use or yielding back of time, the senate vote on the adoption of the lee amendment number 4011 without intervening action or debate and that upon disposition of the lee amendment s. 2554 be read a third time and the senate vote on the bill as amended if amended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that a time determined by the majority leader in consultation with the democratic leader the senate proceed to consideration of calendar 485, hrcts 6 -- h.r. 6 and senator alexander or his designee be recognized to call up amendment 4013 and that there be one hour of debate equally divided and that upon the use or yielding back of that time, the alexander amend number 4013 be agreed to and that h.r. 6 as amended be read a third time and the senate vote without intervening action or debate on the bill as amended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: so now, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn to then convene for pr

ford, and the entire senate. dr. ford will be heard, and of course judge kavanaugh will have the opportunity to defend himself against this accusation. an accusation which he has unequivocally denied. and which stands at odds with every other piece of the overwhelming positive testimony we have received about his character from his close friends, colleagues, law clerks, from the distant past to the present day, including high school years during which this misconduct is alleged to have taken place. so this alleged incident is completely at variance with his entire life history. he welcomes the opportunity to address the committee about this claim, but colleagues, we should not have gotten to this point in this manner at this time. that this process has played out with so little order and so little sensitivity lies solely at the feet of senate democrats who saw a political advantage in leaking this to the press instead of vetting it through proper channels. but this is where we are. so on monday, chairman grassley and

and to be appointed, the senate must confirm, and he addresses this question then of the role of the senate and he says the following. alexander hamilton writing to explain the action, the design of the constitution in his letter to the people of new york in 1788. alexander hamilton says, to what purpose then require the cooperation of the senate? i answer that the necessity of their concurrence would have a powerful, though in general silent operation. it would be an excellent check upon the spirit of favortism in the president and tend greatly to prevent the appointment of unfit characters. and he goes on to say that a president might be influenced by favortism to people from his own state or favortism to people in his family or family connections. or favortism because he had a friendship. or a respect for popularity triumphing over professional skills. so, for all these reasons, the senate process exists to review the record of the individual. and a determent as hamilton put it. is that individual of fit character or unfit character? now, we all here in the senate took an oath of o

to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable ron johnson, a senator from the state of wisconsin, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: orrin g. hatch, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. mrs. ernst: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mrs. ernst: thank you, mr. president. today i rise to honor a dear, dear friend of the senate, a dear, dear friend to me. this weekend many of us had the honor of joining the family of john sidney mccain iii as we walked through his life and shared memories of such a man, a true patriot, an american hero, a wonderful senator, a father, and, again, a wonderful friend. the first time i met senator mccain was in 2014, and he was larger than life. i was engaged in my primary for the united states senate, and i had the opportunity to visit washington, d.c., and sit down with senator mccain in his office and just visit with him about what it was like to be a united states senator. and

to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable john boozman, a senator from the state of arkansas, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: orrin g. hatch, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate will be in a period of morning session with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: the senator from mississippi is recognized. mr. wicker: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: mr. president, like millions of people across the country, i watched the hearing yesterday with a mix of so many strong emotions. first, i watched dr. ford with tears in my eyes. she was so brave, so compelling, so real. the memories that she recounted, the memories that she

by the result of this, 11—10 to move forward to the senate ?is, 11—10 to move forward to the senate? i am not surprised it moved forward given jeff flake's surprised it moved forward given jeff fla ke's announcement surprised it moved forward given jeff flake's announcement earlier today he was going to vote yes, he would have to break his word to the people but he found a way to have a face—saving compromise and try and getan face—saving compromise and try and get an investigation. it's unprecedented but it's not terribly surprising in light of the conflicts he's been going through over the last week. what about this motion he put forward, were you expecting that? the argument is due diligence, fairenough? that? the argument is due diligence, fair enough? i think he had a last—minute change of heart after being ambushed by the sexual assault survivor in the elevator, he had already committed to voting yes and then she and would other things were going on behind the scenes that we don't know about persuaded him that he ought to take the democra

the senators who were not on that committee watched on tv the spectacle as it unfolded and the seemingly relentless attempts by united states senators to find new ways to humiliate themselves. >> now, let me just -- people hearing yesterday's testimony are probably wondering how could this client, you know, retired woman know about something like long don silver. did you tell her that? >> he's still on the judiciary committee. senator orin hatch is still on the senate judiciary committee. and the question tonight is what has orin hatch learned in the 27 years since he embarrassed himself and the senate in that hearing? what have the republicans and the judiciary committee learned? the answer might be they learned absolutely nothing. before completely surrendering to democratic demands today they postpone thursday's vote on brett kavanaugh's confirmation the republicans led by mitch mcconnell and chuck grassly, the chairman of the judiciary committee, were trying to power through. they were insistent the vote would take place on thursday. and they were trying to arrange some kind of priva

one, the word "sham." senator leahy, chairman of the committee, accepted documents committee confidential. during gorsuch's nomination, we accepted committee documents committee confidential. at that time, senator feinstein asked for 19 documents, as we're getting documents for you now. in the same way. so, you read from my letter and you called it a sham. was it a sham when we did it for gorsuch? was it a sham when we, when senator leahy did it? and the reason we did it is so that we could get documents so you could review them almost from i think august the 5th or sometime. maybe it was august 10th. so you could start on it very early. and then don't forget, that documents come, committee confidential and don't forget on a regular rolling basis they're not committee confidential and then put on our website, so that the 300 million people can view them if they want to. and then the second point about the lawyer for president bush, all of our conversations last night were with the department of justice. i hope you

bring it to an upper down vote on the wall in the u.s. senate in the house of representatives. up or down. i guarantee you, it would not republicans and democrats know how foolish it looks to most americans. >> paul manafort's plea deal. senator patrick leahy: yeah. >> what is your reaction to it? what stands out to you about this? senator patrick leahy: we are still getting the details. i was a prosecutor for years and i never had cases like that. i look first at what happened in virginia, where 11 of the 12 jurors wanted to convict him on all counts. one was a strong trump supporter who held out so there was a mistrial. but he still got convicted. on very serious cases. thereis, i would assume deal.plea out -- robert mueller is the own -- one person throughout all of this he does not speak to the press. i have known robert for years. i have avoided calling him during this for obvious reasons. he is very methodical. prosecutor is a prosecutor. if this is a plea agreement on a case where they could have easily gotten him on all of the counts, i suspect there is an .greement for

the republicans on the senate judiciary committee and all of the republicans in the senate, all of them, every one of them, every single one of them is now lying about not needing an fbi investigation. that is a lie that every single republican in the united states senate has now agreed to tell. why should dr. ford accept worse conditions issued to her with malice for her senate testimony than what the very same committee gave to anita hill? chuck grassly is pretending that he has given dr. ford options, the option to testify privately, which is not shg sheomething sh requested or the option to testify publicly. but the option she wants is more time because she and her family have essentially become fugitives trying to avoid the glare of this story and the death threats that come with it. and she wants what anita hill got. she wants an fbi investigation. she wants a basic decent approach to this subject first by the fbi. chuck grassly won't do that. chuck grassly says no fbi investigation. and the only possible time on the calender that exists for this is monday at 10:00 a.m. no other t

that will happen after the senate approves the bill on monday. senator rob portman has been a leader on this. senator lamar alexander helped him negotiate behind the scenes. on the democratic side, you've seen people like joe manchin from virginia that west virginia. -- from west virginia. host: what's been the reaction from the white house? guest: they declared it a public health crisis last year. while the senate was figuring out when they were going to find time to vote, president trump tweeted about the issue of fentanyl coming across the border. some people think that may have lit a fire, the president bringing attention to it. host: do we see this coming up in midterm election campaigns? is it a topic for anyone right now? guest: health care in general is the biggest issue on the campaign right now. you hear democrats talking about it all the time. they fold opioids into that, particularly around issues like medicaid expansion and making sure everyone has access to affordable health care because treatment is a huge part of overcoming addicti

to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable deb fischer, a senator from the state of nebraska, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: orrin g. hatch, president pro tempore. mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: day two of judge brett kavanaugh's confirmation hearings proved to be a marathon session -- for 13 hours, judge kavanaugh was grilled by our colleagues on the judiciary committee. through that testing, the senate got to see exactly why the american bar association deemed this nominee to be unanimously well-qualified. that's the highest possible rating, a distinction many of our democratic colleagues in the past have called the gold standard. we saw precisely why he's earned such praise from accomplished legal figures like lisa blatt, a self-described liberal and leading supreme court litigator, who proudly introduced judge kavanaugh before the committee, and neal katyal, the obama administration solicitor general, who said, quote, it is very

conducted before the senate holds any public hearing on that allegation. that, of course, is the request as of tonight from dr. blasey's lawyers. secretary clinton told me here she is sure such an fbi investigation could be done good evening, lawrence. >> good evening, rachel. you know, you do a fact-based show. you are a presenter of fact, a finder of fact. and i rarely get to hear your opinion in your show. and so i listened. i was hanging on every word. and i heard you say to hillary clinton, early in your hour, that you believe that the kavanagh nomination is, quote, hurtling toward the sun. you want to expand on that? >> you are my little eagle eyed friend, lawrence o'donnell. yes, i did say that. that is my take on it. and i am a terrible predictor and nobody should bank on anything that i predict ever, in politics or in anything. but given the way christine blasey ford is approaching this, given the corroboration that has already appeared in the press in terms of the notes from therapy from years ago, her husband on the record and his recollections,

of the room. senator coons has come back into the committee room and has been whispering to senator feinstein, senator durbin. about what, we don't know. one of the assumptions was that democrats are really pushing for this delay for at least a week to let the fbi back into the investigation. are they talking about that? we don't know. senator flake is now back in the room and now this vote is seven, 8 minutes till eight and senator grassley is pretty time oriented when he said 1:30. >> harris: let me ask you about senator amy klobuchar from minnesota, because she laid it out like the former prosecutor we know her to be in terms of why you would want that fbi investigation to even happen now. and speaking to a delay. if democrats haven't been able to get a delay, we saw yesterday, what about yesterday would aid them in getting a delay? >> bret: of the emotional testimony of dr. christine blase for it and how she presented herself and i think was to their benefit. obviously the prosecutor from arizona, mis

live coverage now of the senate here on c-span2. >> the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. lord of our being, on yesterday as we remembered september 11, we also felt gratitude for your sovereignty over the affairs of humanity. may our lawmakers trust in your unfolding providence to continue to sustain this land we love and guide our world. lord, disentangle our senators from life's turmoil, inspiring them to focus on accomplishing your purposes lord, give them the wisdom to find time to read sacred scriptures. remind them that they belong to you, as you draw them daily nearer to yourself. we pray in your great name. amen. the president pro tempore: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. mr. mcconnell

to send his nomination to the full senate. get back, and immediately it is clear something is crazy. something is going unexpectedly, and it is clear that flake has been talking to the minority and having second thoughts. there was not a lot of republicans did you get it may only have a one-c majority on the jud >> he has made it clear, he is not going to vote to confirm the nominee unless they go forward with the fbi investigation which has now been ordered. it seems to be the case he had been in communication with other swing vote senators in making that decision. what do you think was the specific tipping point for senator flake? what changed his mind between announcing in the morning he was going to vote for the nomination and coming to the judiciary committee saying i will vote him out that i have to have this investigation before i will vote for him on the floor of the senate? guest: there's a lot that has been made of some interacts -- interactions flake has had in the capital with folks who have become folk heroes. i t

with nearly two decades experience in the senate serving alongside john mccain senator kyle is the paired to hit the ground running. over the last few months senator kyle has been working closely with white house on the senate confirmation of president donald trump's nominee to the us supreme court, brett kavanaugh. now, senator kyle can cast a vote for cavanaugh's confirmation. senator kyle is a beacon of integrity and highly regarded by people on both sides of the aisle. they are able to work across party lines to get results. there is a reason you considered one of the senators in the country because he was. he's an expert on the matters facing arizona. water, land use, and issues facing our native american communities. i want someone who will enter and lead on those conversations. for those reasons i've asked senator john kyle to step forward once again in the spirit of service and to aid our state and serve in the seat vacated by arizona most beloved adopted s son, john mccain. people automatically assume that this appointment will serve through 2020. i have not been able to get that

kellie: this is a watershed moment for the senate. they have been trying for years to move bills to the process in a bipartisan manner. i think the joint effort by chairman richard shelby and senator patrick leahy has gotten a lot of these bills onto the floor and into conference. what i was struck by was that his total willingness to bring back earmarks during the q&a when i asked him how or whether democrats might run things differently if they were in control. that follows along with what some republicans have been saying. even some democrats, house minority whip steny hoyer came out in favor of this. it shows that as congress puts more and more effort into the appropriations process, just in terms of time that they have been devoting to this on the floor and committee, they have realized that in order to fund specific projects, it is hard to do it without an earmark, especially if you have a water project down in alabama, a water treatment plant, how do you fund that through a grant program? sometimes an earmark is a way you kind o

we begin with what's happening in the senate right now. one of the most intense high stakes legal political battles and with a partial surrender by donald trump. the president has been fighting to prevent any background probe of his supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh regarding new allegations of sexual misconduct. tonight i can tell you donald trump just lost this round. he is reversing himself, agreeing to reopen the fbi background check. how did this happen? we begin tonight with some behind-the-scenes moments you almost never get to witness in real-time. it all began, it appears, with a citizen, a sexual assault survivor confronting republican senator jeff flake this morning. you see some of that right there. pleading with him not to back brett kavanaugh. now flake had said he would vote for kavanaugh, but then within hours of that confrontation, senator flake did something that we rarely see in this choreographed partisanship era of this congress. and it's certainly something rare for many republicans who seem to live in a quivering,

have senator jon kyl sworn into the united states senate to complete the work of this congress. governor, just to follow-up on if senator kyl does step down at the year, which will point? gov. ducey: i have been clear on that from the beginning. that is not going to happen. i not in the universe of potentials for this. i love the job i have. i want to retain it. when i considered entering public life, i visited with senator kyl and told him i thinking of getting involved in public service. he askedirst question me was do you have an executive personality or legislative personality? and i knew the answer immediately. i said in executive personality. he said, don't consider congress. i'm going to stick right there. >> governor, he said he wanted to make this decision regardless of politics but with all due respect, senator kyl has been working with the white house and -- in the kavanaugh appointment. i don't understand how you -- y ou swear he's a non politicized appointment when he is someone who has been involved in the political process. gov. ducey: i think in picking the best p

to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable cindy hyde-smith, a senator from the state of mississippi, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: orrin g. hatch, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the following nomination which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, consumer product safety commission, peter a. feldman of the district of columbia to be a commissioner. the presiding officer: majority leader. mr. mcconnell: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: you're not. mr. mcconnell: in the past week and a half, the american people have seen a confusing and chaotic process play out right here in the u.s. senate. they've seen uncorroborated, decades old allegations of wrongdoing pop up in the press at the last minute, the last minute just as judge brett kavanaugh's confirmation process was winding down. they've seen an acc

the roll. [calling roll] senator feinstein: on the nominee, no. mr. senator coons: on the nominee, no. senator booker: no. senator grassley: aye. the nominee will be reported to the floor. >> mr. chairman, may i be recognized? senator grassley: yes. >> i want to thank my friend and colleague, senator flake, and thank you for giving us the time today to have a conversation. a number of my colleagues have asked for a one-week delay in order there might be an f.b.i. investigation of what allegations are currently before this committee. i respect senator flake's views that in his opinion it was best to respect your having giving dr. ford the time to be heard yesterday and advance the nominee to the floor. senator coons: but it's my hope we can work together on a bipartisan basis to diligently pursue an f.b.i. investigation within the next week, not for the purpose of delay, but for the purpose of investigating further either allegations made by dr. ford or others with a goal towards demonstrating a bipartisan commitment to diligently investigating those allegations. thank you, mr. chairman.

next, a look at the u.s. senate race in virginia between senator tim kaine and corey stewart. they met for a debate that focused on immigration, health care, and the coal industry. this is under one hour. good evening, and welcome to the virginia senatorial debate between senator tim kaine and corey stewart. it is made possible by the northern virginia chamber of commerce, george mason university and the northern virginia technology council. this debate is airing on stations across the commonwealth. nationally on c-span and streaming live online. what is happening is that typically people will find me through email, through social media, that kind of thing. typically i gather enough information for the mainline customer service team and i will pass it on to them. >> why is it important to you to stay involved in that way? >> i have seen company founders have issues in two different ways. one is founders syndrome, people who are good at starting something, but they are not good at continuing it. that is why in 2000,

i know, it's the senate, it gets complicated. why this kind of hangs in the balance with jeff flake and his is murkowski and others. i talked with jeff flake in the basement of the capitol last night there was a small group of reporters and there it was clear there wag was anguish going through his veins as he was wrestling with this decision good or bad, confirm or not. if they don't accede to his demands, can you see where the math doesn't work. i have said for days now this is all about the parliamentary math in the senate. you need 51 votes on those two procedural votes. the one thing i could probably say for sure that isn't going to happen fright now is probably not going to vote to end debate. what mitch mcconnell would have done under the old plan is called up the nomination and voted to proceed and then would have filed what we call a cloture petition to end debate by monday and have a confirmation vote tuesday that time line is out the window and that's where i talk about time creep. what else did we learn about this nom

committee were in the back hall. >> senator collins and murkowski? >> they are not on the committee. they were not physically present. there were a number of conversations back and forth. >> reporter: were republicans trying to dissuade him from doing this? >> of course. vigorously. i've had conversations with a number of other senators, republicans and democrats, i've had a number of conversations in recent days with colleagues, republicans and democrats, of how can we possibly get to a further fbi investigation to address some of the credible allegations dr. ford brought forward without extending the timeline. republicans colleagues have accused democrats of trying to hold this open past the election. that was not my goal. my goal was in pressing the fbi to consider seriously the allegations. >> reporter: the flip side to that, are there other democrats who will be willing to drop their or process complaints about this if the fbi investigation is indeed done next week? >> i would encourage you to talk to other democrats on th

the aisle will. i also wantay to say this. senatormcconnell followed up with his plow through this matter comment and told us we stay through the weekend if necessary to get this done. we got. to get it behind us. we got to move on. where was the sender to mcconnells sense of urgency when the vacancy was greeted by the death of antonin scalia? for almost a year for senator mcconnell left thatha seat vacant in the hopes that republican would be elected president. the idea of giving a few days to go through the evidence, to go through an investigation, to have a reasonable review of the record of judge kavanaugh now is pushed away. this has to be done and it has been done this weekend, and that's it. why? whyn' the urgency, senator mcconnell? shouldn't we value fairness over urgency? i asked senator mcconnell, set your plow aside a few minutes, would you? take a look at the seneca this deliberative body and make sure that in fairness to both dr. ford into judge kavanaugh we don't push this through and we don't rush to judgment. let u us

and the democratic incumbent, senator tim kaine. and, as determined by point -- determined by coin toss, corey stewart has the first opening statement. >> thank you all. i would like to thank my wife maria and our two sons for their support. the united states senate is broken. they are not talking with one another. they are yelling at each other. republicans are blaming democrats and democrats are blaming republicans. nothing is getting done. including with senator kaine. he is an automatic no to everything president trump proposes. when the president proposed increasing our military budget, senator kaine voted no. when president trump proposed increasing the modest housing allowance for military, senator kaine voted no. and when the president successfully fought for a tax cut for all of you, senator kaine voted no. senator kaine votes no on everything. i, on the other hand, have a long track record of 12 years, in the most diverse locality in northern virginia, of actually getting things done. working across party lines, working acr

>> other than flipping the house and senate? i don't want to get too political but -- >> i wasn't going to raise that. >> in the time that we have, no. unfortunately, given the realities of the political situation we are in, the gop controls this process. it is either going to acquiesce and do the right thing or not. i do not mean to get hyper partisan or super political, but there are times when you have to speak the truth and be stark. and the stark reality of the situation is there is utterly no reason this process cannot be paused in order for the investigation to occur. the reason i was invited here is because i have experience with this. i have personal and professional experience with an investigation of this nature bearing fruit and taking place. it is absolutely possible. there is really no downside. the only downside is that the process will be delayed and that has political consequences, or appears to have that for the party in power. judge kavanaugh, there is no liberty interest at stake. he is not threatened. he is a

mcconnell made that senator schumer made up his mind on the kavanaugh nomination early is true in some respects. senator schumer announced his position on this nomination early, but if you've been listening to the speeches given by senator mcconnell from the start you know where he's been he says he's looking forward to hearing the testimony on thursday, more clearly he's made up his mind before he hears that testimony. so to fault senator schumer for taking a position on this nomination early, he's ignoring the obvious, so did senator mcconnell. i will say at this point that we face an awesome responsibility, a nation divided politically, a nation where people have strong, strong feelings on both sides and an effort to find the truth. i don't know what the legal standard is for this hearing. we certainly know when it comes to criminal law, the matter of probable cause which leads to investigation and prosecution, and beyond a reasonable doubt to prove the guilt of someone. we know on the civil side there are different standards. no one has qu

the senate should confirm him. she also said, quote, i expect my friends on the left will criticize me for speaking up for kavanaugh, but we all benefit from having smart, qualified, and engaged judges on our highest court, regardless of the administration that nominates them. i have to say on a personal level that when i met judge kavanaugh in my office, i was incredibly impressed. we talked about his views on the role of the judiciary, original intent, the importance of interpreting the constitution as written, and it was clear that he had a deep and thorough grasp of the law and these issues. but you don't have to take my word for it, and you don't have to take lisa blatt's word. she is not the only one who has attested that judge kavanaugh is a legal super star. recently over 100 students, alumni and faculty at yale college wrote that judge kavanaugh is, quote, distinguished -- a distinguished jurist with deep conviction and integrity. the american bar association, which democratic leaders have called their gold

and the man in front of the senator and the woman says, hey, lady, that's your other senator from arizona. that's why he looks so familiar. so, he knew his place. >> the other senator. >> the relationship. and he considered himself the other senator from arizona. >> well, as nancy alluded to in her conversation, both of those seats have been opened. >> you know, this isn't just about the president. we're going to see, you know, starting next week a fight over supreme court nominee, and that will encourage all of the people in the senate to revert to that structure that senator flake was talking about, that encourages people to behave in a way that is not bipartisan. and that's why john mccain, when he talked about regular order, bob and ed know about this from covering the senate for so long -- what is regular order? it is a system of doing things, structure that forces people to compromise. when you take away that structure and everybody has all their self-interests and not the compromise, then the system doesn't force you to get in the middle. a former colleague of mine, david plots tal

and senator, you and i both -- you served in the u.s. senate. i served in the senate. irman in my senate in ohio that would allow somebody to come and -- chairman grassley said to senator blumenthal, hurry up, be quick. but then he said to judge kavanaugh, take your time. judge kavanaugh was out of line. >> first off, i think judge kavanaugh's statement was not out of line. >> not his statement. i'm talking about how he kept -- >> he was forced -- to several members of the committee, was out of line. and i communicated that with the white house. >> okay. >> that he -- look, he was -- i can't imagine, but i'll try to imagine the stress and -- i mean, his adrenaline must have been just at all-time levels. but he needed to -- and i think he did as the hearing went on. but i think initially with some of the initial questions with senator whitehouse, senator klobuchar in particular, i think he was -- >> senator blumenthal. >> he was combative when he didn't need to be. >> why. >> he was rude when he didn't need to be. >> why? what do you think? >> because he was prevaricatin

they are different on each committee in the senate. with mark judge, the other witness in this case, refusing to cooperate with the committee, can the committee subpoena his testimony? >> the committee certainly could. and one of the interesting things that happened at the business meeting last week was that chairman grassley suggested that in general he wouldn't be in favor of any subpoenas of any kind fofrt for the documents that democrats were seeking. yet chairman grassley himself has been part of issuing a number of subpoenas when he was both in the minority and in the majority throughout his senate career. so he knows exactly how to get a subpoena issued by the senate judiciary committee. >> mieke, it feels like one of the threads of the panic that is running through the white house in their endless meeting with brett kavanagh over the last two days and the panic that exists in the tweets from republican senators like bob corker and lindsey graham saying, let's get this thing over with, is they fear what could happen to brett kava

jeff flake says that he will only back the appointment of cavanagh if the senate agrees to give the f.b.i. a for the way to investigate the allegations against trump's nominee have a listen but i will only be comfortable moving on the floor until the f.b.i. has done more investigation than they have already. it may not take them a week i understand that some of these witnesses may not want to discuss anything further but i think where we owe them due diligence news of the potential delay reached president trump during a beating with a chill a and president a journalist asked trump what he made of flakes conditions for voting for cavanagh well i'm going to let the senate handle that they will make their decisions and they've been doing a good job and very professional i'm just hearing a little bit about it because i've been with the president of chile and we're talking about some very important subjects but i'm sure it will be very good i guess the vote was a positive vote but there seems to be a delay. let's get more on this now. joins us with the latest from wash

what mistakes can democrats in the senate make from this point on? hill challenged judge clarence thomas, she was timor-leste in a truly brilliant cross-examination by the late senator arlen specter of pennsylvania, and philadelphia district attorney, a brilliant trial lawyer. i don't think that can happen again. that is not the me too hero. a white republican male cross-examining and demolishing this woman, incredibly claiming victimhood even if it resulted in brett kavanaugh being confirmed, such blowback on the republicans that it would be a victory across the -- more than they gained. that is why the republicans don't want any of their white male members of the judiciary committee to do the interrogating. they want to hire a professional cross examiner or utilize one of several lawyers on their staff. if senators need to question her and need to do so gingerly and respectfully, this is the most frequent the unreported crime in the united states of america, because of the extraordinary psychological harm that causes to the victim and natural defens

this is beneath the dignity of the united states senate. it is not just democrats, republicans as well. that needs to end. we have dragged america through this horrible spectacle in the united states senate. and who is doing it? 100 and the senate, 435 in the house. they are guilty in my perspective. here is what they are doing. they spent $17 million to quash accusations of sexual harassment against them, and now they are going after judge kavanaugh .36- year-old allegations, when he was in high school? who are they to judge? who are they to judge? 268 separate allegations of sexual harassment, sexual assault and other misdeeds by the united states senate and they are covering it up. >> let me tell you, when doctor ford came out with her allegations, you said they were a bunch of --. you waited a day and then tweeted this out, what's next, will someone find that judge kavanaugh pulled a girls pigtails in first grade? there is no equivalent. to minimize the seriousness of these allegations. there are now four accusers. you are going after th

i think that is something the senate should do. personally wanted to be there on the steps of the supreme court this morning to continue to stem with dr. blasey ford and a go her call for an investigation. amy: alexis, your response to dr. -- dianne feinstein now calling for a hold on the confirmation proceedings of judge kavanaugh with the second person coming forward? lawyer fornatti, the stormy daniels, is alleging that there may be a third woman who will be coming forward. >> in our letter, we always called for a thorough and independent investigation. just as before, it is as good of a time as any. it seems right to me personally that we should slow down. there is no rush here. let's do an investigation and let's air all of the stores and let all of these survivors be heard and be believed. amy: a lot is being talked about about the atmosphere of these schools. we know about mark judge who dr. christine ford wanted to testify. she alleges he was the third person in the room at the time that she says kavanaugh attempted to rape

the senate has mostly been in. you mentioned some of those spending bill packages, but could you give us a sort of an overview, a round up of the packages that have been passed, what their status is. the senate passing nine of 12, the house passing six. >> they are calling them minibuses, three parts, legislative affairs, which funds congress itself, military construction and veterans affairs bill that funds the be a, it has the energy and water title which funds the army corps of engineers and the department of energy. the biggest problem with that bill has been veterans health funding. signed. choice act was into law by president trump with a lot of fanfare. it would increase services for veterans as far as being able to access health care. that bill doesn't have any direct funding and there has been a fight over whether to provide direct funding by making cuts to other programs which would raise the cap to accommodate extra spending, or to declare an emergency spending that is not subject to the cap. i have pitch

steven: the florida senate race. >> how much? steven: easily $150 million, something like that, at least that. the is one state where democrats have a quandary. you have a covenant with personal resources and access to money to find everything he would need to do. bill nelson has been a laggard in fundraising, not an energetic candidate. start looking like he might be deficit, and yet it will be a close race. face therats will decision as to whether they spend the $27 million from labor day to the end. has the nomination in florida helped nelson with his turnout challenges, especially voters,unger, non-white or white voters overall, given that is typically the hardest group to turn out in the term cycles? to say whats hard the impact of the nomination is. he does have a lot of appeal with younger voters and is part of the reason why he won his primary. he also has a significant number of flaws. he is an avowed socialist has an fbi investigation around his administration. you can see the ticket cratering. that is also a possibility

the senator who is a close friend of his, clearly upset about senator flake's decision. they are supposed to vote in about nine minutes. there you see on the right part of your screen, chuck grassley is the chairman of the judiciary committee. he is having a conversation with dianne feinstein, the ranking democrat on the committee. i want to go to jim acosta who is getting reaction over there at the white house. what are you hearing, jim? >> reporter: wolf, they have been clear about this all morning. they are not sure if they have the votes. they were breathing a sigh of relief after judge kavanaugh's performance, but to have all of this writing on jeff flake at the moment, wolf, is very interesting. in part because jeff flake and president trump have been at odds, putting it mildly, for sometime. senator flake has given several speeches and he has one coming up next week where he has gone after the president and the president has gone after jeff flake on twitter and so on. it reminds you of when the president was sparring with john mccain and john mccain at that very dr

the committee. that's true. senators do have a lot of tools at their disposal that can influence what mitch mcconnell is able to do. mitch mcconnell has unlimited control of the floor of the senate as the republican leader with a decimated filibuster in the context of nominees but not if he doesn't have a majority. any senator can stand in the way. it's a matter of one senator sticks their hand up and saying i'm sorry, i'm not going along with that. flake and murkowski together by removing those 50 votes is a pretty significant road block. even if the president says i'm not doing it, they could still dig in and prevent him from holding this vote on saturday. i realize it's really complicated and down into the weeds. there's a little bit of an important middle ground here where we want to be clear they have not only leverage but some power over that plays out. sdp >> they do have that. my question is do you take stock in there not being specific language used when jaeff flake s asked will you vote no. that's a question he

what does it say about the state of the senate? hey are quite a display of bipartisan friendship. i heard chris coons say he considered it a compromise to limit the fbi background check to one week. the idea of compromise, working across party lines. it seems rare indeed in this climate. even throughout the hearings there's hyper partisanship on display. there were democratic senators who didn't ask questions of dr. ford. there were republicans senators who didn't ask questions of judge kavanaugh, just commended him. >> we'll know in limited way what's happening but in that political vacuum, what's going to be happening? do you anticipate we'll see more protests? what's the atmosphere going to be like in washington? >> i think we'll see a lot more of what we saw with jeff flake in the elevator with those protesters on friday. i think there's a lot of high emotions. there's a lot of people very angry and riled up on both sides of the aisle. they are hunting down senators in their various open buildings. the office buildings are open

with allegations as serious as the ones before us, the senate must not, it cannot, the honor of the senate conduct a haphazard, slipshod review of dr. ford's claims or be rushed to a vote. there must be time for the f.b.i. to do its work, for the judiciary committee to properly prepare to hear testimony from dr. ford and judge kavanaugh. and there is he a. another issue here -- and there's another issue here. judge kavanaugh's credibility has already been seriously questioned in the aftermath of his testimony regarding e-mails stolen from the judiciary committee by a republican member, by his involvement in the nomination of judge william pryor, and other controversies. in all of these cases, judge kavanaugh's credibility was questioned because documents reveal that he was far more involved than he head on to when he testified. -- than he led on to when he testified. and now he has unequivocally denied this. there is an issue of credibility here. you have two people with diametrically opposed views as to what happened. and this is not just an argument for its open sake. it is for nominatio

the manner dr. ford describes. senators on both sides of the aisle urge any alleged witnesses to step forward. >> for anybody that close, you would think that we would want to hear from. >> i don't know enough about it. >> there are corroborating witness including mark judge who was allegely in the room. >> judge recalled being shocked at students getting away with drinking themselves into stupors and lusting after girls from nearby catholic schools am but women who knew kavanaugh back then defend the supreme court nominee. >> he had a beer but was never out of control. he never became someone different. >> do you have any recollection of this party? >> no, i don't know anything about the party. >> shannon: mark judge, it's not clear how close he and kavanaugh were in high school. we reached out to him but haven't heard back. democrats and the media claim christine blasey ford won't get a fair hearing from the 11 white men on the panel. the two sides disagree. >> why where i am focussed right now is doing everything we can