In a dramatic moment on Capitol Hill, Sen. Jeff Flake today called for a one-week delay in a Senate floor vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

Flake voted for Kavanaugh in the committee, with the understanding that Republican colleagues would support a one-week delay to give the FBI time to investigate.

“I have been speaking with a number of people on the other side … in regard to making sure that we do due diligence here,” Flake said. “I think it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to but not more than one week in order to let the FBI do an investigation, limited in time and scope.”

Flake was onboard with Kavanaugh this morning, until the committee members started making statements. About an hour in, after Flake’s friend Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) spoke, Flake got up and left the room, pointing to Coons to join him.

Over the course of an hour, Flake and Coons agreed that Flake would vote to move Kavanaugh out of the committee, but would not support him on a floor vote. That effectively leaves Kavanaugh without the votes he needs to reach 51 votes, if either Sen. Susan Collins or Sen. Lisa Murkowski agree with Flake.

Sen. Mitch McConnell is likely to go along with the Flake deal simply because he’ll be short of the 50 votes he needs for Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

The goal of Democrats and Flake is for the FBI to interview Kavanaugh’s best friend Mark Judge to determine whether he was in the room that Christine Blasey Ford alleges.

The developments happened while Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) — a red state Democrat up for re-election in 2018 — announced that he will oppose Kavanaugh’s nomination.

Flake was deeply moved after being confronted by two sexual assault victims in the halls of the Capitol on the way to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

CNN recorded it live:

Here is what was said:

“On Monday, I stood in front of your office, and I told the story of my sexual assault,” said one victim. “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. This is not tolerable. You have children in your family. Think about them. I have two children. I cannot imagine that for the next 50 years they will have to have someone in the Supreme Court who has been accused of violating a young girl. What are you doing, sir?”

“I was sexually assaulted and nobody believed me,” said another victim. “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. They should just keep it to themselves because if they have told the truth, you’re just going to help that man to power anyway. That’s what you’re telling all of these women. That’s what you’re telling me right now. Look at me when I’m talking to you. You are telling me that my assault doesn’t matter, that what happened to me doesn’t, and that you’re going to let people who do these things into power. That’s what you’re telling me when you vote for him. Don’t look away from me. Look at me and tell me that it doesn’t matter what happened to me, that you will let people like that go into the highest court of the land and tell everyone what they can do to their bodies.”

Flake said “thank you” to the women, but refused to engage them in conversation.