stopped or even slowed down. that announcement came as a blow to flake s closest friend on the judiciary committee who learned it from a news reporter. saying that reporters broke the news to senator chris coons about jeff flake s vote in the hallway as senator coons walked into the hearing. coons said, oh, f, then choked up. we each make choices for our own reason, i m struggling, sorry. he was choked up. so delaware senator chris coons entered the hearing room choked up and struggling and sorry that his friends decision made the confirmation decision a done deal. but chris coons did not know and the reporters in the hearing room did not know that five minutes after jeff flake announced his decision, he left his office and he got onto a senator s-only elevator, headed to the hearing room and after a
more uncertainty there than mcconnell was letting on. his comments were to deflate the energy and activism like the two young women, but democracy had its way today. and lisa, we have reporting tonight that at a certain point the senators in the back room there, which included john cornyn and at one point senator tillis, because those situations only involve those people who think they can influence a senator, which it was interesting to watch senator grassly give up and orrin hatch and lindsey graham give up and have nothing to do with it. but in that negotiation there was a certain point in which they decided to call director wray to ask him how much they could accomplish in a week, and
when someone s really listening. the professionals in the senate always keep an eye or both eyes on the reaction of the undecided senators or an undecided senator, if there is one, a wavering senator. so let s now watch what happened in the committee this morning, the way the professionals do. this is not the way you ve ever watched this before. let s watch today s history in the senate being made in jeff flake s mind as he listens and thinks about and is moved by what his friend, chris coons, is actually saying. i know since the day that my democratic colleagues and i learned of these allegations we ve had one consistent request, to allow the fbi to investigate them, in a nonpartisan, professional, even handed manner and deliver their findings to us so that we could reach a conclusion. to my colleagues across the
investigation, limited in time and scope to the current allegations that are there. and limit in time to no more than one week. and i will vote to advance the bill to the floor with that understanding. and so tonight the train has stopped and the fbi is investigating brett kavanaugh again. after jeff flake and the rest of the republicans on the committee voted to send brett kavanaugh s nomination to the senate floor, jeff flake created a mini republican stampede for an fbi investigation. senator susan collins and lisa murkowski quickly tweeted they too wanted an fbi investigation. and then mitch mcconnell knew the deal was completely undone. and not long after that the president who has the unique power to do so, ordered the fbi investigation. when chris coons left the hearing room today, he got a bit emotional talking about what his friend, jeff flake, did today.
embraced a philosophy that changing having a revolution in someone s heart can change their destiny, can change our country. and i think we witnessed the power of dialogue and the power of changing someone s heart today. and the second thing is i have been holding out hope that senator flake would do the right thing. i worked with him some when i was lobbying the side on the aclu, and he took brave action then. he was punish bide his party for doing so, and i believe in my heart that he still had the ability in his heart the ability to take courageous action. i think he s wrong on the standard of proof for brett kavanaugh, but today he took the right action and i applaud that with every fiber of my being. the turn clearly began on that elevator. that was five minutes after jeff flake made the announcement how he s voting and as the senate staffers know, the announcement how you re going to vote in a highly contentious atmosphere is