Alaskans and voters across the country have been flooding Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-AK) voicemail to voice their opinions on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, the senator said Tuesday evening.

“All the voicemail boxes are are literally filled within the first hour,” she told Alaska Public Media, adding that the number of calls has been even higher than before recent health care votes.

Asked for clarification by the APM reporter for whether there were more calls in favor of Kavanaugh or against, Murkowski’s office reportedly said it was a “healthy mix.”

I've tried. Sure seems like the anti-Kavanaugh group is the most vocal. Her office will only say it's a "healthy mix." — Liz Ruskin (@lruskin) October 2, 2018

Murkowski is considered a key vote on Kavanaugh, as one of the only pro-choice Republicans in the Senate, but she has refused to say how she will vote so far. On Tuesday, she said she was waiting for the FBI investigation into the multiple sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh to wrap up before making any decisions.


“I think the FBI is doing what we’ve tasked the FBI to do — that’s all I can ask for right now,” she told reporters, adding that she had spoken to White House counsel Don McGahn and has received assurances that the investigation would be allowed “to take its course.”

“What I think we all need to do now is to wait and see exactly what comes back,” she added. “I don’t know what’s going to be in it. I don’t know that anybody knows what’s going to be in it so I’m not going to speculate. I’m going to wait.”

The investigation has been severely restricted, however, by the White House and Senate Republicans. The FBI was initially instructed to only speak to a small handful of people: two high school friends of Kavanaugh’s, Mark Judge and P.J. Smyth; Leland Keyser, friend of Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford; Ford herself; and Deborah Ramirez, another woman who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.

According to NBC News’ Peter Alexander, Ford’s legal team said Tuesday she has not yet been contacted by the FBI.

The FBI has also been required to finish the investigation by Friday, and some reports have indicated they may finish even sooner than that.


Last Thursday, both Ford and Kavanaugh testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Ford testified that Kavanaugh attempted to rape her at a “gathering” in high school. She said Kavanaugh forced himself on her, groped her over her clothes, and tried to pull off her clothing. When she tried to scream, he then covered her mouth with his hand and turned up the music in the room to muffle her cries. She said during her testimony that she believed Kavanaugh might accidentally kill her.

The second woman who came forward, Ramirez, told The New Yorker that, at a party in college, Kavanaugh thrust his penis into her face against her wishes, causing her to touch it, and a third woman, Julie Swetnick, says she was gang raped at a party where Kavanaugh was present, stopping short of directly implicating him in the attack.

Swetnick also wrote in a sworn affidavit that Kavanaugh was among a group of boys with whom she associated, who she claimed frequently spiked women’s drinks or drugged them in order to rape them.

President Trump was asked at a press conference Monday if he believed the FBI should interview Swetnick, but would not answer the question.

Kavanaugh has denied all the allegations against him, suggesting without proof that his accusers were participants in a partisan smear job.