News
Senate advances Kavanaugh nomination — but there’s a floor vote deal
Trump nominee accused of assaulting woman as a teenager
The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the Brett Kavanaugh nomination to the Senate floor. (Blade file photo by Micheal Key)
The Senate panel approved the nomination on 11-10 party lines. Republican members insisted on moving forward with the nomination despite objections from Democratic members, many of whom called for delay until the FBI could conduct an additional investigation.
The lynchpin that allowed the nomination to move forward was Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz) — but there was a condition for his support. Although Flake signaled earlier in the day he’d vote to confirm Kavanaugh, he said he agrees with Democrats an FBI investigation is warranted and would only vote on the floor for the nominee if at least one week is given for its completed.
“I’ll move it out of committee, but I will only be comfortable moving forward on the floor until the FBI has done more investigation than it has done already,” Flake said.
Flake acknowledged he has no power to block floor proceedings on the Kavanaugh nomination, which is the jurisdiction of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). But without Flake’s vote on the floor, the Kavanaugh nomination would almost certainly be in jeopardy.
Other moderates in the Senate on both sides of the aisle — Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va) Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) — may also take the opportunity to withhold support for Kavanaugh on the floor without the completion of an investigation. A “no” vote from these senators would doom Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
In a statement from the White House, President Trump said he had directed the FBI to pursue the investigation, although it will be limited in time and scope.
“I’ve ordered the FBI to conduct a supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaugh’s file,” Trump said. “As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week.”
Kavanaugh said he’d cooperate with the FBI investigation just as he had with previous inquiries in a separate White House statement.
“Throughout this process, I’ve been interviewed by the FBI, I’ve done a number of ‘background’ calls directly with the Senate, and yesterday, I answered questions under oath about every topic the senators and their counsel asked me,” Kavanaugh said. I’ve done everything they have requested and will continue to cooperate.”
Faiz Shakir, political director for the American Civil Liberties Union, commended Flake in a statement for agreeing to the FBI investigation.
“Flake’s actions today were the direct result of so many courageous Americans who have been willing to raise their voices and demand justice,” Shakir said. “It is fitting and proper that credible allegations be investigated before confirming anyone to a lifetime seat on the highest court in the land. We urge all senators from both sides of the aisle to support the investigation and we urge President Trump to direct the FBI to launch one immediately.”
Sharon McGowan, legal director for the LGBT legal group Lambda Legal, said in a statement the vote advance the Kavanaugh nomination was “highly disturbing and extremely dangerous.”
“Every member of the Senate now needs to decide whether it is worth compromising their own integrity to push forward with this toxic nominee,” McGowan said. “Or they can choose to take a stand with the millions of Americans who know that confirming Brett Kavanaugh will send a devastating message to those who have survived sexual violence and embolden the powerful forces that seek to silence them.”
Iran
Grenell: ‘Real hope’ for gay rights in Iran as result of nationwide protests
Former ambassador to Germany claimed he has sneaked ‘gays and lesbians out of’ country
Richard Grenell, the presidential envoy for special missions of the United States, said on X on Tuesday that he has helped “sneak gays and lesbians out of Iran” and is seeing a change in attitudes in the country.
The post, which now has more than 25,000 likes since its uploading, claims that attitudes toward gays and lesbians are shifting amid massive economic protests across the country.
“For the first time EVER, someone has said ‘I want to wait just a bit,” the former U.S. ambassador to Germany wrote. “There is real hope coming from the inside. I don’t think you can stop this now.”
Grenell has been a longtime supporter of the president.
“Richard Grenell is a fabulous person, A STAR,” Trump posted on Truth Social days before his official appointment to the ambassador role. “He will be someplace, high up! DJT”
Iran, which is experiencing demonstrations across all 31 provinces of the country — including in Tehran, the capital — started as a result of a financial crisis causing the collapse of its national currency. Time magazine credits this uprising after the U.N. re-imposed sanctions in September over the country’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
As basic necessities like bread, rice, meat, and medical supplies become increasingly unaffordable to the majority of the more than 90 million people living there, citizens took to the streets to push back against Iran’s theocratic regime.
Grenell, who was made president and executive director of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last year by Trump, believes that people in the majority Shiite Muslim country are also beginning to protest human rights abuses.
Iran is among only a handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Virginia
Mark Levine loses race to succeed Adam Ebbin in ‘firehouse’ Democratic primary
State Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker won with 70.6 percent of vote
Gay former Virginia House of Delegates member Mark Levine (D-Alexandria) lost his race to become the Democratic nominee to replace gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) in a Jan. 13 “firehouse” Democratic primary.
Levine finished in second place in the hastily called primary, receiving 807 votes or 17.4 percent. The winner in the four-candidate race, state Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, who was endorsed by both Ebbin and Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger received 3,281 votes or 70.6 percent.
Ebbin, whose 39th Senate District includes Alexandria and parts of Arlington and Fairfax Counties, announced on Jan. 7 that he was resigning effective Feb. 18, to take a job in the Spanberger administration as senior advisor at the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority.
Results of the Jan. 13 primary, which was called by Democratic Party leaders in Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax, show that candidates Charles Sumpter, a World Wildlife Fund director, finished in third place with 321 voters or 6.9 percent; and Amy Jackson, the former Alexandria vice mayor, finished in fourth place with 238 votes or 5.1 percent.
Bennett-Parker, who LGBTQ community advocates consider a committed LGBTQ ally, will now compete as the Democratic nominee in a Feb. 10 special election in which registered voters in the 39th District of all political parties and independents will select Ebbin’s replacement in the state senate.
The Alexandria publication ALX Now reports that local realtor Julie Robben Linebery has been selected by the Alexandria Republican City Committee to be the GOP candidate to compete in the Jan. 10 special election. According to ALX Now, Lineberry was the only application to run in a now cancelled special party caucus type event initially called to select the GOP nominees.
It couldn’t immediately be determined if an independent or other party candidate planned to run in the special election.
Bennett-Parker is considered the strong favorite to win the Feb. 10 special election in the heavily Democratic 39th District, where Democrat Ebbin has served as senator since 2012.
Congress
Van Hollen speaks at ‘ICE Out for Good’ protest in D.C.
ICE agent killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) is among those who spoke at an “ICE Out for Good” protest that took place outside U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s headquarters in D.C. on Tuesday.
The protest took place six days after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis.
Good left behind her wife and three children.
(Video by Michael K. Lavers)
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