Our live coverage has ended. Scroll through the posts below to see how the day developed, and read up on what we expect during tomorrow’s hearing here.
Sen. Susan Collins, who could determine whether Brett Kavanaugh gets a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court, raised serious concerns at a private meeting about the newest allegations of sexual misconduct against the nominee - and questioned why the Senate Judiciary Committee had not subpoenaed a close friend of the federal judge.
Multiple sources familiar with the private Wednesday meeting told CNN that Collins appeared unnerved by the latest allegation, citing in particular that it was a sworn statement sent to the panel, which carries with it the possibility of perjury for lying to Congress.
Collins, sources said, did not indicate how she would vote. But her private concerns underscore how Kavanaugh faces a critical test Thursday: He must reassure at least three key GOP senators that he did not act improperly towards women in the 1980s when he testifies after one of his accusers, Christine Blasey Ford. He can’t afford to lose more than one GOP senator if all Democrats vote against his nomination.
President Donald Trump signaled Tuesday that he could change his mind if he finds the women who have accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault and other inappropriate behavior.
“They’re giving the women a major chance to speak. Now it’s possible I’ll hear that and say hey I’m changing my mind. Hey, that’s possible,” Trump said.
He did not respond to a follow up from CNN’s Jim Acosta about whether he would support the other women beyond Christine Blasey Ford getting a chance to testify on Capitol Hill.
“Whoever is given a chance…We’ve delayed it a long time,” Trump said. “They’re going to have a big shot at speaking, at making their case.”
“I’m going to see what happens tomorrow. I’m going to be watching. I’m going to see what’s said. It’s possible they will be convincing,” he said during a news conference.
“I can’t tell you if they’re liars until I hear them,” he went on.
Asked directly whether there is a scenario in which he withdrew Kavanaugh’s nomination, Trump indicated there was.
“If I thought he was guilty of something like this, sure,” he said.
President Trump is about to hold a rare news conference where he’ll likely be asked about the Brett Kavanaugh allegations. You can watch it live, and see key updates, right here.
In under six hours today, more than 60 men women who attended Georgetown Prep with Brett Kavanaugh or went to sister schools and knew him well during his time in high school signed a letter to directly refute the allegations released earlier today by Michael Avenatti.
They write:
The letter continues: “Brett Kavanaugh is a good man. He has always treated women with respect and decency.”
The Trump campaign just sent out an email defending the President’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, calling the judge “victim of a televised witch hunt.”
Those who receive the email are asked to add their names to a “list of supporters who want to stand up to Senate Democrats and stop the witch hunt against Judge Kavanaugh.”
Here’s how the email starts:
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Republican staff emailed Michael Avenatti, noting it’s the 6th email to Avenatti since his Sunday tweet, a committee source tells CNN.
The judiciary staffer asks Avenatti to let him know “immediately” whether his client -— Julie Swetnick — “will agree to an interview by committee investigators today.”
The email said the interview can be done “by telephone anytime this afternoon or this evening.”
A Senate Judiciary Committee source described some of the preparations that the committee is taking for tomorrow’s hearing with Kavanaugh and Blasey Ford.
Rachel Mitchell, the hired prosecutor who will do the questioning on behalf of Republican senators, has been working “all day long today” with the committee’s attorneys — a group of 25 people that she has at her disposal.
This source insists that Mitchell will be equally as tough on both Kavanaugh and Ford.
Mitchell is supposed to speak with the Republican members of the committee this afternoon.
One thing Mitchell is NOT doing? The source said that she has had no talks ahead of time with Kavanaugh’s team or White House.
Brett Kavanaugh issued a much more forceful response today after a third woman emerged to accuse him of inappropriate sexual behavior.
Through her attorney, Julie Swetnick said she attended “well over 10” parties where Kavanaugh was present and saw him “drink excessively at many of these parties and engage in abusive and physically aggressive behavior towards girls.”
It wasn’t long before Kavanaugh issued a statement saying, “This is ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone. I don’t know who this is and this never happened.”
It was his most aggressive response to date since allegations have threatened to derail his nomination.
A person familiar with how the statement was crafted said that was in direct response to Kavanaugh being told President Trump and other senior White House aides thought he needed to be more assertive while defending himself against these claims.
Vice President Mike Pence sought to reassure Senate Republicans during lunch today amid the dizzying drama surrounding Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination.
A source familiar with his remarks said he reiterated the White House’s support for both Kavanaugh and the process that is playing out on Capitol Hill.
He told the room he was confident that the hearing tomorrow will be fair and respectful to all involved, but added, somewhat tellingly, that he looks forward to the confirmation process moving forward.
CNN just got a look inside of the committee room in the Dirksen Senate office building that is being set up for tomorrow’s hearing with Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford.
Here are a few details about the room:
A White House official who has been in contact with the President today said “He is fully committed—he means what he says, and sees the timing of all of this as telling.”
Martin Swetnick, the father of the third Kavanaugh-accuser Julie Swetnick, said he has “no knowledge” of any of the claims regarding the nominee that his daughter alleged in an affidavit released through her lawyer Wednesday.
“I have no idea of that,” he said.
In an interview at his home in Silver Spring, Md., Swetnick, 95, said he had not had contact with his daughter for several years and described himself as a distant father who knew little about his daughter’s early years.
“She had her own life, she had her own friends, she did what she wanted to. She didn’t tell me or my wife anything. This has come to me as a complete shock,” he said.
Swetnick was unaware of any details of his daughter’s high school social life, calling her popular “in her own way.” He said Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge were “never mentioned.”
“She was a sharp girl. She can talk to people,” Swetnick said. “She pulled herself up by the bootstraps and became an expert in computer engineering.”
“When she made up her mind, she accomplished something,” he said.
Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, attorney’s for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, have sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee staff that contains Ford’s polygraph test results showing the probability that she is being deceptive in her accusations was revealed to be close to zero in three separate tests.
The lawyers also say in the letter they won’t provide Ford’s medical records to the committee.
With decades-old allegations of sexual assault and misconduct by Judge Brett Kavanaugh making headlines and threatening to derail his Supreme Court nomination, we’ve entered a new chapter in the #MeToo movement: Women are thinking back to their own experiences, many of them for the first time in years. They’re talking about their assaults online, in their homes and at dinner parties.
What are these stories stirring up in women? Are they putting themselves in the shoes of Kavanaugh’s accusers? And do they think they could or would come forward themselves if the men who assaulted them were suddenly poised for positions of power?
CNN’s Jessica Ravitz has collected dozens of stories of sexual assault that were shared with her in recent days by phone, email and through social media.
They are accounts from women in their 30s, 40s and 50s who I asked to reflect on their younger years, mostly in high school and college. And they spoke out on the condition that they, and the accused, would remain anonymous.
Read her report: Decades after their own sexual assaults, women put themselves in shoes of Kavanaugh’s accusers
Senator Susan Collins emerged from an extended GOP lunch and used Sens. Rob Portman and John Barrasso as lead blockers through throngs of reporters and wouldn’t answer questions.
Closing ranks: After the lunch, several top Republican Senators said they were uniting behind Kavanaugh, and dismissed the latest round of allegations.
President Trump called new allegations against Brett Kavanaugh “ridiculous” and part of a Democrat “con game” on Wednesday.
“The Democrats are playing this game that’s disgraceful,” Trump said alongside his Japanese counterpart. “It’s disgraceful to this country.”
He said voters would punish Democrats in the midterm elections for their actions and trashed lawyer Michael Avenatti, who represents a new accuser.
“if you look at this lawyer that came out he’s a lowlife,” Trump said. “He’s a Democrat lawyer. Not a very good one.”
Trump expressed confidence the accusations would be cleared, and Kavanaugh would be confirmed to the bench.
“Hopefully over the next couple of days it will be settled up and solved,” he said.
“I think it’s really working out very well,” he concluded. “I think people are seeing what a disgrace these Democrat senators are.”
Later, asked whether the three women accusing Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct are lying, Trump grew irritated. “What’s your next question,” he shot back to a reporter before answering a query about election meddling by China.
Senator Jeff Flake, a key GOP vote on the Judiciary Committee, said in a floor speech said “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, because I have not yet heard a word of their testimony, and because I am not psychic.”
Flake said:
He said, “What I do know is that I don’t believe that Dr. Ford is part of some kind of vast conspiracy from start to finish to smear Judge Kavanaugh, as has been alleged by some on the right. And what I do know is that I don’t believe that Judge Kavanaugh is some kind of serial sexual predator, as has been alleged by some on the left. “
And he criticized President Trump’s comments on the matter Tuesday, saying “ 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? How many times do we have to marginalize and ignore women before we learn that important lesson?”
Key Republican vote Jeff Flake, in a speech on the Senate floor, said of tomorrow’s Kavanaugh hearing “those of us on the Committee have to be prepared for the possibility, indeed the likelihood, that there will be no definitive answers to the very large questions before us.”
Flake said, “While we can only vote yes or no, I hope that we in this body will acknowledge that we don’t have all the answers. We are imperfect, and we make imperfect decisions. This monumental decision will no doubt fit that description. Up or down, yes or no, however this vote goes, I am confident in saying that it will forever be steeped in doubt. This doubt is the only thing of which I am confident in this process. “
He also apologized to both Kavanaugh and Ford for the character assassination he believes both have suffered through. “These are human beings, with families and children – people who love them and people whom they love and live for – and each is suffering through the very ugly process that we have created,” Flake said.
President Donald Trump has grown increasingly dissatisfied with the way Brett Kavanaugh has defended himself in wake of sexual assault allegations that have threatened to derail his Supreme Court nomination, multiple sources tell CNN.
It has led the President to believe that he must personally take charge of defending his embattled nominee ahead of Thursday’s critical appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Trump made the decision to hold a news conference on the eve of the hearing, making it the fourth he has held as president.
Trump is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, but is being kept up to date on the latest developments with Kavanaugh. An official traveling with him said he is still standing squarely behind Kavanaugh.
“Yes,” the official said. “Nothing’s changed.”
Aides say the President will continue to blast the allegations as highly partisan and has made clear repeatedly that the White House does not want the hearing delayed.
