McConnell: Kavanaugh will be on Supreme Court ‘in very near future’

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Friday said that Brett Kavanaugh will be on the Supreme Court “in the very near future” even as President Trump’s nominee faces a sexual assault allegation.  

“You’ve watched the fight, you’ve watched the tactics, but here’s what I want to tell you: In the very near future Judge Kavanaugh will be on the United States Supreme Court,” McConnell said while speaking at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.

{mosads}He added that Trump has “nominated a stunningly successful individual” and told conservatives not to get “rattled” because Senate Republicans are going to “plow right through it.” 

McConnell’s comments come as a sexual assault allegation has thrown the timeline for a potential vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination into limbo. 

Republicans hold a narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate. They can only lose one GOP senator before they would need to lean on Democrats for help getting Kavanaugh confirmed. 

Several Senate Republicans remain on the fence, but McConnell’s comments indicate that he remains confident that Kavanaugh will get the 50 votes needed to be confirmed. 

Republicans had wanted to get Kavanaugh confirmed by the end of the month, but that timeline has slipped after Christine Blasey Ford publicly accused Kavanaugh of pinning her to a bed and attempting to forcibly remove her clothes at a party in the early 1980s.

Kavanaugh has denied any wrongdoing. 

McConnell’s speech came as a 10 a.m. Friday deadline set by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) for Ford to let the panel know if she would testify at a Monday hearing came and went without an announcement. 

Ford’s lawyer told Judiciary Committee staff in an email Thursday that the Monday hearing and the Friday morning deadline for a prepared copy of her testimony was a “non-starter.”  

Ford’s lawyer had similarly shot down the Monday hearing during an email sent Thursday, while leaving the door open to a hearing later in the week. 

“She wishes to testify, provided that we can agree on terms that are fair and which ensure her safety,” Debra Katz wrote asking to talk with Judiciary Committee staff about the “conditions” for such testimony.