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Kavanaugh Still Standing After Senate Showdown

Kavanaugh Still Standing After Senate Showdown

(Bloomberg) --

Christine Blasey Ford’s Senate testimony that she’s “100 percent” certain Brett Kavanaugh was the person who attacked her at a 1982 house party hasn't shaken President Donald Trump’s support for his Supreme Court nominee, as Republicans press ahead with his confirmation.

The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to vote this morning, following a nearly nine-hour hearing yesterday that degenerated into bitter partisanship. Kavanaugh’s defiant, argumentative behavior before the panel contrasted with the soft-spoken and admittedly “terrified” Ford, whose account even some Republicans described as credible.

Trump called for the Senate to confirm Kavanaugh — who repeatedly denied ever committing sexual misconduct — as soon as the hearing concluded, echoing the nominee's accusation that Democrats were on a “search-and-destroy” mission. The full Senate could vote early next week.

Now Kavanaugh’s fate sits primarily with four undecided senators, who huddled privately last night. Democrats — bolstered by the American Bar Association — are urging delay, pending an FBI probe into the allegations by Ford and other women.

Regardless of the outcome, yesterday’s events seared into the American consciousness the gulf between women who’ve felt their misconduct claims have been minimized and conservative men aggrieved by a system they see as rigged against them.

Kavanaugh Still Standing After Senate Showdown

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Populism wins | Five Star and the League came out on top in their first big battle with the mainstream officials trying to put a brake on their spending ambitions in Italy. The populist coalition partners secured a 2019 deficit target of 2.4 percent yesterday after weeks of wrangling – three times the shortfall the previous administration projected. Italian bonds and stocks tanked.

Kavanaugh Still Standing After Senate Showdown

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Below, sunset on a farm in Australia, which is enduring a devastating drought. To see more photos from our Political Focus slideshow, click here, and to play this week’s quiz, here.

Kavanaugh Still Standing After Senate Showdown

And finally ... May’s attempt to leave New York quickly after her speech to the UN was sabotaged when the bus carrying some of her key staffers broke down en route to JFK airport. Separated from the official motorcade, and blocking two lanes of traffic, her aides had to suffer the indignity of her chief of staff taunting them on Twitter that the plane was about to leave without them. They were rescued by NYPD officers who rushed them to the runway — their reward was a chance to pose with a grateful prime minister.

Kavanaugh Still Standing After Senate Showdown

--With assistance from Brendan Scott, Stuart Biggs, Ben Sills and Robert Hutton.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net, Rosalind Mathieson

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