Before Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) voted to advance Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in a procedural vote Friday morning, he had a discussion with a friend on the other side of the aisle, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE).
“We had a positive and I think constructive conversation. He gave me an opportunity to make a few points I was eager to make,” Coons told reporters in the Capitol before the vote. “We spoke about our remaining concerns.”
Flake also spoke with Coons last week before demanding an additional FBI background investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh and delaying the vote for a week.
Since then, people have been contacting Coons in the hopes that he will pass on their message to Flake, according to Coons.
Ultimately, Flake voted to advance Kavanaugh and said he plans to support his confirmation to the Supreme Court in the final vote.
Before the vote, Coons acknowledged that even though Flake was engaged in discussions with Democrats on Kavanaugh and the accusations about his past conduct going into the vote, he still came into the process as a conservative.
“Look, Sen. Flake is a conservative. He wants a conservative Supreme Court. He would support a conservative nominee. I am not,” Coons said. “We came into this week with different views on the Supreme Court.”
