emily Ratajkowski.