Republican Senator Jeff Flake has explained that his extraordinary maneuver to force a one-week FBI investigation into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was influenced by his encounters with ’emboldened’ women.
Flake spoke with reporters on Capitol Hill moments after Friday’s dramatic Judiciary Committee vote to recommend the nomination, which was delayed by 23 minutes as he huddled in a back corridor with Democrats.
The Arizona Republican ultimately did deliver the deciding vote to recommend Kavanaugh, but said he would not support the full Senate confirmation until the FBI investigated Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that Kavanaugh tried to rape her in 1982.
Asked if his decision had been influenced by two sexual assault survivors who cornered and berated him in an elevator hours earlier, Flake said he’d had ‘interactions with a lot of people on phone, email, text, walking around the Capitol, you name it.’
‘It has been remarkable over the past week the number of people who saw Dr. Ford speak yesterday and were emboldened to come out and to say what had happened to them. I’ve heard from friends, close friends – had no idea,’ Flake said.
Flake explains his decision to seek an FBI investigation to reporters after a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell on Friday
Flake said he would not support the full Senate confirmation until the FBI investigated Christine Blasey Ford’s (left) allegation that Kavanaugh (right) tried to rape her in 1982
Flake, who is not seeking re-election in November, began his day on Friday by issuing a statement at 9.30am saying that he would vote to confirm Kavanaugh after hearing his and Ford’s testimony in Thursday’s blockbuster hearing.
Liberals who had hoped to sway Flake to their side were outraged, and began targeting him with protests outside of his home office in Phoenix, as well as on Capitol Hill.
Minutes after 9.30am, Flake was trying to get on an elevator in the Dirksen Senate Office Building to go to the committee meeting for the vote, when two women accosted him. The building is open to the public on weekdays.
Both woman revealed that they were survivors of sexual abuse, and accused Flake of silencing rape victims by announcing his support for Kavanaugh.
Ana Maria Archila, co-executive director of the nonprofit Center for Popular Democracy Action, pointed her finger at Flake while she appeared to keep the elevator door from closing.
‘I told the story of my sexual assault. I told it because I recognized in Dr. Ford’s story that she is telling the truth. What you are doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit on the Supreme Court.’
A woman who said she is a survivor of a sexual assault confronted Flake in an elevator Friday morning after Flake announced that he vote to confirm Kavanaugh
Protesters demonstrate in front of Flake’s home office in Phoenix on Friday morning
Angry demonstrators filled DC on Friday in reaction to hearings on Kavanaugh’s nomination
Maria Gallagher, 23, shouted through tears: ‘I was sexually assaulted and nobody believed me.
‘I didn’t tell anyone, and you’re telling all women that they don’t matter, that they should just stay quiet because if they tell you what happened to them you are going to ignore them.’
‘That’s what happened to me, and that’s what you are telling all women in America, that they don’t matter,’ she said, sobbing.
After two agonizing minutes, a female staffer managed to clear the way for the elevator doors to close, and Flake ascended to the committee meeting in room 226.
After the meeting came to order, the committee, and the Senate itself, seemed to be careening toward bedlam.
Republicans gave fiery speeches defending Kavanaugh. Some Democrats walked out of the room, irate that the committee was voting on Kavanaugh less than 24 hours after hearing from his accuser.
At 12.16pm, Flake signaled across the room to Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, bidding him to come talk in a small private room off the dais.
Flake got up and left the room during the meeting, signaling to Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware to come talk in a small private room off the dais
Suddenly, the mood in the room began shifting from death match to deal making as senators huddled in a back hallway off the anteroom.
Inside the anteroom, Flake had huddled with Coons and California Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the committee, as other Republicans and Democrats came in and out. The senators crowded in the back corridor of the room as staff filled the main area.
‘At one point there were 14 senators jammed into a corner,’ said Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat on the Judiciary panel.
Talking to his colleagues, Flake voiced discomfort with the accusation against Kavanaugh and said he was leaning toward asking for an FBI investigation, according to two people in the room granted anonymity to discuss the private conversation.
Other Republicans entered, including Senator John Cornyn of Texas, to make their case to Flake. Coons said afterward that Flake’s fellow Republicans tried ‘vigorously’ to get him to drop his concerns.
According to one person in the room, Flake tried to reach FBI Director Christopher Wray on the telephone, but ended up talking to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Flake reacts after after speaking during Friday’s Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, where he requested an FBI investigation. A flurry of back-room deals preceded the vote
Ultimately, Flake stopped short of where Democrats hoped he would land, which was putting a hold on a committee vote.
Instead he wanted the one-week delay on a final vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation while allowing the nomination to move out of committee to the full Senate.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, mostly stayed out of the discussion, instead sitting awkwardly on the dais as people in the room buzzed about what might be happening behind the closed doors. Grassley did walk into the anteroom briefly, where Flake told him his decision.
The senators then filed out, and Flake announced the agreement.
‘This country is being ripped apart here,’ Flake said. ‘We’ve got to make sure that we do due diligence.’
Flake later said he knew his Republican colleagues Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine – key swing votes on Kavanaugh – would feel more comfortable moving ahead if there were an FBI review.
Flake (center) speaks with colleagues after the Friday meeting and vote. Flake supported the committee vote but demanded an FBI investigation before proceeding in the full Senate
As it became clear that the vote to confirm Kavanaugh might not pass if held early next week as planned, President Donald Trump reluctantly authorized the seven-day investigation that Flake demanded later in the day.
After the meeting, Coons’ eyes welled with tears as he told reporters afterward about the deep respect that he and Flake share for the Senate as an institution.
He said Flake had been a role model to him, ‘as someone who is willing to take a real political risk, and upset many in his party by asking for a pause so the American people can hear that we are able to work together on some things.’
Flake, for his part, said he didn’t expect the FBI investigation to change many Democratic votes. ‘But they will feel better about the process,’ he said.