U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, considered one of the few possible Republican "no" votes on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, speaks to news media at Saint Anselm College, Friday, Sept. 21, 2018. WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 04: Comedian Amy Schumer waits to be led away after being arrested during a protest against the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh October 4, 2018 at the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Senators had an opportunity to review a new FBI background investigation into accusations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh and Republican leaders are moving to have a vote on his confirmation this weekend. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) Collins says she will vote 'yes' on Kavanaugh WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 09: U.S. Circuit Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh looks on as U.S. President Donald Trump introduces him as his nominee to the United States Supreme Court during an event in the East Room of the White House July 9, 2018 in Washington, DC. Pending confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Judge Kavanaugh would succeed Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, 81, who is retiring after 30 years of service on the high court. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) (CNN) — The Senate voted to send Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court on Saturday, ushering in a generational conservative majority and delivering a huge victory to President Donald Trump after a vicious confirmation battle inflamed by allegations of sexual assault against the nominee. As shrieks of “shame, shame, shame” echoed from the public galleries, divided and angry senators voted 50-48 to endorse a lifetime seat on the court for Kavanaugh. The protests underscored the vital importance of an appointment that will have sweeping consequences for some of the nation’s most contested disputes over abortion, LGBT rights, the scope of presidential power and the role of religion in society. Hours later, Kavanaugh was sworn in at a private ceremony at the Supreme Court by Chief Justice John Roberts and the man he will replace, retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. Outside, a crowd of noisy protestors gathered, and was eventually pushed back from the ornate building’s steps by police. The bitter fight over Kavanaugh now moves into the epicenter of the campaign for the midterm elections in November. Republicans are convinced it will motivate their sleepy base. Democrats believe a backlash against the GOP from women voters could help deliver the House of Representatives. And the nature of the fight over Kavanaugh will trigger recriminations inside the Senate and political reverberations outside for years to come. In the end, Republicans were able to use their stranglehold on Capitol Hill and the White House to muscle through the confirmation in a power play that reflected the momentous importance of Trump’s 2016 election victory over Hillary Clinton. Still, it was a close-run thing: Kavanaugh’s nomination was nearly derailed by Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations that the judge assaulted her when they were teenagers in the 1980s, which sparked uproar and forced Republicans to delay the confirmation vote for a week to allow time for a supplemental FBI background check. Trump took a victory lap before an enthusiastic crowd at a rally in Topeka, Kansas, on what he hailed as a “historic night.” “I stand before you today on the heels of a tremendous victory for our nation, our people and our beloved Constitution,” Trump said. He dismissed the allegations against Kavanaugh by accusing Democrats of waging a “shameless campaign of political and personal destruction.” Democrats furiously accused the GOP of short-circuiting efforts to examine Ford’s allegations and of rushing the nomination through while ignoring the changed political dynamics surrounding complaints of misconduct against powerful men ushered in by the #MeToo movement. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the nomination “one of the saddest moments in the history of the Senate,” and said, “this chapter will be a flashing red warning light of what to avoid.” Republicans “conducted one of the least transparent, least fair, most biased processes in Senate history, slanting the table from the very beginning to produce their desired result,” he added. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell described Kavanaugh as a “superstar.” McConnell, who stalled Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the court in his final year in office and for whom the new conservative majority represents a defining achievement, predicted that Democratic tactics during confirmation battle would electrify Republican voters in November. “They managed to deliver the only thing we had not been able to figure out how to do, which is to get our folks fired up,” McConnell said. “The other side is obviously fired up, they have been all year.” Kavanaugh’s confirmation leaves the Senate traumatized with Republicans and Democrats as estranged as at any time in recent memory, reflecting the cavernous divides in the country itself during a presidency that has ignited rare political passions. It represents the culmination of a decades-long project by the conservative movement to construct a like-minded majority on the Supreme Court which has been a defining and unifying cause in successive congressional and presidential campaigns. The new profile of the court immediately makes Trump a consequential president, for all of the chaos and discord that rages around his White House, and means his legacy will include an achievement that eluded previous Republican presidents – all of whom had more authentic conservative credentials. The ferocious nature of the confirmation battle could also have an impact on the Court itself, as Kavanaugh’s vehement and politicized defense of his own behavior raised questions about his temperament and whether he could genuinely be a honest broker and implementer of the law in the most sensitive cases. Ford allegations and partisan fighting The path to Kavanaugh’s confirmation cleared on Friday when two wavering Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Jeff Flake of Arizona, said they would vote for Kavanaugh after concluding that Ford’s allegations, voiced by her in an emotional hearing last week, could not be corroborated. Their move meant that McConnell could forge the narrowest of majorities to clear Kavanaugh, despite the fact that another Republican, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, opposed him.<doc-sep>NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Senate’s vote confirming Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was a time to celebrate at Fox News Channel. The network recorded its biggest Saturday audience in more than a decade. The Nielsen company said Fox reached 4.34 million viewers for the Senate vote, the biggest Saturday audience since Hurricane Katrina coverage in 2005. Saturday’s prime-time lineup did even better, drawing Fox’s largest crowd since the Iraq War in 2003. CNN and MSNBC viewers found something better to do. The two networks combined on Saturday reached just over 2 million viewers for the Senate vote. Things were a little closer between the three news channels on Friday, when Maine Sen. Susan Collins announced her decision to back Kavanaugh and ended the suspense. Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters Copyright © 2021 The Washington Times, LLC.<doc-sep>Danielle Walker cried on Joe Manchin's shoulder after she shared her story of sexual assault in the senator's office. She thought he listened. The 42-year-old Morgantown woman said she was both devastated and furious when Manchin became the only Democrat in the U.S. Senate to support President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. "I feel raped all over again," Walker told The Associated Press. A day after Manchin broke with his party on what may be the most consequential vote of the Trump era, the vulnerable Democrat is facing a political firestorm back home. While Republicans — including one of the president's sons — are on the attack, the most passionate criticism is coming from Manchin's very own Democratic base, a small but significant portion of the electorate he needs to turn out in force to win re-election next month. A Manchin loss would put his party's hopes of regaining control of the Senate virtually out of reach. Walker, a first-time Democratic candidate for the state legislature, said she may not vote at all in the state's high-stakes Senate election. Julia Hamilton, a 30-year-old educator who serves on the executive committee of the Monongalia County Democratic Party, vowed to sit out the Senate race as well. "At some point you have to draw a line," Hamilton said. "I have heard from many, many people — especially women. They won't be voting for Manchin either." Manchin defended his vote in a Sunday interview as being based on fact, not emotion. He praised the women who shared their stories of sexual trauma, Walker among them, but said he "could not find any type of link or connection" that Kavanaugh was a rapist. The woman who testified to the Senate about Kavanaugh, Christine Blasey Ford, accused him of sexual assault but not rape when they were high school students more than 30 years ago. Two other women stepped forward late in the confirmation process to accuse the appeals court judge of sexual misconduct in high school or college. Their stories resonated with women who had suffered sexual trauma and fueled opposition to Kavanaugh's confirmation. "They weren't going to be satisfied, or their healing process, until we convicted this person," Manchin told The Associated Press. "I couldn't do it. You talk about two wrongs trying to make a right. It just wasn't in my heart and soul to do that." Manchin insisted over and over that his vote wasn't based on politics. There is little doubt, however, that his vote was in line with the wishes of many West Virginia voters, who gave Trump a victory in 2016 by 42 percentage points. There simply aren't enough Democrats in the state to re-elect Manchin. He needs a significant chunk of Trump's base to win. One West Virginia Trump supporter, 74-year-old Linda Ferguson, explained the politics bluntly as she watched the parade at Saturday's Mountain State Forest Festival in Elkins. "If he didn't vote for Kavanaugh he could have kissed his seat goodbye," Ferguson said. While he may have represented the majority of his state, Manchin's political challenges are far from over. Despite his support for the Republican-led nomination, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told CBS' "Face the Nation"on Sunday that the caucus would continue to campaign against the Democrat. "Joe Manchin's still a Democrat and we're trying to hold the majority. We appreciate his vote for Judge Kavanaugh. I think it was the right thing to do. But we're trying to win seats," said McConnell. The clash over Kavanaugh, who was confirmed by the Senate on Saturday, has injected new energy into each party's political base. While that may help Democrats in their fight for the House majority, which is largely taking place in America's suburbs, there are signs it's hurting vulnerable Democrats in rural Republican-leaning states like North Dakota, Missouri and West Virginia. Phil Bredesen, who said he would have voted for Kavanaugh, could also face new challenges in his bid to flip Tennessee's Senate seat to the Democratic column. For much of the year, Manchin has held a significant lead in public and private polls over his Republican opponent, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. Yet Republican operatives familiar with the race report a definite tightening over the last week. In an interview, Morrisey called Democrats' fight against Kavanaugh a "three-ring circus" that "energized a lot of people in West Virginia." He acknowledged that Manchin voted the right way for the state, but called the vote "irrelevant" because another swing vote, Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, had already given Kavanaugh the final vote he needed. "He waited until the last possible minute after Susan Collins declared for him to take a position, effectively allowing Maine to decide how West Virginia's going to decide," Morrisey charged. "We shouldn't reward that kind of cowardice." Echoing the attack, Donald Trump Jr., mockingly called Manchin "a real profile in courage" on Twitter. A real profile in courage from Lyin’ liberal @JoeManchinWV. Waited until Kavanugh had enough votes secured before he announced his support. I bet he had another press release ready to go if Collins went the other way. West Virginia - Vote for #MAGA champion @MorriseyWV! #WVSEN https://t.co/WDAzKcb3Io — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 5, 2018 When asked about the social media jab, the West Virginia senator slapped away the insult from the younger Trump. Donald Trump Jr. is "entitled to his opinion, he's just not entitled to his own facts to justify what he's saying. He doesn't really know anything," Manchin told the AP. The Democrat conceded that he followed Collins' lead out of "respect" — he didn't want to get in the way of her high-profile Friday afternoon announcement on the Senate floor. "Nothing would have changed my vote," Manchin declared. "Susan took the lead, Susan did the due diligence. ... She's going to give her speech and I'm not going to jump in front of 3 o'clock. I'm just not going to do it." That wasn't good enough for Tammy Means, a 57-year-old florist from Charleston, who was among thousands tailgating outside West Virginia University's football stadium in Morgantown on Saturday.<doc-sep>Asked on Tuesday if she was concerned about potential retribution from the state party, Murkowski responded that she was "moving forward." "It goes the same as I just said. I took the vote that I took and we're moving forward," she added. Murkowski voted against advancing Kavanaugh's nomination during a procedural vote last Friday and said she was opposed to his nomination in the final vote to confirm him on Saturday. The Kavanaugh vote isn't the first time Murkowski has bucked her party. During her 2010 reelection bid, Murkowski lost her GOP Senate primary but went on to win the general election as a write-in candidate.<doc-sep>
Brett Kavanaugh confirmation: Victory for Trump in Supreme Court battle Published 7 October 2018 image copyright US Supreme Court image caption Brett Kavanaugh, surrounded by his family, was administered the judicial oath by outgoing justice Anthony Kennedy President Donald Trump's controversial nominee for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, has been sworn in following weeks of rancorous debate. The Senate earlier backed his nomination by 50 votes to 48. Mr Kavanaugh had been embroiled in a bitter battle to stave off claims of sexual assault, which he denies. But after an 11th-hour investigation by the FBI into the allegations, enough wavering senators decided to support the nomination. His confirmation hands Mr Trump a political victory ahead of key mid-term elections in November. Before the vote, hundreds of people protested against Mr Kavanaugh's nomination at the US Capitol in Washington. media caption The moment Vice President Mike Pence announces Brett Kavanaugh's win During the vote, other protesters shouted "shame" from the public gallery and Vice-President Mike Pence had to call for order to be restored. Mr Kavanaugh's appointment is for life and he will strengthen conservative control of the nine-judge court, which has the final say on US law. The 53-year-old was sworn in on Saturday evening in a private ceremony at the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the constitutional oath, and retired justice Anthony Kennedy - whom Mr Kavanaugh is replacing - administered the judicial oath. Protesters had gathered outside the court and at one point some ran up the steps and banged on its ornate doors. Other demonstrators climbed on the nearby statue of justice. image copyright AFP image caption Protesters sat on the statue of justice outside the Supreme Court What has Mr Trump said? He sent out a tweet of congratulations: I applaud and congratulate the U.S. Senate for confirming our GREAT NOMINEE, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, to the United States Supreme Court. Later today, I will sign his Commission of Appointment, and he will be officially sworn in. Very exciting! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2018 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. View original tweet on Twitter Later he spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One, saying Mr Kavanaugh had withstood a "horrible attack by the Democrats" and that women were "outraged" at what had happened to the nominee. Mr Trump also said he was "100% certain" that the woman who had accused Mr Kavanaugh of sexual assault, Christine Blasey Ford, had named the wrong person. So what were the numbers in the Senate? The upper house is split 51-49 in favour of the Republicans and the vote was largely along party lines. In the end, there was indeed a two-vote margin, the closest nomination vote since 1881. The only party dissenters were Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, who had intended to vote no, and Democrat Joe Manchin, who voted yes. That should have meant a 51-49 tally, but the absence of Republican Steve Daines, a yes voter who was at his daughter's wedding, altered the final figures. media caption Donald Trump's nominee has been embroiled in a bitter battle over sexual assault allegations. Ms Murkowski opted instead to simply mark herself as "present", leaving the final vote 50-48. What was said in the Senate? In their final summations, the two Senate party leaders reflected how bitter the divide had become. Minority Democrat leader Chuck Schumer said Mr Kavanaugh did not belong on the bench as he had "obscured his views to the American people", "repeatedly misled the Senate" and delivered one of the "bitterest and most partisan testimonies ever presented by a nominee". He also said Mr Trump had "stooped to new depths" in mocking the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford. image copyright Reuters image caption The decision of Susan Collins to vote yes helped sway the final tally Mr Schumer said that for all those who opposed the nomination, "there is one answer - vote" in the November mid-term elections. Majority Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Mr Kavanaugh was a "serious scholar, a brilliant student of the law and a meticulous and dedicated public servant". He said events had "strained our basic principles of fairness and justice" and that the vote showed the Senate was "an institution where evidence and facts matter". He spoke of "intimidation by the mob" and said the Senate vote should be one "to turn away from darkness".