Brett Kavanaugh vote: Trump orders FBI background investigation into Supreme Court nominee after Jeff Flake calls for Senate vote delay
After the committee decision attention will turn to moderate Senate Republicans like Susan Collins and their possible voting intentions in a full chamber vote
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Your support makes all the difference.The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved Donald Trump's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, in a vote 11-10 on party lines.
However, moderate Republican Senator Jeff Flake called for an FBI investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against the judge before a final Senate vote. Mr Trump later ordered the FBI to conduct that understanding.
Mr Flake's intervention means a final Senate vote on the nomination could be delayed for up to a week so that the FBI investigation can be completed. Mr Kavanuagh denies the allegations from three different women.
“I will vote to advance the nominee to the floor with that understanding,” Mr Flake said.
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Watch the dramatic moment when Mr Flake announced he was siding with Democrats for a delay in the vote.
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Here are the women who the country saw confronting Mr Flake this morning as he got on a lift to go to the Kavanaugh-Ford hearing.
Ms Gallagher, 23, said to Mr Flake: “Look at me and tell me that it doesn’t matter what happened to me" as she announced she was a survivor of sexual assault.
She told the Daily Beast: “He wouldn’t meet my eyes. It made me very angry. He kept saying thank you and I’m sorry and wasn’t taking into account what his actions would be doing to millions of people and what this means for everyone.”
Ms Gallagher, who is not seen in the clip, had never told anyone about the assault before, not even her mum.
Her mother heard her voice on national television and called her daughter to talk about it.
The other woman, who you can see in the video, is Ana Maria Archilia. Based in New York, Ms Archilia is the co-executive director at the activist group Center for Popular Democracy.
Ms Archilia was the one who held the lift door open and screamed at Mr Flake: "you have children in your family, think about them...I cannot imagine for the 50 years" there will be a man on the Supreme Court who "is accused of violating young girl".
The Senate Judiciary Committee said in a statement it will ask the Trump administration to carry out an FBI investigation that will be limited to "current credible allegations".
It remains unclear whether that will include allegations brought forward by Ms Ramirez and Ms Swetnick.
"I support this sensible agreement," Ms Collins tweeted. She attached the Senate Judiciary statement on asking for the FBI investigation.
Ms Collins is a key Republican vote to put Mr Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, however she has been tight-lipped about her decision thus far.
Just minutes ago, after tweeting out the statement about the FBI investigation, the Senate Judiciary also tweeted: "Brett Kavanaugh is a man of rock-solid character and integrity".
They have since been tweeting a series of opinion pieces hitting out at Democrats on the committee.
Mr Judge's lawyers have indicated their client, whom Dr Ford said was present in the room during the alleged assault, will cooperate with investigators.
Ms Collins tweeted she was "pleased to hear" that.
Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota is one of the undecided Democrats from a "red" Republican state.
She is joined by West Virginia's Joe Manchin. Other red state Democrats include Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Vice President Mike Pence's home state, as well as Jon Tester of Montana.
Mr Tester and Mr Donnelly have already said they will not vote to put Mr Kavanaugh on the court.
Ms Heitkamp, like Ms Collins, has also remained quiet about her decision but tweeted her support for the FBI probe.
She added: "We need to get politics out of this process".
She also said the investigations are "routine" and "can help provide additional information".
Mr Kavanaugh asserted an investigation would not "draw a conclusion" and insisted the committee is the group to do that, but stopped short of supporting the probe in Dr Ford's allegations.
Mr Flake told Bloomberg News about why he asked for the delay: “There were a lot of people on the phone in email and text and walking around the capitol. It’s been remarkable the number of people who saw Dr Ford and were emboldened to come out and say what happened to them including close friends.”
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