The ugly partisan brawl over U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation remains undecided, but President Donald Trump appears likely to come out on top regardless of the outcome.
If Kavanaugh is confirmed by the Senate in a vote planned for Saturday, Trump will have succeeded in placing his second justice on the top U.S. court and fulfilled his pledge to solidify its conservative majority.
But even if Kavanaugh is rejected, the battle to save his nomination in the face of sexual misconduct allegations has jolted a slumbering Republican base to life just ahead of the Nov. 6 elections, political strategists and new polls suggest.