Kavanaugh to Get Senate Vote This Week, McConnell Says

(Bloomberg) -- The Senate will vote this week on Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday.

"Let me make it very clear. The time for endless delay and obstruction has come to a close. Judge Kavanaugh's nomination is out of committee. We're considering it here on the floor," McConnell said. "We'll be voting this week." The Senate will first need to vote to cut off debate on the nomination before reaching a final confirmation vote.

The FBI is conducting a one-week investigation into sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh at the insistence of a handful of Republicans who said they wouldn't vote to confirm him otherwise.

McConnell of Kentucky said Kavanaugh was "rightfully angry" after Thursday's raucous Judiciary Committee hearing. The nominee forcefully and tearfully denied the assault allegation by Christine Blasey Ford, who testified earlier in the day, and separate claims by two other women who weren't called to testify.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said on the Senate floor that Kavanaugh's statements at the hearing show he harbors "deep partisan resentments" and that some of his answers to the committee weren't credible. Schumer said he had the impression that Kavanaugh would "mislead senators about everything from the momentous to the mundane, whatever it takes to cast his nomination in the most favorable light."

To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo, Justin Blum

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