After a bitter partisan battle, the Senate confirmed Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court on a narrow 50-48 vote Saturday afternoon.
Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., voted against confirming Kavanaugh, after both had vigorously opposed his nomination since July.
After the vote, Leahy told reporters that he felt the confirmation had eroded the public’s trust.
“I think it has made a lot of people in this country, far more than we want … lose faith in the United States Senate and lose faith in the U.S. Supreme Court,” Leahy said. “Those are crippling blows to our country.”
A White House spokesperson lauded the Senate’s vote. He told reporters that Kavanaugh will officially be sworn in later on Saturday, according to a pool report.
The Senate’s vote on Kavanaugh came in spite of a highly partisan atmosphere and just over 48 hours after the results of a controversial six day FBI investigation into allegations of sexual assault against the nominee were released to senators. Three women have publicly accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in high school and college.
One Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, joined 49 Republicans voting in favor of the controversial Supreme Court nominee.
Manchin, who is facing reelection this year in a state President Donald Trump won by a large margin in the 2016 election, announced he would support Kavanaugh after key Republican swing vote, Susan Collins, of Maine, said Thursday she would vote with the majority of her party.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who was the only Republican to break with her party and vote with Democrats against advancing Kavanaugh on Thursday, “paired” her vote against Kavanaugh with Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines’ vote in favor of the judge. This Senate rule allows the two votes to cancel themselves out and ensured that Daines did not have to fly back from his daughter’s wedding in Montana for the vote.
Neither Daines’ nor Murkowski’s votes were decisive in the confirmation.
Before the vote, both Vermont senators spoke on the Senate floor about Kavanaugh’s confirmation process, though they took different approaches and tones in their statements.
On Friday night, Sanders said the prospect of a Justice Kavanaugh had energized people across the country to join the discussion on key issues brought up in the confirmation hearings, and was optimistic that would have a lasting impact on the country moving forward.
“I think this nomination, to a much greater degree than I think anyone would have expected, has aroused the American people from coast to coast. It has aroused them in terms of the issue of sexual assault and whether we deal with that issue honestly. It has aroused the American people in terms of the issue of veracity and whether or not we’re going to have a member of the Supreme Court who in fact is honest,” Sanders said.
“I think that the end results of what has taken place here, the disgrace of what has taken place here, will reverberate in a very positive way for the American people,” he said.
Leahy, who pressed Kavanaugh on his role in Bush-era scandals during the confirmation hearings and has repeatedly questioned the judge’s truthfulness under oath, said in his remarks on the floor that confirming Kavanaugh was a “disservice to survivors” of sexual assault everywhere. Senators who support the judge have put their allegiance to Trump ahead of the women who have accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, he said.
“Pushing toward confirmation while so many leads remain unexamined is forever going to taint Justice Kavanaugh and unfortunately the Supreme Court itself. And for any senator who votes yes,” Leahy said, “I urge them to think carefully about what a yes vote would mean to the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, the integrity of the Senate, and to the increasing divisiveness in our nation.”
Protests in opposition to Kavanaugh’s legal views on abortion rights, presidential powers, and indigenous rights, took place across the country on Saturday. Demonstrations in Burlington and Montpelier were organized by Vermont-based social justice groups including Planned Parenthood Vermont Action Fund and Peace & Justice Center.
Lucy Leriche, a spokesperson for the Planned Parenthood Vermont Action Fund, said in a statement that Kavanaugh is unfit to sit on the Supreme Court but also that there has been an “uprising” of Vermonters who have stepped up to protect women’s rights and to oppose Kavanaugh during this process.
“We’re grateful to Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders for their leadership and for voting against this confirmation,” Leriche said. “We’ll keep fighting for Vermonters’ reproductive freedom and rights.”
