Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Tuesday that the Senate will confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court even as President Trump’s pick currently lacks the support needed.
Asked if he had the votes to confirm Kavanaugh, McConnell told reporters that he believed the nominee would be approved to succeed former Justice Anthony Kennedy.
“We’re going to be moving forward. I’m confident we’re going to win, confident that he’ll be confirmed in the very near future,” McConnell told reporters.
{mosads}McConnell’s comments come as two sexual misconduct allegations have thrown Kavanaugh’s nomination into chaos.
Kavanaugh is scheduled to testify on Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee alongside Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh of holding her down on a bed and trying to remove her clothing during a high school party in the early 1980s.
A second woman, Deborah Ramirez, says Kavanaugh exposed himself to her when they were at Yale, resulting in her touching his genitals without her consent.
Kavanaugh has denied the allegations from both women.
He remains short of the simple majority needed to be confirmed. A group of GOP swing votes, including Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), are expected to wait until after Thursday to make their decision.
McConnell did not specify when Kavanaugh’s nomination will come to the Senate floor, except that they would take it up in the “near future.”
But senators signaled on Tuesday that the Senate could take up the nomination as soon as next week, though they stressed that the situation remains fluid.
If the Judiciary Committee votes on Kavanaugh’s nomination on Friday, the Senate could try to wrap up the nomination as soon as next week.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters on Tuesday that he hopes the committee votes on Friday and predicted the Senate will be in session through the weekend to run out the procedural clock on Kavanaugh.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has not announced a vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination. He would need to issue notice on the vote Tuesday in order for it to take place on Friday.