*By Carlo Versano*
The FBI will likely conclude its investigation into sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Wednesday night and issue a report to Senators on Thursday, sources told Cheddar's J.D. Durkin.
Investigators are under extreme pressure from Republicans to deliver a report in time for a Friday vote, a deadline Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has demanded.
CNN reported late Tuesday that the FBI has actually widened the scope of its investigation, adding a specific party from Kavanaugh's calendar to its inquiry.
Sen. Angus King (I-ME) told Cheddar Wednesday that, even if Kavanuagh is confirmed to the high court, the nominee has revealed himself to be so partisan that it will be difficult for the judge to impartially decide certain cases. King alluded to a portion of Kavanaugh's testimony in which he blamed the allegations against him on a Democratic witch hunt. The Senator called that moment "very disturbing."
"I don't see how he can sit on a case involving partisan gerrymandering, for example," King said.
Meanwhile, President Trump shed all his prior restraint on the topic of Kavanaugh's first accuser, Prof. Christine Blasey Ford. Days after saying he found her to be a "credible witness" and a "very fine woman, he mocked and questioned Ford's testimony at a rally in Mississippi on Tuesday night to roaring applause from the audience. Earlier in the day, Trump also expressed concern that the #MeToo movement had made it "a very scary time for young men in America."
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), a key swing vote in the Kavanaugh confirmation process, told NBC's "Today" show he found Trump's comments "kind of appalling."
This morning on Cheddar Big News: President Trump says a pardon is "not off the table" for his former campaign chairman Paul Mananfort; families of victims of the Santa Fe, Tex. school shooting sue the parents of the gunman; and highlights from the National Tree Lighting in Washington, D.C.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018.
Committees in the New Jersey state Senate and Assembly may have both approved a bill that would legalize recreational marijuana in the state, but the bill's success isn't certain, said Politico New Jersey Reporter Sam Sutton.
Facebook has failed to properly address its “black people problem,” a former employee told Cheddar Wednesday. Earlier this month, former partnerships manager Mark Luckie sent a searing memo criticizing the company’s lack of racial diversity to Facebook employees shortly before he left his post. He recently published the memo, which quickly went viral.
TOMS Founder Blake Mycoskie told Cheddar in an interview he decided after the recent shooting in Thousand Oaks, Calif., near his home, that it was incumbent on businesses to act where lawmakers could not.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell addressed a luncheon Tuesday with a tone that suggested interest rate hikes may slow. Investors loved what they heard, and markets soared in the wake of Powell's remarks.
Venezuela, once a vibrant economy with some of the richest oil reserves in the world, is now in economic crisis. Brian Price, executive producer of a new documentary "Venezuela: State of Disaster," explores how a country with so much promise devolved into utter economic disaster, where hospital patients are now told to "bring their own lightbulbs" to surgery so the doctor can see.
After General Motors announced it will be closing several plants and reducing its workforce significantly, there was bipartisan criticism from Americans and Congress. Democrat Debbie Dingell, a representative from a small suburb of Detroit, told Cheddar that she was backing out of her support for President Trump's trade policies if they meant GM jobs would be going to Mexico.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday, Nov. 28. 2018.
Columbus, Ohio, may not have won the bid for Amazon's HQ2, but the city isn't ready to retire its proposal quite yet. Mayor Andrew Ginther said the city's leaders plan to use their application as a road map to transform Columbus from a Midwestern destination into a national one.
