As expected after Republican Sen. Susan Collins gave the closing sales pitch for Brett Kavanaugh Friday and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III said he would vote to confirm him as the ninth member of the Supreme Court, the Senate voted 50-48 Saturday afternoon to place him on that body for the rest of his life.
Only one Republican voiced opposition to the confirmation. Sen. Lisa Murkowski. But because Sen. Steve Daines was at his daughter’s wedding today she voted “present” instead of no. “When a senator is necessarily absent (for example, attending their daughter’s wedding), they can ‘pair’ with another senator who is voting the opposite way,” Don Stewart, a McConnell spokesman, said in a statement.