Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) sure made his "yes" dramatic. Even as he voted Friday to advance Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he unexpectedly called for a delay in the full Senate vote until after there's an FBI investigation. The only problem is, it's not clear just how much leverage Flake has.
After Thursday's riveting Senate hearing on sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh, Flake announced Friday his intention to vote yes on confirmation. But as the Senate Judiciary Committee prepared to vote to send his nomination to the full Senate, the Arizona senator had a sudden request: He said he would "only be comfortable" voting for the Supreme Court nominee on the Senate floor if there was first a week-long FBI probe into the sexual assault allegations. But since Flake still voted to move the nomination out of committee, there was no guarantee that this will actually come to fruition; no vote was actually taken on what Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) called a "gentlemen's and -women's agreement."
As NBC's Ken Dilanian points out, the Senate can't actually order the FBI to launch an investigation. Only the White House can do that, and it's completely up to President Trump whether he wants to honor Flake's request. After Friday's dramatic vote, President Trump simply said he's open to "whatever they think is necessary."
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Additionally, it's completely up to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) whether he wants to delay the vote or ignore Flake's request entirely. The key questions now are how many Republicans will stand with Flake and for how long. It looks like he has at least two other crucial Republicans behind him in Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), but it's unclear if anyone else will join them. And if McConnell tries to just roll ahead with the vote anyway, will Flake, Murkowski, and Collins blink?
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