Four Key Undecided Senators Meet Privately on Kavanaugh Vote

(Bloomberg) -- Four Senators whose votes will be key to deciding whether Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed met behind closed doors Thursday evening without reaching any conclusion, one of them said.

“We’re still talking,” said Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, who hasn’t said how he’ll vote. “There’s no decisions made on anything I can assure you of that.”

He added: “There’s some concerns that people have and they’re going to try and close the loop.”

Those in the meeting also included three Republicans who also haven’t said how they’ll vote on Kavanaugh: Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. All three then went into a meeting of all Republican senators in the Capitol.

The lawmakers huddled after testimony Thursday from Christine Blasey Ford, who alleged Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while in high school, and from Kavanaugh, who denied it.

Manchin didn’t specify what concerns the lawmakers had. He called both Ford and Kavanaugh credible.

Republicans have a 51-49 majority in the Senate. Manchin is one of the Democratic senators running for re-election in a state where Trump won by a wide margin.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steven T. Dennis in Washington at sdennis17@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum

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