BREAKING: Kavanaugh FINALLY voted out of committee after Flake drama

Onward to the floor! Following hours of deliberation, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee by a party-line vote of 11-10 Friday afternoon.

The vote came 25 minutes after the scheduled vote time of 1:30, after Jeff Flake spent that time in an adjacent room talking with committee Democrats. He eventually returned to say that he would vote the nomination to the floor, but would only be comfortable voting yes on final passage after giving the FBI a week to investigate the allegations against the nominee.

BREAKING: FLAKE says it would be "proper" to delay the floor vote for "up to but not more than 1 week" to give the FBI time to investigate claims for the sake of "due diligence."

Says he'll vote the bill to the floor on that condition.

— Nate Madden (@NateMaddenCRTV) September 28, 2018

The vote was along party lines with all members present. Even Sen. Cory Booker, R-N.J., came back to vote after walking out earlier.

Trump’s nominee will now proceed to the Senate floor. Procedural votes were expected to begin Saturday, which would have set Kavanaugh up for a final vote early next week. That may change based on whether or not the remaining undecided votes decide to join Flake in his demands and whether or not Majority Leader Mitch McConnell acquiesces to them.

Before the nomination of Neil Gorsuch in 2017, the average confirmation time — from initial announcement to final vote — was 67 days. Friday’s committee vote marks 81 days since Kavanaugh’s nomination was announced on July 9. A final vote one week from now would bring the total to 88 days.

#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px}

/* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block.

We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */