After a day to remember Thursday on Capitol Hill, the 21 members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are set to vote at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday to vote on whether to send a Brett Kavanaugh confirmation vote to the full U.S. Senate.
Sitting on the Committee are 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats. Barring the unforeseen, it appears a lock for that vote to be 11-10, meaning that the Committee will approve Kavanaugh, and a vote on his confirmation will reach the Senate floor.
After that, the U.S. Senate needs to get at least 50 votes. If it ends up 50-50, Vice President Mike Pence becomes the tie-breaking vote.
It remains to be seen if Kavanaugh will have the votes he needs in the Senate.
Republican lawmakers have not wished to pursue FBI investigations of claims against Kavanaugh by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, Deborah Ramirez, and Julie Swetnick. Nor have they wished pursue a subpoena of Mark Judge, named by Ford as the Kavanaugh friend who allegedly witnessed an attempted sexual assault 36 years ago.
Nor did any other witnesses appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for the Thursday hearings involving Ford and Kavanaugh.
Pressure was rising from the outside, as both the American Bar Association and the dean of Yale Law School, Kavanaugh’s alma mater, have demanded an immediate halt to the proceedings so that an investigation into the claims can take place.
If the Senate Judiciary Committee votes as planned, it is expected that procedural votes in the Senate will begin over the weekend, and that a Senate floor vote to confirm Kavnanaugh could take place next week.
[Image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images]
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