KAVANAUGH HEARING | Collins backs confirmation

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh:

3:50 p.m.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said Friday she will vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, all but ensuring that a deeply riven Senate will elevate the conservative jurist to the nation’s highest court despite allegations that he sexually assaulted women decades ago.

The dramatic Senate floor announcement by perhaps the chamber’s most moderate Republican ended most of the suspense over a tortuous, election-season battle that had left Kavanaugh’s fate in doubt for nearly a month after the first accusation against him. It all but assured a victory for President Donald Trump’s quest to move the Supreme Court rightward, perhaps for decades, and a satisfying win for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and the GOP’s conservative base.

The Senate’s showdown roll call confirmation vote is expected Saturday afternoon.

With Republicans controlling the chamber by a narrow 51-49, Collins’ “yes” vote essentially assured a minimum of 50 votes for Kavanaugh. Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a fellow moderate and friend of Collins, has indicated that she will vote no, calling Kavanaugh “a good man” but maybe “not the right man for the court at this time.”

Vice President Mike Pence planned to be available Saturday in case his tie-breaking vote was needed.

Kavanaugh’s path to the court seemed unfettered until mid-September, when Christine Blasey Ford accused him of drunkenly sexually assaulting her in a locked bedroom at a 1982 high school gathering. Two other women later emerged with sexual misconduct allegations from the 1980s, all of which Kavanaugh has denied.

By Friday afternoon, the sole remaining undeclared senator was Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat. Manchin, who faces a competitive re-election next month in a state Trump overwhelmingly carried in 2016, voted to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination in a key procedural vote earlier Friday.

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who’s repeatedly battled Trump and will retire in January, said he’d vote for Kavanaugh’s confirmation “unless something big changes.”

In the procedural ballot, senators voted 51-49 to limit debate, defeating Democratic efforts to scuttle the nomination with endless delays. That was the day’s first GOP victory in the spellbinding battle that’s been fought against the backdrop of the (hash)MeToo movement and stalwart conservative support for Trump.

Deeply coloring the day’s events was a burning resentment by partisans on both sides, on and off the Senate floor.

11:10 a.m.

President Donald Trump is praising the Senate for pushing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh past a key procedural hurdle.

Trump tweeted Friday: “Very proud of the U.S. Senate for voting “YES” to advance the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh!”

The chamber voted 51-49 to move forward with Trump’s nominee. A final vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination could occur over the weekend.

White House aides and allies expressed cautious optimism Friday.

Trump, who framed the nomination as a rallying issue for Republican voters at a Thursday night rally, has been keeping in close contact with staff and Republican allies in the Senate, the White House indicated.

10:56 a.m.

The Senate has pushed Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court past a key procedural hurdle.

The chamber voted 51-49 to move forward with President Donald Trump’s nominee.

A final vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination could occur over the weekend.

There’s no guarantee that the senators who supported moving forward will back Kavanaugh on the final vote. Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who voted to advance Kavanaugh, said she will announce her decision on confirmation later Friday. Also voting to move the nomination forward was Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who had been undecided. But Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted against moving the nomination forward.

Kavanaugh’s nomination has been imperiled by accusations of sexual misconduct. He forcefully denied the allegations.

10:52 a.m.

The U.S. Senate has voted 51-49 to move Brett Kavanaugh's nomination forward to a final Saturday vote

9:52 a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court faced a crucial Senate vote Friday as key Republican senators remained undeclared amid the allegations of sexual misconduct followed by intense disagreements that have divided the nation.

The 53-year-old judge made what was in effect his closing argument by acknowledging he became “very emotional” when forcefully denying the allegations at a Judiciary Committee hearing last week. He was trying to brush back fresh concerns about his temperament and impartiality.

“I said a few things I should not have said,” he wrote in an article published Thursday evening. But he said he remains the same “hardworking, even-keeled” person he has always been. “Going forward, you can count on me,” he wrote in The Wall Street Journal.

The unusual op-ed, as well as a late boost from President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Minnesota, appeared aimed at winning over the three undeclared senators from the slim GOP majority — Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — and one Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who also had yet to announce his position.

Friday’s vote was a procedural one to end the debate, and some fence-sitting senators could conceivably vote to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination but still hold out their support ahead of a final confirmation roll call over the weekend.

White House officials were cautiously optimistic going into the final push. Trump has been talking to staff and Republican allies in the Senate as the vote draws near, said a person with knowledge of the process but not authorized to speak publicly.

The White House hoped the last-minute words from Kavanaugh would ease lingering anxieties with the undecided senators.

But a top Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, said he was unmoved by the walk-back as too little too late for the conservative judge who he said had shown his partisan stripe.

“I understand his emotion and his anger, this has to be a terrible ordeal for him and his family,” Durbin said on “CBS This Morning.” “But the fire in his eyes when he turned into this partisan screed is something I’m not going to forget.”

Ahead of Friday’s voting, Republicans emerged confident that a new FBI investigation into the allegations unearthed no corroborating details, they said. But a level of uncertainty lingered as Collins and Flake spent hours Thursday poring over confidential FBI documents in a secure basement briefing room at the Capitol long after others had left.