Good Thursday morning, I'm Anna Palmer, and welcome to your Politico Playbook audio briefing, sponsored by pharma.

And I'm Jake Sherman. Some breaking news this morning. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said at 4.7 a.m.

that he has received the FBI report for Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Here's where things stand.

Late last night around 10 p.m., Mitch McConnell filed cloture on the Kavanaugh nomination, which sets up a vote on Friday morning sometime around 1030. If

McConnell can muscle the votes, which will be clear in the next 12 or so hours, that will set

up a vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation 30 hours later, which will be sometime around 5 p.m.

on Saturday evening. Here's how the president

views the Kavanaugh situation. He tweeted at 10.23 p.m. Wow. Such enthusiasm and energy for

Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Look at the energy. Look at the polls. Something very big is happening.

He is a fine man and a great intellect. The country is with him all the way.

Today, reporters are going to stake out the room where senators are reading the report.

As each Republican senator exits, they'll be asked about the contents of the FBI memo and whether it's going to affect their vote.

This will likely go on all day. Of course, the question is whether Jeff Flake, Susan Collins,

and Lisa Murkowski vote yes. Absent some major development in the FBI report, it's expected that

Republicans could pick up someone like Joe Manchin. Our colleague John Bresnahan writes on

Manchin that it sounds like he's leaning yes. He doesn't want to be the 50th vote,

Breznihan writes, but it seems clear like he would be

okay being the 51st or 52nd barring any new developments. Most Democrats are going to sharply

criticize this investigation, perhaps even dismiss it since it did not include an interview with Ford.

This Congress has been completely unrelenting and will continue to be so. Kavanaugh will bleed right

into the height of campaign season, which will bleed until Election Day, which will go straight into the aftermath of

the election, which will go right into leadership elections, which will go right into Thanksgiving,

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