11:05

It remains unclear if Donald Trump’s embattled pick for America’s highest court would ultimately have the votes to be confirmed, writes the Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui:

A handful of key senators tipped their hand in Friday’s procedural motion but signaled their votes were not cast in stone. Two of the chamber’s closely watched moderate Republicans, Senators Jeff Flake of Arizona and Susan Collins of Maine, voted in favor of advancing Kavanaugh, while Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted against the judge. Joe Manchin, a senator up for re-election in conservative West Virginia, was the lone Democrat to break with his party.

“This is one vote that we probably won’t know until the votes are actually cast,” Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, told reporters on Capitol Hill.



The uncertainty lingered one day after the FBI completed an investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh, the results of which fell firmly along party lines. Republicans swiftly declared that the FBI’s report, which was shrouded in secrecy and accessed only by senators and a select group of staffers, absolved Kavanaugh of any wrongdoing.

Democrats meanwhile condemned the investigation – the parameters of which were reportedly set by the White House – as preordained.