Last week, the world watched as Dr. Christine Blasey Ford stood in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee to publicly allege that Brett Kavanaugh, the conservative D.C. judge whom President Donald Trump had nominated to the Supreme Court, had drunkenly groped her at a party, attempted to forcibly remove her clothes, and covered her mouth when she attempted to scream. Dr. Ford’s affecting, emotional account of the alleged assault immediately ignited a rippling #MeToo effect across the country, as women from Busy Phillips to Ellen Degeneres began sharing their own traumatic sexual assault experiences—feeling emboldened to do so after hearing Dr. Ford’s powerful testimony.
Actor and activist Amandla Stenberg chose to open up about her sexual assault in an op-ed for Teen Vogue published Saturday. In the powerfully penned piece, the Hate U Give star wrote about her own experiences with sexual assault and explains she felt compelled to go public with her own story after watching the Kavanaugh hearings and listening to Dr. Ford’s testimony.
“As I live-streamed Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony in a hotel room and a humid drizzle painted the windows an opaque gray, I found myself relying heavily on the tool of my breath… My breath was the tool I relied on when I ended up in a foreign country on a three-hour train ride to find an emergency contraceptive,” she wrote. “The night before, what started as a consensual experience had turned forceful. Painful things had been done to my body that made me feel broken and disposable. I was unable to consent to them, and was silenced verbally and physically when I protested.”
The actress goes on to describe the emotional weight she carried after this traumatic experience, feeling at times guilty, as though what happened to her had somehow been her fault. “I was sitting in that soup of guilt and shame that often follows an unwarranted sexual experience,” she said. “My body hurt and my mind was on a one-track loop, dissecting all the things that I was culpable for, that must have led me to my predicament.”
Stenberg explains that her assaulter was someone who was “respected” by her peers, stating: “It seemed to me that often the trade-off of being invited into spaces by these sorts of cis straight men and getting their approval was the acceptance that what I had to contribute was the value of my body as a woman. Implicit within that was the notion that, because my body served such a transactional purpose, it was no longer just my property. That was a form of social currency I was familiar with and, honestly, at times accepted.”
An often-debated topic throughout the Kavanaugh hearings revolved around the question of whether or not Dr. Ford should have come forward with the sexual assault allegation sooner. But as Stenberg points out in her essay, doing so immediately throws assault survivors into “a battle where you’ve been appointed defender of your own legitimacy.” She goes on: “You are given the responsibility of, after having just been subjected to devastating trauma, navigating impossible protocols, lest you be charged as the culprit in your own attack. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Damned to subject yourself to physical and public scrutiny, more vulnerability and social repercussions, or damned to allow the residual feelings to fester inside. Either way, you sacrifice comfort and safety within your own body, and sometimes it’s easier to just keep that pain to yourself and hope it goes away. And that is understandable and OK. We should not be condemned for being unsure of how to move through pain.”
Ultimately, it was watching Dr. Ford’s testimony that pushed the actress to “move through discomfort that [she’d] buried” and speak out: “Although these tipping points are chaotic, disorienting, infuriating, and often heartbreaking, I like to believe that real change begins with the eruption of truth.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can seek help by calling the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673). For more resources on sexual assault, visit RAINN and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
When it comes to the controversial nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, men run the show.
Technically, anyway.
President Donald Trump, of course, picked Kavanaugh for the high court. The Senate Judiciary Committee, which has held confirmation hearings on the judge—including testimony from Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused him of sexually assaulting her in the 1980s—is controlled by Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley. And the Senate majority leader is Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell, who’s firmly on Kavanaugh’s side and is driving the chamber toward confirmation as fast as he can.
But a group of women are playing pivotal roles at this divisive moment in U.S. history. Some serve on the Judiciary Committee. Some have staked out positions as nationally recognized champions of women’s rights. Some face a choice between siding with their party or with those protesting it.
Here, in alphabetical order, is a quick guide to some of the Senate women who’ve been in the spotlight (or on the hot seat) in the Kavanaugh controversy, including those whose political futures are definitely worth watching in the run-up to the 2020 race for president.
SUSAN COLLINS
PHOTO: Bloomberg
The GOP controls the Senate by a tiny margin, so any defections put the party in danger of seeing Kavanaugh’s confirmation blow up. Collins, who represents Maine, has been one of the most closely tracked members of the Senate throughout the Kavanaugh debate: She’s a Republican, but she’s also pro-choice.
Before Ford’s claims that Kavanaugh attacked her when they were high school students—which he has categorically denied—Collins was already regularly swarmed by reporters trying to take her temperature on whether she’d vote to confirm the judge to replace the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. Now she’s surrounded not only by the press, but under pressure from both protesters and colleagues who want her to reject Kavanaugh.
Collins supported Trump’s first SCOTUS nominee last year, but that was a very different story: When Neil Gorsuch succeeded the late Justice Antonin Scalia, it was a matter of one conservative replacing another. The balance of the court was unchanged. Kennedy was also nominated by a Republican president, Ronald Reagan, but he ended up a swing justice who sided with liberals in critical cases that upheld abortion protections. Replacing Kennedy with Kavanaugh would tilt the high court firmly to the right.
Collins met privately with Kavanaugh before the Ford allegations. She said that she came away with the understanding that the judge considers Roe v. Wade a matter of settled law.
But since Kavanaugh went on the defensive over the assault claims, Collins has come under even more pressure to take a side. She publicly called the allegations “serious” and supported allowing lawyers for Ford and Kavanaugh to question each other during the Judiciary hearings (which didn’t end up happening).
As of Thursday, she had told reporters she considered the FBI probe “very thorough,” but said she hadn’t finished reviewing all the materials. She also hadn’t said how she planned to vote.
DIANNE FEINSTEIN
PHOTO: Bloomberg
The California senator is in a challenging position: She’s the highest-ranking woman on the Judiciary Committee, but she’s a Democrat. (As the majority party, Republicans ultimately control the proceedings.)
Feinstein has faced considerable criticism during the Kavanaugh confirmation process, including the timeline of her actions after receiving a letter from Ford that detailed her allegations of assault. The senator has said she was simply trying to respect Ford’s request for privacy; Republicans have instead accused Feinstein of stalling so she could drop a bombshell on the SCOTUS nominee late in the game and hurt his chances of getting the job.
Some anti-Kavanaugh activists reportedly think Feinstein’s methodical, low-key style just isn’t cutting it as the Republicans are on the verge of getting the nomination to a vote, although the longtime lawmaker has also been praised for being fair.
KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND
PHOTO: Drew Angerer
The New York senator has a record of speaking out against sexual assault, particularly in the military—and she opposed Kavanaugh well before the current scandal engulfed his nomination.
Gillibrand, a Democrat who’s often mentioned as a potential 2020 presidential contender although she hasn’t confirmed those rumors, has flatly suggested Kavanaugh is a hyper-conservative would be a threat to abortion rights and women’s health care. She’s also questioned his past positions on the exercise of presidential power.
In July, well before the news broke of Ford’s allegations against Kavanaugh, Gillibrand told Glamour she considered the judge “more dangerous than any previous justice nominee because of his education and his experience and because of the track record he’s laid out about what he intends to do,” adding, “I think he is going to be very destructive to basic civil rights and civil liberties for millions of Americans.”
Thursday night, Gillibrand urged people to change the game by showing up on Election Day.
“If the Senate was 51% women, would SCOTUS nominees look like Brett Kavanaugh, or like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor?” she asked. “Let’s elect record numbers of women so our high offices are held by leaders who’ll do the most good for the most people.”
KAMALA HARRIS
PHOTO: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The former California attorney general has put her prosecutorial skills to work as a member of the Judiciary Committee, peppering Kavanaugh with pointed questions during the confirmation hearings.
Her intensity wasn’t much of a surprise: Harris, a Democrat, got plenty of attention for grilling now-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions during his Judiciary interviews as well.
Harris is only the second black woman elected to the Senate in American history (the first was Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois) and has made a name for herself in public life as a fighter against racial inequity, both inside and outside the criminal justice system—and a lawmaker with a cool head.
Some forecasters have said the combination of passion and compassion Harris has evinced in the political arena, and her calls to elevate the American debate beyond the “mean” tone of the Trump era, could be a blueprint for a potential run for the White House. She’s not tipping her hand on a future campaign just yet.
The Hawaii senator is not a prospective candidate for president—she can’t seek the Oval Office, having been born outside the U.S.—but her standout role as a Kavanaugh interrogator has some people wishing she could.
Hirono, a Democrat who serves on Judiciary, notably asked Kavanaugh well before the Ford allegations surfaced whether he had ever engaged in sexual harassment or assault. (He said he had not.) As the New Yorkernoted, Hirono said she posed the question because she “did not want the #MeToo movement to be swept under the rug,” not because she had any heads-up about the coming scandal.
The cancer survivor, who is also the only immigrant currently serving in the Senate, also made a point of asking Kavanaugh about his attitudes toward indigenous peoples—and releasing a 2002 email (which had been marked “confidential”) that included his views on a legal question regarding Native Hawaiians.
Hirono said in the hearings that his views on the status of native peoples should be considered offensive—and not just by Hawaiians. Read on for why that matters in more ways than one…
AMY KLOBUCHAR
PHOTO: Chip Somodevilla
While a Democrat, Klobuchar, the senior senator from the swing state of Minnesota has been described as somewhat more moderate than some of her colleagues. That might not be in vogue in 2018, when hard-charging liberals (and even some self-identified Democratic socialists) are exciting some midterm voters. The landscape could look different in 2020, when a Trump challenger might try to appeal to Americans on both the left and right of the political spectrum.
Klobuchar is the fourth Democratic woman who serves on Judiciary (all the Republicans are men). She had a memorable question for her male colleagues who sat in opposition to letting the FBI investigate the allegations against Kavanaugh: “What are you hiding?”
At least as memorable: The moment Klobuchar asked Kavanaugh if he’d ever blacked out from drinking, only to have him throw the question back at her. He later apologized to Klobuchar, who said in a CNN interview that she’d been “stunned” by his conduct during the Judiciary hearing.
Klobuchar was also among the Democrats who had off-mic conversations with Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, who ultimately pushed his GOP colleagues to give the FBI more time to look into Kavanaugh’s past before a Senate vote.
LISA MURKOWSKI
PHOTO: Drew Angerer
Like Collins, Murkowski is a pro-choice Republican woman, and whether she’ll ultimately come down for or against Kavanaugh has been keeping the pundits speculating.
The Alaska senator’s office told the Anchorage Daily News on Thursday that she, like Collins, is reviewing the FBI files—although Murkowski had not gone so far as her Maine counterpart in calling the investigation “thorough.” She has, however, acknowledged that the pressure is on from both sides, and that her office has been flooded with emails and calls about the confirmation.
Murkowski and Collins both also criticized Trump after he ridiculed Ford’s testimony and portrayed Kavanaugh as a victim of character assassination during a Tuesday rally in Mississippi.
For Murkowski, however, Hirono’s question to the judge about indigenous peoples may carry extra significance: As the Daily News has reported, Alaska Native organizations that helped her win a big 2010 Senate race consider Kavanaugh a potential danger to tribal authority, are out in force against him, and are making sure Murkowski knows it.
ELIZABETH WARREN
PHOTO: Zach Gibson
The Massachusetts senator—and possible 2020 contender—isn’t a member of the Judiciary Committee, but she’s been outspoken on opposing the Kavanaugh nomination.
“The fact that Republicans want to go forward treating [Ford] and other women who have come forward as if their claims don’t matter is an insult to every single woman in this country,” she told Glamour in Washington on the day of Ford’s testimony to Judiciary last week. “It is fundamentally wrong.”
Warren was also among the luminaries who protested Kavanaugh on Thursday, telling a rally crowd, “I am angry on behalf of women who have been told to sit down and shut up one time too many.”
There are no bridges left to burn between Trump and Warren: The president has mockingly called her “Pocahontas” in questioning her self-described Native American heritage; Warren has been a steady critic of the administration’s policies, including on federal family planning funding.
While she hasn’t officially committed to challenging Trump, Warren was recently quoted saying she’d take a “hard look” at it after the Nov. 6 midterms.
Celeste Katz is senior politics reporter for Glamour. Send news tips, questions, and comments to celeste_katz@condenast.com.
President Donald Trump may have stooped to a new low Tuesday night when he decided to openly mock Christine Blasey Ford and her allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during a rally in Mississippi.
And honestly, the only thing that’s surprising is that it took this long to happen. Gone are the headlines that touted the president’s “restraint,” like CNN’s, which read “Aides quietly stunned by Trump’s respectful handling of Kavanaugh accuser.” In the piece, two sources quoted Trump as saying, “Why would I attack her?”
But last night, that’s exactly what he did, going so far as to imitate Ford.
“’I had one beer.’ Well do you think it was… ‘Nope. It was one beer.’ Oh good. How did you get home? ‘I don’t remember.’ How did you get there? ‘I don’t remember.’ Where is the place? ‘I don’t remember,'” Trump said, prompting laughter from those in the crowd. “How many years ago was it? ‘I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.’ What neighborhood was it in? ‘I don’t know.’ Where’s the house? ‘I don’t know. Upstairs. Downstairs. I don’t know. But I had one beer that’s the only thing I remember.'”
“And a man’s life is in tatters,” Trump continued. “A man’s life is shattered.” Then, echoing his comments from earlier in the day when he expressed fear for young men in the age of #MeToo, he claimed that he had many “false allegations” against him, adding that the crowd should “think of your son” because men are “guilty until proven innocent.”
Perhaps even more jarring than Trump’s own outrageous words is the laughter and applause of the crowd. Many social media users made the astute connection between the reactions at the rally and Ford’s poignant testimony about her memory of the alleged attack: “Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter, the uproarious laughter between the two,” she said of the one thing she remembers the most about that night more than 30 years ago.
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.)—who helped request the FBI investigation into Kavanaugh which delayed the confirmation vote—appeared on the Today show Wednesday morning and condemned Trump’s speech. “There’s no time and no place for remarks like that,” he said. “I wish he hadn’t have done it. It’s kind of appalling.”
Twitter agreed—and many wonder how this type of rhetoric will affect senators like Flake, Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) who are thought to be on the fence regarding their Kavanaugh nomination votes.
Saturday Night Live‘s 44th season premiered last night, and the show went in hard with its commentary on this week’s Kavanaugh hearings—starting right from the beginning.
For its cold open, the show tapped Matt Damon, a man who has found his foot in his mouth for his comments about #MeToo, to portray Judge Brett Kavanaugh during his hearing in front of the confirmation committee. His parody of the Supreme Court nominee was nothing short of spot on—but that doesn’t mean it didn’t also make us cringe.
“I’m gonna start at an 11, and I’m gonna take it to a 15,” Damon-as-Kavanaugh begins—then spends the next 13 minutes sniffing incessantly, aggressively turning the pages of his notes, and talking about his friends “PJ,” “Tobin,” and “Squi.” There’s also the tearful submission of his “beautiful, creepy calendars” into evidence, and a whole lot of references to his love of ‘skis. “
“I was the proudest, drunkest virgin you’ve ever seen,” he boasted at one point.
“I’m usually an optimist, I’m a keg-is-half-full kind of guy,” Damon-as-Kavanaugh continued. “But what I’ve seen from the monsters on this committee has made me want to puke, and not from beer.”
Senators Hatch, Grassle, Feinstein, Klobuchar and Graham all make their own appearances as played by SNL cast members, as does “female prosecutor” Rachel Mitchell (Aidy Bryant), who is “only there for Twitter”—and for Senator Hatch to hide behind “like a human shield.” Alyssa Milano shows up, too, in the form of a cardboard cut-out who’s really good at “finding her lens.”
Some of it brought a smile after a long week of news, but some of it hit a little close to home. At one point Damon exclaims, “I’m not backing down you, sons of bitches; I don’t know the meaning of the word ‘stop.'”
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The cold open was just the beginning of SNL‘s all-in approach to the Kavanaugh hearings. The show’s “Weekend Update” segment began with a series of clips that showed Judge Kavanaugh talking about how much he liked beer and working out while he was in high school. After it played, co-anchor Colin Jost commented, “I’ve gotta say, you’re not really helping yourself in a drunken assault case when you yell about how much you like drinking and how strong you were at the time.”
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In a later clip, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg (Kate McKinnon) shows up to comment on the hearings. “He thinks his confirmation hearing was unfair?” she asks, “My confirmation hearing was they threw me in a river to see if I float. And I did! I floated on top like a little waterbug!”
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There was also a pretty unsettling sketch about an alcohol and drug-fueled college party in the ’80s. Although it made no direct reference to Kavanaugh, it alluded to some of the themes of assault and youth party culture that have been at the forefront of conversations surrounding his hearing this week.
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Things got even weirder during the show, but safe to say this is a premiere we won’t be forgetting anytime soon.
Christine Blasey Ford’s decision to publicly accuse Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault irrevocably changed her life. If her claims, which the judge adamantly denies, help keep him off the bench, her decision may also change the course of American history.
America was watching when the California college professor testified about Kavanaugh before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Among those who may have watched extra closely: Women still privately weighing whether to speak out against their own assailants.
Ford’s challenge to Kavanaugh has energized talk of a new era of empowerment for accusers. But there are still fears that what she’s experienced since coming forward—and the final Senate verdict on Kavanaugh, which has now been delayed pending a brief FBI inquiry—could convince some women to stay silent.
“There’s a very, very high cost to the accuser when they report,” says Professor Linda Martín Alcoff of the Graduate Center and Hunter College of the City University of New York—whether emotional, financial, or professional. Before taking the risk, women consider what they’ve seen happen to both public figures and people they know: “They’re guessing what the cost will be—and they’re making reasonable guesses that the cost is going to be high,” she says.
Even with that, Martín Alcoff says the outcome of the Ford-Kavanaugh confrontation will affect attitudes toward reporting sexual assault “for years to come” because it is unique. Specifically, it’s what she calls a “best-case scenario” for an accuser.
First, she says, Ford’s accusation is being taken seriously—something not every accuser can count on. She has the benefit of a legal team on her side. Ford has also been able to produce evidence to support her claim that Kavanaugh assaulted her at a party in 1982, including polygraph test results and health records.
Despite those advantages, Martín Alcoff says, Ford still got enough threats after she went public to compel her to flee her home.
And though Ford’s claims come after the rise of movements like #MeToo and #TimesUp, Martín Alcoff, also the author of Rape & Resistance, says Ford’s case may face some of the same procedural hurdles—and skeptical attitudes—Anita Hill confronted in 1991 when she alleged in groundbreaking testimony that then-SCOTUS nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her.
Thomas was confirmed by the Senate, 52 to 48. He still sits on the high court today.
If Ford’s testimony does help tip the Senate away from confirming Kavanaugh, it’s likely she’ll be cheered in other circles: His rejection might be hailed as vindication for assault survivors—particularly those who dare to challenge the powerful. (Separately, those who call Kavanaugh a threat to abortion rights wouldn’t mind if he tanked; President Donald Trump’s foes might love to see his nominee implode, particularly in a hot election year.)
Ford certainly appears to have more public support (and Kavanaugh less) than was the case in the Hill-Thomas showdown. Hill was castigated for her testimony, but on Monday, women (and men) hit the street to show their faith in Ford; in a second accuser, Deborah Ramirez, whose claims Kavanaugh also denies; and to telegraph a message to survivors: We Believe You.
That profession of faith got even louder on Thursday, when Ford supporters (and, in fairness, some detractors) descended on Washington to bear witness as Ford testified before Judiciary.
“These actions reinforce to victims that they have no voice [and] will not be believed … the chilling effect will last for years to come.”
Celebrities have come forth in force to signal-boost that message—including by sharing their own stories of #WhyIDidntReport and applying pressure to other public figures, like Ivanka Trump. Also, as the organization RAINN (Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network) noted, calls to the National Sexual Assault Hotline have jumped since Ford spoke out—the kind of uptick often seen when misconduct stories make headlines.
Ford has already paid a price for accusing Kavanaugh of having drunkenly groped her—and covering her mouth when she resisted—whether in the threats she’s fielded or the critiques of her integrity and motives, including some from the president himself.
On the flip side, Kavanaugh’s wife, Ashley, has also reportedly received violent, threatening messages at work. The judge’s supporters (and the judge himself) say he has been unfairly forced to defend his reputation against unsubstantiated accusations.
Martín Alcoff says many of her students have told her of “being stalked, and harassed, and threatened” by someone they accused—and his pals.
Social media may broaden the public debate about sexual misconduct, but for accusers in high-profile cases, Martín Alcoff says, it also means “you have to fear retaliation not just from the person’s friends,” but faceless “hashtag activists” who may know neither accuser nor accused. Their mobilization may show something bigger at play than this or any one case: “It seems like really what they want is to push back the growing power the victims, generally women, are gaining in the public sphere,” she says.
Despite the court of public (and social media) opinion, only the full Senate decides if Kavanaugh gets that lifetime SCOTUS seat or not.
The Senate considers the judiciary committee’s recommendation, but isn’t bound to agree with it. Still, the panel’s willingness to move to the recommendation stage so quickly concerned Ruth Glenn, president of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, who told Glamour earlier this week that “the disregard and disdain with which Dr. Ford and Ms. Ramirez [have] been treated will have a real effect on victims reporting their assaults.
“These actions reinforce to victims that they have no voice [and] will not be believed,” she says. “They will continue to be stigmatized and traumatized, not just today, but the chilling effect will last for years to come.”
Overall, Martín Alcoff says the vitriol surrounding the Kavanaugh confirmation “will certainly demoralize future accusers, both because of the fact that these accusers have had to actually put their [lives] in danger, and because of the flippant way their accusations have been dismissed without investigation.”
Still, she says, “I feel confident victims will continue to speak out. The accusers have had support from coast to coast, with their supporters willing to share the abuse and get arrested. It’s a sad moment, but all the more inspiring since women are not backing down.”
Celeste Katz is senior political reporter for Glamour. Send news tips, questions, and comments to celeste_katz@condenast.com.
Sexual assault survivors confronted Senator Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and shared their experiences of abuse on Capitol Hill Friday morning, just moments after he announced his plans to back Judge Brett Kavanaugh in Friday’s Senate Judiciary Committee vote.
The Committee’s vote to move Kavanaugh’s nomination forward was scheduled less than 24 hours after the country heard tense and emotional testimony from both Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused him of sexual assaulting her in 1982. While Flake, a key Republican swing vote, had indicated that he was undecided about Kavanaugh, he released a statement sharing his intentions to bring the embattled nominee closer to the Supreme Court. A short time later, a group of protesters followed Flake to an elevator and let him know what message he was sending to women and to survivors of assault.
“I was sexually assaulted and nobody believed me,” one woman told him through tears. “I didn’t tell anyone, and you’re telling all women that they don’t matter, that they should just stay quiet because if they tell you what happened to them, you’re going to ignore them. That’s what happened to me, and that’s what you’re telling all women in America, that they don’t matter, that they just keep it to themselves.”
Flake remained silent during the exchange, looking down at the ground. The woman continued, urging him, “Don’t look away from me. You’re telling me that my assault doesn’t matter… That’s what you’re telling me when you vote for him.”
“Senator Flake, do you think that Brett Kavanaugh is telling the truth?,” another woman asked.
Eventually, a reporter asks Flake if he wants to respond to the protesters’ concerns. Flake says simple, “No, I need to go to the hearing. I just issued a statement, I’ll be saying more as well.”
In his statement, Flake said that he hadn’t seen enough evidence that corroborated Ford’s story.
“Yesterday, we heard compelling testimony from Dr. Ford, as well as a persuasive response from Judge Kavanaugh. I wish that I could express the confidence that some of my colleagues have conveyed about what either did or did not happen in the early 1980s, but I left the hearing yesterday with as much doubt as certainty,” he said.
His vote is expected to round out support in the Judiciary Committee. After Friday’s vote, Kavanaugh’s nomination will continue to move through a full Senate vote. Republican leaders have said they will push to confirm Kavanaugh by early next week.
