Sen. Jeff Flake, who dramatically forced an extra FBI background check into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh last week, plans to support the appeals judge’s final confirmation “unless something big changes.”
The Arizona Republican said he would likely support Kavanaugh on Friday shortly after he voted to advance the judge’s nomination to a final vote slated for Saturday. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, opposed the procedural measure.
The other undecided senators, Republican Susan Collins of Maine and Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia, voted to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination on Friday. However, they could take a different stance on his final confirmation Saturday.
The confirmation process for Kavanaugh stalled after he faced several sexual misconduct accusations, all of which he angrily denied before a Senate panel last week. His forceful rebuttals and talk of a Democratic plot against him led some Republican to express concerns about his temperament and independence.
Many GOP senators, including Flake, said the results of the additional FBI probe into the allegations against Kavanaugh did not give any more corroboration of the claims. Democrats argued the investigation was not thorough.
If the GOP confirms Kavanaugh, it will likely lock down a conservative majority on the top U.S. court for decades.
After the procedural vote, Murkowski said “it may just be that in my view he’s not the right man for the court at this time,” according to NBC News.
Manchin, running for re-election this year in a state President Donald Trump carried by more than 40 percentage points, faces pressure at home to back Kavanaugh.
