captioning sponsored by cbs >> it's sunday october 7. i'm john dickerson and this is "face the nation." the fight over judge kavanaugh's confirmation to the supreme court is finally over but the angry atmosphere both outside and inside the capitol -- >> i'm left with anger, fury, disgust. >> it's been cruel, reckless and indecent both to dr. ford and judge kavanaugh. >> has gone from bad to worse. and now with only a month left before the midterm elections, both parties are energized. >> he and his wonderful family

at the hand of democrats is unthinkable. in their quest for power the radical democrats have turned into an angry mob. >> main republican susan collins tells us >> she voted for kavanaugh despite intense pressure to owe -- oppose him and we'll ask senate majority leader mitch mcconnell why he think republicans will benefit from the kavanaugh fight and have plenty of political analysis just ahead on "face the nation." >> good morning and welcome to "face the nation." the battle that's divided the country and in particular washington, d.c. is over in one of the closest supreme court

votes in history, judge brett kavanaugh has been confirmed and is now justice brett kavanaugh. he was privately sworn in yesterday and is now the 114th supreme court justice giving the conservatives a 5-4 majority. we begin with susan collins who made a dramatic 45 minute speech outlining her decision to vote for judge kavanaugh. welcome, senator. >> thank you, john. you were one of the senators who backed the fbi inquiry and said it was thorough, but dr. ford's lawyers said none of the people they put forward were interviewed. they said there is corroborating evidence and nobody wanted to see it. >> it was a thorough investigation. keep in mind there's already been six fbi background

investigat investigations an brett kavanaugh and i with others insisted there be a supplemental fbi investigation to look these allegations because they were so serious. there was a lot of -- there were a lot of rumors that only the four people that dr. ford mentioned in her testimony would be interviewed. that was note case. i read 12 different interviews on thursday. >> you have said you found her testimony believable in the sense that something happened to her. so is it your view something happened to her just it wasn't judge kavanaugh and if that's your view, do you have corroborating evidence for that? >> i am convinced that dr. ford believes what she told us and that she was a assault and that that has been a trauma that

has st life but we have a presumption of innocence in this country and when i looked at the lack of corroborating evidence including no evidence from her very best friend who was present at the party, i could not conclude that brett kavanaugh was her assailant. >> corroboration doesn't mean eyewitness. the fact she told her husband and therapist long ago should have been part of the evidence and inquiry and since it wasn't it wasn't looking into the nature of sexual assault. >> she had the opportunity to have further interviews with the staff investigators of the judiciar served or

st well.>>d 12tervie it reported there were nine but it was 12? >> there was one person who had two different interviews and -- i can't go into what was in those because it's classified but suffice to say the witnesses dr. ford made said they had no recollection of anything like that nor did anybody come forward afterwards to say i was there or did anyone call and say i was the one who picked you up and drove you home. >> democrats keyed on what they saw as a discrepancy between the reports. did you find distance between the two? >> i think judge kavanaugh drank too much in high school but the

background investigation said the fbi question of did you drink, did the nominee drink to excess or use drugs, that is a standard question. that's asked each and every time. and 150 people were interviewed for those background investigations and none of them brought forth evidence to support that. >> the democrats said that the drinking didn't impair his ability but you felt he was truthful? >> the question he was asked was -- and it's clearly drank in high school and the important question was was he a black-out drunk. and he said that was not the case and the testimony that we

had and the interviews did not support that contention. >> let me ask you about the ckoski she said when accused hea went to the most dire framing of what was happening to him >> i thought judge kavanaugh's denial and his anger and anguish was powerful. i think they're understandable given he's been accused of being involved in gang rape of women. that's a devastating allegation. so i think it was understandable that he was reacting as a human being, as a father of two young girls, but i will say they thought his questioning with the questions with the senator said he went over the line and i was

glad he apologized. >> what senator mckowski keyed on was it was a democrat witch hunt is am -- going to the job history. >> when he was nominated in 2004. his nomination was delayed for two years by the democrats. he had very hostile hearings in 2004 and 2006 when he was confirmed for the court and yet, that did not affect his performance as a judge for 12 years on the d.c. circuit. 500 people were interviewed about his temperament and did he treat all litigants with respect. to a person they said he did.

>> senator mckowski said the testimony on that thursday will change the way in which people have confidence in the court. in other words, by elevating him to the court brings partisanship to the court and will make the court more so just by the nature of the way he testified. >> well, i'm very concerned about the court in general already because we have too many 5-4 decisions i don't like the idea of a liberal or conservative block. i want judge who's apply the law to the constitution of the case. i have reviewed judge kavanaugh's 12 years on the circuit court that he will do

that. >> and given that dr. ford may be mistaken in her attacker they're sail -- saying you're denying her experience. >> when i hear that it causes me huge pain because i have met with so many survivors of sexual attacks including close friends and these women have the right to be heard. they have the right to be treated with respect. i think one of the tragedies is christine blasey ford wanted her allegations treated confidentially. she did not seek the limelight or want to testify in public.ho has been turned upside-down. i think that was wrong and despicable. the one silver lining i hope

will come from this is that more women will press charges now when they are assaulted. >> the reason women said they don't come and report is because people don't believe them and poke holes in their story and the reason they don't remember certain details, which we know from brain science, happens in some assaults. all that was used against dr. ford. so after this process in which the holes in her story were viewed, even by the president, it will make it harder to come forward because they'll say people don't believe me like they didn't believe her. >> i don't think that's the case because i think it's been an awakening for this country. i don't think most of us had any idea how pervasive the problem of sexual assault is. sexual harassment, yes, we knew that. but sexual assault and where the

me-too movement has been important and why it's so important some of these women -- for the first time ever, have come forward. it's important we treat people fairly and that's what we need to do. >> do you think democrats were working in good faith to try and find out what really happened? >> well, i can't help but think that there were some who wanted to use dr. ford and that really saddens me because otherwise they would have gone with her best wishes which is to have been interviewed in private. to have kept her allegations confidential. they still could have been thoroughly explored and i think that's really shameful. io t think the system treated her well. >> all right, senator collins,

thank you for being here. >> thank you, john. >> one democratic senator face tough re-election in a state president trump won by 35 percentage points is heidi heitkamp who voted against kavanaugh. she spoke with cbs news' scott pelley. >> the senators who decide to vote in favor of judge kavanaugh's nomination seem to believe he was wrongfullyfully accused. >> >> everybody's going to make their own judgment and my judgment on her experience is based on a lot of experience working with domestic assault victims and experience as an attorney general and having come to the senate as people have described their experience. to me it doesn't appear he's somebody who be given a li n theorld.the most

n your republican colleagues say we believe dr. ford was sincere too but without corroboration you just can't ruin this man's career to that you say what? >> even if you believe or don't believe dr. ford, the other issue is one of temperament and being impartial and that adds to the case that a no vote is the appropriate vote. >> at this moment about four weeks before the election you are running behind your republican challenger in north dakota. a political consultant would have told you voting for kavanaugh would have been better for you. >> i don't think there's any doubt about that. i think the politically

expedient vote was a yes vote. >> there's be more with the interview and more with susan collins on tonight's "60 minutes" after football and we'll be back in one minute with mish mcconnell. and the car has become an accessory to the smartphone. ride hailing, car sharing n can the first place. cities, businesses and investors.

♪ >> we go now to senate republican leader mitch mcconnell from louisville, kentucky. you said i want to thank the mob because they did the one thing we were having trouble, that is our base. who is the mob? >> the people attacking the people -- members in the halls. it was quite a display of aggressiveness far from what i consider peaceful protest. they were trying to intimidate members of the senate not only in our home state but actually in the capitol and at our homes here in washington and i'm proud

of members for not going to the mob-like tactics. >> is it possible for a senator have voted against judge kavanaugh in good conscience? >> i'm not going to question the motivation of the senators' votes. it was a close vote, an important vote. i think we were able to establish the presumption of innocence is still important in this country and the senate will not be intimidated by these kinds of tactic. >> president trump said senator lisa mckowski is never going recover. should she be punished for voting against judge kavanaugh. >> i'd rather talk about the success we had. senator mckowski is a member in good standing. we're happy we won. i'm sorry we lost her but we got the vote of all the other members of our conference and those who wanted the additional fbi investigation for a week took a look at the report and

found no corroborating evidence and were confident to vote for judge kavanaugh. senator collins' speech was one of the most consequential and outstanding speeches i've ever heard in the senate in support of judge kavanaugh. >> let me ask you this, joe manchin voted against him. >> he's a democrat and we appreciate his vote for judge kavanaugh. i think it was the right thing to do but we're trying to win seats and ironically the behavior of the democrats on the senate judiciary committee and then the overreach of the protesters at the capitol actually energy -- gave energy to the seats where we're trying to pick up states. i want to thank them for the

tactic energized our voters. >> why after reducing regulations and passing a tax cut bill was the republican base not energized and required this? >> we're still talk about the issues but everybody knows how energized the republican side is for a variety of different reasons and so our energy and enthusiasm was lagging behind theirs until this. and i think this gave us the motivation and the opportunity to have the kind of turn out that would help us hold the senate. >> let me ask about peaceful legislation. everybody's been more aware now of sexualul for investigating sexual assault na it passed with bipartisan support but stal. is there going to be action now? >> i hope so. we have democrats negotiating

our differences between the house and senate and know it will get done by the end of the year. we're negotiating a solution between the house and senate and i expect we'll get a result here before the end of this congress. it's also important to under score in spite over taxes there's been bipartisan cooperation. we passed two bills just last week in the middle of the kavanaugh dispute on opioids and f.a.a. and 'vpropriat bettea bipartisan better than any time since the 1990s. so the notion the senate is broken is inaccurat >> this is of a different order. democrats are pointing not only the way this was handled but in the history of partisanship in the supreme court the decision

to block m. garland has kicked off a new stage in the partisanship. >> you have to go back to 1880 the senate controlled a different party from the senate in the middle of a presidential election and forgot joe biden said when he was chairman of the judiciary committee democrats controlled the senate, republicans in the house if a vacancy occurred they wouldn't fill it and if a supreme court vacancy occurred it. >> in 1956 the congress was democrat control and joe biden was talking in the abstract. there was no nominee and no nominee was blocked and said to

not have the nomination come up before the election but cold -- could come up after and democrats said he's creating new rules to do what he rants t-- wants to do and you wrote when you do that it hurts democracy. >> that's not what happened, john. you're misconstruing what happened. i know the history of this and i spent time on this throughout my career. what i did was entirely confident with what the history of the senate's been and that situation going back to 1880. >> i think the 1956 example and in 1968 later in the election cycle when a democratic president put somebody forward the republican leader worked with him to get that person a hearing and towards the supreme court which is not something that you did. a vote -- >> then it was a democrat in the white house and democratic senate. >> but the republican leader at the time tried to --

>> john, you're not listening to me. the history is exactly as i told you. >> well, we have a disagreement with the history but i appreciate you being with us today, mr. leader, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> in editorial note we reached out to some 20 democratic senators to come on the broadcast today but obviously were unsuccessful. we'll be right back with more "face the nation" in a moment. when the old hospital closed people in the community lived with untreated health problems for years. so, with the county's help we built a new hospitaloinvt with citi's help we built a wonderful maternity ward and we were able to purchase an mri machine.

we've made it possible for the people who live here to lead healthier lives and that's invaluable. ♪ not long ago, ronda started here. and then, more jobs began to appear.

these techs in a lab. this builder in a hardhat... ...the welders and electricians who do all of that. the diner staffed up 'cause they all needed lunch. teachers... doctors... jobs grew a bunch. what started with one job spread all around. because each job in energy creates many more in this town. energy lives here. >> a programming note, we'll go on the road tuesday to arizona and interviewing the two candidates locked in a tight race to replace the retiring republican jeff flake. according to our battleground tracker, over martha mcsally within the margin of error. that's tuesday on the cbs evening news.

>> we'll be right back with more "face the nation" and a political panel and the author of a new book, "the apprentice." stay with us.

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