Did Cornyn just say that Flake is basically the reason why Dr. Ford appeared in person in the first place?
The meaningful deadline is having him seated for the October 1st start of the SCOTUS session. The moment that passes, the Dems will immediately start screeching that Kavanaugh would need to recuse himself from any cases argued before he was seated, so what's the hurry to confirm him this session, anyway? All in an effort to drag it out past the midterms.
The trouble is, breaking out of the Dem/Flake "1 week FBI investigation" frame will be an even higher hurdle for a red state Democrat than just voting for the nominee (which is already a tall order).
And if McConnell allows the process to run into next week, the Democrats' next talking point will be that Kavanaugh will have to recuse himself from cases argued before he is seated, so no need to confirm him for this session at all. And then, "why not let the people choose in November?"
The trouble with that idea is that it didn't win them anything. No Democrat voted any differently than they would have otherwise. The only thing Flake's pronouncements have done is cast his floor vote into doubt, and reinforce the Dem's "1 week FBI investigation" rhetorical framing which is likely to be persuasive enough with Democratic swing votes to win them the delay they are seeking.
There's no way to view this as a win, compared to Flake simply voting "Aye" like he was supposed to.