“I do not believe that a claim of sexual assault is invalid because a 15-year-old girl didn’t promptly report the assault,” Jeff Flake said about his undecided vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images Kavanaugh Confirmation Flake: Kavanaugh vote will be 'forever steeped in doubt'

Jeff Flake is keeping everyone guessing about where he will come down on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, explicitly declaring he’s undecided on Wednesday afternoon and saying that the vote on Kavanaugh will be “forever steeped in doubt.”

Viewed as the only truly undecided senator on the Judiciary Committee scheduled to soon vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination, Flake defended both the nominee and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, as “human beings” on Wednesday and sought to quell talk that Ford’s accusations are part of a conspiracy theory to bring down Kavanaugh. He also said he does not believe that Kavanaugh is a “serial sexual predator.”


But as Republicans continue to fret about how Flake will vote on Kavanaugh, the Arizona Republican isn’t giving anything away even as the panel’s 10 Democrats called for Kavanaugh to withdraw and its 10 other Republicans ready to support Kavanaugh. He said he hopes the Thursday hearing with Ford and Kavanaugh goes forward, despite two new allegations of misconduct being leveled at Kavanaugh in the past week.

“Many members of this body, from both parties, have already made up their minds, on the record, in advance of this hearing. They will presumably hear what they want to hear and disregard the rest. One is tempted to ask, why even bother to have a hearing?” Flake asked on the Senate floor. “I do not know how I will assess the credibility of these witnesses. These human beings, on the grave matters that will be testified to ... I will have to listen to the testimony before I make up my mind about the testimony.”

Sign up here for POLITICO Huddle A daily play-by-play of congressional news in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

If Flake votes against Kavanaugh in committee, it would result in an unfavorable recommendation, though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) could still bring the nomination to the floor. But if one other Republican were to join Flake in opposition in the full Senate, the nomination would likely fail in a Senate that’s narrowly divided, 51-49. GOP Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are all undecided. Corker said he enters the hearing with “positive” feelings about Kavanaugh but will make a firm decision after Thursday.

But Flake may have less to lose than Collins and Murkowski, given that he’s retiring from the Senate and frequently criticizes the president. He revealed that someone threatened to have his family “taken out” over his insistence that Ford be given a hearing on Thursday, which he said was viewed by that person as “interrupting our president.”

And the first-term senator criticized the president for attacking Ford over not reporting her allegation that Kavanaugh forced himself on her, which she said happened when she was 15.

“I do not believe that a claim of sexual assault is invalid because a 15-year-old girl didn’t promptly report the assault to the authorities, as the president of the United States said just two days ago. How uninformed and uncaring do you have to be to say things like that, much less believe them? Do we have any idea what kind of message that sends, especially to young women?” Flake said.

The Judiciary Committee will vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination on Friday if a majority of members agree to do so. Given the opposition of Democrats, whether that vote occurs as scheduled seems to rest with one person right now: Flake.