WASHINGTON, DC – Brett Kavanaugh became the 114t
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The vote came in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday, less than 30 hours after the Senate invoked cloture late Friday morning to end an attempted filibuster by Senate Democrats and one Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). Senators invoked cloture by a vote of of 51-49, thanks to the “nuclear option” first engineered by Democrats under former Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) in 2013, lowering the threshold from 60 to 51 for presidential nominations.
Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) was in his home state during the final vote, walking his daughter down the aisle at her wedding. Daines was willing to take a private jet immediately back to Washington if necessary to cast the deciding vote, but Murkowski – the only Republican to oppose Kavanaugh – agreed to vote “Present” instead of “No” on the final vote, to neutralize the effect of Daines’ absence and keep the two-vote margin for Kavanaugh’s confirmation.