>> senator durbin: we shouldn't be.you started off with the premise you've never laid a glove on him. if the fact of the matter is the american people have gone through this nomination and come to the conclusion that he's not the right person for the job. let me go a little bit further here. it comes before us at a time when people are concerned about whether this president or any president is above the law. think about his role when it came to to a judge can start gg after president clinton. he was the aggressive prosecutor in that respect and a few years later after working in the bush white house said that completely reversed my position. i president should not be subject to the subject of prosecution. while he's in office. >> chris: as lindsey graham brought up but i was going to ask you anyway, in 1994, bill clinton was under investigation by an independent counsel on whitewater when he nominated and the senate confirmed stephen breyer and that was also in a midterm election year. that relate directly contradicts t

>> durbin looked stricken when you played that for him.hing is, you're not taking away his liberty. you're right. no matter what happens, judge kavanaugh, after these proceedings, is not going to jail. but you're taking his career. the idea that this guy could, in fact, go back to the court of appeals and continue to serve if he's not confirmed, i think is really unlikely. he'll have his career stolen from him. >> respectfully, women have had much worse taken away. >> two wrongs don't make a right. >> women are looking at this as if their finally voice is going to be heard and if they're going to be believed. for 5,000 years, women have been treated as property. for centuries, including the catholic church, which i'm the member of, they have been treated as second class citizens. women didn't get the right to vote until 1920, though they were told years before that all people are created equal. women have dealt with this for hundreds and hundreds of years. will they be believed when they actively accuse a powerful man? >> and why would she

grassley: the motion has lost, senator durbin. senator durbin: there's a testimony, during the course of his testimony he made it very declarative and saying he had no -- sentence saying he had no involvement with issues involved with interrogation. it turns out that at least in three specific instances where we have written document that this was not true. he was involved in discussions about access to counsel from detainees. he was involved with president bush's signing statement on the mccain torture but refused to tell us the advice he gave. what is it worth for these witnesses to stand before a committee, raise their hand, and take an oath if they then turn around and say things that are not true and not held accountable? is there credibility in this committee? what credibility is there for the witness? this request for subpoena documents related to the rules governing detention of why we even administer even an combatants goes to the heart of why we even administer even an oath before the committee, what is the purpose of it

what i heard, the discussion, between senator durbin and kavanaugh was high brow.t wasn't anybody shouting or any chaos that was in that room. it's going to be a matter of trying to figure out how people are going to at the end determine whether they can support cavanaugh or whether they can't. but what we have been seeing, even there, in particularly in the first day of the hearings, just a couple days after people reflected on the life of john mccain was just more chaos everywhere. i mean, we see the chaos in the white house. we see the chaos on capitol hill. andrea, what this allows me to say again to people is i wouldn't be so fixated. i know these are serious issues, but there's limited things that you can do outside of voting and, you know, protesting and whatever in terms of washington. what i think people need to focus on, because washington is not working. it hasn't been working for a long time. is what can you do where you live to begin to heal the problems that exist in your neighborhood. you know, today in cincinnati, we had a terrible shooting. a lot o

blumenthal coons and durbin. >> and then move to committee business? >> yes. >> okay, i will hold my motion. >> thank you, mr. chairman, it was to give my colleagues an opportunity to give the motions that i did not move forward to adjourn and enable the business of the committee to go forward and i would like to mick a motion the subpoena the following individual for interviews and testimony before this committee. manny miranda, jason lindel, don wilett and william pickle. this testimony is vital in the interviews and in hearings under oath before this committee to resolve key questions of fact that were raised in the hearing and by documents that have been released, thank you, mr. chairman, for waiving the committee designation as to those documents, our senator lahey rose more questions than answers and the only way to address concern of judge kavanaugh is to hear from those witnesses. if we do our job, we will hear our witnesses. if we fail to hear from them, we are in, effect, doing our job. [roll call vote] [roll call vote] >> 10 yeas and 11 nays

senator dick durbin, thanks for joining us. look forward to your questioning of judge brett kavanaugh starting this week. >> thanks chris. >>chris: up next, we will bring in our sunday group to discuss what to expect from this week's showdown between the presidents supreme court pick and senate democrats. plus, what would you like to after panel about judge brett kavanaugh and how his confirmation would change the supreme court. go to twitter, @foxnewssunday > who will vote for judges who follow our laws and our constitution as written . >>chris: president trump on the campaign trail this week making the case for his choice of brett kavanaugh for the supreme court. it's time for our sunday group. former press secretary for vice president mike pence, marc lotter. charles lane of the "washington post". former democratic congresswoman, donna edwards. and former white house speechwriter, marc thiessen. when justice kennedy, the swing vote on the court stepped down and wastalk about replacement. we talk about a fierce battle for the

it was actually after dick durbin was questioning judge kavanaugh.s many statements have been made this morning, from a lot of the colors, he got very nervous when did your been asked him -- when dick durbin asked him about another fbi investigation. immediately after that, senator grassley made the comment that it was not nobody's decision but the committee. host: right. caller: as soon as grassley finished his comments stating that, he went erect lee -- went directly to senator graham. it seemed like it was planned. he went directly, said senator graham, and that was when he unleashed. , then theyoint on never, ever let the special counsel speak again. so it was actually before senator graham speaks that they didn't allow the special counsel. so it seems like they were just -- they had lost were they were just that thewas special counsel wasn't doing them any more good, the republicans. host: we will leave it there because the house is gaveling in early this morning. thank you all for your calls and participating this morning. we will bring you to

this is illinois senator dick durbin. >> dr. ford, with what degree of certainty do you believe right kavanaugh assaulted you? >> 100%. they make one of the 11 republican senators on the senate judiciary committee who are all white men question dr. blasey ford direcectly. instead, seating all of their time to rachel mitchell, an crimes prosecutor, longtime registered republican, who senate majority leader mitch mcconnell called a female assistant. mitchell was also scheduled a question brett kavanaugh on behalf of the republican senators, but was quickly stopped from her line of questioning by them after she asked brett kavanaugh after details of the parties he attended in the summer of 1982, around the time the alleged sexual assault took place. in his testimony to the committee, judge kavanaugh repeatedly deny dr. blasey ford's allegations, denouncing them with barely controlled rage and repeatedly choking up with tears in his eyes. he singled out democrats on the committee, accusing them of staging a circus aimed at derailing

talking to -- is that durbin or whitehouse. durbin. okay. whitehouse left his seat, it seems. coons reporting to others it seems what conversation he's had with jeff flake. >> we haven't seen jeff flake. >> we haven't. garrett, does anybody know where jeff flake is at the moment? garrett haake? all right. garrett may be getting information for us right now. so this is -- you're right, stephanie. five minutes beyond the vote and not having debates of senators of what's going on and there's leahy and graham and hatch and durbin who i see. >> remember, yesterday was extraordinarily emotionally charged and draining for everyone. you saw how upset graham was, flake was, dr. ford was. i mean, it was massive. and brett kavanaugh also performing for a party of one. lindsey graham got up, pushed hard defending brett kavanaugh and then kellyanne conway supporting graham. that's code for the president liking it. the president thought dr. ford did a very good job and he felt grim about that. and then he loved the fact that brett kavanaugh was punching down and punching hard. time has pass

obviously that was klobuchar from minnesota prior to durbin of illinois. but, mimi, what do you make of both of those moments? he had to apologize to the senator for asking -- for answering a question with a question and casting aspersions. and then durbin was left without an answer there. >> well, the first one with klobuchar was not him asking a question. it was him getting so defensive about the question she had asked. >> which was part of today's discussion. >> it was. others have said this, but i'll say it again. it is clear he is lying about the degree to which he did drink and frankly probably the degree to which he drinks now. whether or not he drinks alcohol isn't the central issue of whether he should be a judge, but whether he's lying about it is. and it goes to the truth of the main issue here, which is did you sexually assault dr. ford. and if he was so drunk that he couldn't remember it or couldn't control it, or, you know, just doesn't want to admit all of that, that goes to that central issue. and there is no doubt in my mind in that answer

senator dick durbin, thanks for joining us. look forward to your questioning of judge brett kavanaugh starting this week. >> thanks chris. >>chris: up next, we will bring in our sunday group to discuss what to expect from this week's showdown between the presidents supreme court pick and senate democrats. plus, what would you like to after panel about judge brett kavanaugh and how his confirmation would change the supreme court. go to twitter, @foxnewssunday today... back pain can't win. now introducing aleve back and muscle pain. only aleve targets tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. aleve back & muscle. all day strong. all day long. your insurance rates a scratch so smallr you could fix it with a pen. how about using that pen to sign up for new insurance instead? for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ who would have guessed? an energy company helping cars emit less. making cars lighter, it's a good pla

chairman, by thanking senator durbin. response to his questions about the judiciary, the role of the judiciary, he gave me a book when we met, a biography of frank johnson. that friday night after a lot of senate meetings and a lot of practice sessions, i went home, read the whole thing, and i appreciate it. it's a good model of judicial independence. it's a great story about someone who was a judge in the south in the civil rights era who stood firm for the rule of law. so a good model, and i thank senator durbin for giving me the book. >> thank you, judge kavanaugh. that night obviously the nationals weren't playing. >> yes. >> senator lee. >> you've been watching senator dick durbin, democrat of illinois, questioning the supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. we're going to keep an eye on that hearing. we'll bring you back there if there is big news. now other big breaking news here in washington today. it's at the white house where the president is demanding names. first and foremost, the president wants the name of t

exactly -- when i listened to kamala harris and dick durbin, frankly some of the republicans as they try to stay up with him, it was a very, it was very revealing both as to their capacity and the -- and the nominee's extraordinary intellect as you say. we are going to see this nominee be approved and be ready for the fall term on the supreme court? >> my understanding is that they're going wrap this thing up sometime mid to late september and he will be confirmed and that he'll be sitting there for the october session and that's my hope. i mean, look, this guy is really talented. he is really a brilliant jurist, just a great man. >> you know, this nominee kavanaugh and sitting on the court, the president's other

republican lindsay graham and democrat dick durbin. plus, trade talks with canada take a tense turn. >> i think canada very much wants to make the deal and i think will be on a very good for canada if they do and not good at all if they don't. >>chris: on this labor day weekend, we will discuss what a new master means for america's workers. with the head of the country's largest group of unions, afl-cio president richard trumka. only on "fox news sunday". then the >> twitter and facebook are really treading on troubled territory. >>chris: we will ask our panel of white house talk of regulating google. for what it claims is political bias in its search service. and our "power player of the week". country music legend dolly parton on giving books to billions of children.

dick durbin / -d- illinois: "with what degree of certainty did brett kavanaugh assaulted you?"christine blasey ford / accuses kavanaugh of sexual assault: "100 percent"long-time sex crimes prosecutor - rachel mitchell --- standing in for the all-male republican committee members--- attempted to poke holes in ford's memory of the events.christine blasey ford / accuses kavanaugh of sexual assault: "i can't give the exact date."kavanaugh insisting the allegations are part of a smear campaign.sen. dianne feinstein / -d- california: "if you are confident of your position, why aren't you also asking fbi?"brett kavanaugh /supreme court nominee: "my family has been destroyed."republican senator lindsey graham blaming democratssen. lindsey graham / -r- south carolina: "this is the most unethical sham since i've been in politics."as senate republicans work to see if they have the votes to confirm their nominee to the supreme court -- kavanaugh emphatic he still wants the job.brett kavanaugh /supreme court nominee: "you'll never get me to quit. never."

i talked to senator durbin. i talked to everybody, including the presiding officer, everybody on our committee. so we made great progress, and i want to thank again the people, starting with senator leahy, senator mcconnell, senator schumer, senator durbin, that really helped this come about. i want to take a second and thank some of the staff of the defense subcommittee. brian potts and eric rainch and long with senators blunt, durbin, murray, for their work on these bills that are eminent here today. this is a good start with us. we're not there yet, mr. president, but we're getting there. and if we keep on the road, keep the trains running, we're going to make the appropriations committee work again. thank you very much. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: mr. president, i thank the distinguished senior senator from alabama. before i start, i should note we have votes scheduled for 12:00. i may go a little bit over that, so i ask consent that i be allowed to finish my whole statement.

schumer, durbin, cantwell, and it's strategy of judges. in addition, you can see timing of hearings, the consensus is to make priscilla owen, a nominee to the circuit court, the big fight to july 18th. miguel estrada will be difficult to defeat given the sparseness of his record. next, another one, july 18th. priscilla owen again, miguel estrada again, they have a real hate on for estrada. you are about to find out why in a moment. senator leahy took the important first step of asking for memorandthat estrada produced working at the solicitor general's office. unfortunately the department refused to turn over the memos. that is the historic position of the department of justice, the solicitor's office advocates on behalf of the federal government and federal work product, it's not turned over to the united states senate during a confirmation process. next. you can see april 17, 2007, elaine, elaine jones, would like the committee to hold off. now first of all, before we go on, look who's in the meetings, elaine jones of the naacp legal def

i went to assure senator durbin regardless of what you say to senator don mcgahn we are not stopping this hearing.en >> i will just say this. if you judge kavanaugh turned to don mcgahn and say for the sake of my reputation and my family name to get to the bottom of this i will not be an obstacle to the fbi investigation i hope all members would join me to say we abide by your wishes and have the investigation. >> whatever the committee wants to do i'm telling the truth. >> i want to know what you want tod do. >> i am innocent of this charge. >> and you are prepared. >> they don't reach the conclusion. >> they do investigate question questions. >> you cannot have it both ways you cannot say at the beginning that you welcome any kind of investigation. >> this was wrong on the last minute after being held by staf staff. i called for a hearing immediately. >> if there is no truth to the charges the fbi investigation will show that. are you afraid they might not? mimic the fbi doesa not reach conclusions you know that is a false question the fbi does not reach conclusions they provide 30

they make senator durbin. thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for the way you've presided over this committee. it's been a challenge for the last several days, the u.n. i have been through battles in the past, both as allies and its enemies in its enemies in the abolish unfairness and i appreciate the fairness you shown during the course of this hearing. i also want tone say a word abot the protesters have interrupted the hearing from time to time. as i said at the outset, this is one of the cost of democracy in it's on the senate judiciary committee, which has been constructed for guarding our constitution should value even when it'ss inconvenient. i could go into a long riskier, but i won't in the interest of time. i don't know who organized these protests are why they did it, that's a goodness in the united states of america where we generate d freese beach commend these things can happen. i want to thank the men and women of the capitol police and those in charge ofof our securiy during this period of time as well. i would like to

. >> senator durbin. >> mr. chairman, i ask consent to enter into the record letters of support for dr. ford from her classmates at holton arms school, 1200 alumni of the school, 195 of your colleague, students, and mentors, 1400 men and women who attended d.c. schools, and 15 members of the yale law school faculty calling for a full fbi investigation. i ask consent to enter these into the record. >> without objection, so ordered. >> as difficult as this experience must be, i want you to know your courage in coming forward has given countless americans the strength to face their own life-shattering past and begin to heal their wounds. by example, you have brought many families into an honest and sometimes painful dialogue that should have occurred a long time ago. y i'll sorry for what this has done to you and your family. no one, no one should face harassment, death threats, and comments by cheap shot politicians simply for telling the truth. you and your family should know for every scurrilous charge and every

joining us now in the studio is the number two ranking democrat in the senate, dick durbin. senator thank you so much for being with us this morning. we heard moments ago the attorney for dr. christine blaise-ford said she is willing to testify in the senate. will that happen this week? >> i don't know that there will be a hearing but testimony. we haven't decided the parameters. chuck grassley, senators and others have to make sure that the american people believe everyone is being treated fairly. rushing this through is not treating someone fairly. doing this in a conference call as opposed to her offer to come forward and say things publicly is certainly not fair. we need to postpone the scheduled vote, which was supposed to take place on thursday, until we get to the bottom of this. >> again, are you in favor of a public hearing? >> i think that's the only way to go at this point. she has agreed to do it and it's going to be very difficult, otherwise, to satisfy all the different things that have been said, contradictory things, as you noted, between judge kavanaugh and

you voted not guilty on both accounts and didn't give a dam, you dickie durbin are a fraud. here is what broadderick said recently about a confrontation with hillary clinton. >> she came ahold of me, took my hand and said, i've heard so much about you and i've been dying to meet you, been wanting to meet you. i can't, just paraphrasing now. i just want you to know how much that bill and i appreciate what you do for him. she held on to my hand and she said, do you understand everything that you do, i mean cold chills went up my spine. first time i became afraid of that woman. >> democrats, the shoe may be on the other foot now for kavanaugh. during clinton administration, he was on independent counsel of starr's team and talking about bill clinton's personal life. rather than runing from this accusation, kavanaugh has gone on the record to deny it and said he's willing to testify as soon as possible. >> laura: all right, thanks, ed. ed highlighted, democrats saying a different tune when allegations raised about bill clinton. joining us is juanita broadderick, who famously acc

senator durbin, welcome to "meet the press." >> good to be with you. >> let me start quickly on thisissue of the op-ed and the president. what should congress' role be? if there is an unelected cabal of people thwarting the will of the people and trying to stop the president from doing things that he campaigned on doing, for instance, ending a trade agreement with south korea, what is the role of the legislative branch in dealing with a troubling -- potentially troubling situation like that? >> well, of course, there is a formal role. congress under the constitution has its own authority, but it is an authority that is exercised in the extreme. the 25th amendment, the question of impeachment, but i think there's a more important role for congress to play and especially the president's own party. this is a matter of great seriousness and gravity. we should not be dismissing it. it isn't like his blizzard of bizarre tweets. we are talking about consistent reporting over and over again about unpredictable, unprepared, unstable behavior by this president. in a matter of great national se

president trump, kellyanne conway, republica b senatoren sasse of nebraska and democratic senator dick durbin of illinoi >>> also, guess who is on the campaign trial. >> you need to vote because our democracy depends on it. >> andho guessis listening. >> i'm sorry, i watched it, but i fell asleep. >> joining me for insight and analysis are nbc newst correspond katy tur,de cratic pollster cornell belcher, danielle pletka of the american enterise institute and erick erickson, editor of the resurgent.y. welcome to sun bc's "meet the press." >> announcer: fromews in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning. it's not every day that we have words and phrases like these thrown around so freely here in washington. constitutional crisis, 25th amendment, sleeper cells, polygraph examinations, nervous breakdown, orange jumpsuit and administrative cod' at, but that's what happened this week when we retreated to two nt disturbing accof white house dysfunction, a one-two punch describing top officials working quietly to thw

. >> reporter: and aquatic senator durbin -- democratic senator durbin is requesting the documents from white house from former president george w. >> if we're lucky we will see 6% of all of the documents. >> reporter: the trump administration is citing executive privilege to withhold 100,000 pages of records. an attorney of mister bush revealed this decision in this letter. senate minority leader chuck schumer reacted swiftly declaring, we are witnessing a friday night document massacre, adding it has all the makings of a cover-up. majority leader mitch mcconnell says the outrage is unfounded. >> the only senators that met with this nominee and had negative things to say were democrats that already announced before him that they would oppose him. >> reporter: chuck grassley released a statement supporting the decision to withhold some records. more than 400,000 have been turned orecent supreme court nominees. the white house is defending its decision saying the production of documents in this case is consistent with others. that the judiciary committee received all of the documents it

the number two in the senate, dick durbin, one of the senators questioning judge brett kavanagh this week and today we're so grateful for your time. let me bring you into this conversation we're having. did the op-ed yesterday in "the new york times" from a political appointee of donald trump that told all of us that the cabinet has talked about invoking the 25th amendment change things in your view? >> i can tell you that 25th amendment is a steep hill to climb. to have the vice-president as well as a majority of the cabinet notify the congress, both the house and the senate that the president is unable to continue in office is a pretty steep request against any administration. and then a two-thirds vote in both chambers to move the vice-president into the operating position, that, too, is a big high hill to climb. we have with this "the new york times" piece an indication that within this administration there is a genuine fear that this president is going to go too far. i've had that fear for a long time, and hope there would be saner people around him. >> senator, is the fact that

i am hear democrats literally chaering in senator durbin's office. democrats were not going around in the halls openly cheering and celebrating what just happened. they did burst into cheering behind closed doors. doors that apparently were not thick enough to block congressional reporters or at least one of them from hearing them start to shout and celebrate inside senator durbin's office. what the democrats were celebrating that day was this guy. not becoming a judge. for everything else the trump administration have proved themselves incapable of not doing. republicans in the senate under president obama had a strategy about this. they held open every single judicial seat they could for as long as they could including a seat on the supreme court. they just would not let the obama white house put any federal judges through and so in the obama years with republicans in control of the senate. the vacancies for judicial seats just mounted for years and having followed that strategy for years, republicans finally got the pay off when the republican pre

and i thank senator durbin for giving me that book. senator durbin: obviously, that night, the nationals weren't playing. [laughter] ms. lee: thank you, judge kavanaugh for your willingness to answer our questions. i think this cuts in your favor, not against you. tell me if i'm missing something. in the first place, what you were asked about is whether or not you were involved in crafting the policies that would govern detention of enemy combatants, is that right? judge kavanaugh: that's correct. >> and that was a classified program, classified at a high level such that you would have had to have been read into that program in order to participate n that process, is that right? read in, i wasn't necessarily using the formal sense of that. i was not part of that program. ms. lee: that is a binary issue, you are either involved or were not, and you were not. judge kavanaugh: that's correct. ms. lee: tim flanagan was the deputy counsel has confirmed you were not involved in that. judge kavanaugh: that's correct. ms. lee: we have your wor

i think senator durbin said it was unrestrained, unaccountable, unconstitutional str unconstitutional statute. >> i'm interested in your views, judge. you said it was a constitutional travesty, what did you mean? >> i think i meant what justice kagan said when she said at stanford a few years ago that justice scalia's dissent was one of the greatest dissents ever written and got better every year. identifying justice scalia's dissent is one of the greatest dissents ever written. justice kagan seemed to be saying this is the only reading of it, the morrison v. olson decision was wrong. >> i'll actually strongly disagree. you offered that quote, that cite of justice kagan when we met. i was struck. perhaps i should call justice kagan and say she is one of your judicial heroes. i think that crytatiitation is but misleading in context. she wrote in a famous harvard law review rejiecting the theor which is at the route root of the dissent. i think she was talking about the writing not the legal theory. i'm trying to get to the point -- >> i think i disagree with that, senator. >> i look fo

chairman. >>> before we take a break, i can't let what durbin -- senator durbin said. by the way, he's my friend. we work on a lot ogelegislation er. but you talked about the obstruction from the other sid i cannot let it go by what you've heard me say soany times that between july 30th and september 13th that were 45 days, this committee could havee investigating this situation and her privacy woul have been protected. so something happened here in between on your side thathe whole country -- not the whole country should have known --e should have investigated it. we'll take a break now for 15 minutes. >>> we've been watching christine blasey ford for the first time under oath answering questions before the senate judiciary committee. no doubt earlyn this day, early in her testimony and questioning. people are beginning to form their own opinions about her credibility and her demeanor and so on anso forth. as i bring on our panel, chuck todd and megan tally and savannah.g one thve noted is the format. if you've watched the previously testimony where we go from republi

i can hear democrats literally cheering in senator durbin's office. that day in the u.s. senate, democrats were not going around in the halls openly cheering and celebrating what had just happened but they apparently did burst into cheering behind closed doors. doors that apparently were not thick enough to block shoe leather congressional reporters. at least one of them from hearing they were shouting and cheering inside senator dur binl's office. what they were celebrating that day was this guy. not becoming a judge. for everything else the trump administration has proven itself incapable of doing, they have been just a juggernaut at confirming conservative judges. republicans in the senate under president obama had a strategy about this. they held open every single judicial seat they could for as long as they could, including even a seat on the u.s. supreme court. they would not let the obama white house put any federal judges through. so in the obama years, the vacancies for judicial seats mounted and mounted and mounted for years. and then having followed that strate

thank you for being here and i want to thank my two colleagues senators durbin and senators murray for being here. it is appalling for leader mcconnell with the allegations against judge kavanaugh a smear job. and this bears repeating mcconnell owes an apology to doctor ford. and to do it immediately. so on fox news last night judge kavanaugh repeatedly called for a fair process as well. the best way to make sure that process gets to the truth in a respectful manner with fbi background check investigations. if you want the truth you ask for the investigation if you are afraid of the truth you avoid it. we want one and the fact that our republican friends are busy pointing fingers and calling names and shows they are afraid of the facts. we have urged over and over for what it has always done. background check investigation in a dignified way with the minority and majority parties to weigh the facts. of course it is a crime to lie to the fbi agent so the truth is likely to come out. instead of pointing fingers left and right where they simply come out to say to have an fbi investigation

so i thank senator durbin for giving me the book. >> and q, judge kavanaugh.nals are not playing. the [laughs] because thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for your willingness to answer our questions. >> i want to follow up a little bit on this question from senator durbin. we actually, notwithstanding the fact that we come from different parts of the country, we come from different political parties. we share many different views uncommon. this is one area, where he and i, we are concerned about the government not overreaching. as i look at this, i think this cuts in your favor, not against you. tell me if i am missing something. in the first place, what you were asked about was whether or not you were involved in crafting the policies that would govern detention of enemy combatants, is that right? >> that is correct. >> and that was a classified program, classified at a very high level, presumably compartmentalized that you would have had to have been bred into that program in order to participate in the process, isn't that right? >> i believe that's correct.

i want to follow up on this last line of questioning from senator durbin. senator durbin and i notwithstanding the fact we come from different parts of the country. come from different political parties, we share many views in common. this is one area. in indefinite detention where he and i are concerned about the government not overreaching. only as i look at this, i think this cuts in your favor. not against you. tell me if i've missing something. in the first place what you were asked about was whether or not you were involved in crafting the policies that would govern detention of enemy combatants, is that right? >> that's correct. >> and that was a classified program, classified in a very high level. presumably compartmentalized, such that you would have had to have been read into that program. in order to participate in that process, is that right? >> i believe that's correct. read in, i wasn't necessarily using the formal sense of that. but what i meant is i was not part of that program. >> okay. but that is a binary issue. you were either involved,

durbin: what is the business before the senate? the presiding officer: the senate is considering the feldman nomination. mr. durbin: thank you. madam president, i ask unanimous consent to speak in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: madam president, plow through, plow through this nomination. that's what the majority leader said over the weekend. we're going to plow through this nomination of brett kavanaugh for the supreme court. it doesn't sound to me like a recipe for fairness, and it certainly doesn't sound like a recipe for getting to the truth. plow through. that was what the republican majority leader said the republican majority would do. i was surprised when this all started by a spokesman for president trump, kelly anne conway. not noted for her moderation made a very, i thought, moderate and thoughtful statement at the beginning of the consideration of dr. ford's charges. she said we are neither going to ignore or insult dr. ford. i thought that was a good standard. unfortunately, sinc

you heard it from feinstein, to some degree senator leahy, senator durbin especially. finally, because this was becoming not a battle over facts about a battle over politics, lindsey graham came in. i don't know if it had been planned or not but he took his time back from rachel mitchell and he said you want to play politics? let's talk about what's going on here. this is the most disgraceful, political drama that were. called out the extraordinary scene. this is a nomination, confirmation hearing for supreme court nominee and they are talking about a 17-year-old's yearbook. and what did the keg party need and what did renate alumnius mean. he called out the absurdity. the game the democrats are playing and i think he kind of called ds on them -- called b.s. on them. >> bret: let's take a listen on that from senator graham. >> if you wanted an fbi investigation, you could have come to us. what you want to do is destroy this guy's life, hold the seat open, and hope you win in 2020. you have said that, not me. you have got nothing to apologize for. when you see sotomayor

so we take it to the number actual democrat in the senate, illinois' dick durbin.ator durbin, thank you for joining us on "primetime." >> it's good to be with you. >> all right. tom of the docket tonight is this storm is coming, florence. looks like we're not going to avoid a bad situation here. obviously, we're going to mobilize, but the help starts at the top, and the president spoke today about hurricane florence, and he put it into the context of what was learned from hurricane maria, and the question matters. he was asked what lessons were learned? here was his answer. >> i think puerto rico was incredibly successful. i actually think it was one of the best jobs that's ever been done with respect to what this is all about. i think that puerto rico was an incredible unsung success. >> is he thinking of some different maria than i remember being in puerto rico with a death toll that was grossly exaggerated and people are no water and power and were treated like they weren't part of america? >> i can tell you that if we'd had that similar storm response in the un

and particularly in the event of a supreme court hearing. >> senator durbin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. like my colleague senator whitehouse, i don't want my silence to be interpreted as a consent to the process that we have faced before this senate judiciary committee. it's unlike any process i have ever seen. this designation of committee confidential should be put in historic context. there will be an opportunity for us later this afternoon to meet in secret private session to discuss this nominee. that's not unusual. it's done for virtually every nominee. some of the meetings are literally a minute or two. we say there's nothing to talk about and we're leaving. it's happened in the past. whenever we dealt with committee confidential, it was something that was very special and usually very personal to a nominee. it was done by bipartisan agreement that we would protect the nominee from assertions or comments that may not have any truth to them whatsoever. but the committee should take into consideration. that is a far cry from what we have faced with this nominee. i cannot

and the release to the public and particularly in the event of a supreme court hearing. >> senator durbin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. like my colleague senator whitehouse i don't want my silence to be a consent to the process we've faced. it is unlike any process i have ever seen. this designation of committee confidential should be put in historic context. there will be an opportunity for us later this afternoon to meet in confidential and secret private session to discuss this nominee. that is not unusual. it is done for virtually every nominee. some of the meetings are literally last a matter of a minute or two and we say there's nothing to talk about and we're leaving. but it's happened in the past. whenever we dealt with committee confidential, it was something very specific and usually very personal to a nominee. and it was done bye-b bipartisa agreement we would protect the nominee from assertion or comments that may not have any truth to them whatsoever but the committee should take into consideration. that is a far cry from what we have faced with this nominee. i cannot understa