Celebrities joined in with hundreds of other protesters engaged in a last-ditch effort to derail the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court Thursday – as his fate hangs in the balance and will be determined by four
swing senators.
The cheers and shouts of protesters could be heard on the steps of the U.S. Capitol from crowd gathered at the Supreme Court across the street from the Capitol, and they even got into the Hart Building, one of the Senate’s satellite offices.
With Republicans pushing ahead on a key procedural vote as senators got their first glimpse at new FBI background documents, comedian Amy Schumer and model Emily Ratajskowki were among those arrested.
Hundreds streamed into the Hart Senate Office Building, where senators and staff couldn’t help but hear the noise and see people gathered on the ground floor. Capitol Police arrested 302 people.
The protests were focused on the swing votes: Republicans Jeff Flake (Arizona), Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and red state Democrat Joe Manchin (West Virginia). The day had begun with one extra swing vote, Democrat Heidi Heitkamp, but she announced she would vote ‘no’, whittling the number of publicly undecided senators to just four.
As hundreds were taken away in quick cuffs and security was stepped up, model Ratajowski and comedian Schumer – whose cousin is Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer – were among those taken into custody.
‘Today I was arrested protesting the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, a man who has been accused by multiple women of sexual assault,’ Ratajskowki wrote. She and Schumer became friends when they appeared alongside each other in the film I Feel Pretty.
