Nothing is adding up about the FBI probe into Brett Kavanaugh – or the reporting about it
Tonight we’re seeing multiple major news outlets reporting that the FBI probe into Brett Kavanaugh is nearly complete, and could be finished as soon as tonight or tomorrow. This comes after multiple major news outlets reported on Sunday night that the probe could be completed as soon as Monday morning. That didn’t happen, of course, and so there is no reason to believe these new reports either. But it raises huge questions about what’s really going on.
We’ve all watched Donald Trump get caught placing secret limitations on the FBI probe, only to then pretend via tweet that he was removing those restrictions, only to get called out for it by Jeff Flake and other Senators, only to then remove some (but not all) of those restrictions. This comes even as Flake and the other swing votes keep calling for a bigger investigation, with Flake having even gone so far as to hint that he’ll ask for a longer investigation if the initial results aren’t sufficient.
Even as this process continues to play out, we keep seeing false reports planted in the media that the probe is just hours away from magically concluding. We’re also seeing Mitch McConnell loudly insisting that he’ll hold the vote this week, at a time when he knows he doesn’t have the votes. He’s clearly bluffing, and he’s trying to create the appearance that he still has control over this process. It makes you wonder who keeps leaking these fake stories about the Kavanaugh probe supposedly ending early, and if the leaker’s name rhymes with “Ditch McDonnell.”
In any case, two things are clear: the FBI probe into Kavanaugh is now far less restricted than it was, but it’s still far more restricted than it should be. It very much sounds like Donald Trump and McConnell are trying to bluff their way into getting swing voters like Jeff Flake to back down, both through real sabotage, and through phony media stories. We don’t know what’ll happen next.
But if this FBI probe really does wrap up without having bothered to interview most of the witnesses involved, it’ll be the precise opposite of what Jeff Flake, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski have spent the past few days publicly staking themselves to. Collins and Murkowski have to run for reelection, and Flake has faint presidential ambitions. If they were planning to vote “yes,” would they be continuing to call for a larger investigation? That’s something that could be used against them by a future opponent, and they know it.
The three GOP holdouts, thanks to their own increasingly vocal stances, are getting further away from being able to vote “yes” by the day. This could be why Trump and McConnell are trying to hurry up and hold a vote as soon as possible, even if it means cutting the kinds of corners that could backfire. Each day this drags on, this nomination comes closer to failing. Whatever Kavanaugh’s odds are of being confirmed this week, they’ll be even lower if this drags on to next week.
