Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake has sent a signal that he will be voting no to Brett Kavanaugh becoming Supreme Court Judge.
Speaking at The Atlantic Festival on Tuesday, Jeff Flake said that Brett Kavanaugh’s interactions with senators during last week’s hearing were “sharp and partisan.”
“I was very troubled by the tone of the remarks,” Jeff Flake said, during a panel discussion with Democratic Senator Chris Coons.
“The initial defense that Judge Kavanaugh gave was something like I told my wife: ‘I hope that I sound that indignant if I was unjustly maligned.’ But then it went on, and the interaction with the members was sharp and partisan, and that concerns me.”
Sen. Jeff Flake cited the exchange with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who asked if Brett Kavanaugh if he had ever blacked out after drinking, to which Kavanaugh responded: “I don’t know. Have you?”
Kavanaugh did apologize later on but to some at the hearing, the damage was done.
“We just can’t have that on the court,” Jeff Flake said on Tuesday. “We simply can’t.”
This is an interesting statement from Flake who is one of three Republican senators who holds a key that would unlock a lifetime appointment to the nation’s highest court for Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
The Atlantic’s Elaina Plott talked to Jeff Flake after his remarks.
“I caught up with Flake briefly as he left the event, and asked if this meant he would not vote to confirm Kavanaugh, even if the FBI cleared him by week’s end. He appeared rattled, and his handlers rushed him into the stairwell. ‘I didn’t say that …” he stammered. “I wasn’t referring to him.’”
What does that even mean?
Flake has made a continual retreat from Brett Kavanaugh with each passing day since last Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Now
“I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh,” he said, in a statement early Friday.
But also despite all that, after the FBI has now
With Collins and Flake both satisfied with the investigation, it’s hard to see them voting against the nomination since that would be an obvious red flag to raise right now. Kavanaugh appears, at the moment, headed to the Supreme Court
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 4, 2018