Washington - The Republican-controlled U.S.
Senate on Saturday confirmed Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme
Court, dismissing anger over accusations of sexual misconduct
against him and delivering a major victory to President Donald
Trump who has now locked in a conservative majority on the
court.
By a vote of 50-48, the deeply-divided Senate gave the
lifetime job to Kavanaugh, 53, after weeks of fierce debate over
sexual violence, alcohol abuse and his angry response to the
allegations that convulsed the nation just weeks before
congressional elections on Nov. 6.
Kavanaugh will help take the highest U.S. court to the
right, perhaps for many years, and his confirmation is a bitter
blow to Democrats already chafing at Republican control of the
White House and both chambers of the U.S. Congress.
Conservatives will now have a 5-4 majority in any future
legal battles on contentious issues such as abortion rights,
immigration, transgender rights, industry regulation, and
presidential powers.
Adding to a dramatic day on Capitol Hill, women protesters
in the Senate gallery shouted "Shame on you!" and briefly
interrupted the vote.
Another group of protesters stormed toward the doors of the
nearby Supreme Court building with raised fists. Police stood
guard at the doors.
Kavanaugh was sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts shortly
after the vote.
Kavanaugh's nomination blew up into a personal and political
drama when university professor Christine Blasey Ford accused
him of sexually assaulting her in the upstairs bedroom of a home
in a wealthy suburb of Washington in 1982.
Two other women accused him in the media of sexual
misconduct in the 1980s.
Kavanaugh fought back against the accusations, denying them
in angry and tearful testimony before the Senate Judiciary
Committee that was viewed live on television by around 20
million people.
Trump, who called Kavanaugh to congratulate him on Saturday,
said he was "100 percent" certain that Ford named the wrong
person in accusing the judge.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while flying to a
campaign rally in Kansas, Trump said of Kavanaugh: "We’re very
honored that he was able to withstand this horrible, horrible
attack by the Democrats."
Michael Bromwich, a lawyer for Ford, said in a tweet that
Kavanaugh's confirmation capped, "A week that will live in
infamy for the U.S. Senate, permanently diminishing its
stature."
A few Republican senators who had wavered over whether to
vote for Kavanaugh finally backed him this week, saying they did
so in part because a brief FBI investigation found no
corroborating evidence of Ford's accusations.
Democrats said the FBI probe was nowhere near wide enough.
Trump watched the vote on a large-screen television tuned to
Fox News in a wood-paneled cabin on the plane. He flashed two
thumbs up when the final vote was declared and aides on board
applauded.
The Senate confirmation allows him to hit the campaign trail
ahead of the congressional elections saying that he has kept his
2016 promise to mold a more conservative American judiciary.
At a political rally in Mississippi on Tuesday, Trump mocked
Ford's account of what she says was a drunken attack on her by
Kavanaugh when they were teenagers.
For weeks, senators from both parties decried the harsh and
often emotional rhetoric in the clash over Kavanaugh, a federal
appeals court judge with a history of advancing Republican
causes.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican,
dismissed the prospect of lingering bitterness among senators.
"These things always blow over," he told a news conference.
Police move activists as they protest on the steps of the Supreme Court after the confirmation vote of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, on Capitol Hill. Picture: Alex Brandon/AP
Hundreds of protesters against Kavanaugh gathered on the
grounds of the Capitol and at the Supreme Court. A total of 164
people were arrested in the protests, U.S. Capitol Police said.
Residents of a townhouse near the Washington home of Senator
Susan Collins, a moderate Republican whose backing helped get
Kavanaugh over the line on Saturday, flew the flag of the
lawmaker's home state Maine upside down in protest.
Accusations against Kavanaugh energized the #MeToo social
media movement that emerged after high-profile accusations of
sexual assault and harassment by men in politics, the media and
the entertainment industry.
Democrats said Kavanaugh's partisan defense of himself, in
which he said he was victim of a "political hit," was enough
itself to disqualify him from the court.
The dispute over Kavanaugh has added fuel to campaigning for
the elections in November when Democrats will try to take
control of Congress from the Republicans.
Several polls show that Republican enthusiasm about voting,
which had lagged behind, jumped after the Kavanaugh hearing last
week.
McConnell told Reuters that the political brawl over
Kavanaugh will help Republicans at the ballot box.
"Nothing unifies Republicans like a court fight," McConnell
said in an interview ahead of the vote. "It's been a seminal
event leading into the fall election."
But Democrats hope women angered at the Kavanaugh
accusations will turn out in large numbers to reject
Republicans.
During Saturday's vote, senators were showered with cries of
"We will not forget," and “Survivors vote” from protesters in
the Senate gallery.
Democrats must gain at least two Senate seats and 23 House
seats at the elections to claim majorities in each chamber,
enabling them to block Trump's agenda and investigate his
administration. The Democrats are seen as having more chance of
winning control of the House of Representatives than the Senate.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, the senior Democrat on the Senate
Judiciary Committee, said on Twitter: "Confirming Brett
Kavanaugh in the face of credible allegations of sexual assault
that were not thoroughly investigated, and his belligerent,
partisan performance...undermines the legitimacy of the Supreme
Court."
Kavanaugh succeeds retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, who
was often the decisive swing vote on social issues.
The showdown over Kavanaugh had echoes of current Supreme
Court Justice Clarence Thomas' contentious confirmation hearings
in 1991 involving sexual harassment allegations lodged against
him by a law professor named Anita Hill.