| | | | Washington's wild, unresolved week | | What. A. Week.
If you were expecting some clarity on the chaos that has consumed Washington this week, sorry to disappoint. If anything, we're ending with more questions.
From the beginning, all eyes had been trained on the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing pushed back to this Thursday.
What was an initially complicated situation at the beginning of the week – Christine Blasey Ford accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault – became even more complicated as another woman stepped forward alleging misconduct – and then another.
President Donald Trump waded into the entire situation while on the world stage at the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday. The President delivered a rare stem-winder of a standalone news conference, holding court with reporters for nearly an hour and a half. Chris recapped some of the more interesting nuggets from that presser, which is very much worth a click.
On top of everything, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's fate continues to hang in the balance after a bombshell New York Times story last week detailing a suggestion to secretly record the President and discussed the 25th Amendment. Two rescheduled meetings with President Trump at the White House later, Rosenstein remains employed by the Justice Department.
Now, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to bring Kavanaugh's nomination to a full Senate vote, but even that plan is complicated. Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, said his "yes" vote today came with a condition: The FBI must briefly investigate the allegations against Kavanaugh.
Now it looks like Flake will get his way. This afternoon, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced it will ask that the Trump administration to ask the FBI to conduct a background check on Kavanaugh, to be completed no later than next Friday.
The Point: We've had a wild week, but there is an end in sight (at least with Kavanaugh). That comes next Friday, the deadline for the FBI's investigation into Trump's latest Supreme Court pick.
– Lauren
And below, we have a handy recap of the week that was (again) dominated by Kavanaugh:
Monday: Tuesday: Wednesday: Thursday: Friday: | | "They have to do what they think is right. They have to be comfortable with themselves. That'll be a decision that they're going to have to make. ... Whatever they think is necessary is OK."
-- President Donald Trump on whether he is open to an FBI investigation into Judge Brett Kavanaugh. | | | Sen. Jeff Flake has had quite the day.
First he was confronted in an elevator by two protesters, who chewed the Arizona senator out over his support for Judge Brett Kavanaugh -- and cameras happened to capture the entire exchange.
Then, Flake underwent a fairly significant change of heart as Republicans scrambled to vote Kavanaugh's nomination out of committee and get it to the full Senate for a final vote (or so they planned). Flake said he'd only support a vote out of committee if the FBI investigated Kavanaugh and the allegations against him.
Chris dives deep into what happened – and what comes next – for Flake, Kavanaugh and the rest of us.
As Chris writes: "The biggest loose end still remaining, of course, is whether Kavanaugh decides -- in the face of a week-long delay -- to simply withdraw. He was adamant that he would not do so during his testimony on Thursday. But he also was very clear that he believed the vote needed to happen immediately. Does this likely delay change anything for Kavanaugh? | | | Today's end-of-week tuneage is dedicated to the Senate. The body is no longer working this weekend in order to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, so now they can just rock out to Loverboy's classic '70s hit: "Working for the Weekend." | | More like "Michael Avenatti watch."
The celebrity lawyer who represents Stormy Daniels and the third Kavanaugh accuser has found time in his busy schedule to head to the Granite State this weekend for not one -- not two -- but three events supporting local Democratic candidates. | | The shutdown is off!
A massive spending package, signed today by President Donald Trump, has averted a government shutdown that previously loomed over Washington, according to CNN's Sarah Westwood and Maegan Vazquez.
Trump had previously cast doubt on whether he would sign the package because it lacked his signature campaign promise: Funding for a border wall.
The wall-less measure now funds the government until December 7, when we'll likely do this all over again. | | | From Brenna: "As we've come to expect from most (all?) weeks in Washington, this one was a fire hose of news. Catch up with some of the big stories on our weekly GIFticle and tell your friends to subscribe to The Point." | | | | | | |
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