Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court is poised for a vote Friday morning by the Senate Judiciary Committee vote.
The Republican-led committee began a crucial meeting to debate and then to vote on whether to advance the nomination to the full Senate — a day after nearly nine hours of emotional and at times wrenching testimony from the judge and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, on her allegation of sexual assault when they were teens.
Democrats, including senators Corey Booker, Kamala Harris and others, looking angry - refused to vote on the motion to set the vote for 1:30 pm. They along with Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island walked out of the meeting in protest.
With the committee closely split between 11 GOP members and 10 Democrats, if one Republican votes "no" or "present" on the recommendation, the nomination won't have the endorsement of the full committee.
But Kavanaugh could still get a full Senate confirmation by being referred out of the committee without a recommendation, as happened with now-Justice Clarence Thomas.
It's not clear at this point if all Republicans on the panel will vote to recommend the nomination. But it seems more certain after GOP Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake announced minutes before the meeting is set to begin that he will vote to confirm Kavanaugh.
"After hearing more than 30 hours of testimony from Judge Kavanaugh earlier this month, I was prepared to support his nomination based on his view of the law and his record as a judge," he said in a statement. "In fact, I commented at the time that had he been nominated in another era, he would have likely received 90+ votes."
One Republican committee member, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he's "optimistic" Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has the votes, but he did not express certainty.
Another, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., broke from the GOP's measured strategy to have prosecutor Rachel Mitchell ask the questions for them, and launched into a tense and indignant five minutes during the hearing on Thursday.
"This is the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics," said Graham, R-S.C. "I hope that the American people will see through this charade."
After the hearing, Graham told Fox News' Sean Hannity: “I am now more convinced than ever that he didn’t do it, that he’s the right guy to be on the court, and that Ms. Ford has got a problem and destroying Judge Kavanaugh’s life won’t fix her problem.”
Shortly after Thursday's hearing ended, several Senate moderates — the key votes in the Kavanaugh nomination — met privately in the Capitol.
In the huddle was one Republican member of the Judiciary Committee — Flake along with Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. Sources told ABC News that all four members left the conversation still undecided.
All eyes are now on those other key swing votes, including Manchin, who remained undecided as of Friday morning.
Sen. McConnell, when asked if he had the votes to put Kavanaugh on the high court, declined to answer, instead telling reporters on Capitol Hill, "You guys don’t need to follow me. That’s all I’m going to say."
Friday's vote will come hours after the American Bar Association, which had earlier given Kavanaugh its highest rating of "well-qualified" for the Supreme Court, sent a letter to the Judiciary Committee calling for the FBI to reopen the background check.
"The American Bar Association urges the United States Senate Judiciary Committee (and, as appropriate, the full Senate) to conduct a confirmation vote on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States only after an appropriate background check into the allegations made by Professor Ford and others is completed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation," ABA president Robert Carlson wrote.
The White House is hopeful that Republicans will deliver for the president.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America" Friday, "I certainly hope so, and I certainly think so."
Ford, a California university professor, told a captivated dais of lawmakers at Thursday's hearing that she is "100 percent" certain her assailant was Kavanaugh.
Asked what is her strongest memory of the incident, she said, "Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter."
"The uproarious laughter between the two. And their having fun at my expense ... They were laughing with each other," she said.
Mere hours later, Kavanaugh, sitting in the same seat before the Judiciary Committee, categorically denied the allegation and angrily accused Democrats of smearing his "good name."
"This is a circus," he said. "This grotesque, character assassination will dissuade confident and good people of all political persuasions from serving our country, and as we all know in the political system of the early 2000s, what goes around comes around," Kavanaugh said.
President Donald Trump urged Republicans to head to a vote minutes after the hearing wrapped.
Barring any last-minute developments, Kavanaugh is expected to receive a final Senate floor vote by Tuesday.
ABC News' Trish Turner and Ali Rogin contributed to this report.
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