>> a republican senator stunss arty and stalls the nomination of supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. i'm robert costa, welcome to "washington week"." >> i think it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to tt not moren one week to ask the f.b.i. to do tha investigation. it would be short and limited in scope. robert: a dramatic twist for supreme court nominee brettna kavah. republican senator jeff flake votes yes to advance the judge's nomination but it comes with a condition that shook washington in an instant. a call to delay the final confirmation vote one week to allow the f.b.i. to probe sexual assault nominations against kavanaugh. >> i wil only be comfortable moving on the floor until the f.b.i. has done more investigation than they have

already.st i undd that some of these witnesses may not want to discuss anything further. but i think we're --e o them due diligence. robert: the move comes one day avter bothaugh and his accuser, christine blasey ford testified before the senate judiciary committee. this whole two-week effort has been ait pal hit fueled with pent-up anger about president trump and the 2016 election, revenge on behalf of the clintons. >> i believe he was goi to rape me. i tried to yell for help. it was hard for me to breathe. and i thought that brett was accidentally going to kill me. robert: both this accused and the accuser noted the moment and it's cost. >> my family and my nam have been totally and permanently destroyed. >> my family and i have been the target of constant harassment and death threats.

and i've been called the most vial and hateful names imaginable. robert: we report on this historic week, next. announcer:his is "washington week"." funding is provided by -- newman's own foundation, donating a profits to charity. ku and patricia ewing committed to bridging culture differences in our cties. the excellence in journalism foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again from washington,r moderaobert costa. robert: good evening. an unexpected move by republican senator jeff flake has pumped the brakes on g.o.p. plans to

quickly confirm supreme court minee brett kavanaugh. the retiring lawmaker announced friday morning that hld w support kavanaugh's confirmation, but hours later, he said his vote to pass the nomination out of the senate judiciary committee a had caveat. if r hublicans wanted support on a final floor vote, the f.b.i. needed to further probe the sexual assault allegations facing kavanaugh including dr. christine blasey ford's allegation that he assaulted her while they were teenagers in the early 1980's. flake's decision effectively ended senate majority leader mitch mcconnell's plans of moving to a vote in the coming days as other senators signaled their support. and it came afirey thursday between kavanaugh and democratic senators. >> judge kavanaugh will you support an f.b.i. investigation right now? >> i will do whatever the committee wants to --

>> personally, dnk you t that's the best thing for us to do? you want to answer? robert: joining me tonight seung min kim of "the washington post." geoff bennett of the nbc news. mark landler of "new york times." molly ball of "time" magazine. seung min, thank you for joining what drove this decision by senator flake, a decision that surprised his colleagues, surprised the country? >> i think what was so stark today is just this rapid change of momentum for the nomination which revolved around senator flake. senator flake issued a statement that he wou take a yes. he had taken the night to digest this riveting testimony from dr.

ford and judge kavanaugh. he made it clear he had not me up his mind. he was showing so much skepticism about where heould land. he said whatever i decide and shatever we decide there's going to be much doubt as there is certainty. as when he issued that statement, i a little surprised that it was early. it wasti inter and we figure, wow, that gives us the extra momentum that kavanaugh needs to move forward with this nomination and advances out of the judiciary committee on this key committee vote. and then several other things happened. first, we saw that dramatic w confrontatioh two women who were loudly and tearfully telling him to stand with victims of sexual assault playing right onv. robert: let's take a look at that for a second. do we hehat video? >> nobody believes me! i didn't tell anyone, and you'rl g all women that they don't matter. that they should just stay quiet because if they tell you what

ppened to them, you're going to ignore them. ap that's whatned to me. and that's what you're telling all of the women in america! look at me. you're tling me that it doesn't mter. robert: intense as we've seen. an it was heart wrenching to watch. then senator flake made his way to the committee. as the debate went going on, he looked vuch as he did during the testimony yesterday, hereooked tor and pained. what was really remarkable, senator chris kunz. they go to the prayer breakfast together. they travel to africa together and in their respective roles. he had implored republicans to come along to at least figure out a middle way to at least get some sort of an f.b.i.st ination. at that moment, after he spoke, we expected senator flake to speak. it was his turn. but he didn't. he moved on to someone else.

he got u and walked over to senator kz and senator amy klobachar and gestured him to go to the back room. ads up, guys, those three went to the back. robert: something's happening. >> something seems to be happening. andea thisy -- and it was held just up in the air so much. like, we don't know what the were talking about. you know, senator kunz and senator klobachar come back. but senator flake doesn't come back. they're whispering. ey're talking to senator feinstein. all the aides are excitedly starting to chat. and we are like what is going on? this just went on for a while. 1:30 came whichas when the committee was supposed to vote. they weren't voting. there were only four senators of 21 senators. and all of a sudden flake came out and said what he did. robert: they wanted to forward with a vote.

geoff: i can tell you there's a sense of dread about what this week might hold. time, the passage of time has never been on the side of this confirmation. first, republicans wanted him seated in time for the october 1st start of the new supreme court term. heey wanted to have him confirmed beforeid terms. but there's this thought that the public perception of him could change negative over time. well, before's thursday's hearing there wer more ericans who did not support kavanaugh's nomination than did support him t according an nbc news "wall street journal" poll. there's this thought that there could be more accusers that come forward, there could be more people that call into question of the things that kavanaugh said in his hearing. according to president trump, he's still bullish. there's n people aroun him that he's spit balling other names as replacements. but it comes down to what happens between now and next iday. robert: mark was there at the

news conference where the republican called out democrats. >> it's a disgrace what's going n. the goods is the public is very smart and they get it. it's a con game. they're playing the con game. this is a con game. just a con game. robert: con gam in new york, yet, a different message on friday. s the white houms to say today, this nomination could be saved. let the senate door its >> extremely restrained response from president trump, noweets. when he was asked about it in the oval office thought he answered with extraordinary restraint in a week where he showed little restraint. early in the week when kavangh was robotic andem passioned, he clearly loved the anger and the defiance. i think hee relished partisan

tone that he took with the senators, the democratic senators. he tweeted, this is why iis nominated uy. but now in the wake of this last 11th hour switc i think the white house's calculation is, we don't want to upset this process. maybe we're pretty close to getting where we want to be. so i think thesi pnt was very restrained and is determined not to be provocative. ak it's got to be tough for him, molly. has been quite the foil. what have you made of flake's decision? is this a retiring senator doing his own thing? is he actually trying to check the box to make sure the nominaonoes through? what's the read? >> well, you know, say what y will about jeff flake, he's a very earnest man. im he's styledlf as the conscious of the senate in a way that annoys both party es. he's not loyal enough for thes republico like him. but then for the never trumpers

he doesn't sta up for trump enough but he's too conservative. he's retiring because o his opposition to the president. he wrote a whole book and will be in new hampshire on monday -- robert: is this part of the 2020 >> i have no idea. he hasn't ruled it out. if he did that, i think he would. once hates to give politicians credit for any kind of earnest motives. if he did that he feels someone should step up and do it. he iseally profoundly as seung minaid profoundly disturbed by some of the things going on. he's dven as much he talked about the victims that he talked to and the women in the elevator. he's driven just as much by his concerns about norms and process and bringing the country wgether. th what he talked about in his statement announcing this move was if we continue o this

rush partisan basis, we're just further dividing thent c. this one-week delay san opportunity to make hit the more bipartisan process. >> he said when he walked into the senate meeting today, he saw democrats yelling at republicans, republicans yelling at democrats. some democrats leaving the meeting early. he thought this one-week delay was the one area of compromise. it's interesting. in a current political moment color bud tribalism this is this was the day thatit inionalists really won. people that believe in the institution and the process that runs them -- this das the -- >> you heard democrats annoyed with the democrats on the committee emphasizing process and emphasizing the f.b.i. investigation, pleading with their republican colleagues, playing on this institutional motivation rher than confronting kavanaugh more frontly with dr. blasey ford's testimony. but that appears to be a gambit that worked.

robert: we're talking about the mbit that worked. is it where the votes could stand a week from now if the f.b.i. proceeds. could some red state democray at they're going to vote on kavanaugh, could they maybe change their minds? >> that's interesting we srted with the influential votes and we end with flake, collins and murkowski. it's important to know that we don't know what the f.b.i. is going to find. he's gone through six background checks. there are various public service position. it could be that the f.b.i. finds nothing and gives cover to folks like flake and folks like mui and collins who full heartedly support him at the own the day. robert: will they bring up mark judge one of the alleged itnesses of this incident? >> mr. judge indicated that he would be willing to talk as long as the talks were done

confidentially. one person i would watch is actually senator joe donnelly because he announced earlier today that he would oppose judga kah which was very surprising. he was one of the three red stateavanaugh who is backed neil gorsuch. we thought he would be very likely to support judge kavanaugh even as these allegations broke. but if you read his statement, his statement didn't mention for example, concerns tt judge kavanaugh would be a deciding vote to overturnio prote in the affordable care act which is about.mocrats talked he was concerned that there was no f.b.i. investigation, that have looked into these allegations i don't t going to change his mind, but it would be something to wat. robert: geoff? geoff: he reached out whether this investigation should be limited in scope, what that reskly means. we the f.b.i. the f.b.i. directed us back to the white house. sb -- so if the white house

takes the lead of jeff flake that wld suggest that only the ackizations the ones from blasey ford will be investierted. the owo, we'll have to see from there. >> thes investigati would cover "current credible allegations." i asked them. so what does that mn? st dr. ford tor other two and the other one? i haven't heard yet robert: the nation was transfixed. buty the riveting testimony of blasey ford and kavanaugh. >> i believed he was going to rain me. -- raped me. i tried to yell for help. this is what terrified the most. this has had the most impacting part of my life. i thought that brett was accidentally going to kill me. >> i'm not questioning that dr. ford may b haven sexually assaulted by some person in some place, at some time.

but i have never done this. i am innocentge of this ch robert: so different than that fox news. intervi you had judge kavanaugh almost red in the face, indignant, brought back them inries of justicehomas of his confirmation hearings in 1991. was the white house urging kavanaugh to take this approach on thursday? >> the white house wanted him tf be ahter. and they wanted him to show defiance. and that's what they go. what's interesting about that performance though is that by being so nakedly partisan by dredging up the clintons, by using terms like a political hit job, i think that judge kavanaugh has raised otherqu tions that go beyond the scope of the sexual misconduct allegations. ey go to questions of if he is confirmed, what kind of emotional and psychological baggage will he bring into the supre court? it'sften said that clarence

thomas was radicalized by that confirmati hearing in his term as the supreme court justice. the other qstion is, what is justice kavanaugh's position going to ce ones that come before the court brought by progressive group or democrats? he has shown himself perhaps unlike any previous court nominee to back partisan fighter, a partisan warrior. that might have worked infy solig his position, in fact, perhaps in salvaging his nomination withhe republicans on that committee. but it also raises se broader questions about his suitability, his temperament, werehe to take a seat. >> that's a gat point. in the zero sum political game, they say that performance is what gave republicans -- in real-time we saw this with lindsey graham. they dispeed what the republic -- >> rachel mitchell -- from

arizona. and they decided to speak up in his report. today we saw the political center of gravity shift back to jeff flake. and so now they have leverage and the whole thing has just shifted. robert: molly, i want to ask you about this republican anger. during t hearing, kavanaugh didn't hold back his anger ait r did lindsey graham. >> t confirmation process has become a national disgrace. the constitution gives the senate an important role in the confirmation process. but you have replaced advice and consent with search and destroy. >>his is not a job interview. this is hell. this is going to destroy thef abilityood people to come forward because of this crap! your high school year book.

you have interacted withon profes women all your life, not one accusation. you're supposed to be cosby when you're a junior and senorh in high . an all of a sudden you got over it. -- and all of audden you got over it. robert: during dr. ford's he testimony, r mitchell question after question. and then the republican theory just came out. what does that tell us? >>irst ofll, you can't blame the republicans for being mad. questions o many about the way this was handled by the democratic minority.e and we h not gotten good answers for the really strange way that thi ended up coming out, why senator feinstein had thisnformation, sat on it and then when it was aft the point where it should have probably been broached in some way even confidently never shared it with r colleagues or with the majority on the committee. and then it comes out in some kind of leak which there are questions about.

and then this whole set of events. whether that's a conspiry or incompetence, you can't blame the republica for being mad at that series of events. whether the allegation isn't true. we should get to the bottom of these allegations or believe dr. blasey ford. but you did have thisri outp of anger by the republicans and by judge kavanaugh in aay that's very unexpected. i think people expected him to be muchore like the controlled and even-tempered person that he tried to be in that fox news interview. and a lot of republicans did end up cheering at the end of the day feeling like he was being authentic in a way that hee hadn't befnd in a way that they could identify with. but the upshot of it all is that it was aou tremey ugly an angry and partisan spectacle and it hard to imagine that this doesn't erode public trust in

the supreme court in the long-term. and that is somethi that was already declining and that's something that hurts then institutf the supreme court because the court can't do its job in a credible way if people in thisav country don't confidence in it as a constitution that is not merely political. rort: already talks -- ther are talks that after she spoke that maybe he would have to withdrawal, she gave such a strong showing. >> that's exactly right. we were able to catch replican senators who had to listen to her testimony in person and asked, what did you makef o it? we had senator orrin hatch saying i don't find her uncredible. senator john cornyn said similar things. they wanted to hear from judge kavanaugh. but you sense republicans feelin wow, she is believable. she is credible. and the the tone just changed

after judge kavanaugh delivered his fiery remarks. he wrote ever word of it himself. robert: no help from the white >> no help. it was him and his former law clerk to putha opening statement together. and then you also saw the momentum shift, at least among republicans shift back into judge kavanaugh's favor. and as -- as he finished his testimony at about 6:00, 70 last night, you saw all the comments from republicans backing up and defending judge kavanaugh not only from the committee as they were leaving the room andalking to roberters but also the stream of statemen coming in from all the other republicans not on the committee affirming their support for judge kavanaugh. >> i mean, just to take it out of thef calculus o party politics for a moment, there were other sides of judge kavanaugh that i don't think came out well in that paicularly in the q&a portion of his appearance when he made

-- threw charges butns quest about drinking habits back at senators w were asking him when he asked senator klobachar when she described that she testified that her father struggledith alcoholis i think it showed a side of judge kavanaugh that is too neatly the privilege of entitlement that some people were spinning about him i do think that while it all madend senseay have indeed saved his t nominatire's a cost to the way he presented himself. robert: i want to come back to your "time" cover story. this is more about left vs. right more than the political pointsle we saw a visceral discussion of gender issues, power, polit ws asl this week. >> yeah, and it's, you know,mo absurdly fitting that

this would be the consuming controversy right bef this midterm election. in an election psych that already for a year and a now, almost two years has been centered around women's rage, women's anger,es women'se to make their voices heard and stop being silent about things that have suffered for years, women's buried pa w anden's nability to tell their own story. that's been the text of our politics although it's been driving ever aspect of our politics and i believe will be the deciding factor of the mid terms but e of ourire culture there has been this revelation of at was behind the mask all of these men who were deciding what shows got produced onelevision and in hollywood, the men who were making the decisions about what laws got introduced in the united states senate or howecisions got made in the united states supreme court. and so for so many women, it's awakening, edible

and this debate just brought that life anymore theost vivid way imaginable. and that's i think you saw such an outpouring of emotion all across country around dr. blasey ford's ttimony. robert: it was a day where i got so few e mails. everyone was just watching it. a powerful moment in this country. we'll see what happens next week. we have to leave i there our conversation will continue online on the "washington week" extra. we walk about the reaction president trump received this week from world leaders at the united nations when he promoted his america first agenda. you can find that later tonight on pbs.org/washingtonweek. i'm robert costa, thanks for joining us. ♪ ti

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