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LAST UPDATE | 28 Sep 2018
DONALD TRUMP HAS acquiesced to demands from his own senators to launch a brief probe into the background of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Republican senator Jeff Flake this evening said that he could not endorse Kavanaugh unless the FBI further investigated the allegations of sexual assault against him.
Flake had earlier stated that he would endorse Kavanaugh in the vote (initially planned for next Tuesday) before an afternoon of protests and frenzied meetings outside the Senate Judiciary Committee chamber appeared to sway his mind.
“I’ve ordered the FBI to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaugh’s file,” Trump said in a statement this evening.
As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week.
The move will cast serious doubt on Kavanaugh’s confirmation and will lead inevitably to a weekend of wild speculation and recrimination for American politics.
Earlier the Senate Committee had intimated that such a delay might be necessary following Flake’s suggestion.
The committee had earlier voted along party lines to hold a vote this evening with the Republicans in the majority on a count of 11-8.
Due diligence
That oral ballot took place and the panel voted to send Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination to the full Senate. Eleven senators were in favour, 10 against.
However, Flake voted for that to happen on the basis that the next vote in the Senate would be delayed by a week to allow for the FBI investigation to ensure due diligence has been carried out in relation to the nomination.
The nomination of the 53-year-old conservative judge Kavanaugh will go to the full Senate, where Republicans hold a slim 51-49 majority. That vote had been planned for Tuesday, but will now be delayed.
On the earlier vote, two Democratic senators, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, abstained citing the process as being unfair.
Another Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal asked for this evening’s vote to be postponed, at least until more witnesses could be called, but was overruled.
Earlier, Senator Flake, one of the few Republicans on the committee who had appeared to be a possibility of a swing vote, had indicated he intended to endorse Kavanaugh.
CNN / TwitterWomen confront Sen. Jeff Flake after he says he'll vote yes to Kavanuagh: “That’s what you’re 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.” pic.twitter.com/T7fSpyT69E
— CNN (@CNN) September 28, 2018
However, he was later confronted for several minutes while standing in a lift by a survivor of sexual abuse, who condemned his decision as tacit endorsement of such behaviour.
Indeed, protestors created chaos directly outside the hearing all morning, with some women gaining access to the chamber and standing silently at the rear in mute protest during the debate.
Paul McLeod / TwitterWomen are standing in silent protest at the back of the Judiciary Committee room. They're now being led out by security. pic.twitter.com/TSC8S8VOLW
— Paul McLeod (@pdmcleod) September 28, 2018
Accusations
Kavanaugh faced accusations in recent weeks that he had assaulted Dr Christine Blasey Ford at a party in 1982 when both were schoolgoing teenagers.
Blasey Ford’s emotive testimony to the committee yesterday was broadly seen to be credible, even by the Republicans on the committee, who declined to interrogate her personally, and instead used a female prosecutor to do so.
Lauren Fox / TwitterThe protest here is deafening in Dirksen pic.twitter.com/NDeou0iv23
— Lauren Fox (@FoxReports) September 28, 2018
Kavanaugh last night gave a fiery rebuttal to Ford’s accusations, insisting that it was a ploy by Democrats to block his confirmation.
He termed his confirmation process to be a national disgrace, and said that his family had been ‘destroyed’ by it.
In the wake of the Senate committee’s decision to vote on Kavanaugh later this afternoon, a majority of Democratic senators walked out of the chamber to give a press conference condemning Kavanaugh’s appointment as overtly political.
The final Senate confirmation vote on Kavanaugh’s appointment was expected to take place on Tuesday but it is now unclear when it will happen.
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I doubt if FFG has any more room under the carpet
@Shakka1244: There’s a swing somewhere no-one uses anymore, could hide it there!!!!
@Will Thompson: It’s a magic swing, makes people disappear!
@Will Thompson: Yeah and still get well paid at the same time.
The lack of transparency shows a lack of respect for the public which is disgraceful!
The government parties know that they can do whatever they want, whenever they want and get voted back in irregardless so I doubt they care too much.
what happened to the, nothing to fear ,nothing to hide mantra that we’ve been hearing from fg about this card…. publish the report if there’s nothing to hide
The Government need to seriously examine why they are held hostage to bad or unworkable ideas like this one, the National Broadband Plan, the Children’s hospital, the strategy in the MauriceMcCabe saga, the Housing policies that are making things worse, etc, etc, etc. They defend these bad ideas to the death and line up ministers to defend and deny until the bitter end. Admit mistakes were made, learn from them and move on. It’s Ireland anyway. It’s not like admitting mistakes will cost anyone their job.
@Sean: all governments use thinktanks as their special advisers, usually made up the topdogs in finance, media and so forth….it is they that run countries.
@Sean: this government’s broadband, hospital, hse and homeless strategy is going exactly to their plan
@Sean: Everything the FG government does, in collusion with it’s coalition partners FF, is done according to policy decisions driven by FFG’s political dogma. FG are hostage to nothing but their political dogma.
FG have always despised the poor, the low paid, the less well off, the unemployed. They don’t govern on their behalf, they rule over ordinary people for the benefit of the rich, foreign private investor corporations, corporate interests. The IMF oversees any decisions the FG minority government makes. The IMF, the world’s privateers and asset strippers, dictate policy as agreed with Noonan to sustain the rotten and corrupt banking system in the country.
FG have no mandate to force such policies on the country. When you go into a GE after being part of a coalition government and you lose 26 seats in that GE you have lost any mandate to govern. This FG minority government is sustained by way of secret backroom deals made with a party that is bound by the constitution to oppose the government and hold it to account for the decisions it makes. That makes a total mockery of the democratic process in the country. FG and their partners in government,FF, don’t make mistakes. Everything is deliberate and according to plan.
This is ridiculous at this stage, whos behind this? Whos benefiting? I guarantee there is absolutely no benefits to the taxpayer but someone is benefiting. Fg are so belligerent about this and it stinks of a scandal and/or tribunal down the road
@Thomas Maher: it’s definitely gonna cost the state in payouts.
@Thomas Maher: If you say nothing I’ll give you half of this big brown envelope I just happened to find!
@Thomas Maher: The benefit for government is the potential for control over the lives of the citizens of Ireland.
@Thomas Maher: A great FF benefactor is the beneficiary!
Why would they . They are spinna gael
@Leo Lalor: Another minister incapable of the position they were appointed to.
It will be interesting to see how the Facilitraitor Party reacts?
Time to remove FG labour FF from Irish politics, 10 years this has gone on and now the countrys data protection agency is being attacked by them for telling the truth, they have behaved illegally.
@@mdmak33: What are they hiding??? Who got the contracts?
@TamuMassif2019: the same people that make the passport, the very thing they are making it compulsory for, how odd!
@Commentator: So you think that they be charging a massive fee for these cards next??? lol.
@TamuMassif2019: @ 60 mill I reckon they’ve already done that!
Can I ask a question. Maybe I’m totally off the wall but what are peoples problems with having a card with all their information on it ? Wouldn’t it make it easier for dealing with all depts eventually and rather than having to fill out forms and bring lots of stuff with you all you would need is the card ? I know there is a fear of the information being accessed improperly but surely if this was safeguarded everything would be ok. Move with the times and all that
@Declan Moran: you’re new here, aren’t you?
@Declan Moran: most people don’t have a problem with such a card. What most people have a problem with was the PSC’s compulsory nature; the fact that passports or driving licences – both legal and valid forms of ID – were to no longer be accepted; the way it was handled in that it was de facto a national ID card but without any legal basis; the fact that the government refused to debate it in the Dáil; and the fact that the government has already proven that they cannot safeguard the privacy of the information held on these cards. As for “rather than having to fill out forms and bring lots of stuff with you” – well, you still had to do that.
@Brian Ó Dálaigh: thanks Brian. I hadn’t the energy.
@Brian Ó Dálaigh: if you’re not adopted, an immigrant in dp, etc etc
@Mike Rugby Nuts: I feel like I’m missing the entire second half of your sentence. What point are you making about if “you’re not adopted, an immigrant in dp [sic]?”
@Brian Ó Dálaigh: dp is Direct Provision, I was too weary of FFG to finish that sentence.
@Mike Rugby Nuts: I figured that much out the first time around. Your sentence still makes no sense to me. What about adoption or immigration are you trying to say, and how do they relate to the PSC?
F them all out.
Everyone should just sue the department and the government.
@The Irish Bull: Good man and make all our lawyers billionaires.
Remove FFG..
It’s all very clear since the report went into the hands of the government that they intend to continue on with this illegal instrument. It didn’t matter what the DPC had to say in the report, it never mattered that legal experts told the government time and time again that there is no legal basis for this card, that people’s right to protection on their private and personal data and it’s abuse by this FG minority government was being ignored.
FG want this Biometric National ID Card by the back door as the means to control the lives of its citizens. Just as in India, the Aadhaar Card, the nation ID card there is being used illegally by the Indian government. The card has put the people of that country under the most draconian and intrusive surveillance. It will be put to the same use in Ireland if this government isn’t stopped.
It is as clear as day that this PSC is no benign instrument in the hands of this minority government and they will fight tooth and nail to keep it and to hell with the legalities.
Keep the Peasants in the dark
@Geoff Bateman: Under foot in the mud?
Sure why would they do the right thing, these mutants of FFG know full well that the deluded supporters they have who are stuck in the me fein, parish pump minset, will still vote them in no matter what
So much for our democracy! Openness, transparency my foot!!
So how much can I sue them for?
@Harry Trafford: The legal eagles reckon the payout for anyone that sues over the PSC is in the region of 15,000 euro.
Another mess covered up
There’s a great book called IBM and the Holocaust by Edwin Black. It describes what happens when the government knows too much about the citizens.
have your say