Flake says he's been speaking to a number of Democrats about "making sure we do due diligence here."
Breaking: Flake says he wants to delay the floor vote on Kavanaugh for up to a week to allow for an FBI investigation.
Flake says he IS going to vote to advance Kavanaugh's nomination, but on the "understanding" that there'll be a delay to do an FBI investigation. There is some confusion.
Democratic Sen. Coons thanks Flake. Says he hopes they can all work on a bipartisan basis on an FBI investigation into allegations made "by Dr. Ford and others."
Leahy says this is somewhat unprecedented. He is now trying to figure out what is happening -- trying to make sure there'll be no full-Senate vote until there's an investigation.
Flake talks again. He says he's willing to advance the nomination out of committee (as he just did), but he won't be "comfortable" voting for Kavanaugh's confirmation, in the final Senate vote, until there's additional FBI investigation.
Flake: Dems are "justifiably uncomfortable" moving ahead; to bring the country together - and he doesn't expect them to vote yes in the end - it'd be better if they could all say an FBI investigation had been conducted. "A short pause."
The committee did not hold any kind of official vote to recommend an FBI investigation. This was Flake telling Republican leaders, you don't have my vote until there's an investigation that lasts a maximum of one week.
Any individual Republican senator has a lot of power in the 51-49 Senate. Flake might have given some of his colleagues some space to make the same demand for brief delay. This could go a bunch of different ways from here.
Asked if Republicans should honour Flake's demand, Lindsey Graham says, "Last time I looked, you need 50 votes." He adds: "Somebody's gotta explain this to Trump. I guess that'll be my job."
Graham, who was belligerently pro-Kavanaugh yesterday, is not criticizing Flake's delay demand today. Says he's "just trying to make sure the process is fair."
"It's called democracy. He talked to his colleagues...Jeff's a really good guy...Jeff is trying to be fair," he says.
"It's called democracy. He talked to his colleagues...Jeff's a really good guy...Jeff is trying to be fair," he says.
"This is Jeff Flake. This is what I actually like about the guy," Lindsey Graham says. "Being very sincere...trying to get some Democrats to buy in. Will a week matter? Some of them said it would..."
Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly said this morning that he was voting no to the confirmation largely because of the absence of an FBI investigation.
