The Brett Kavanaugh hearings are complete. Here’s what’s really happening with the nomination now.
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh finished his Senate Judiciary Committee testimony moments ago, after his accuser Dr. Christine Blasey Ford spent several hours testifying against him. With everyone now retreating to their respective corners, various pundits each have their own take on what’s about to happen next. But all you really need to know is one particular post-testimony detail.
According to multiple major news outlets, all fifty-one Republican Senators are holding an all-hands meeting tonight. If Mitch McConnell and the GOP leadership had the votes, they wouldn’t need to hold a meeting of this type. There are clearly “no” and/or “undecided” votes within the GOP ranks, and this meeting is all about trying to gang up on them, in the hope of getting them to change their minds.
Tomorrow’s scheduled vote is strictly within the Senate Judiciary Committee. If Brett Kavanaugh is approved by the committee, he’ll then have to be voted on next week by the full Senate. If the likes of Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Bob Corker, and others are dead-set on voting “no” then there would be no reason for the GOP to bother advancing Kavanaugh out of committee. So this meeting is all about trying to figure out whether this nomination is going to sink or swim. And again, if the GOP had the votes right now, the meeting wouldn’t even be taking place.
Certain cable news pundits are already spinning the nonsensical narrative that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s strong testimony destroyed Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination, but that Kavanaugh’s subsequent mentally deranged testimony somehow put him back in the game. This is a mere ratings ploy, in the hope of keeping you tuned in for the rest of the evening, in the hope you won’t switch over to watch Law & Order reruns. Could the GOP convince its “no” votes to flip to “yes”? Sure. But as of right now, Kavanaugh doesn’t have the votes. Any other narrative is fiction.
