How the FBI's report impacts the Kavanaugh vote

close

Video

How the FBI's report impacts the Kavanaugh vote

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Bret Baier," October 4, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I think he is doing very well. I think he is doing very well. The judge is doing well, right?

SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We stand 100 percent with Brett Kavanaugh. The information that was asked and requested by senators, additional information, has now been provided. There is nothing new in this report that they didn't already know.

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL, R-KY.: There is no way anything we did would satisfy the Democrats.

SENATE MINORITY LEADER CHUCK SCHUMER, D-N.Y.: The idea that this should be full and thorough and open and available is once again belied by the pettiness of the Republican side and the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: That was just some of the reaction today as the senators finally got to see the new FBI background check into allegations of Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

Time to bring in our panel: Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano; Mollie Hemingway from The Federalist; Mo Elleithee of the Georgetown Institute of Politics, and Charles Hurt from The Washington Times.

Judge, it's clear from senators of both parties, although they are not allowed to disclose what's in the report, that there was no smoking gun here either on the issue of sexual assault or on the issue of Kavanaugh being potentially a blackout drunk. Should that be enough for Republican senators to get off the fence and support him? Is it enough, should it be enough?

JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO, FOX NEWS SENIOR JUDICIAL ANALYST: I think it probably is enough. I think the suggestion by Senator Flake was actually a brilliant one to give himself and other Republicans and a few Democrats cover. But I'm harshly critical of the nature of this investigation. If the whole purpose of the investigation was to determine whether Dr. Ford was truthful in her allegations of horrific conduct, and Judge Kavanaugh was truthful in his denial of that conduct and other conduct, how could you possibly have an interrogation, an investigation, that doesn't speak to the principles? Or the people who to whom the interrogation of the principles would naturally send you? So I think the artificial limitation either with respect to time or number of witnesses has removed the legitimacy of this investigation.

WALLACE: Mollie, I suspect you disagree with that.

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, THE FEDERALIST: Both of the people involved gave testimony in front of a live national audience for hours. The idea that they needed to say more than what they said over the course of hours is at least disputable.

But really when you think about what the Democrats were doing here, they were hoping to delay the vote, but really hoping to delay the vote in order to kill the nomination. They thought that if they added enough pressure, the Republicans would cave, as they frequently do when you have a juggernaut of the media and the Democrats coming up against them.

What happen was amazing. The Republicans bonded together. They said we've got a backbone this time. We're not going to cave. We're not going to fall for this trick anymore. And so instead of it being a situation where Republican voters were demoralized to watch the Republicans that they put in office do what they usually do, instead you have this enthusiasm and energy and a realization that maybe these dirty tricks and maybe these last-minute slurs and allegations that come out aren't going to work out anymore in the future like they have in the past.

SCHUMER: One of the key Democrats in all this, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is Chris Coons, and here's what he had to say today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHRIS COONS, D-DEL.: I think this will be a very close vote. It hangs by a few undecided Democrats and Republicans. If I were to just guess today he would be narrowly confirmed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: We should point out that our crack Capitol Hill producer Chad Pergram just sent out a memo to all of us that says the Republicans still don't have the votes. I think when most of us heard Susan Collins and Jeff Flake come out of the original briefing today about the FBI report and say it seemed like a strong investigation that they were going to have their votes, and that would give them at least 50. But Susan Collins has just gone back and spent two hours in the skiff, the secure room, reading the report, and came out and said, she's not going to announce. And apparently Flake and Murkowski are still in play.

Two questions for you, Mo. First of all, let's talk about the Democrats, because there was some thought that regardless of what happened in the Senate, that this would be a good motivating event for the Democratic base. Now there are some, as we have been reporting tonight, some signs it may be motivating the Republicans.

MO ELLEITHEE, GEORGETOWN INSTITUTE OF POLITICS: I think right now where we are and the way it's playing out is actually motivating both bases. How much will it impact the vote? I don't know. We've seen a lot of people looking at yesterday's FOX News poll in North Dakota in that Heitkamp race that shows her now falling behind. But if you look at the question in that poll of how will this impact your vote, how will her Kavanaugh decision impact your vote, the clear winner was no difference, that nearly a majority of voters --

WALLACE: But more people would hurt her standing than help her.

ELLEITHEE: But over 15 percent more said it would make no difference. So I don't know. I think there's a lot of energy on both sides right now, and I think it's going to be hard to tell. I think the Republicans clearly have a bounce in their step that they haven't had over the past week or so. But don't underestimate the anger that is on the Democratic side, too. And there are a lot of Democratic activists, a lot of suburban women who are incredibly frustrated by the point that the judge was making, about how this investigation was played out, that they don't feel like the investigation was played out fairly. And that's something I suspect we will hear more about over the next week until Election Day.

WALLACE: Let's go back from November 6th and get to tomorrow which is when we expect the vote on cloture, which is really going to be the decisive vote, whether or not they get 50 votes to cut off debate. Do you think this thing is up for grabs? Because at least now you do not have 50 Republicans. You have 48 Republicans in effect committed to supporting him, but the undecided three, Murkowski, Collins, and Flake still at least unannounced if not undecided.

CHARLES HURT, THE WASHINGTON TIMES: When you rely on Republicans to hold fast, it's always a jump ball. But I do think in the end, I do think based on the signs that we're getting, Democrat Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia who is probably going to be reelected, he has indicated looking at the FBI file, he called it helpful. To me it looks like he was looking for a reason to support the nomination.

In terms of the validity of the investigation, Judge Kavanaugh has been investigated to the hilt. As Mollie says, both of them have testified extensively. The only thing that would have been left in a more thorough list to find out about the truth would be to go back and look at Dr. Ford's background, and I don't think anybody has any appetite for that.

One last thing I think that is important, though. Brett Kavanaugh is a perfect -- he's like a nominee from central casting for an establishment Republican. You could see George W. Bush picking a guy like Brett Kavanaugh. My question is whether one of those more established GOP presidents would have stuck with the nominee as ardently as President Trump did. I don't know that they would have because what we have seen over the last couple weeks, it has been the nastiest I've ever seen up here.

WALLACE: I want to pick up on that with you, Mollie, because some Democrats say if they take the House or the Senate, that they will continue to investigate this. They will investigate the FBI investigation, what the limits were that were placed on it. They will investigation Judge Kavanaugh, who would then be Justice Kavanaugh. They talk about bringing him up to the Senate or the House and talking to him. With Clarence Thomas, as bad as it was when he was elected, it was done. The suggestion is this isn't going to be over regardless of what happens.

HEMINGWAY: I realize that they are saying that and also that their base is encouraging them to take that kind of posture. I think it's worth remembering that there have been weeks now where we've been talking about this, and there is no evidence to support any of the increasingly ridiculous allegations. The idea that you are going to investigate when there's never been evidence to support these allegations, it goes against everything we believe in this country about rule of law, about presumption of innocence. And I think that while their own base might really enjoy this, I don't think they understand quite what has awakened for a lot of the country, wealthy, poor, black, white, male or female, who really care about that rule of law and the things that bind us as a country.

WALLACE: Panel, thank you. To be continued.

Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.