The one-week pause on the Supreme Court confirmation process for Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh might not be enough to change the minds of red-state Democratic senators who already have announced their opposition, siding with the base of their party on the issue over the partisan leanings of their respective states.
Key Democrats in Montana, Indiana and Florida — all states won by President Trump in 2016 — revealed their decision to vote against Judge Kavanaugh late last week, after dramatic testimony a day earlier that saw him and Christine Blasey Ford, who accused him of sexually assaulting her in the 1980s, testify about the alleged assault.
Sens. Bill Nelson of Florida, Jon Tester of Montana and Joe Donnelly of Indiana announced their opposition before the Senate Judiciary Committee called for a supplemental, weeklong investigation by the FBI into some of the allegations of sexual misconduct on the part of Judge Kavanaugh.
Several other Democrats remain undecided, and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Sunday pointed out that Mr. Donnelly — along with Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who are also up for re-election this year — all voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch last year.
“That is relevant,” Ms. Conway said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “If they want to listen to the voters within their own states, they will see that the voters do want a Supreme Court justice confirmed sooner, rather than later.”
Mr. Manchin and Ms. Heitkamp have not yet indicated how they plan to vote on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination, though both say they supported Sen. Jeff Flake’s call for the supplemental investigation. – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]Julie Swetnick, the woman who accused Brett Kavanaugh of drugging women and participating in gang rapes in the 1980s, spoke out at length about her allegations in an interview that aired on MSNBC Monday.
NBC News started off by noting it could not independently verify her claims. Swetnick spoke to NBC News correspondent Kate Snow about her allegations, made in a statement released last week, that Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge attended a party where she was drugged and gang raped. While she did not accuse Kavanaugh of assaulting her, she claimed she witnessed him participate in gang rapes. Kavanaugh has vehemently denied the allegations and denied even knowing Swetnick.
Swetnick, a current government employee being represented by lawyer Michael Avenatti, told Snow that at parties Kavanaugh was “very aggressive, very sloppy drunk, very mean drunk.”
NBC News noted there were differences in Swetnick’s initial statement and her comments to the outlet, notably her assertion that Kavanaugh spiked punch at the parties so that groups of boys could rape girls.
Swetnick did not confirm that she saw Kavanaugh spike punch, but simply said she “saw him around the punch containers.” – READ MORE
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