Senate Judiciary Committe Chairman Chuck Grassley (IA) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are holding a press conference along with GOP Senators Orrin Hatch (UT), John Cornyn (TX), Mike Lee (UT) and Thom Tillis (NC) for a Thursday afternoon press conference to discuss the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court.
Update: Out of the gate, the first questions by the press revolved around whether the FBI was restricted in their investigation, to which the Senators insisted that the agency had broad authority to conduct the probe as they saw fit.
After several more questions, Grassley slammed the media for biased reporting, saying: “I would never use the term ‘fake news’…but that’s a bias that none of you should be proud of.”
“I would never use the term ‘fake news’…but that’s a bias that none of you should be proud of,” Grassley says, accusing the media of having an anti-Kavanaugh bias #tictocnews pic.twitter.com/H2BMwIyy8w
— TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) October 4, 2018
Senator @ChuckGrassley: “This person is very well-qualified— a person who believes in the principles of due process, the presumption of innocence and readiness to serve are recognized. So, Judge Kavanaugh should be confirmed on Saturday.” pic.twitter.com/NRJzr4in7b
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 4, 2018
Earlier Thursday, GOP holdouts Jeff Flake (AZ) and Susan Collins (ME) backed an FBI report after the agency reopened its background investigation on Kavanaugh at their insistance – virtually guaranteeing Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.
“I think Susan Collins was quoted saying it was very thorough but no new corroborative information came out of it. That’s accurate,” Flake told reporters after viewing the FBI report in the Capitol Visitor Center’s secure compartmentalized information facility (SCIF) on Thursday.
After being briefed on the FBI’s seventh background investigation into Judge Kavanaugh, I have seen no corroborating evidence to the claims made against him. It’s time to vote, and I will vote to #ConfirmKavanaugh.
— Senator John Thune (@SenJohnThune) October 4, 2018
Democrats, meanwhile, are throwing a fit – as Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer (NY) and Dianne Feinstein (CA) held a press conference of their own earlier Thursday in which they said that the FBI report “looks to be the product of an incomplete investigation,” and refuted Grassley’s statement that there was “no hint of misconduct.”
The odds of Kavanaugh’s confirmation, meanwhile, have shot up to 88% on PredictIt.
Two weeks ago Kavanaugh’s odds of confirmation dropped as low as 36% (with an intra-day low of 26%).
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