WASHINGTON — With a slim margin of 51-49, the Senate voted on Friday morning to advance Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination.
Two senators crossed party lines on the nomination. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) voted aye, while Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted against it. Each has been the focus of intense lobbying efforts on behalf of public interest groups.
The tension inside the Senate chamber was extraordinary, as most Senators stood to announce their votes.
Murkowski was barely audible as she stood and said that she was voting no. Afterward, she sat silently and stiffly against her seat, until she chatted with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), sitting next to her. Collins voted yes, but was expected to announce her decision later on Friday afternoon.
Manchin entered the chamber just after the vote was called, and then left for a bit. He then took his seat before voting yes.
That procedural move starts the clock for a final vote that could come as early as Saturday.
On the floor, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Kavanaugh confirmation was the “shameful culmination of scorched-earth politics practiced by the hard right.”
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He called it a “sorry epilogue to the brazen theft of Justice Scalia’s seat.” He was referring to the refusal of Republicans to hold a hearing on President Barack Obama’s nomination to succeed Scalia, Merrick Garland.
Hundreds of protesters were arrested on Thursday, as demonstrators staged a sit-in at the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building. Among those detained were actresses Amy Schumer and Emily Ratajkowski. Demonstrators were charged with crowding or obstructing a public space, a misdemeanor.
In a fiery speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), decried what he called “mob rule” at the Capitol and what he said was a tone of incivility from the left.
President Donald Trump tweeted about the contentious Kavanaugh confirmation debate, attacking two women who confronted Sen. Flake (R-Ariz.) in an elevator last week after he announced that he would vote for the nomination. He later said he would not support Kavanaugh in a final vote until a week-long FBI investigation was conducted on claims from Christine Blasey Ford that he sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school.