Behind the scenes of Jeff Flake's decision to call for an FBI probe into Kavanaugh allegationsCBS News, Sep 28, 2018, 10:29 PM, Nancy Cordes, Grace Segers and Bo Erickson
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"I want to share one thing he said to me when I began my service here, which was: 'It is always appropriate to question another senator's policies, it is always appropriate to question another senator's priorities, but it is never appropriate to question another senator's motives,'" Coons said. "And there has been far too much of that that's happened in this process, in a way that will frankly make it very difficult for us to take off our partisan jerseys and at some point get back to the important work of finding solutions to the real challenges facing this country."
He said that after he gave his speech to the committee, Flake called him to the anteroom outside the hearing room to talk about his decision.
"He said, 'Look, I'm really having trouble with this. I think this hearing is tearing the country apart. What you're suggesting is perfectly reasonable. I think we ought to be trying to find a way to have a one-week pause,'" Coons recounted. He also said that Flake expressed some trepidation about proposing such a pause to allow the FBI to investigate the Kavanaugh allegations. "'I'm really concerned that folks on your side just want to run this out indefinitely and hold it open and hold it open and hold it open, and then it'll just lead to more, more, more," And, you know, I'm very concerned about how will this be handled? How will people talk about it?'" Coons said that he and Flake "had about a 5-minute intense and somewhat personal conversation" about the proposal.
Coons said Flake asked to speak to Feinstein. Eventually, it became a scrum where "virtually every member of the committee" gathered in the anteroom. Flake later told reporters he met with Democratic colleagues and asked them, "What would cause you to say we have a better process?"
After talking with several senators for awhile, Flake "sort of kicked everyone out," and he and Coons talked individually in the phone booth for around 15 minutes.
Soon afterward, Flake said he wanted to speak to FBI Director Christopher Wray. He ended up talking with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for what Coons estimated was about 10 minutes. Coons had left him alone for the conversation, but when he returned, Flake was no longer by himself.
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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeff-flake-brett-kavanaugh-fbi-probe-today-elevator-protest-chris-coons-2018-09-28/
