Senate Expected to Have Votes to Confirm Brett Kavanaugh, Collins and Murkowski Should Vote Yes

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Sep 28, 2018   |   9:39AM   |   Washington, DC

After lengthy meetings following yesterday’s hearing with Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Ford, where no evidence was put forward verifying apparently bogus claims that Judge Kvaanaugh sexually assaulted Ford, it appears Republicans will have enough votes to confirm Kavanaugh once his nomination reaches the Senate floor.

It appears Kavanaugh has the votes to make it out of committee and the votes to be confirmed on the floor for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court after a group of senators with the deciding votes decided to band together to support his nomination. It’s not official but Sens. Flake (R-AZ), Collins (R-ME), Murkowski (R-AK), and Manchin (D-WV) are expected to vote in favor of Kavanaugh. All the Republicans are voting yes.

If that happens, Kavanaugh would have 52 votes and enough to be confirmed on the Senate floor.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) said Friday morning he believes the Supreme Court nominee will be voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee and ultimately confirmed in bipartisan fashion.

“I’m optimistic. We’ve been in constant communication with all of my colleagues…I’m optimistic we’ll confirm the judge,” Cornyn said during an interview with Fox and Friends. “I’m hopeful that Senator Donnelly, Senator Manchin, Senator Heitkamp, all of whom voted for Neil Gorsuch, will see their way to vote for this nominee. I’m optimistic we’ll have a bipartisan vote.”

Yesterday, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh ripped pro-abortion Democrats pushing false allegations that he sexually assaulted Christine Ford or other women as both destroying his family and the political process.

SIGN THE PETITION: Vote to Confirm Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh

“This confirmation process has become a national disgrace,” Kavanaugh said during his opening statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“The Constitution gives the Senate an important role in the confirmation process. But you have replaced advise and consent with search and destroy,” he continued.

Kavanaugh came out firing against those who have smeared his good name an engaged in a character assassination campaign against him. Kavanaugh made it unmistakably clear that he never sexually assaulted Christine Ford or anyone for that matter.

Psychologist Christine Ford testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee to recount her claims that Judge Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers.

During her testimony, Ford reasserted that claim but provided no proof or evidence to substantiate it. She provided no photos, no recordings, no videos, no records from law enforcement, and no other proof that her claims are accurate. The only evidence Ford presented were witnesses who she says were present at the time of the sexual assault. The only problem is each and every one of the witnesses all say it never happened.

During the hearing Ford said she is “100 percent” certain that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were high-school teenagers. But previously Kavanaugh said the claims are totally false.

Ford said Kavanaugh friend Mark Judge was also in the room. But he, too, says the allegations are false. He has no recollection of it, his counsel said in a statement, and he defended Kavanaugh’s integrity.

Judge says he has “no memory of this alleged incident” and “never saw Brett (Kavanaugh) act in the manner Dr. Ford describes.”

Meanwhile, Leland Keyser, believed to have been identified as one of five people at the party where Ford claims this incident occurred, has said it never happened.

Keyser, believed to have been identified as one of five people at the party, told the committee in a letter she “does not know Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, with or without Dr. Ford.”

Also, a Kavanaugh high school classmate named Patrick J. Smyth, has provided a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee rebutting Ford’s story.

“I understand that I have been identified by Christine Blasey Ford as the person she remembers as ‘PJ’ who supposedly was present at the party she described in her statements to the Washington Post. … I am issuing this statement today to make it clear to all involved that I have no knowledge of the party in question, nor do I have any knowledge of the allegations of improper conduct she has leveled against Brett Kavanaugh.

“Personally speaking, I have known Brett Kavanaugh since high school and I know him to be a person of great integrity, a great friend, and I have never witnessed any improper conduct by Brett Kavanaugh toward women. To safeguard my own privacy and anonymity, I respectfully request that the Committee accept this statement in response to any inquiry the committee may have.”

Ford and her attorney are Democratic Party activists. For and her attorney Debra Katz have not only donated to Democrats, but also recently signed on to a Physicians for Human Rights letter protesting the Trump administration’s immigration policy.

Few media outlets have confronted Katz on her own Democratic activism. In 2017, Katz labeled all senior Trump administration officials to be “miscreants.” Hypocritically, she also staunchly and repeatedly defended Bill Clinton against claims of sexual harassment made by Paula Jones in the 1990s.

Additionally, Ford’s brother, Ralph Blasey III, once worked for the law firm of Baker & Hostetler LLP, but left that firm in 2004. The Daily Caller reported that Baker & Hostetler paid a company called Fusion GPS seven payments totaling more than a half million dollars in 2016. Fusion GPS was also the shadowy Democrat “dirty tricks” group hired by Planned Parenthood to produce the fake forensic analysis that supposedly “debunked” the Center for Medical Progress’ undercover videos.

And a peer and friend who knew Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as a high school student is vouching for his character amid accusations from a woman that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teens.

According to documents on file with the Maryland Court System, Ford’s parents, Ralph G. and Paula K. Blasey owned property that was in foreclosure. The judge who presided over that case was Brett Kavanaugh’s mother, Martha G. Kavanaugh.

Other women who knew Judge Kavanaugh during that time period vouch for his character and high moral standard.

Shortly after the details of the letter were made public by The New Yorker, the Senate Judiciary Committee shared a letter it received Friday from 65 women who knew Kavanaugh during their high school years.

“Through the more than 35 years we have known him, Brett has stood out for his friendship, character, and integrity,” the women wrote. “In particular, he has always treated women with decency and respect. That was true when he was in high school, and it has remained true to this day.”

This controversy followed on the heels of Senate Democrats getting caught lying about Kavanaugh. Since Kavanaugh’s hearings last week, numerous fact checks and advice to “drop the whopper of a talking point” from one of the largest newspapers in America have not stopped pro-abortion politicians from repeating false claims about U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

The lies about Kavanaugh’s birth control beliefs began with U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California and continued with two-time failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The Washington Post, Politifact and others refuted their claims that Kavanaugh called birth control “abortion-inducing drugs,” but the pro-abortion politicians continue to push the lie.

This week, Kavanaugh also responded to the claims by clarifying what he meant when he used the term “abortion-inducing drugs” last week during the U.S. Senate hearings.

Abortion activists fear Kavanaugh, who has served on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for D.C. for more than a decade. He has an extensive record of protecting religious liberty, including in the Priests for Life case, and enforcing restrictions on abortion. Pro-life leaders believe he would do the same on the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Sen. Susan Collins’ office says it has received threats of rape and other violence from abortion activists who want her to vote against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

The Maine Republican is a key swing vote in Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Collins is pro-abortion, and she has not yet announced her decision about him.

Over the past few months, NARAL, Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups have been targeting her with phone calls, political ads, fundraising for a pro-abortion Democrat opponent and a coat hanger campaign; but these attempts to influence may have the opposite effect.

Collins told reporters this week that her office has received a number of threatening phone calls and other messages, including one caller who threatened to rape one of her female staffers.

Under questioning from pro-life Senator Lindsey Graham, Kavanaugh confirmed there is no “specific” right to abortion in the Constitution.

“Is there any phrase in the Constitution about abortion?” Graham asked Kavanaugh.

“The Supreme Court has found that under the liberty clause, but you’re right that specific words,” Kavanaugh said before stopping as Graham continued. Kavanaugh clearly was beginning to admit Graham’s point that abortion or a right to abortion is never specifically addressed in the Constitution — but was made up by the Supreme Court in 1973.

During his nomination hearings, Judge Kavanaugh was been careful to discuss abortion within the context of what the Supreme Court has decided in the precedent-setting cases of Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood without biasing the hearings with his own views in a way that would force him to recuse himself in future abortion cases before the court.

During the first day of questioning, Judge Brett Kavanaugh refused to say that there is a so-called right to abortion. He declined to take the bait from pro-abortion Senator Dianne Feinstein who wants to get him to commit to upholding Roe v Wade once he is confirmed to the Supreme Court.

Kavanaugh also refused a pro-abortion senator’s request to promise to never overturn Roe v Wade, the high court case allowing abortions up to birth.

Also during the hearings, a new document was released showing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is possibly open to overturning the infamous Roe v Wade decision that allows virtually unlimited abortions up to birth.