Pence faces Kavanaugh protesters, tells security detail 'Let's do it' as he walks down Senate steps

---

Vice President Mike Pence says “Let’s do it” and walks down Senate steps toward a sea of protesters shouting “Shame! Shame! Shame!”

Vice President Mike Pence refused to exit the Capitol building through a side entrance as he faced a horde of protesters shouting “Shame! Shame! Shame!” following the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Saturday.
Pence was exiting toward the Senate steps with his security detail when he appeared to pause when a large crowd of demonstrators across the plaza increased their chanting as the doors opened to reveal the vice president.
Assistant Sergeant-at-Arms Jim Morehand reportedly told Pence that he could exit through the Carriage Entrance if he preferred.
PROTESTERS GATHER AT KAVANAUGH CONFIRMATION VOTE, SHOUT ‘SHAME ON YOU’ IN SENATE GALLERY
Pence turned and his security detail radioed the new exit but he quickly stopped and pivoted.
“Let’s do it,” he said.
The doors to the protesters opened and a defiant Pence walked toward his motorcade, waving along the way.
Kavanaugh was confirmed along party lines in a 50-48 vote, making his the closest successful confirmation vote in over 100 years.
Pence said in a statement that Kavanaugh’s confirmation marked another success for the Trump administration.
“In nominating Judge Kavanaugh, President Trump kept his word to the American people to appoint judges who will interpret the Constitution as written and uphold the God-given liberties enshrined there.”
Fox News’ Chad Pergram contributed to this report.

Kavanaugh confirmed: The party of Trump wins the street brawl (and these are the lessons)

As I write this column on Saturday, the GOP has just won one of the most brutal political battles in history. Judge Brett Kavanaugh has been confirmed to the Supreme Court. President Trump wins again.
Here are the lessons (and winners) of this epic, historic battle.
First, America always does the right thing…but only after exhausting every other option.
Second, the biggest winner is President Trump. Notch another victory on his belt. The score after about 21 months in office is Trump 100, Democrats 0. Against all odds, Trump just keeps winning.
Remember this week Trump also won the Mexico-Canada trade battle; unemployment dropped to the lowest level since 1969; Hispanic unemployment dropped to the lowest ever; manufacturing jobs growth was the best since 1995, and Trump’s approval rating soared to 51 percent in the latest Rasmussen survey. Polls show Republicans pulling away in Senate races across the country. Add in the Kavanaugh victory and this was the best week of the Trump presidency.
Trump continues to teach us all lessons about #WINNING. In Trump’s world, it’s all about the fight and your fighting spirit. It’s all about your ability to bare-knuckles brawl.
This battle for the Supreme Court played out exactly like my upcoming book, “Trump Rules.” My book isn’t about politics. It’s about the rules that have empowered President Trump to become one of the greatest achievers and winners in history. The “Trump Rules” are simple. Winning isn’t about brains, or IQ, or brilliant ideas, or unique strategy.
Winning is all about being a relentless fighter. Being a bulldog. Being a bull in a china shop. It’s about fighting spirit. It’s about believing in yourself and your goals. It’s about fighting so hard, so passionately, you never let go until victory is achieved.
It’s about who wants it more. Trump always wants it more.
That’s what Trump is all about -- the fight. Sure, you get bruised and battered and slandered. Sure, it hurts. But anything worth having is worth fighting for.
Trump proved it in the 2016 election. He was attacked, denigrated, slandered, and humiliated more than any politician in world history. But he never backed down. Instead, he doubled down. He came right back at his critics. Winston Churchill said, “When you find yourself in hell, just keep going.” Trump just kept going…and fighting.
And after being called all those bad names, and all that slander, for the rest of all-time, he’s called “President Donald J. Trump.” Was it worth it? You bet it was.
Churchill also said, “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never...” That rule is more important than anything else.
It’s the reason Trump keeps getting his brains beat in and yet always comes out ahead. He’s bloody, dizzy, staggering, but his arms are raised in victory. You can’t beat Trump, because you can’t outlast Trump.
The other big winner was Brett Kavanaugh. The vicious, soulless, American left tried to destroy him, ruin him, and eviscerate him. They never imagined a wimpy, middle-aged judge from Yale had it in him to fight back like a no-holds-barred, street brawler. But Kavanaugh studied Trump, he learned from Trump.
All his brilliance, eloquence and fancy Yale education didn’t win the Supreme Court for Kavanaugh.
He had to take off the suit, get down in the mud and fight for it. For the first time in history, we witnessed a judge fight like a no-holds-barred, bare-knuckles brawler. Like Trump.
Kavanaugh channeled the “Trump Rules.” If you want something in life you’ve got to fight for it. Just as Trump proved, once you’re on the other side of the battle, with your hands raised, it was all worth it. The ugliness, lies, and slander are all forgotten. All that matters is that they call you “Justice Brett Kavanaugh.”
The final winner was the entire GOP. Republicans have always been the party of wimps, cowards and “nice guys who finish last.” Trump changed all that.
This isn’t your father’s GOP. This is the party of Trump. The GOP has gone from a party of guys wearing green pants with a yellow shirt, going golfing at the country club with Muffie and Chip, to a party of brawlers, head-bangers and New York street fighters.
Now Mitch McConnell, Chuck Grassley, Lindsey Graham and even (gulp) Susan Collins are all bar-room brawlers. They've all clearly learned from Trump.
Heck, even our judges are willing to get into the ring and go 12 rounds! Everything has changed because of the "Trump Rules."
I’m from the streets of New York. This is my kind of political party! Thank goodness the GOP is now Trump’s Party.

After Kavanaugh confirmation, Pelosi vows to unearth FBI docs as Dems demand impeachment inquiry

Before and immediately after the Senate narrowly voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court on Saturday, top Democrats vowed that they would continue to fight -- not only at the ballot box in November's midterm elections, but also through further investigations and potentially even impeachment proceedings afterwards.
On Saturday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced she planned to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain documents related to the FBI's supplemental probe of Kavanaugh, which senators said showed no corroboration of the decades-old sexual misconduct allegations against him. FBI background checks on judicial nominees have traditionally been kept confidential so that only senators, White House officials, and certain aides can view them.
“In purposefully limiting the FBI investigation, it is clear the Republicans were not seeking the truth,” Pelosi, D-Calif., wrote in a statement. “They were seeking cover to do what they wanted to do anyway. To add insult to injury, they blocked the public’s access to the report.”
Pelosi also requested any communications from Senate Republicans to the FBI concerning the scope of the investigation. Congress is legally exempt from FOIA requirements, and it was not immediately clear to what extent the FBI would respond to Pelosi's request.
READ THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE SECRET FBI REPORT ON KAVANAUGH: WHAT WITNESSES WERE INTERVIEWED?
Meanwhile, an online petition to impeach Kavanaugh reached more than 125,000 signatures in wake of Kavanaugh's confirmation. The petition claims as grounds for impeachment, among other grievances, that Kavanaugh lied under oath about not having "legacy" connections to Yale Law School because his grandfather attended Yale as an undergraduate.
However, Yale Law School admissions officials have said that Kavanaugh would have received no boost from his grandfather's attendance at the university as an undergraduate.
SWING-VOTE SENATORS FACE MASSIVE BACKLASH OVER KAVANAUGH VOTES: TRUMP SAYS MURKOWSKI 'WILL NEVER RECOVER'
The petition also accuses Kavanaugh of lying under oath about when he learned of Deborah Ramirez's uncorroborated allegation that he exposed himself to her at a college party. Kavanaugh testified that he had heard generally that Ramirez was asking former classmates over the summer about the party to try to find someone to support her story; his denial appeared in The New Yorker's piece describing her allegations.
"There is no room for an accused sexual predator and liar on the Supreme Court," the petition, organized by the progressive CREDO Action group, continues. "Brett Kavanaugh faces credible accusations of sexual assault and perjury and should be impeached. Initiate impeachment proceedings to remove him from the federal bench."
WATCH: PELOSI COMPARES KAVANAUGH TO PUTIN, KIM JONG UN
Republicans had warned in recent days that liberal groups would rachet up their impeachment rhetoric. "You better believe that Democrats are going to do everything in their power to impeach Kavanuagh from the Supreme Court if they take control of Congress in November," Donald Trump Jr. wrote on Twitter Friday.
Alan Dershowitz, an emeritus Harvard Law School professor, told Fox News that it would be more appropriate for the Department of Justice, not Congress, to probe any viable legal violations by Kavanaugh. Partisan impeachment proceedings, he said,  "would really undercut the process of confirmation and introduce a new level of McCarthyism into the process."
Nevertheless, Democratic politicians have seemingly embraced calls to continue to go after Kavanaugh. Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y, who is poised to become the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee if Democrats prevail in the lower chamber in November, promised this weekend that the FBI's recently completed supplemental review of Kavanaugh's background wouldn't be the final word.
“The Senate having failed to do its proper constitutionally mandated job of advise and consent -- we are going to have to do something to provide a check and balance, to protect the rule of law and to protect the legitimacy of one of our most important institutions,” Nadler told The New York Times on Friday.
IN BOMBSHELL LETTER, CHRISTINE FORD'S EX-BOYFRIEND DIRECTLY CONTRADICTS HER TESTIMONY ON POLYGRAPHS
“We would have to investigate any credible allegations certainly of perjury and other things that haven’t properly been looked into before," the ranking Judiciary Committee Democrat said in a separate interview.
That investigation, Democrats have said, could well lead to impeachment proceedings. Federal judges can be impeached by a simple majority of the House, but actually removing Justice Kavanaugh from the bench would then require a two-thirds vote of the Senate -- an extraordinarily unlikely scenario. No sitting U.S. Supreme Court justice has ever been removed from the bench using this mechanism.
"If we find lies about assault against women, then we should proceed to impeach," Luis Gutiérrez, D-Ill., said in an interview last week.
And far-left Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., wrote on Twitter in September that Congress should being investigating to see if Kavanaugh "should be impeached" based on the "new criminal allegations by Julie Swetnick."
Swetnick's credibility has taken a beating in recent days, with one ex-boyfriend telling Fox News she "exaggerated everything" and had threatened to kill his unborn child. Another ex-boyfriend similarly cast doubt on her credibility, as reports surfaced that she had previously been sued for allegedly concocting false sexual harassment claims. Swetnick is represented by anti-Trump lawyer Michael Avenatti.
And Christine Blasey Ford, the California professor who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault, has faced questions of her own. One of her ex-boyfriends, in a sworn declaration obtained by Fox News, directly contradicted her testimony on a variety of issues, including her experience with polygraph exams and her purported fear of enclosed spaces in the wake of her alleged assault.
Republicans have defended the supplemental FBI probe into Kavanaugh's background as fair and thorough. Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans last week released an executive summary of the FBI's report, outlining each of the witnesses who were interviewed about the decades-old, uncorroborated accounts of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh.
The full confidential report was only available to senators on a confidential basis in a secure room of the Capitol complex. While Republicans, including key swing-vote moderates like Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, said they were satisfied with the report, Democrats in the Senate were openly critical.

"The fight over Judge Kavanaugh is increasing base intensity for both parties."
— Political analyst Bruce Mehlman

"Well, that report -- if that's an investigation, it's a bull---- investigation," Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., told a man as he walked through the Capitol complex on Thursday. "The reality is, that was not a full and thorough investigation."
There were signs that, even though Democrats face long odds in their effort to have Kavanaugh impeached, they will be successful in rallying their base to the polls in key House races in November.
“Our guys are taking a beating,” GOP consultant Rob Simms told The Washington Examiner on Tuesday, saying that House Republican candidates are being badly outspent by well-funded Democratic groups.
A new poll from Quinnipiac University showed that 49 percent of voters preferred that the Democrats take back Congress, compared with 42 percent for Republicans.
“For the first cycle in a decade, the priority in Democratic infrastructure is to win the House,” Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson told the Examiner. “The Trump administration is fueling the desire of Democrats to win the House so that we have at least one arm of government.”
Meanwhile, though, polls by Fox News and other organizations have shown that Republicans have also been energized by what they saw as unfair, politically motivated last-minute smears during the confirmation process. Because of the specific Senate seats up for grabs this year, Republicans are expected to see gains in the Senate from the Kavanaugh confirmation battle.
Republican voters were responding not only to Kavanaugh, but Republicans' broad success in installing conservative jurists throughout the federal system. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has led a successful push to install new conservative appellate and district court nominees at a record-breaking pace this year, with several more to be appointed in the coming weeks. In the last two years, he has secured not only two solidly conservative Supreme Court justices, but also 26 federal appellate judges, all with lifetime tenure.
Still, political headwinds normally work against the party of incumbent presidents in their first midterm elections. According to an analysis by former George W. Bush administration official Bruce Mehlman, in the past 11 such midterm seasons, new presidents saw their party make net gains only once in the House, four times in the Senate and zero times in state gubernatorial contests.
HOW THE KAVANAUGH SLUGFEST IS BOOSTING THE GOP IN KEY SENATE RACES
"The fight over Judge Kavanaugh is increasing base intensity for both parties, helping Democrats with white college-educated women in suburban House districts while bolstering Republicans among evangelical voters in the many rural red state Senate contests," Mehlman told Fox News. He recently authorized an analysis outlining how some other major factors, including the economy and record-high levels of spending, will impact the upcoming vote.
Voters appeared particularly energized in Missouri, which Fox News polls show is tied up at 43 percent apiece for incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill and Republican challenger Josh Hawley. Just three weeks ago, McCaskill was up 44-41 percent. Even before Ford testified against Kavanaugh, McCaskill announced that she would not support the nominee.
That decision seems to be costing McCaskill some key support. Crucially, according to Fox News polling, among the 28 percent of voters who say they could still switch candidates, almost twice as many say McCaskill voting against Kavanaugh’s confirmation would make them less inclined to back her.
North Dakota shows an even clearer picture. Vulnerable North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, who remains undecided on Kavanaugh, appeared to be treading carefully after McCaskill's loss of support. Fox News' polling shows Republican challenger Kevin Cramer now leading by 12 points (53-41 percent). Last month, he was up by only 4 points.

Liberal Left Meltdown Cartoons

American Bar Association reconsiders supporting Kavanaugh due to 'temperament'

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 27, 2018.

In a letter to leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday, the American Bar Association said “new information of a material nature regarding temperament” prompted the group to reopen its evaluation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
The letter addressed to Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking member Sen. Dianne Feinstein D-Calif., referred to a Sept. 27 hearing in which Kavanaugh addressed sexual misconduct allegations leveled against him by Christine Blasey Ford.
Ford claims Kavanaugh attempted to rape her when they were in high school. Kavanaugh denies the accusation.
During his emotional testimony in front of the committee, Kavanaugh blasted his critics and got into heated exchanges with Democratic senators when they questioned him about his behavior in high school and college.
“This confirmation process has become a national disgrace,” he said during the hearing, before claiming the allegations were part of a smear campaign.
He also touted his “well qualified” rating from the ABA, the highest one it gives.
Kavanaugh’s behavior at the hearing prompted many to question his fitness and temperament to serve on the nation’s highest court.
On Thursday, retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said he changed his views on Kavanaugh’s nomination following the hearing.
“I’ve changed my views for reasons that have no relationship to his intellectual ability,” Stevens said. “I feel his performance in the hearings ultimately changed my mind.”
On Friday, Justice Elena Kagan, speaking at a Princeton University conference, said she feared that adding Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court might place it in danger of being perceived as a political body instead of a neutral institution for resolving disputes, Politico reported.
"It's an incredibly important thing for the court to guard is this reputation of being impartial, being neutral and not being simply extension of a terribly polarizing process," Kagan said.
At the same conference, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said it was key for the court's justices to avoid the type of partisan rancor seen in other sectors of public life.
"We have to rise above partisanship and personal relationships, that we have to treat each other with respect and dignity and with a sense of amicability that the rest of the world doesn’t ... share," she said.
The ABA said it doesn’t expected a “re-vote” before the final Senate vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination slated for Saturday.
“Our original report must be read in conjunction with the foregoing. Our original rating stands.”
In a Thursday op-ed for the Wall Street Journal on, Kavanaugh said he may have been too emotional at the hearing.
"I know that my tone was sharp, and I said a few things I should not have said," he wrote.

Claim of 'thorough' FBI probe of Kavanaugh is 'absurd,' says friend of Ford who wasn't interviewed

Christine Blasey Ford testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee, in Washington, Sept. 27, 2018.

Lawyers for Christine Blasey Ford released a statement Friday from a friend of Ford's who says he is a corroborating witness to Ford’s sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh -- and criticized the FBI for not interviewing him.
In a sworn statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Keith Koegler wrote that Ford told him in 2016, while they were watching their kids play together, that a federal court judge in Washington, D.C., had sexually assaulted her when they were in high school.
“There are a minimum of 7 additional people, known to the White House, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the FBI who knew about the assault prior to the nomination who were not interviewed,” Koegler wrote of the limited FBI probe into the allegation. “I am one of them.”
Ford’s revelation occurred around the same time when former Stanford University student Brock Turner was sentenced for raping an unconscious woman, he wrote.
“Christine expressed anger at Mr. Turner’s lenient sentence, stating that she particularly was bothered by it because she was assaulted in high school by a man who was now a federal judge in Washington, D.C.,” Koegler said.
Koegler said he had a copy of a June 29 email thread where Ford identified her alleged assaulter as President Trump’s “favorite for SCOTUS.”
He responded, “I remember you telling me about him, but I don’t remember his name. Do you mind telling me so I can read about him?”
“Brett Kavanaugh,” Ford replied.
Koegler said he’s known Ford and her husband for more than five years and coached their son’s baseball team.
In the declaration, Koegler also expressed frustration with the way Ford’s allegations have been handled by lawmakers and law enforcement authorities.
"The process by which the Senate Judiciary Committee has 'investigated' the facts related to the assault has been a shameless effort to protect Judge Kavanaugh," Koegler wrote. "The fact that the FBI did not interview either Christine or Judge Kavanaugh, by itself, renders absurd any assertion that the investigation was 'thorough.'"
Democrats have slammed the investigation as not complete or thorough.
Some Republicans, and Kavanaugh himself, have called the allegations against him part of a smear campaign to keep him off the bench.
Koegler denied any “grand-conspiracy” to conduct a “political hit job” on Kavanaugh, adding that “this was always about one woman struggling with a perverse choice.”
The Senate is expected to confirm Kavanaugh to the court Saturday.

NBC station fires reporter for wearing MAGA hat while covering Trump rally

KTTC-TV multimedia journalist James Bunner wears a "Make America Great Again" hat while interviewing people waiting to see President Trump in Rochester, Minn., Oct. 4, 2018.

A television reporter in southern Minnesota might need a new hat saying "Make Me Employed Again."
James Bunner, a multimedia journalist for NBC affiliate KTTC-TV in Austin, was fired Friday, reportedly for wearing a "Make American Great Again" hat while covering President Trump's rally in Rochester on Thursday.
As the rally got underway, images of Bunner wearing the bright red hat began appearing on Twitter.
Noel Sederstrom, the station's news director, told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis that the station's policy does not allow staff members to wear apparel from political campaigns while covering stories.
Bunner had uploaded a video of himself appearing to celebrate while dancing in a newsroom on Trump's inauguration day.
"Me watching the Trump inauguration," he wrote in the description.
Sederstrom told BuzzFeed News that Bunner was fired for wearing the hat during Thursday's rally, not because of the political views displayed on his social media pages.
Bunner doesn't have a listed phone number and didn't immediately return a social media message seeking comment Friday.

Collins, Manchin say 'aye,' appearing to cement Kavanaugh confirmation

Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va on Friday said they intend to vote in favor of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation -- two crucial votes that appear to secure Kavanaugh's confirmation to the nation's highest court.
Moments after Collins spoke on the Senate floor announcing her intention to vote for the nominee, Manchin said in a statement he would also vote to confirm Kavanaugh. Manchin said while he had "reservations" due to sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh and his temperament, he said "I believe he will rule in a manner that is consistent with our Constitution."

Collins said the confirmation had resembled a "caricature of a gutter-level political campaign" and criticized Democrats for announcing their opposition to Kavanaugh before his name was even announced. She also criticized outside groups for distorting Kavanaugh's record and "over-the-top rhetoric."
As she began her speech, she was interrupted by protesters urging her to vote "no." The Senate was flooded by protesters in the days leading up to the vote, with activists hounding Republicans and urging them to vote against Kavanaugh's confirmation, citing decades-old sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh. Protesters also yelled "shame" at Manchin after his statement.

Collins dismissed claims that Kavanaugh would be a partisan judge, noted he had ruled in favor of parts of ObamaCare and ruled against a Bush-era terror conviction. She also said she was assured that Kavanaugh would not overturn Roe v Wade -- the 1973 decision that found a constitutional right to abortion. She also rejected concerns by Democrats about his temperament and that he was out of the judicial mainstream.
Collins, who told Fox News that she made her decision on Thursday evening, officially made her announcement on the floor of the Senate Friday, hours after the chamber voted 51-49 to advance Kavanaugh's nomination to a final vote on Saturday evening. Collins was one of four key undecided senators who were closely watched for how they would vote. Collins -- along with Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Manchin voted to invoke cloture on the nomination earlier Friday. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voted "no."
Flake had suggested he would vote "yes" for Kavanaugh "unless something big changes."
Meanwhile, a source familiar with the confirmation process told Fox News that Manchin called to notify the White House that he was a "yes" for Kavanaugh. But White House officials learned of Collins' decision to support Kavanaugh in real time.
With a 51-49 majority in the Senate, Republicans expect passage by a razor-thin margin. And so every vote has been a subject of intense speculation and scrutiny.
At this point, White House officials are assuming that Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, will remain a "no" during Saturday's confirmation vote. She confirmed that she would not support the nomination in remarks on Capitol Hill Friday evening, saying that, invoking her conscience, "I could not conclude that he is the right person for the court at this time."
She won't vote a straight "no," though.  She said that due to the necessary absence of Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., they will have a “Pair Between Senators.” This collegial procedure will take place during the Saturday vote and will ensure the vote margin is the same, even with Daines walking his daughter down the aisle at her wedding. Murkowski will ask to be recorded as ‘present’ (though on record as a ‘no’ vote) while Daines is on record as supporting the nomination, but necessarily absent.
Murkowski said it's her hope "that this reminds us we can take very small steps to be gracious with one another."
Kavanaugh’s nomination was embroiled in a deeply divisive controversy that gripped the nation after multiple women made sexual assault allegations originating from his time in high school and college. The most prominent allegation was from California professor Christine Blasey Ford, who said that Kavanaugh assaulted her at a high school party. That allegation resulted in a high-stakes Senate Judiciary hearing last week where both Ford and Kavanaugh testified.
Democrats said the allegations were credible and deserved a full investigation, while Republicans accused Democrats of using uncorroborated allegations to scuttle or delay the nomination -- leading to a stream of angry flashpoints between lawmakers. The accusations eventually led to President Trump ordering an FBI investigation. Republicans who had seen the FBI’s report said the FBI had produced no credible corroboration of the allegations.
On those accusations, Collins said the Senate would be "ill-served in the long-term if we abandon the presumption of innocence and fairness, as tempting as it may be." She pointed to what she saw as inconsistencies and lack of corroboration in Ford's story and said they fail to meet the "more likely than not" standard. She also said that those trying to defeat Kavanaugh's nomination "cared little if at all" about Ford's well being.
Collins also made reference to allegations by Julie Swetnick that Kavanaugh drugged girls and was present during gang rapes.
"This outlandish allegation was put forth without any credible supporting evidence and simply parroted public statements of others," she said. "That such an allegation can find its way into the Supreme Court process is a stark reminder of why the presumption of innocence is so ingrained in our American conscience."
Protesters clashed with Republican lawmakers in an effort to sway their votes, and initially appeared to have some success. Flake demanded the limited FBI investigation last week after being cornered in an elevator by screaming protesters moments before a Senate Judiciary Committee vote to recommend Kavanaugh’s nomination. Republicans and conservatives had pushed back, including putting out ads that suggested the fight over accusations against Kavanaugh had implications for men across America.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said early Friday that the vote was "a pivotal day for us here in the Senate."
"The ideals of justice that have served our nation for so long are on display," he said, calling the last two weeks a "disgraceful spectacle."
But Democrats had pointed to not only the sexual assault allegations, which they described but also questions about Kavanaugh’s temperament during the hearing last week and whether he had lied about his drinking during high school and college, and what certain references in his high school yearbook meant. They also sought to paint him as a justice that would swing the court deeply to the right.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, accused Kavanaugh of being evasive in his answers during his confirmation hearings on key topics. He said his views are “deeply at odds with the progress America has made in the last century of jurisprudence and at odds with what most Americans believe.”
Fox News' Alex Pappas, Chad Pergram, Jason Donner, John Roberts and Mike Emanuel contributed to this report.