Even if Senate Republicans “plow right through” the ever-expanding chaos surrounding Brett Kavanaugh, the battle over his Supreme Court nomination is unlikely to end soon.
Despite the latest incendiary charges—from a client of attorney Michael Avenatti who claimed she was gang-raped at a party Kavanaugh attended in high school—the Senate Judiciary Committee hasn’t called off its hearing on Thursday, where only Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the first woman to accuse him of sexual assault, are slated to testify. And Senate Republicans indicated as recently as Tuesday night that they plan to vote within days on the nomination, both inside the committee and on the floor. All of that reflects the determination Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised in his “plow right through” declaration to a conference of Christian conservatives over the weekend.
That schedule may prove impossible to maintain amid the latest accusations. But it’s also impossible to underestimate the commitment of Senate GOP leaders to fill this seat. Even before Avenatti’s client came forward, Kavanaugh was facing allegations of sexual misconduct from two different women, Ford and Deborah Ramirez, a classmate of his in college. And yet in every possible way, Senate Republican leaders signaled that they viewed Thursday’s hearing with Ford as just a speed bump on the path toward confirming Kavanaugh.
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