October 5, 2018

Susan Collins Will Vote to Confirm Brett Kavanaugh

The announcement should seal his confirmation to the Supreme Court.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

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Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Friday announced that she will vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, effectively sealing the deal for Kavanaugh to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. In a speech on the Senate floor, Collins said that she believed that Christine Blasey Ford had been a victim of sexual assault but thought her allegations against Kavanaugh lacked sufficient evidence, including corroborating witnesses, to be credible enough to disqualify the nominee.

“The presumption of innocence and fairness do bear on my thinking, and I cannot abandon them,” Collins said. 

The Maine senator also dismissed concerns that if confirmed, Kavanaugh would work to roll back the Affordable Care Act, reproductive rights, and same-sex marriage. She railed against Democrats for preemptively opposing President Donald Trump’s nominee before a name was officially announced.

Earlier on Friday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted against advancing Kavanaugh’s nomination in a key procedural vote. “I believe Brett Kavanaugh’s a good man,” Murkowski told reporters shortly after casting her vote. “It just may be that in my view he’s not the right man for the court at this time.” (Collins voted in favor of ending further debate on Kavanaugh’s nomination.) Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), widely seen as the third key swing vote, said that he would vote to confirm Kavanaugh barring “something big” coming up before Saturday’s final vote.

This is a breaking news post. We will update as more information becomes available.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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