y with the power to change your life. life. to the fullest. welcome back. i'm david gura and we begin this hour about breaking news about supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. just an hour ago his accuser going on the record for the first time in a new "washington post" report. the writer of that previously anonymous kavanaugh letter is christine blasey ford. she is a professor in california and she is speaking out about brett kavanaugh attempted to rape her in the early 1980s. he categorically denies that allegation and says he did not do this in high school or at any time. senator dianne feinstein is saying this in a statement released moments ago.

i support mrs. ford's decision to share her story and now that she has it is in the hands of the fbi to conduct an investigation. this should happen before the senate moves forward on this nominee. last hour i spoke with the writer of that "washington post" piece. here's how she describes that story. what did she say about why she decided to lose that cloak, why she decided to talk to you using her full name? >> she felt like she was already starting to pay a price for having written that anonymous letter. reporters were showing up at her door. a reporter came to -- she teaches graduate level courses and she was leaving a lecture, was approached by a reporter. reporters called her colleagues. she was just feeling like her privacy was already invaded and she has had all along i think a feeling like she had something important to say. and i think her calculation

changed over time. like she had already sort of paid a price for writing that anonymous letter and she figured she might as well come out, have people understand she is a real person. and her allegation is coming from a human being. i think she felt probably it can't be as easily dismissed when it's a person with a name. >> she describes how she made her way home. left that house and kind of put it out of her mind. then she tells me i think it derailed me stasubstantially fo four or five years. it comes up in therapy with her husband. >> she says she started to understand the impact of this alleged event in therapy and the first time she really toll td t story in detail was in 2012 in couples therapy with her husband and she provided portion of the therapist notes which showed that she had reported a sexual

assault by boys, the note said from an elitest boy's school. those boys had gone on to be high ranking members of washington society. so it's in therapy where she not only sort of reckoned i think with the meaning of this event in her life but also where we were able to get some corroboration that she had endured an attack. >> i'm speaking with emma brown. she's a reporter for "the washington post." "the washington post" has just published a piece naming christine blasey ford as the one who filed the allegation against brett kavanaugh to be the next supreme court justice. you spoke to her husband as well. what did he have to say about this incident and about her coming out with this as well? >> i mean, i think this is an incredibly painful and private thing to be now dealing with in public for both of them. he said that in 2012 he recalls

that therapist session very clearly and recalls not only that she described the event but that she used kavanaugh's last name and even expressed some concern. the at time kavanaugh of course was on the d.c. circuit court of appeals. she said what if he some day goes on the supreme court. he recalled that. and he also said he was thinking some people may hear about this and think it doesn't really matter, it was back in high school, but from his perspective, it says something. his wife's story says something important he thinks about the nominee that people need to know. >> that was emma brown talking to me about the piece that she broke for "the washington post." joining me is is carol lee. alli also a political reporter, gideon resnick a political reporter. carol, let me start with you. i want to get a read of what happens next.

as that interview was transpiring, hard to find a picture of the judge without don mcgahn, the white house counsel behind them. they've tried to shepherd this through as efficiently as possible. what's your read that it slows down before thursday when they're scheduled to vote on the nomination of brett kavanaugh to be the next supreme court justice? >> that's the key question. i think that in terms of where we were last week when this first emerged and it was a noun mou -- anonymous, there was a significant shift. now there is a person with a name who has come forward in public. it's going to make it much harder for republicans to be dismissive of the accusation and to just plow ahead with the vote out of committee for his nomination. in terms of how republicans respond, this is going to make it much more difficult for them. we've seen the pr firm that is supporting kavanaugh's nomination issue a statement outlining a number of people who have publicly come out to back him, including women.

we've seen the white house issue again kavanaugh's statement where he denies this. but if you want to look then specifically at the white house, you have a president who when issues like this have come up in the past, whether it's accusations of the president himself or people he's backed politically, you've seen him double down and push back and deny and not admit to any wrongdoing or capitulate in any way. i think if you want to use history as a guide in that respect, you expect this president will do the same in this instance. >> jeff, what's the status of this allegation in its formal form. senate dianne feinstein was given by a member of congress. i just read from her statement. i'll read again. she supports mrs. ford's decision to share her story. it is now in the hands of the fbi to conduct an investigation. this should happen before the senate moves forward on this nominee. my understanding is the fbi declined to do that before this woman was named. >> i don't have any updates on that since this story broke with

her going on the record and talking about it, but i think it's interesting that senator feinstein is saying that this is now in the hands of the fbi. in a way, it's a way for her to say look, i've done my part after having given her of course the space to decide whether or not she wanted to go on the record with these allegations. this was originally in a letter that senator feinstein had received. so i think the question is what more can be done. where does it go from here. whether or not it has any political impact or not, i think carol is right. this will make it trickier for republicans to proceed with a vote that they want to proceed with. but i can imagine, and it's a sunday so we haven't gotten all the reactions that i'm sure will be coming out, them saying this is just a delay tactic on the democrat side and we're going to go ahead. >> on the issue of what more can done. i'm going to read a tweet senate by a junior senate from california a moment ago. christine blasey ford korsteppe

forward to tell her story. they have responsibility to scrutinize the nominee. a vote must be delayed until there is a thorough investigation. i should say senator kamala harris has said this is moving along too quickly. she's one who said this needed to slow down, there hadn't been enough time to go through the documents that were given to the series. there were plenty of documents they were unable to see. >> certainly and there have been attempts in the beginning to delay this nomination because of what's coming out in the mueller investigation and what was happening with document releases. now the landscape has changed when you have someone who is on the record giving this account of this allegation. i think it completely changes the landscape and now you are having democrats come out saying we should pump the breaks on this and here's in their view a legitimate reason why. i do think that the ultimate

arbiteres of th arbit arbiters of this -- now when you look at this as a woman coming forward saying there was an attempted rape allegation out there, i think that there's something fitting about two women being the people who are going to be potentially the arbiters of that. when you do talk about how the white house has handled these things in the past, carol is very right to bring up the fact that the trump administration has not been forthcoming about believing these women and so i don't think there's any reason for us to tlblbelieve there's g to be any difference when the president comes out to talk about the allegations. >> the reporter at the post senate a list of questions to the white house. no response from the white house and no answer. gideon, i want to analyze the chairman of this committee. we all watched those public hearings when it was done in public session. saw the heated first day when you had democrats on that committee urging him to slow down this process, not to go ahead, making motions and all

the like. he patting those down. he has been very focussed on retaining control of that committee, retaining control of the process. what's it going to take for him? the decision is ultimately his whether to have the vote. >> i think this is going to sort of boil down on some very ugly partisan lines frankly where it's going to be difficult for these republican senators to reckon with this in a way where they're purely looking at the facts and the allegations that are detailed in the story. you're going to have the arguments that the democrats were the quote/unquote obstructionists from the start and this is something else that's kind of fed into this narrative that they're trying to create about brett kavanaugh. so i think it's going to be very difficult for a true and honest reckoning here despite, you know, the se veeverity of the allegations and how the story was report. >> i want to ask you about how the white house has present ted

this nominee. there were moments when he talked about his faith and his family and some of the girls he coaches came to the hearing days to watch it all unfold. there has been an effort to make his personality, make brett kavanaugh the person the thing that we all paid attention to over the course of those three days. >> you're absolutely right. and not just him as a person but his character, the kind of life that he leads, you know, the volunteering that he does for charities. you know, he had his daughters at his -- and his wife at his hearing. he referenced them. he got rather emotional if you'll recall in his opening statement in talking about his family. so that has been a really part of the package that they're trying too sell in brett kavanaugh and now because they set it up in that way, in some ways it could make this line of questioning about his character and these allegations much more of a viable space to -- for

democrats to explore because they have made him such an issue. to the point that was made earlier in some point republicans have cast democrats as obstructionist and turning this into a show for their lil purposes th -- political purposes that you could see it in a way that this is an extension of democrats trying to stop a nomination they wanted to stop from the beginning. >> we're going to rip up the script a little bit. i was asking about chuck grassley, how he might react. we have a statement from the spokesman. i'm going to read a little from it to gauge his response to what we've read this afternoon. it's disturbing these allegations for more than 35 years ago during high school would surface on the eve of a committee vote after democrats sat on them since july. if ranking member feinstein and other committee democrats took this claim seriously, they should have brought it to the full committee's attention much

earlier. 65 senators met individually with judge kavanaugh for two months before the hearing began yet she did not share this with her colleagues ahead of many of those discussions. there is a moment in this piece in "the washington post" in which this woman's identity is revealed. when she has what amounts to praise for senator feinstein for keeping her identity anonymous through this process. >> yes. and senator feinstein made clear that was important to her. it was a decision for the alleged victim to make, whether or not to reveal her identity. now she's made that decision and the fact that it's coming right ahead of this vote is -- makes the timing something that republicans are clearly pouncing on. but it is something that has become a critical part of this story now. the question is whether or not it will really have an impact or not. it's certainly going to put some pressure on the chairman and on republicans, but they as we've seen now from that statement that you've just read are going to turn it around and blame

democrats for stalling tactics. let's just talk briefly about the politics overall here. the democrats are wanting to have more time on this, not just because they believe it's a critical nomination, which it is, but also to see if maybe they can get this delayed past the midterm elections where there is a shot for democrats to take control of the senate. and then perhaps turn the same tactics that republicans used at the end of the obama administration on republicans with a supreme court opening. >> ali, last question to you. i'm going to continue reading from this statement here. judge kavanaugh awe background has been vetted by the fbi on six different occasions and no such allegations surfaced. the committee has received letter after letter from those who have known judge kavanaugh personally and professionally including 65 women who have known him since high school speaking to his impeccable character and respect for others, especially women. let's talk a bit about the response, carol bringing up a moment ago what we've seen from

the pr firm that has been squiring this through the committee process. there was this letter, 65 women who claim to have known him in high school. he went to an all boy's high school. they ran in the same circles outside d.c. what do you make the aelgllegats so far? >> it all makes since. i think we've all pointed out this is an extremely partisan confirmation. none of of it is surprising. it's washington. there is a midterm election going on. the president wants to see another win on the supreme court. it was something his base voted for. he wants to continue to show they can deliver on. while this allegation is important in that it's on the record and it's now out there and the facts can be talked about a little bit more openly than when it was an an none mouse allegatio -- anonymous allegation, i'm not

sure it changes anything going forward. >> thank you very much. thanks to carol, jeff, and gideon as well. appreciate you coming in on sunday afternoon to deal with the breaking news. more to come on the allegation against brett kaf now avanaugh it could affect voting later on this week. -my pleasure. -ice dispenser, find me a dog sitter. -okay. -and make ice. -pizza delivered. -what's happened to my son? -i think that's just what people are like now. i mean, with progressive, you can quote your insurance on just about any device. even on social media. he'll be fine. -[ laughs ] -will he? -i don't know.

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show me decorating shows. this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving... simple. easy. awesome. stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today. welcome back. i'm david gura. more on the controversy surrounding an allegation of sexual misconduct against supreme court nominee judge brett kavanaugh. "the washington post" has revealed california professor christine ford as the woman who authored the confidential letter alleging brett kavanaugh sexually assaulted her more than three decades ago. she's speaking out saying to the post if her story is going to be told, she wants to be the one to tell it. judge kavanaugh has denied the claims in that letter saying categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. i did not do this back in high school or at time.

moments ago saeenator feinstein says i support mrs. ford's decision to share her story and it is in the hands of the fbi to conduct the investigation. this should happen before the senate moves forward on the nominee. joining me now is former u.s. attorney and former federal prosecutor. dan, let me start with you and with senator feinstein's statement. she is prescribing what she thinks should happen. this is the fbi's hand. what would that process look like? how long would that take? would the fbi be able to that in an expedient fashion? >> the fbi is quite a force when properly motivated and i think there's no more important type of background investigation maybe short of vice president than supreme court justice so i think the fbi could do this as part of their investigation of judge cavanaugh skand i think ty should. it has credibility. it's the ring of truth. it's very old so it's not the easiest kind of investigation to conduct, but it is something that can and should be conducted. >> joyce vance, i imagine you've

read the article and i want to ask you about what this woman did over the course of these last few months. early in december she went to "the washington post" to a tip line to tell her story. she then sought out a congresswoman. she has seen the pushback of what she edged. these are the i wills that i was trying to avoid. over the last few days they've had republicans in the senate pushing this allegation aside saying it's an anonymous allegation made here at the 11th hour. what changes for you as you see this now that her name is associated with it. >> her name is publicly out there. she has provided some information that would tend to lend some credibility to her account. for instance, her husband has known about these allegations since at least 2002. she spoke with a therapist. this story is reflected in her therapist's notes from several years back. so long before anyone could have

known that judge kavanaugh would be a supreme court nominee. these are some of the hallmark's of credibility that the fbi will look for as they investigate. but by the same token, judge cavanaugh has issued a denial. it's very hard to prove what goes on behind closed doors with only a couple of people in the room. so it will be very important for the senate to have the opportunity to speak under oath with both of these people and with anyone else who has information. so the senate can fully perform its duty under the constitution to advise and consent with the president on his supreme court nominee. >> let's talk about the body of evidence here that she accumulated herself. she retained an attorney. on the adviesz ce of her attorn she submitted to a polygraph examination. she passed that. they were given to "the washington post." they saw them as well. she has done a lot here to prepare herself for the scrutiny she's likely to face.

>> that's right. of course everyone knows polygraphs aren't admissible in court, but this is a political proceeding. certainly it can be considered. it can be readministered if she'll consent. i suspect the fbi would spend a lot of time interviewing her in quite some amount of detail and try to figure out if there's other evidence other than what joyce mentioned that might corroborate what she has to say. what else was in the house. are they willing to testify. are there other people she might have mentioned it to perhaps in not the same amount of detail as the husband and therapist. >> joyce, i want to ask you about the perils of slowing this down as republicans might see it. they've been moving full steam ahead. the white house wants to get judge kavanaugh confirmed as soon as possible. there's an election coming up. supreme court starts in just a month's time. not even. a few weeks. i want to get your read on what the committee has been able to see. you saw the protests during the

hearing, the senator saying a lot of things are confidential that shouldn't have been. if this were to be slowed down, how does that change the entire confirmation process here for judge brett kavanaugh? >> well, it's clear that the republican leadership in the senate was determined to push this nomination through as quickly as they could when the national archives announced they wouldn't be able to complete their review of judge kavanaugh's white house documents until the end of november. the senate pushed ahead nonetheless. this has really been in so many ways the least transparent supreme court nomination process ever and it has happened under i think just an incredibly disturbing glare of politic. it's important how political the court has become. we can't address it right now. we're where we are and the reality is this confirmation process needs to stop right now. there needs to be an opportunity for people to fully and

carefully consider these allegations before any vote, whether it's the committee or the full senate moves forward. because supreme court confirmations are for life. and these sorts of allegations which are deeply droubling need to be fully vetted both out of concern as much for judge kavanaugh so if he is confirmed he won't be dogged by them forever. or if they are true, the american people deserve to know that. the senators have to have access to that information before they vote. >> joyce vance, thank you very much for your time. and thanks to dan for joining me here in new york. we'll show you video now showing how much rain has soaked north carolina over the last few days. how everyone is on ground with more rain still to come. we distribute environmentally-friendly packaging for restaurants. and we've grown substantially. so i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. and last year, i earned $36,000 in cash back.

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welcome back. i'm david gura. tropical depression florence is losing strength as it makes its way inland, but it is still dropping record breaking rains across the carolinas and virginia as well. 50 towns and cities find themselves under water. 16 fatalities are now officially linked to the storm while 700,000 still have no power. military and local personnel are conducting rescue operations for hundreds. more than 400 were pulled from the flood waters in new bern north carolina alone. matt bradley is in lumberton north carolina. matt, you were looking aft a ley

that had breached a bit. what are you seeing now? >> as i mentioned to you a little while ago, this was a heartbreaking scene we witnessed here a couple of hours ago. it was pouring down rain and there were people movers -- i'm sorry, earth may havers with personnel driving them back and forth seriously across what used to be a parking lot that's now flooded trying to close off this levy here which as you can see has since breached. so it was going on for hours and hours. this follows days and days when the people here of lumberton were trying their best with just shovels and their bare hands to try to create this berm that we see. it was really a race against time in the last couple of hours. it was heartbreaking to see these workers trying so hard so save their town and now we've seen that levy break and it's a repeat of what happened back in 2016. that was the aftermath of hurricane matthew. that was when once again this levy broke and the water from the lumber river which is right

over i-95 over here, the waterpowered throu waterpow water poured flew and flooded the town. they failed. the earth movers have left and it's a sad story. >> matt brad dley down in lumberton north carolina. cal perry is in wilmington where life is beginning to return to normal. rain has stopped falling. folks are making their way to the stores to get gas if they can. >> some of the bands are still moving through. not raining right now. people are making a run on the gas. some of these folks have been waiting two and a half hours. this place is about to run out of gas. i'm sorry, i didn't get your name earlier. >> jim varney. >> how long have you been waiting for gas? >> two and a half hours. >> how is your house? >> it's demolished. the tree feel and roof cave in.

>> where are you going to stay. >> right now we're staying with my stepsister thank god. nobody that we know of has power yet. >> you're obviously filling up the car. i know some of these folks have generators. do you have a generator? >> no, unfortunately. nobody alley anticipated the storm to be this bad because they said it was going to be a category 2 and when it hit shore it was going to be a category 1. i think that people didn't understand the slowness of the storm. and how long it was going to be affecting the area. that was the biggest problem. >> everybody is okay in the family? >> yes, thank god. everybody's okay. >> god bless you. good look. thanks for talking to us. i appreciate it. we hear that a lot here. the dur ration of this storm, ts was a duration event. this storm kind of lingered. a lot of people with destroyed homes, staying with relatives, waiting to get back in homes, trying to get by. >> very close to where the storm

made landfall on friday morning. folks beginning to reckon with what happened over the course of this last couple of days. much more to come here on msnbc. whether it could delay a vote on the senate judiciary committee expected to take place thursday of this week. do these moves look familiar? then you might have a condition called dry mouth. biotène is clinically proven to soothe and moisturize a dry mouth. plus, it freshens breath.

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the ones i'm mostly focused on is chuck grassley. this is an uncorroborated allegation from 35 years ago made from high school that was would surface on the eve of a committee vote after democrats sat on them since july. what's your read on what happens next here as we see for more statements coming out from detecti democratic senators than republican ones? >> that's right and what you've seen from the democratic senators is a call for a delay. to say we need the fbi to investigate these allegations before we move forward. that was the statement put out by senator dianne feinstein, the ranking member on the judiciary committee. she's under significant scrutiny and pressure because of the way that this was handled. she and those close to her argue that she was essentially trying to follow the wishes of christine ford who had written this letter and then after speaking with a lawyer and speaking how difficult the process would be decided that she didn't want to go public.

of course her identity was not known until this sunday, today, when she did decide that quite frankly she was experiencing the ramifications of her decision anyway because her name had leaked to the news media. there's a lot of focus on how feinstein handled the allegations because the result was this was not considered as part of the hearing process. it was not something that came up on the open session or closed session or in the many meetings the senator had with judge kavanaugh. judge kavanaugh of course is unequivocally denying anything like this ever happened. he said he didn't do it in high school or at any other time. the real question here is what are two key senators on the republican side going to do? and that's susan collins and mees lisa murkowski. democrats are go going ing to c the delay. the vote is set in committee for september 20th.

murkowski collins matter because republicans do need them to vote yes on kavanaugh for them to be comfortable that this will go forward. there are some other democrats potentially in play, but they will be less in play if we knew where senator lisa murkowski and susan collins stood and if both of them were unwilling to go forward it's unlikely you would see those democrats standing up and making the difference. the pressure is on them. i think we should look to senator susan collins to take the lead on this. i think there was from transportati some frustration late last week even though the letter has been in feinstein's position since july. collins had already been under incredible pressure on her vote from kavanaugh. her office had complained about some of the vul gerritys and profanities and language in trying to push her to note no on

kavanaugh. that was putting her under pressure and causing a lot of stress and she didn't want to answer a lot of questions on capitol hill on friday by that point. at this point we knew the letter existed and what had some sense of what the allegations were going to be. if murkowski and collins were to signal even privately and the republican leader mitch mcconnell that they weren't comfortable moving forward, that might have a significant impact on this process. but on the flip side, the dynamics that have been set up because of the way this has unfolded may mean there isn't a change in the status quo even though this woman has come forward. the other piece that i think we're all thinking about is that you see many allegations against many powerful men have a re impact in the course of the me too movement over the last year or so. one of the things that has been common to all of those is that we've often had to see more than one allegation. i think you heard in "the washington post" story this

woman talk a little bit about what it's like to go through the ringer if you do come forward as an accuser. we've seen some examples of powerful men who have had one accuser step forward and had nothing happen. it wasn't until there was a second or third or a fourth or a fifth accuser that there was enough critical mass that something legitimately changed. that was the case with al franken in the senate which was the last time that the body dealt directly with something like this. initially there were not calls for him to resign or step down from democrats, but the preponderance of women who came forward ultimately led female senators to say we can't handle this. i do think there is a question as to whether or not there was a pattern of this type of behavior that may be relevant to how this plays out. >> full coverage i'm sure is going to be on tonight with kasie hunt. that will take place at 7:00 p.m. eastern time. i appreciate the time as you get ready for your show.

kristin k kristen welker joins me from the white house. chuck grassley talking about a letter with 65 signatories, women who knew brett kavanaugh when he was a high school student when this was alleged to have occurred. we are seeing here sort of a fight by proxy, testaments to this person's character. what's your read on what happens next? are we hearing anything from the white house at this point? >> the only thing we're hearing from the white house is they're pointing us back to that initial statement by brett kavanaugh. here it is. i categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. i did not do this back in high school or at any time. now, of course, we're all watching our twitter feeds very closely to see if the president is going to tweet about this. i would frankly be surprised if he doesn't. because of course that is how he communicates. we know that his strategy for dealing with these types of controversies, these types of issues is to dig in. to fight back that much harder. i would be surprised if we didn't see that tactic from this administration as they try to get a judge brett kavanaugh confirmed. in terms of the timing, that's

obviously going to be what everyone is focused on. democrats and republicans. i think democrats are going to point to this key passage in "the washington post" which says why did she stay silent initially? well, she said according to the post why suffer through the annihilation if it's not going to matter. she thought this was a fore gone conclusion. what changed? well according to the post as the story snowballed, and i'm quoting, ford said she heard people repeating inaccuracies about her and with the visit with reporters felt her privacy being chipped away, her calculation changed. that is where the focus of the debate is going to turn. why did she want to sneak out now? that's why. why did dianne feinstein hold this letter from july? well, because she started to get inquiries from reporters. this was something that was going to come to the light of day. i think that senator dianne feinstein felt the need to get this out there. where does this go? i think casey is right.

it depends on the two key senators. that's where the focus is going to be. however we are in a different moment. the me too movement. that could change the calculation of a number of different republican senators. we'll have to see how it plays out. >> kristen welker joining me from the house. back with me joyce vance along with beth fooey. i want to start there counter. a lot drew this to what happened with clarence thomas in 1991. what did we learn from the way you will of that transpired. >> it's very different. number one that was of course a republican president. president george bush 43 had nominated clarence thomas. but the senate was controlled by democrats. d it was a different environment. things were much less partisan than they are now. they would give advice and

consent. the old fashioned restitution on judiciary nominees including supreme court and were more inclined to give the president the person that he wants. now it's -- the supreme court nominations are every bit as partisan a tool as everything else we're seeing in washington and politics. president trump has just made that environment just so much more political. everything is partisan. everything is seen through the partisan lens which is why we saw the letter from senator grassley and members of the judiciary coming out so quickly calling the allegations into this question, saying it was a democratic smear tactic. there wasn't a pretense we need to dig in and look more at the bottom. with clarence thomas anita hill came and testified. it was an all male committee. the optics were terrible. no one was ever invited to step forward as a witness and corroborate what she had said even though there were other women out there who could have. in this case it doesn't sound

like senator grassley is inclined to give any credence to this woman's allegations and to make the allegations in front of the committee. the difference now is there's four women on the senate judiciary committee. they're all democrats. they will clearly make this an issue. senator kamala harris will make know issue of it. we've got a president hell bent on pushing forward. right now it's is the trajectory that he probably will be confirmed. >> i want to get your read on this as well, picking up on what beth was talking about. i look at what kristen g-- shoud investigation these allegations in a bipartisan manner. a third tweet, shame on the senate if they don't take this seriously, especially before moving forward on a lifetime appointment. yes we are in a me too movement

but there is a contrast from what you're seeing from senate ji senator sign fine and from chuck grassley. >> these allegations are very serious by any account these are the sorts of allegations that had they been reported at the time would have led into an investigation what was potentially a crime, sexual assault. there are some details that are provided in the reporting that we've seen today that lend them credibility. both the fact that she shared this sorry with people many years ago but also some of the detail. one of the details that stuck out for me is when the woman comments about the fact that ten teenage judge kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth and she was afraid he would inadvertently kill her.

it has to happen before this nomination goes any further. >> i'm going to read that line. quote, i thought he might inadvertently kill me said ford. she continues talking to emma brown of the "washington post." he was trying to attack me and remove my clothing. my thanks to both of you this afternoon, to joyce vance and beth and kristen welker for joining me as well. it's frustrating, those studies, the harvard study was done differently than the george washington study or this study or that study and the numbers are all over the place. >> he said democrats did it to make him look bad. do you believe any of these studies were done to make the president look bad? >> i mean, there's -- i don't think the study -- i don't know why the studies were done. >> that was fema administrator defending president trump's tweet last week questioning how many people died from hurricane maria. that tweet read in part, quote, 3,000 people did not die in the

two hurricanes that hit puerto rico. when i left the island after the storm had hit, they had anywhere from six to 18 deaths. act actor luis guzman was born in puerto rico. as the storm brewed in the atlantic ocean and you saw the president returning to puerto rico which a lot of people would say blemish on his record for the way it was handled. how do you react to what his fema admin stras -- administrat say. >> he should go and talk to their family, medical help, dialysis, no oxygen machines. he should go to every single family and look in their face. i don't believe he will. he's a coward. >> you've been down there since that storm hit.

>> yes. >> zidescribe what you've seen d heard. >> it's interesting because it depends who you ask. it depends where they live on the island. some people say things are okay. the majority of people i spoke with said there's still a lot of work to be done. the lights go out. i was there ten days and i know we got electricity for a couple of hours a day five of those ten days. they're still working on the infrastructure. one of the biggest things that i look at, we knew that this hurricane was going to come. there no civil defense that would set up that would make sen sense. we're going to get hit. so many people died. so many suffered and people are still suffering today. >> the president sup sis upset video of him throwing rolls of paper towels who survived that

hurricane, he's upset that continues to be shown on television. take us back to that moment when you learned the president was going to be going down there. how much optimism did you have he was going to be able to right the ship? >> i didn't have any optimism whatsoever considering all the chaos going down. when he went down there and throwing paper towels at people, that is appalling, that is lack of leadership. for me the biggest thing is the governor of puerto rico should have really taken the opportunity and put this man in his place. and say hey, my people are dying, our people are dying here, we need real concrete stuff going on. for him to do that, come on. and those were just chosen people that were in that room, you know. it's all political. we know that. >> the governor, there's a real contrast that the president has had with him, the relationship

he's had with the mayor of san juan as well. she has been putting him in his place as you say. >> somebody has to do it. many people have been saying it have been speaking the truth. like said, puerto rico, they have closed down hundreds of schools. now these schools that are abandoned have become dumping grounds for garbage and stuff like that. they found all this water. they found containers with supplies. there's a logistical nightmare still going on in puerto rico. who is really fixing it? on top of that we're still dealing with death and where are we with that? again, the lack of leadership, the lack of this is not my president guy. the guy in the white house have pru proven that humanity is on the brink. >> i want to get your read on puerto rico year round. how much optimism you have, about this island returning to

some sense of normalcy. >> my people, the puerto rican people are very resilient people. you know, we had our backs up against the wall. what we found out is it was left up to us to really help ourselves and go look out after elderly people that lived alone. there's orphan ages that are still damaged that the government have not even gone in to repair. there's black mold growing still today in different places. the thing is that our people are very resilient people. i know we're going to make the comeback because we have a lot of soul. we have a lot of spirit about ourselves. like i say, those people that are responsible, that leadership that we need, they've really got to step it up. it's not about this party or that party. because that's a big problem in puerto rico. you have a two-party system there and anytime somebody gets elected from that party, 70,000

people do a good job because they're not from that party. we need as a country, as a people, to come together to show ourselves that we can co-exist, that we can live, that we can really live, you know, our country, our people. >> i want to ask you lastly just about the power. you've been back and forth. so many people have been traveling down there trying to figure out ways to make puerto rico better. how powerful has that been in your estimation? how much attention is it still getting outside of puerto rico? >> i think this should be accou accountants, something that brings all these incredible minds together. there's a lot of people out there that have great ideas. one idea i've been promoting, we need to go solar.

the infrastructure is so old. we're going to get hit again with another hurricane. it's going to happen. it's like russian roulette with these hurricanes that they come through. again, they need to have something set up. a civil service plan, a defense plan. a hurricane comes, you've got to send 3,000 people up into the mountains from the top down and not have people that were cut off for weeks and weeks and people didn't know what happened to this town and that town. we need to bring all our minds together. we need to work together as one and not as this political party or that political party, but work in the name of humanity. so we do not suffer the way we suffer because of lack of leadership, because of some self-promoting president who was a total embarrassment to our people and to society. those are some of the things we have to do. >> it was great to see you. >> thank you.

>> thanks for joining me here in new york. much more on the allegations against judge brett kavanaugh. much more when we come back. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from any one else. why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase sensimist relieves your worst symptoms, including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. it helps block six key inflammatory substances. most pills block one. flonase sensimist.

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that does it for me. i'm david gura. i'll be back here next saturday and sunday. the news continues right now with my friend and colleague francis rivera. >> hello ern, iveryone. breaking news, her side of the story. the woman behind the confidential letter accusing

brett kavanaugh of sexual assault decades ago has come forward. the college professor it would "the washington post" if her story is going to be told, she is going to be the one to tell it. "the washington post" identifying the writer as bli christine bra christine blasey ford. ford said one summer in the early 1980s kavanaugh and a friend both drunk cor rald hral into a bedroom. attempting to pull off the one piece bathing suit. when she tried to keescream, het his hand over her mouth. a research -- kavanaugh released a statement saying i