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 and some outrage. >> i have never been angrier or sadder as a member of the united

states senate because it is the result of a coverup. >> we're now just hours away from the final vote to confirm brett kavanaugh. it's all but certain go his way in the end, but there are some lingering and key questions about his place on the supreme court. so at this early hour, the breaking news. this right here live. the senate floor, capitol hill, 7:01 a.m. local time. while you were sleeping, the senate was not. this hour, some new reaction as senate democrats continue to use up every one of the 30 hours of available debate before the full senate makes its final vote on judge kav kavanaugh this afternoon. >> i don't know how you can come to the floor as many republicans have and say we believe dr. christine ford, but at the end of the day, we just can't bring ourselves to the point of believing it could have been brett kavanaugh. >> ours was an investigation to figure out enough about what

happened to determine if brett kavanaugh is fit to serve on the highest court in our land. is he fit to be a jurist? that is our role when it comes to dr. ford's allegations, and we fell short. we fell short. we did not do her justice. we did not do the american people justice. >> republicans are now just hours away from what is expected to be a late afternoon cop fir nation vote of their second supreme court justice under president trump. they're pushing back against democratic claims and what this confirmation might and this fight specifically could mean for the midterms. and, yes, the midterms are exactly one month away. today is october 6th. november 6th, full steam ahead.

>> we needed to have the vote in order to bring it to a conclusion. plus, today there's new reaction from one of the lawyers representing christine blasey ford in an interview with msnbc last night. >> there was no effort to leak this letter and have this unfold as it did. that's an absolute falsehood. >> we keep hearing there are no corroborating witnesses, but, affect, there are corroborating witnesses who have haven't been interviewed or talked to, and those witnesses can say several years ago well before judge kavanaugh was ever consider for the supreme court, she told me that he sexually assaulted her. >> they cherry picked who they spoke to. >> let's go straight to nbc's mike viqueira on capitol hill. what do we know as the senate was trying to charge democrats to changing what the outcome might be. >> good morning to you, richard.

all the drama, the emotion, the loud voices, shouting, indignation, and, yes, even the arrests we've seen in the capitol in the last couple of days could be winding down for now, but the question is what kind of damage, what are the reverberations, the aftershocks that are going to be felt in congress, specifically in the senate moving forward as brett kavanaugh is expected to take his place on the supreme court replacing that key swing vote in anthony kennedy. the clock has start. you see keir stin jierstersten the supreme court floor. they voted yesterday on the procedural vote, the so called cloture vote, that started the clock about 30 hours according to senate rules, which would bring them to 5:00 today on a final vote of the confirmation of brett kavanaugh, democrats fearing republicans might seize the floor if no democrats were

there. a democrat can stand up and say i ask that we move to the vote right now, democrats making sure that doesn't happen, in the meantime expressing their indignation, and, yes, putting on a bit of a show showing that they're fighting to the very last. a vote at 5:00 today. but it was the events of yesterday, dramatic events when so much was left uncertain until 3:00 in the and and sometime after when susan collins, the moderate republican of maine finally revealed how she was going to vote was the matter and how it was effectively settled. here's a little bit back and forth what happened on the republican side yesterday. >> i did not come to a decision on this until walking into the floor this morning. i believe that brett kavanaugh is a good man. i believe he is a good man. it may just be that in my view he's not the right man for the

court at this time. >> difficult decision for everybody, it really is. so 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. mr. president, i will vote to confirm judge kavanaugh. >> richard, we all know the math in the senate right now, 51-49 majority in favor of the republicans. essentially two members have traded places. manchin, the democrat joe manchin -- joe manchin, the democrat from west virginia is going to vote in fab of this confirmation. he announced five minutes after

susan collins made her dramatic announcement on the floor, and, of course, lisa murkowski ultimately decided to vote no. richard? >> all right. michael will be on the floor all day. thank you, my friend. let's bring in julia on the hill. we've got "the new york times," votes to secure and confirm kavanaugh basically. also looking at the "washington post." this is also today's paper. senate poised to confirm kavanaugh. you've seen these yourself as well. so is there anything you're hearing from your sources despite what these headlines are that might possibly change the kavanaugh outcome? >> you know, richard, it really seems like at this point the vote will go on. a very dramatic week in washington with lots of twists and turns. i think yesterday was a very cathartic moment for a lot of people following this hearing. we saw that susan collins, one of the key swing votes in this

confirmation announced support for kavanaugh, despite a lot of pushback. we're going to see quite a bit of pushback ahead of her election bid in 2020 and that was followed directly by democrat joe manchin who's facing a very tough re-election bid in west virginia, his support of cavanaugh. so a very intense moment right now. we're seeing senators still discussing this on the floor right now. but as it seems, this is going go as planned unless something catastrophic or major happens to interrupt this. >> we'll elude to last night's broadcast. brian williams has been saying he's been in pert petual feral mode. is he at all considering changing his vote based on what we saw in the judiciary

committee? >> we've heard speculation about that, how he's been thoughtful about the process, how he's taken a lot of what the protesters have said into consideration. we saw how he was con frongted last week in the elevator, and i think that image has stuck into a lot of our minds and clearly had a profound impact on him. and also, he's not running for re-election, so this probably doesn't weigh on him as much as other republicans as it would for other republicans or democrats. but as it seems, he's going stick with the majority on this. his logic is saying the fbi investigation in which he asked for and which he got went through and he did not see enough evidence to corroborate the claims against judge kavanaugh. so interesting there. you know, i've heard a lot of people say -- sources tell me that jeff flake almost did the white house a favor in a way for asking for the fbi investigation. you know, it didn't make it seem like they were pushing to rush this through, you know, that

there was a bit more thought into this. interesting how that played out and how a lot of people have said, he has been thoughtful and considerate in this process. >> you know, a lot of people on the senate hill talking about joe manchin from west virginia who came out after senator collins did, saying that he would be voting for kavanaugh, the democratic senator would be doing that. movein.org cut its ties with him as well as a senate candidate who said he would have voted for kavanaugh if he was in the senate. how big of a deal is this as we're watching the story around manchin at the moment? >> in terms of manchin, it isn't that big of a surprise. he comes from west virginia, a ruby red state donald trump won by over 40 points in the 2016 election. this is clearly a political

calculation for him. i think it a going to be hard for republicans to try to spin this on manchin. one tweet that stuck out was from president trump's son, junior, saying lyin' joe manchin came out right after susan collins. he could have announced it before. he's a coward, blah, blah, blah. i don't think that necessarily works in this case. i think joe manchin was trying to speak to a lot of his con stint yenlts, lot of voters who voted for him as well as donald trump in the 2016 elections. that was calculated. >> if things are expected as some watchers think we'll see in the 4:00 or 5:00 hour that brett kavanaugh will become the supreme court justice, then we move forward to him being sworn in and then we move forward to exactly one month from this day, today being october 6th, 538

saying there's a 78% chance democrats will take over the house. some say, hey, we're going to look at impeachment for this future supreme court justice. do you believe that could be a series of events or sit problem? >> it is very problem. it's happened before. it's rare, but it has happened before. one potential future democratic leader in the house that stuck out to me on all of this was jerry nadler who would lead the house judiciary committee. he told "the new york times" yesterday if he becomes the head of the judiciary, he would look into the allegations of judge kavanaugh. that could be major and could be another rallying point for democrats after this confirmation in order to get those votes they need to take back the house. but it also could be a rallying

cry for republicans as well. while republicans can be fired up right now, a lot can happen in a month. i don't think kavanaugh will be on their minds. to bring up yet another donald trump tweet yesterday, he said, mark my words, democrats could move to impeach kavanaugh, so make sure you get out and vote. very poignant cry in all of this. >> very quickly, the president is going to be hitting the road and this could be a point he certainly brings up when he does go to that campaign rally. thank you so much. i appreciate your time today. julia manchester, reporter for "the hill" at this housz. so what does dr. ford think of all of this? some reaction from the woman at the center of the storm as the kavanaugh vote draws closer. kavanaugh vote draws closer. ♪ [ telephone ringing ] -whoa. [ indistinct talking ] -deductible? -definitely speaking insurance.

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about the least among us, and that every generation has tried to make this country a more perfect union, whether it is as they look at nomination of brett kavanaugh to the higher court. many are wondering how the woman at the center of this all, dr. ford sri acting to the developments in just the last 24 hours, for instance. nbc's kasie hunt is on capitol hill with the latest. good morning to you. what did you learn? >> reporter: good morning, richard. to a certain extent in the halls

of the hill, they may have lost sight. they're turning into into a political back-and-forth. the reality is we're here because dr. blasey ford decided to come forward after the letter she had written was leaked, and she, of course, was the one who stood before the committee and testified as to what happened to her. there are a lot of questions now about the movement she touched off. even though we know it's likely that judge kavanaugh is on track for confirmation, this is still going to have a lasting impact, and i talked to her attorneys about that. take a look. does she have any regrets? >> i think she felt good doing what she felt she was called to do, that she had a civic duty. >> republicans have put you in the public spotlight calling you -- >> there was no effort to leak

this letter and have it unfold as it did. that's an absolute falsehood. >> what would the witnesses you wanted to speak to the fbi have said? >> we keep hearing there are not corroborating witnesses, and there are. they would say several years ago before judge kavanaugh was ever considered for supreme court, she told me he sexually assaulted her. >> we've got the names of others. they cherry picked who they spoke to. >> how did you get there, i don't know. where was the place, i don't know. how many years ago was it. i don't know. >> how did she react? >> she was upset as any victim of sexual assault would be who's mock and belittled. >> what do you hope the country takes away with what was done. >> that you should be courageous. that's happened to thousands if not millions of people and she's

pulled back the curtain on that. >> so those were the lawyers deborah katz and lisa banks who have been representing dr. ford. there's a question. we don't know if she's going to be watching the vote later today. richard,'ll take you through what we expect to see. you saw speeches throughout the night. you're going to see more of that throughout the morning and through the afternoon. because of the way the senate rules are structured, the vote won't be held until 5:00 or 5:45 in the evening. we have a handful of them throughout here. it's a smaller number now, but we anticipate they're going to be here ahead of the final vote. it's not going the way many of the protesters wanted it to go. we should also point out, richard, there's going go a couple of differences from what

we saw yesterday in the vote, but our viewers should. be confused about the outcome. we don't anticipate either is going to change the process. the first is senator lisa murkowski who's opposed to kavanaugh, she's going to vote present. she has a colleague who can't be here today. steve daines who can't be here wants to vote yes to kavanaugh. he wants to walk his daughter down the aisle. it is her wedding day. there is a procedure in place. the other piece of this, mike pence is going to be presiding over the senate when the vote happens. now, he is typically the tiebreaker when there's a 50-50 vote. that's not why he's going to be here today. his aides called to make sure there's no confusion that it suggests people might change their votes. he wants to be there for a

momentous occasion. >> if there's a detail to be known, we have to talk to kasie hunt. we're on the big day. give us a sense of the tone or feeling on the ground because this is certainly a story you've been following from the beginning to the end. >> reporter: well, richard, you can tell we're on the downward slope of this. the energy, the momentum around this peaked as senator collins was headed to the floor. as i walked in, far less activity, all activity, although i expect its going to pick up. i saw several women in tears. i anticipate we'll see less activity throughout the day as this winds the a close, but there will still be a lot of people here saying they don't want it to happen. >> a beginning of a long day for

nbc's kasie hunt on capitol hill. >> as well as a long week. >> thank you. joining us now is nbc legal analyst katie phang. good to have you. you heard some of that with dr. ford's attorneys revealing a statement from a corroborating witness who was told of the kavanaugh assault allegation back in 2016. what do you think about that? what's your reaction to this statement? is this a little too little, too late? >> of course, i think it adds to the frustration of the american public who wanted to know with total transparency, richard, what was the information the fbi uncovered during the course of the investigation and why was the fbi investigation so limited. if you have a man who's admittedly a friend of dr. ford and her husband but who corroborated the fact that she came forward as early as 2016, which was obviously months

before the announcement of brett kavanaugh being nominated, how does that not serve as a cooperated witness and why was it not include. it's a frustrating moment. i would want to run down everything, rich arnold, that i could to be able to determine the case, and then when you can't do that, rrnl you going in a little half cocked. so some don't know the truth of what happened 32 years ago. >> as the reporting has it, they have up to 40 potential individuals who wanted to be part of this or were wanting to be part of this investigation. i also as you mention bring up the fbi skroep. "the new york times" overnight wrote this regarding the investigation, saying that the white house council don mcgahn

was responsible for its narrow scope saying, quote, the white house could not legally order the fbi to rummage indiscriminately through someone's life, mr. mcgahn told the president. kat katie, is that the case? is that true? sfloo wh . >> what do you call "rummage indiscriminately," richard? there were several people who had relevant information. why would you not speak to them. it's like the fox guarding the henhouse. the white house would control the scope, parameter, depth, and breadth of the supplemental investigation by the fbi. you knew it was going to be limited. you were hopeful that when it was going to occur, they would retire soon. they had an additional 48 hours in which they could have spoken

to more people, obtained more information and once again they were lead. >> i guess they were making that decision of supplemental background investigation versus a criminal investigation and there's a distinction there, correct? >> there is. in a criminal investigation as we typically look at the fbi to torque you'd be able to have subpoena power. bring them before a grand jury, put people under oath more sore than making statements to the fbi. that doesn't occur when you do a background check. but, richard, it kind of makes you wonder. wouldn't you want to know all of the information? it is the supreme court of the united states. it's the highest court of the land, and it's the court that's going to decide all of the law, determine all of the pris accident that inspires all americans. so it's a little bit disingenuous for the white house

to say they explore it and they've come out empty-handed with information against judge kavanaugh. >> when it comes to the law, it's always great to have lawyerly expertise like yourself, katie phang. thank you. not so fast. how the white house counsel put the brakes on a full fbi investigation and how they wanted it. more on that after this. plus, countdown to the midterms. exactly one month to go. as mentioned today, it's october 6th. on november 6th, voters across the nation will go to the polls. we'll have that as well. polls. we'll have that as well. ahoyy! [excited squeal, giggling, panting] gotcha! ah!

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