Sen. Coons: 'We Are Not Going To' Drag Brett Kavanaugh Investigation To Election
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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A Democratic senator says his party will not drag out the investigation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to the election.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, told CBS3 it was an "important bipartisan breakthrough" when the Senate Judiciary Committee called on President Donald Trump to open an FBI investigation into the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh. Trump is now directing the FBI to launch the investigation, but it "must be limited in scope" and "completed in less than one week."
"There's genuine concern on the part of my Republican friends that my party might use this to drag this out indefinitely, to try and drag it out to the election. We are not going to do that, we're going to agree to a one-week short iteration, short in scope investigation," said Coons.
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Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified before the Judiciary Committee on Thursday about how Kavanaugh allegedly sexually assaulted her at a party in 1982.
"We also felt, like many of us felt, when Dr. Ford came forward to the committee yesterday her testimony was compelling and credible. This creates a window of opportunity for the allegations against Judge Kavanaugh to be investigated and possibly cleared and for the allegations that Dr. Ford made to be investigated and possibly confirmed. I think this was an important bipartisan breakthrough," said Coons.
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Drama unfolded on Capitol Hill after Sen. Jeff Flake called for the committee to open an FBI investigation into the alleged assaults and delay the vote for one week. This came after Flake said he would vote yes on Kavanaugh's confirmation.
"I think this was an important opportunity for members, both Democrat and Republican, of the committee to show some confidence in each other, that we can take a breath, take a step back and ask the FBI, an independent, non-partisan federal law enforcement agency, to investigate these allegations and get a report back to us," explained Coons.
Kavanaugh has adamantly denied the allegations. He said in a statement he "will continue to cooperate."