Inside the Senate chambers Friday, lawmakers gathered to consider Brett Kavanaugh's controversial nomination to Supreme Court. There, the federal judge earned just enough votes to advance to a final vote on his confirmation, with one Democrat and one Republican breaking with their party leadership.

Outside those chambers, meanwhile, a much louder kind of drama has been unfolding.

Just a day after an hours-long demonstration ended in hundreds of arrests , protesters have descended once more on Capitol Hill. Barricades have been erected around the Capitol building, but that's done little to dissuade some determined demonstrators from hefting signs and raising their voices against Kavanaugh's bid to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Kavanaugh's confirmation would likely swing the court rightward in its judicial leanings — but that's not what protesters have been most concerned with Friday. They're focused on the sexual misconduct allegations against Kavanaugh dating back to the 1980s.

In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, the federal appeals court judge flatly denied Christine Blasey Ford's assertion that he sexually assaulted her while they were both in high school.

The FBI investigated the allegation in a limited, confidential inquiry released to senators Thursday. Republicans said it offered no corroboration of Ford's claim and said Kavanaugh had been thoroughly vetted. Democrats, for their part, decried the probe as woefully narrow in scope .

Many of the demonstrators around Capitol Hill are not satisfied either, and they got an early start Friday explaining why.

"These are credible allegations. And when he was responding to them [during his testimony last week], he still has to behave — and should behave — with the comportment of an officer of the court and someone who can be respectful," Rachel Cella, an attorney who flew in from Alaska, told NPR. "And that's not we saw from him. I would be troubled to have to appear before him as an advocate."

Cella had joined one of many small, scattered groups of demonstrators who had assembled outside the Supreme Court building just before the Senate cloture vote on Friday morning. While their numbers were dwarfed by the rally the day before — in which thousands showed up to march and lobby their senators personally — Cella said their determination remained steady.

Few of those lawmakers have held more importance than Cella's own senator, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski. The moderate Republican put forward a surprise "no" vote on cloture for Kavanaugh on Friday, moving to block his advance just a day after dozens of Alaskan voters flowed into her office to speak with her.

More than 100 Alaskan women had made the trip in hopes they could sway such a pivotal vote. And it may have made a difference: The senator told NBC News she did not make her final decision "until walking into the floor this morning."

"It's a long journey. It's uncomfortable. Red eye flights are not fun. But you know what, it's worth it," Cella said. "We're all here. We're all in the same boat. We all did this."

Not all the demonstrators have lodged protests against Kavanaugh.

Some gathered to show their support for Trump's nominee, as Caroline Simon reports for USA Today . She says about a dozen donned shirts reading "I stand with Brett" and "Women for Kavanaugh," and stood outside the office of Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Others donned red "Make America Great Again" caps and sought to counter the anti-Kavanaugh demonstrators with chants of their own.

The halls of the Senate office building played host to some of the most tense eruptions of protests, though, including one outside the office of Arizona GOP Sen. Jeff Flake. Long seen as a crucial swing vote on Kavanaugh's nomination, Flake proved pivotal in obtaining the FBI investigation — but on Friday, he followed his party's leadership in voting for cloture.

That did not sit well with protesters, who quickly massed outside his office door. Even as police officers ushered members of the media away, the demonstrators' chants of "I believe survivors" echoed down the hallway.

Despite Flake's affirmative cloture vote, he could still potentially vote against Kavanaugh in the final vote. So the fate of Kavanaugh's confirmation appears to come down to which way Flake and Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, will lean in their final decision. Both Manchin and Collins voted to advance the nomination, though they have yet to announce their final vote.

But as that decisive moment looms, one thing remains consistent from demonstrators on both sides of the chasm that divides Kavanaugh's supporters from his detractors.

As one protester from Denver put it: "We're here to hold them accountable."

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