Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) cut a deal with the Democrats ahead of his vote to send Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the full Senate for confirmation to the Supreme Court.
Sen. Flake apparently flipped after speaking with Democrats prior to casting his vote to move Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Senate floor.
Flake called for a week’s delay for the FBI to investigate the allegations made by Christine Blasey Ford during her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
Flake said:
“I have been speaking with a number of [Democrats] on the other side. I think it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to but not more than one week in order to let the FBI do an investigation, limited in time and scope to the current allegations that are there.”
He said he would vote no if the full Senate vote was not delayed for at least a week to allow the FBI to investigate.
“We’re not playing this game,” said Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC), who added that “Jeff’s a really good guy, he’s trying to be fair… but this is still a democracy.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send the nomination to the Senate floor on Friday. But Flake made it clear that his “yes” vote is dependent on delaying the full Senate vote until the FBI conducts a weeklong investigation into the allegations.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein held onto Ford’s letter for 2 months before leaking the letter to the media 2 weeks ago.
50 votes are necessary to confirm Kavanaugh.
The FBI has twice declined to investigate the allegations.
