Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are about to learn what Jeff Flake is made of. If the FBI investigation is extended on Flakes demand, then it is possible that Trump will be forced to withdraw Kavanaugh's nomination without a vote in order to avoid serious damage to the GOP in the midterms:
Title: "How Jeff Flake Is Controlling the Kavanaugh Confirmation Process"
https://www.politicususa.com/2018/10/02/how-jeff-flake-is-controlling-the-kavanaugh-confirmation-process.htmlExtract: "Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona is now in charge of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court, and he knows it.
Flake knows that Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell need his vote in favor of Kavanaugh. He knows that if he votes “no” then Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski are likely to vote “no” also and Kavanaugh’s nomination will never be approved.
…
Due to Flake’s insistence, the White House made a big deal of announcing yesterday that the FBI was not to be limited in its investigation. The only restriction, according to Trump, is that he wanted it all done within one week.
And then yesterday, in an interview with John Heilemann from MSNBC, Flake once again asserted his power, implying that one week might not be long enough to get at the truth.
On Sunday night Flake was on the CBS show “60 Minutes” doing an interview along with his friend Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware.
Flake, along with Coons, made very clear that if Kavanaugh were found by the FBI to have lied under oath, it would be a disqualifier and his nomination would be “over.”
In the MSNBC interview Heilemann gave evidence to Flake that there were already many documented instances where Kavanaugh had lied to the Senate. He asked the senator what he thought about that, and Flake replied: “If that’s true, then that’s a problem.”
This means that if Flake is a man of his word, Kavanaugh’s approval by the Senate is in serious doubt even before the FBI concludes its work.
But what if the FBI has not concluded its work by the end of the week? According to the MSNBC analyst, Flake has left the door open to going back to Trump and McConnell and demanding more time.
An extension for the FBI would be a great thing for Democrats but could spell disaster for Republicans.
It would provide the following significant benefits for Kavanaugh opponents:
1. It would give the FBI more time it needs to document and substantiate all of the many allegations against Kavanaugh.
2. It would provide additional time for more people to step forward with more accusations of lying and sexual misconduct.
3. It would give more time to investigative journalists and the media to come up with additional scandals that would harm Kavanaugh.
4. It would give more time for the public to get derogatory information which would make it more likely to oppose the Kavanaugh nomination."