Sen. Jeff Flake is the first Republican member of the Judiciary Committee to publicly say the committee should not move forward on the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh until further information is gathered relating to the incident related by Christine Blasey Ford, who came forward today to describe a violent sexual assault by Kavanaugh.
According to a Senate spokesperson, Sens. Grassley and Feinstein are working to set up “follow-up calls with Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford ahead of Thursday’s scheduled vote.”
In other Republican reactions, Sen. Lindsey Graham made a brief statement expressing “concerns” about the “substance and process regarding the allegations in this latest claim.” Speaking to a reporter in a brief airport statement, Sen. Susan Collins says she “obviously was very surprised” and that it’s “an issue that I brought up with him last Friday and he denied (inaudible) as he did in his written statement.”