Breaking: Republicans schedule vote for Kavanaugh confirmation - and Democrats are outraged

Republicans have scheduled the vote for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation for Friday morning at 9:30 a.m. — just one day after his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, is set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Democrats are outraged

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who first forwarded the letter of accusation against Kavanaugh to the FBI, expressed outrage at the scheduling of the vote.

"For Republicans to schedule a Friday vote on Brett Kavanaugh today, two days before Dr. Blasey Ford has had a chance to tell her story," Feinstein said in a statement, "is outrageous."

"First Republicans demanded Dr. Blasey Ford testify immediately. Now Republicans don't even need to hear her before they move ahead with a vote," she continued. "It's clear to me that Republicans don't want this to be a fair process."

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) tweeted that scheduling the vote on Friday was a "sham."

"Republicans just announced a committee vote on Kavanaugh at 9:30 AM on Friday," Harris tweeted, "less than 20 hours after Thursday’s hearing ends."

"This means little to no chance for the American people to contact them and weigh in," she concluded. "This is a sham."

'If we aren’t ready, we won’t.'

Grassley indicated from his social media account that he was merely following rules about scheduling the vote, but that it was subject to change after Ford's testimony.

"[Judiciary Committee] noticed POTENTIAL [executive meeting] for Friday. Still taking this [one] step at a time," he tweeted.

"After [hearing] Dr Ford & Judge Kavanaugh’s testimony- if we‘re ready to vote, we will vote," he added. "If we aren’t ready, we won’t."

"[Committee] rules normally require 3 days notice so we‘re following regular order," he explained.

Grassley had already denied Tuesday a demand from Feinstein that the testimony from Ford be delayed in order to pursue other allegations from a second accuser that was published in The New Yorker.

Here are the latest developments in the Kavanaugh controversy: