Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, whose Supreme Court hearings ripped apart the Senate and roiled the nation, headed for final confirmation to the court after two key undecided senators announced on Friday that they would back him, despite allegations of sexual assault and deep-seated Democratic opposition.
The last-minute announcements by Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, and Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, capped an emotional and deeply divisive confirmation process that, in the end, turned as much on questions about Judge Kavanaugh’s honesty, temperament and treatment of women as it did on his jurisprudence.
Judge Kavanaugh’s ascent to the nation’s highest court is a huge victory for President Trump, Senate Republicans and their conservative allies, who have mounted a decades-long campaign to remake the Supreme Court in their image.
But his path there has been a brutal one, leaving in its wake a nation caught in what Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, described on Friday as the “crosswinds of anger and fear and partisanship”.
Brett Kavanaugh AP
While conservatives savoured victory, many women and survivors of sexual assault were left feeling that once again, their stories did not matter, had ruined a good man’s name.
All of those emotions collided in the Capitol on Friday, during a dramatic day that culminated with Collins announcing her intentions in a highly anticipated afternoon speech on the Senate floor.
The Kavanaugh debate has been especially agonising for her; she has been dogged by protesters and received threats for months, and has lately been travelling with police escorts.
Activists shouted at her from the Senate gallery — “Vote no! Support Maine women!” — as she stood in the chamber to speak. She argued that her support for Judge Kavanaugh did not negate the claims of sexual assault that have flooded forward in the wake of testimony from Christine Blasey Ford, the Northern California research psychologist who accused the nominee of trying to rape her when they were teenagers.
Susan Collins Reuters
“The Me Too movement is real. It matters. It is needed, and it is long overdue,” Collins said. She added that although she found Dr Blasey’s testimony to be “sincere, painful and compelling”, witnesses provided no corroborating evidence.
“Certain fundamental legal principles about due process, the presumption of innocence and fairness do bear on my thinking, and I cannot abandon them,” Collins said, adding, “We will be ill-served in the long run if we abandon the presumption of innocence and fairness.”
When she finished, her relieved Republican colleagues rose to give her a standing ovation. Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, hugged her and burst into tears. Moments later, Manchin, who is facing a tough re-election battle at home, announced that he too would be a yes vote.
“I have reservations about this vote given the serious accusations against Judge Kavanaugh and the temperament he displayed in the hearing,” Manchin said in a statement.
“And my heart goes out to anyone who has experienced any type of sexual assault in their life. However, based on all of the information I have available to me I have found Judge Kavanaugh to be a qualified jurist.”
