she spoke for? and at the white house tonight, euphoria and relief, we're told, after their second court pick of this presidency and this will leave a mark. we have breaking news from the "new york times" tonight. we're standing by to talk to one of the reporters breaking the story in just a moment. his confirmation is expected to

be approved tomorrow. we also saw two key senators who have been publicly undecided until today come out and say how they will vote on kavanaugh. this is obviously a huge win for the president. we're going to begin with a look at how the day unfolded on capitol hill. >> senator, grassley, do you know how this vote's going to go today? >> i think it will be very successful. >> what left wing groups and their democratic allies have done to judge kavanagh is nothing short of monstrous. i hope we can say no to mob rule by voting to confirm judge kavanagh.

>> the yays are 51 and the no's are 59. >> i did not come to a motion of this until walking into the flow this morning. i believe brett kavanaugh is a good man. i believe he's a good man. it just may be that in my view he's not the right man for the court at this time. >> you are planning to vote tomorrow? >> it is a big change. >> it is a difficult decision for everybody. it really is. anyway, we did our best. >> do you think he'll be confirmed tomorrow. >> i would think so. >> the facts presented do not mean that professor ford was not sexually assaulted that night or at some other time but they do lead me to conclude that the allegations failed to meet the more likely than not standard. therefore, i do not believe that these charges can fairly prevent

judge kavanaugh from serving on the court. mr. president, i will vote to confirm judge kavanaugh. >> so shortly after senator collins announced her long awaited decision, the sole remaining undecided, joe mansion, voting yes to put kavanaugh on the high court. that's shame you can hear the protesters yelling in the background. senator lisa murkowski says while she's a no vote tomorrow, she's going to be marked present when the vote happens. this is procedural. this means republicans and senator steve danes of montana will not have to leave his daughter's wedding in montana tomorrow to be the 51st vote to put it over the top. the white house is waiting to put out any sort of response

today of apparent victory. our nbc colleagues in washington report tonight the mood of inside the west wing was quote, one of euphoria and relief. the scope of the investigation was limited from the start. there is more here. the paper says don mcgahn according to people familiar with the conversation told the president that even though the white house was facing a storm of condemnation for limiting the fbi background check into sexual misconduct allegations against judge kavanagh, a wide ranging inquiry like some democrats were demanding and mr. trump was suggesting would be potential l disastrous. this is a three by line piece of reporting tonight. one of the three is standing by

telephone to join us. that would be our michael schmidt. mike, we know the investigation is limited in scope. we know that because there are anywhere from 28 to 40 individuals out there who wanted or expected to be contacted by the fbi. we know that dr. ford and judge kavanaugh were never contacted but you add to it by telling us how this went down and i will ask you to go ahead and retell the story. >> what we're trying to do here is explain how background check investigation works. it is not the same thing as a full-blown fbi investigation where agents have subpoenas and execute search warrants. it is limited. they have to take their directions from their client. their client in this case is the white house. that's what's gave the white house a lot of say over what could be done. trump saw the political pressure and he saw others saying look, this is a narrow thing. he says to mcgahn, let the fbi do whatever they want about

kavanaugh and mcgahn says legally we can't do that. we can't let the fbi run free and dig through whatever it wants. they have to be directed. what we'll do is tell them on these particular issues we have asked them to look into accusations from three women, they can interview whomever they want to. >> this piece kind of paints mcgahn as reining in even his boss the president's desire to open this up. >> yes, the president. it is interesting. we have seen the president interact with so many different ways with the justice department. in this case, he wants to use the fbi as a way of giving him political cover, saying look, i don't think they'll find anything. let them take a look at whatever they want. mcgahn is saying, we can't do that. legally that's not possible.

we're far more contained than that. we can direct than to different issues. we can have them check back with us and report back to us but we can't just say hey guys, take a look at what's in the newspaper take a look at every lead you have and see what you can come with. there was no evidence of a crime being committed at least in the eyes of the white house. the democrats say that kavanaugh committed perjury. but in the white house's eyes, there was no criminal thing to be investigated. and it was obviously a political thing, something that flake and coons created. >> i am thinking a guy like jeff flake that has been so publicly tortured, a brow that has been in furrow mode for days. let's say the sum total is something less than a stellar

effort by the white house doj, fbi, something north of malpractice. the vote has not taken place yet. is it possible that journalism and leaks could still affect the outcome. >> i am not sure what could affect the outcome at this point. at any investigation when you put an end time on it, you're limiting what you can find and what you can get to the bottom of. there is a reason why when bob mueller was appointed special counsel, he didn't come out and say, hey, i'll be done with my investigation in six months to a year. an investigation out to find out all the facts has all the time and resources to go out and do that. obviously this was the political thing. >> mike schmidt has been kind enough to join us late on a friday night at the end of a very long week. thank you very much. we commend your piece of reporting to all those watching tonight. with that, let's bring in our

lead off panel on a friday night, our white house correspondent for bloomberg, jonathan allen and nbc news national and political reporter, and the correspondent on the hill, garrett haake. welcome to you all. let's see here, i would start with garret because you were next to these figures that were making history today. genuine surprise on the part of collins, not so much from the part of manchin from where you sat, or was that inaccurate? >> collins was fascinating because she did not come out like jeff flake and say she was a yes vote. collins came out and said he was a yes vote and made a full-throated endorsement of kavanaugh in a scene that looked staged with two other female republicans behind her. >> that's because it was staged.

>> no, that is not a normal configuration in the u.s. senate. that was done for a reason. susan collins did not just say she was voting yes. she gave the closing argument and if you are mitch mcconnell or donald trump, you could not ask for much better of a closing argument than from a woman on the left who really stood up to the president on the health care vote, coming back defending kavanaugh on his jurisprudence and the charges against him from dr. ford. that's a strong closing argument and to have joe mansion who was always going to find a way to be on the winning side of this issue which ever side that was come out and be the lone democrat to make this endorsement to allow republicans to say this is bipartisan. her endorsement of kavanaugh also answers the question you put to michael schmitt maybe you

can turn jeff flake into a no vote but not susan collins. >> shannon, it is interesting tonight of the left leaning media are finding ways not to question how schumer lost one of his flocks as the conservative media are finding ways not to point out that mcconnell lost one of his. what is the white house reaction? >> a lot of relief and excitement in the white house, you know, in the past 19 or 20 months it has been now. there has been few good days of this administration for the people who work there. there is a lot of days where it is endless crisis and one surprise coming after another. this was one of those rare few good days that people had where they could be relieved and feel like they had a win, and not just a win but that they went to war, they went to battle with the democrats and they feel like

they won. this is going to put a lot of wind in the sail of the white house and boost people's morale a lot until the next crisis comes along and drag everything back into disarray and demoralized, which is the sense that you get from a lot of people. going forward, a lot of look to the midterm. it is only going to energyize for so long. it was something needed to break republicans apathy. now it's just about getting to the finish line, the midterms. a lot of rallies now and then trying to keep the president on the road and hoping they can do as much battling of the democrats again in the midterms. >> jonathan allen, after all this coverage of the independent minded, talk about susan collins, scores the game winning

touchdown for her president and majority leader and her party and this nominee. >> she was the closer and she closed hard. she went out there and she made the case for brett kavanaugh. she took many of the things that people in the left were saying and raised them up and knocked them down and used the republicans argument to knock them down. she ignored the kavanaugh out burst. the one that he came apologizing for but backtracked in the wall street journal over night basically saying he had gone too far. the two most important take aways are this, brian. she said that dr. christine blasey ford failed to meet the likelier than not test. the judge could not be stopped from going to the high court. the implicit thing there is that had she believed christine

blasey ford that would have been disqualifying for kavanaugh. you did not hear a lot of republicans actually say that. the explicit thing there was she did not believe dr. christine blasey ford. she did not think it was likelier that kavanaugh attempted to rape dr. ford. she made the argument that even president who his shot at dr. ford was to ridicule her from a stage in mississippi. i think what will senator collins said on the floor was mo further and certainly more measured in terms of temperament. >> trump has a rally in kansas tomorrow night. how is this entire thing going to change his public utterance. >> the actual vote will likely be taking place as he is on air force one flying to this rally.

one white house aide told me to look for this rally tomorrow night to be a victory rally for kavanaugh and to fit into this bigger message they're trying to sell to republicans about if you keep us in power, we will carry through with our promises. of course that fires up democrats, too because they hate all the promises that the trump administration made. for republicans, it gives the president a selling point. keep us in there, give us a vote and we'll continue to deliver on our promises. this whole thing reminded republicans too of this idea of what they are fighting against among republicans and conservatives and they did not like seeing the way democrats handled this. they bought into the idea that it was a plot cooked up by the democrats to bring down kavanaugh at the last minute. it fed into the deeper cultural undercurrent that trump has been tapping into from the beginning of the disadvantage white male.

the attack on the white male and that's something that's resonating with his supporters, too. it is going to be a big kavanaugh rally tomorrow. of course, they're going to have to start to think on what is the next topic that's going to fire up republicans and get them out to the polls in november, because we have a long way to go. >> their job is to deliver the entire herd when the job is done. and both of these guys had members peel off. they both could not deliver their entire caucuses. that's going to be interesting. >> joe manchin is in a tough reelection fight. chuck schumer have given him a lot more leeway than harry reid used to the feel like he has to vote the way he needs to vote to keep his constituents happy in west virginia. i don't think there is a clap back if you will against joe manchin.

lisa murkowski had her own political feefdom in alaska. she lost her republican primary in 2010 and won as a right in candidate with the name like murkowski. she's politically powerful in her own right as a local figuring in alaska. she's the republican's only female committee chairman. susan collins shares a standing committee on aging. lisa murkowski is a powerful figure in the republican party. i don't see her being punished for this especially her loss won't cause them anything. she did make the gracious move towards steve danes tonight, saying she would vote present to allow steve danes to stay away and not let it affect the total ratio. she wanted it to be a big statement about how these nominations should be handle ed with more grace and class. but it's also a bandaid for

republicans who may be upset with her. >> jonathan, you will get the last word, who will benefit on this in 30 or so days, which party? >> the republicans. as far as the energy goes, i think it is going to be hard for republicans to sustain this over the next four weeks. democrats are going to be angry, there's going to be some backlash. there is no issue the republicans can pivot to that is as unifying as this one for them. they got everybody from donald trump to george h.w. bush and susan collins on board and immigration is not like that. maybe tax cuts will be like that. they just done a big tax cuts. republicans have to figure out a way to sustain that energy. >> reminder to all the tv and weren't on in the mueller offices today where they remained at work. shannon and john allen and jay, thank you for joining us of another long day and week. >> coming up, judicial temperament and credibility and later what this confirmation have done to both party and where as jonathan were saying of all that energy and anger goes now? -these people, they speak a language we cannot understand.

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just after susan collins quoted the american bar association, today the aba announced it's opening its

evaluation offo judge kavanagh his temperament. >> to be a good judge and umpire, it is important to have an important demeanor. >> no, i am going to talk about my high school record if you are going to sit here and mock me. >> it is important for a judge to be an umpire to avoid any semblance of that partisanship, probably the most fundamental thing for a judge who wants to be an umpire. >> this whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit. fuelled with anger about president trump and the 2016 elections revenge on behalf of the clintons. >> two faces of brett kavanaugh separated by three years and with us tonight to talk about it, our former u.s. attorney joy vance and mika o'yang. >> welcome to both of you. joyce, i have a two-part question. number one, your reaction to

what transpired today. people know that you were appointed to office as a u.s. attorney by president barack obama. you reaction on what happened today. and secondly, to the documents like we were handed tonight that are probably going to keep coming out. this is another friend of dr. ford talking about how and when they were told about her accusation and her past. >> so i think the answer actually to both parts of your question comes down to the same ball of wax. this is the price that we'll likely continue to pay, both the court as an institution and the judges on the court themselves, for what was at best a hardly executed and perhaps slip shot of fbi investigation. if judge kavanaugh is blameless in this entire scenario, he would have been much better served and the court much better

served by an fbi investigation that was permitted to look into all of the nooks and crannies the fbi would have normally explored in a background situation like this. unfortunately, what we now face is this ongoing, sort of slowly unwinding series of stories, people coming forward to talk about what they would have said had they been interviewed. it will certainly distract from the court this term. hopefully, they won't have the long lasting effect on the integrity of the court. this has been an unusual confirmation battle and it may linger. >> mika, what do we do about that? a lot of people on the political left are aggrieved parties tonight. there are also these other people with special pleading between 28 and 41 people who said i wanted to talk about this with investigators. >> yeah. i think joyce is right that the perception that this is a very rushed investigation, that the fbi was not allowed to go

thoroughly into allegations about judge kavanagh's background and whether or not he's telling the truth today, puts the court in a place that we have never seen before. it is the biggest crisis of the integrity of the court that they ever face. i think that the chef justice has a real challenge in his hands, not just these questions about judge kavanaugh whether he's truthful or not. the judge's testimony itself threatening what goes around comes around, suggesting that were conspiracy and it was partisan, really raises questions of his ability to be impartial on what's a narrowly divided court. we know the chief justice tried to seek broader consensus to protect the integrity of the court. the question is will kavanaugh go along with that or he'll be the kind of angry retuprative person that we saw at the

hearings which will further undermine the integrity of the court. >> we never had someone during the confirmation saying what goes around comes around and how many topic and grievances this guy touched on. does that mean we are looking at more potential recusal ground if he is to reach the bench. >> sorry. >> that was for joyce. >> sorry, mikah. the supreme court is unlike other courts and it does not have recusal rules that stem from policies that are imposed upon them. supreme court justices are free to recuse when they believe it is appropriate. this will be largely if he becomes justice kavanaugh in his hands to decide when and under what circumstances he would have to recuse. of course, that in of itself can become a problem with justice scalia. there were allegations that he should recuse of the people he had social relationships and he chose not to. for justice kavanaugh, everyone

of these inqueries that have occurred in the past will be inundated with judgments that he has made that will potentially diminish the court. >> mikah, i want to ask you about the progress that's fashionable for everyone in this role on a night like this to say it is broken but in your view, how do you begin to fix it? >> yeah, i think this is a real challenge and i think it will come down to how judge kavanaugh conducts himself if the court confirms him tomorrow. that'll be is he ruling in ways that are partisan, is he siding with a narrow 5-4 majority. is he issuing these kind of p s blistering dissents? is he carrying that anger with him in to the court or is he behaving the way that justice kennedy and the chief justice would want him to behave.

once he's no longer beholden to the president, the question is which brett kavanaugh is going to show up on the court. >> thank you both for joining us. coming up for us, the confirmation of brett kavanagh isn't expected to put an end to the anger, the emotion we have witnessed these past few weeks. but will the controversy drive more people to the polls? contre more people to the polls in here. take your razor, yup. alright, up and down, never side to side, shaquem. you got it? come on, get back. quem, you a second behind your brother, stay focused. can't nobody beat you, can't nobody beat you. hard work baby, it gonna pay off. you got this. with the one hundred and forty-first pick, the seattle seahawks select. alright, you got it, shaquem. alright, let me see. with all the shrimp you want, any way you want them.

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i had to vote on the facts i had in front of me. >> you don't hear that every day, shouts of "shame" while democrat voe mjoe manchin was explaining his decision to vote for judge kavanagh. it will no doubt a driving force in this election and the next. and then in a day that was already filled with its own remarkable moments, we want to bring you this from republican judiciary committee chairman, chuck grassley. >> do you have the sense that you want to see a woman on the committee on the republican side? >> we can't do anything about that. >> you got to have desire to

serve. >> they just don't want to be on the committee. >> it's a lot of work. i mean don't forget compared to a lot of committee meetings, we have an executive every thursday. so it's a lot of work. maybe they don't want to do it. >> as they say, that happened today. with us today, maura gay, a member of the "new york times" editorial board. both are msnbc contributors. so we have that and we have the sum total of today. you this week wrote a poignant personal piece in the opinion section of the "new york times" about your life experience. what do we do about the entire community of american women who look at a dr. ford, look at a maura gay and say, yes, that story, that's me.

>> it is a sad day and difficult for those who are sexually assault survivors. i think there's a time to grieve, but i think there's a real risk here that people become so despairing that they don't participate and count and they don't show up to the polls. my immediate thought was let's not despair and linger in that let's actually organize and channel that into wins at the polling booth. the other thing that i would say is that i have been thinking a lot about my dad and his experience, you know, my father is black and my mother is white. my dad grew up in segregated detroit. he drank from a black only water fountain. when you compare the experience of black americans to what's

going on today with the me too movement, you really think about it as a long-term gain. that's where we are right now. there is a lot of frustration and it has been a year since the me too movement started. what do we have to show for it. today was a huge blow. there are seeds being blown every time a woman tells her story. or in some cases a man. we need to keep that perspective of you live to fight another day. that is long battle. i think think about endurance is important here and settling in for a long fight. >> thank you for that. >> josh, did you find any profiles in courage today on capitol hill? was it harter f ee eer -- harde heitkamp to vote no, for a manchin to vote yes, that kind of thing? >> i think that could cost her.

she seems to be down a bit in the polls, so she may be in trouble already. claire mccaskill is another person in missouri who could suffer for her vote here. but i do wonder at least in the short to medium term maybe we're making a little too much of this. it is a generational potential shift in the court even without the ford allegations that came up. we're talking about potentially a tectonic shift in the court that could affect it for one or two generations. there's so much noise, so much cacophony that comes from this white house that within a matter of weeks this issue might be overtaken in the president's mind by some insult on the campaign trail or some other controversy about an insider turning on the president.

it's really hard to measure and these things always seem searing and kind of apocalyptic in the moment. >> speaking of generational and tectonic changes, do you think the optics of the senate judiciary committee might change in the next congress? >> to quote chairman grassley, if there will be woman senators, it is a lot of hard work and will they step up. >> you could not write better campaign literature for democrats. let's see how the party is able to capitalize on that. this brings out the republicans over inner caveman. i am not sure where they are going with this. none of this is helpful in november. you know, it does hinge on turnout at this point. but i do think that we'll see a demographic shift in those who are in power and i think there are a lot of very angry women. i was actually out just on the street yesterday in new york city. >> in the wild.

>> i bumped into a group of you know very passionate protesters, anti--kavanaugh protesters making their way from times square to trump tower. i've seen a lot of protests and i haven't felt the anger as viscerally as i felt it yesterday. if people are in the streets, then they usually show up to the polls. i do expect that we'll see more women in office. >> josh, i have to limit you to a brief closing note. do you see any of that in the wild and in the wild of d.c. something organically starting up? think of the explosion of the women's march after the inauguration. >> i think we live in an era where reactions are very strong and very capable of delivering people to the polls. that's the lesson of the last

few elections and donald trump's election. i think many people would see that as a force of reaction. so the question is whether the anger on that side of the equation among democrats, among women or in particular is going to prove to be a more motivating force than the sort of unity that the republicans took away from this fight, which was a significant development on their side. but maybe not one that's as big as having that anger that gets you to the polls on election day. >> as we look at the picture of you on capitol hill to your viewers, just directing your eyes to up the per left, that is the light over the capitol indicating they are in session tonight. indeed, they are debating leading up to the vote. with that, our thanks to mara gay and josh, thank you for your contribution tonight. coming up after another week marked by high emotions,

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mr. president, i will vote to confirm judge kavanagh. >> that was the windup line to susan collins' long speech in the senate today. here to talk about just what we witnessed all day long. our presidential historian, john meacham, his latest book "the soul of america, the battle for our better angels." there sure was a battle today. i was watching your live contemporaneous coverage when collins stopped. you said on the air that you thought she moved this nominee to the center. she kind of made him a moderate on the fly. explain.

if you look at the opening section of the speech, she walks through issues and she turned judge kavanagh into a susan collins republican, about roe v wade, about gay rights, a whole host of issues, almost as though she were talking herself into the candidate she wanted to vote for. the irony here, the tension is he is a strong judicial conservative, he's not a judicial moderate. in many ways, this nomination was the fruition of a strategy that's really from the 1950s when republicans realize that they have not gotten what they really wanted from the eisenhower appointment. the cry for decade is not to be

fooled again and nixon did from 68 to 74. he appointed four justices, only one of whom turned out to be as conservative as the right had hoped. then you cut to george herbert walker bush, who appointed david sutter and it was another example why conservatives believe they must have a pure conservative to put on court. what senator collins seemed to be doing, ignore all that. he's not that conservative. the question for all of it now, 40 years of american jurisprudence just got shaped today. which kavanaugh is going to show up and be a supreme court justice? is it the collins one or the federalist society one? >> these are collections of human beings. it is a living and breathing body full of living and breathing bodies.

stranger things have happened than to have a john roberts, the chief justice, move himself even more into the center. >> john roberts has become the most important person in america to some extent. roberts is now the swing vote. the chief is now what justice kennedy was. it will be a fascinating drama to watch. the battle is over over soon to be justice kavanaugh. the war goes on. i think what's going to be fascinating to watch is to what extent is the kavanaugh who shows up and goes to work at the supreme court, to what extent is it the kavanaugh that susan collins was talking about and to what extent is it the kavanaugh who said what goes around comes around and gave that defiant and partisan speech, so much so that he felt compelled to write an

op-ed in the "wall street journal" on the eve of the confirmation vote to clean it up. ote to clean it up my mom was freedom, and my dad, adventure. they baptized me in mud and christened me on rock, so i got tougher. they fostered a love of learning, so i got smarter. taught me to appreciate the finer things in life, so i became more civilized and refined. thank you, freedom and adventure, for giving me this rugged, civilized, wandering soul.

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when susan collins was a high school student in maine -- we're going to get to john meachem in a second. he already knows all this stuff -- she got to go to washington and meet one of her heroes, senator smith. senator smith was one of the first to turn against mccarthy almost seven years ago. she now occupies his seat in the u.s. senate representing maine, so it was probably a canny and cagey move when this past monday majority leader mitch mcconnell dropped the name of collins'

hare when no one was listening. >> in 1950 uncorroborated allegations were being utilized in a very different debate in that era. that's when a distinguished senator from maine named margaret shane smith, an icon of one of our colleagues senator collins went to the senate floor to say enough was enough. >> senator mccain is also from maine. john meachem remains with us. i'm dutybound to say margaret chase smith crossed over. there she is. >> yep. she -- you know, the timing of that speech that senator mcconnell was talking about is quite remarkable. it was very early in the

mccarthy drama. it was the speech where he had the names of 255 communists that wandered down to 50 and ultimately down to zero and she called it the declaration of conscience. it was a couple of months later she got six signers from her caucus. mccarthy described it as snow white and the six dwarfs. she's become a shorthand for defying your party to try to push senator collins to standing with her party. >> in 30 seconds of brilliance, any profiles encouraged today? >> i don't think so. perhaps senator murkowski gets credit. it's a partisan moment. part i shaisanship happened. there's a reason it was just one

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( ♪ ) everybody wants a new, different, better world. here's to the people who do what it takes to build it... to keep it running. the people who understand no matter what the question, the obstacle or the challenge, there's only one answer... let's do the work. (engine starts, hums) last thing before we go tonight, from the looks of the social neating and the

resounding clash on cable, a whole lot of people have a whole lot of sflan explaining to do. starting with us it was asked repeatedly whether it wasn't time for the news media to cease the heart-stopping coverage of susan collins as some sort of moderate senator as she played the role today of stricted a heernlt. folks say there's still time to change the nameplate from flake to murkowski. there have been suggestions that flake be nominated instead for best supporting actor. chuck schumer will have to answer for why as democratic leader he couldn't deliver all the democratic votes. mcconnell lost one too. and speaking of joe manchin, a lot of folks were asking if he doesn't need to pick one political party. and if he is okay with the fact that after he gave trump his vote on cavanaugh he was then trolled and bullied by donny on

twitter who wrote a real profile courage from joe manchin. he waited till he had enough votes secured before he announced his support. i bet he had another release ready to go the other way and then said vote for manchin's opponent. tonight there's much discussion on the left that mirrors the headline we saw in the "washington post." did michael avenatti help doom the case against brett kavanaugh? about the only humor to break the tension today came when our friends at the onion reported mitch mcconnell inflates throat pouch in throe of dominance against fellow congressional males and there was this from matt pearce of the lamt times. it seems like it was only a short time ago. that is our broadcast on a

friday night at the end of this tumultuous week. thank you so much for being with us. good night from nbc headquarters here in new york. headquarter here in new york and a very good saturday morning to you. i'm richard lui here in new york. here's what we're watching on this day. first off, a live look at the senate floor where there's been a rare all-night debate, this after key undecided votes had swung in favor of president trump's embattled supreme court nominee. mr. president, i will vote to confirm judge cavanaugh. >> the republican in maine delivering the deciding vote sparking both celebration