Key GOP senators condemn Trump comments on Ford

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Bret Baier," October 3, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: How did you get home? I don't remember. How'd you get there? I don't remember. Where is the place? I don't remember. How many years ago was at? I don't know.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: What neighborhood was it? I don't know. Where is the house? I don't know. Upstairs, downstairs, where was it? I don't know, but I had one beer.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, R-MAINE: The president's comments were just plain wrong.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF.: It was outrageous. There's no other way to describe it. He incited laughter at this woman. Why? It's so unnecessary, and it's mean. It's mean.

SEN. JEFF FLAKE, R-ARIZ.: There's no time and no place for remarks like that. I wish he hadn't have done. I'll just say it's kind of appalling.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

SHANNON BREAM, FOX NEWS: Let's see what our panel thinks: David Brody, chief political analyst for the Christian Broadcasting Network; A.B. Stoddard, associate editor at Real Clear Politics; and John McCormack, senior writer at The Weekly Standard. Welcome to all of you.

The president had been so disciplined on the messaging regarding this whole nomination. David, it looked like he went a little off script last night. He was in his element, he loves these rallies, but it did it possibly cost him some votes?

DAVID BRODY, CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING NETWORK: We'll see. There is a Senate aide actually texting me in the last few minutes who says there will be a Judge Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court next week, no doubt about it. I tried to press him for a little bit more. And they are feeling confident on the Senate side.

Look, when it comes to the president of the United States, this just in -- it can be a little ugly at times and it can be actually a bit exhilarating at times as well, because even though the media, the mainstream media is talking about this mocking of Dr. Ford, if you checked the deplorable evangelical playlist, which I do every single day, they believe that he was just stating facts. She doesn't know, she doesn't know.

And they are also saying, and once again, don't kill the messenger, don't shoot the messenger, I'm just telling you what they're telling me, that they are saying if it's mocking, what about a high raised voice or maybe some sort of disheveled look if he wanted to do something -- he could've gone even further. I'm not defending it, I'm just simply saying that the mocking narrative doesn't seem necessarily to be playing, or doesn't seem to be sticking in deplorable evangelical land.

BREAM: Yes, A.B., there are certain groups that are not ever going to leave the president. They're going to stick around and give him the benefit of the doubt. Today Sarah Sanders said as David did, these are factual statements he was making, but I think it was obviously the tone that had some people concerned, because he has been, like I said, so on message. He has been so disciplined with his tweets in saying last week that she was a fine woman and credible as well.

A.B. STODDARD, REAL CLEAR POLITICS: Right. And there are ways to sort of goose the energy at a rally for Kavanaugh and for confirming him, without being cruel. But I think he did it to change the headlines today away from the devastating "New York Times" story about his family finances yesterday. He does it all the time. He does it with intent. And he knew that was consuming coverage last night.

And so this is not Brett Kavanaugh's fault and I don't think it will ultimately cost him many votes. He did not say those things. He would not mock this woman. And Senator Murkowski, Flake, and Collins know that. So I think it was a Trumpian diversion away from what I thought, again, was a devastating piece.

BREAM: OK, well, you know the White House is pushing back very hard on that and saying that this has been fully vetted and the IRS has signed off on these arrangements that were made. So there's probably a lot more to come from that story, but for now they obviously don't see it that way. But maybe that was a strategy. You never know with this White House. I think the president had a good time when he's at the rallies and with the crowds, too. And I think sometimes, prompter be darned, that's not going to be where he sticks.

I want to talk through what Mike Emanuel has told us about we're finding out potentially this FBI report could come at any time. So the FBI is expected to send a single copy of the supplemental report on Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Hill, 100 Senators and nine staffers will be authorized to read it. It will be kept in a safe from the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sources say it will go to the White House first, then to a Judiciary Committee, and it may be carried to offices of individual senators on request. John, they are trying to get this vote moving by Friday, Saturday, Sunday, wherever they're trying to land this plane, how do you do that with one copy? Do we really think there's only going to be one? Because you know it's going to leak. Can't they make 100 copies?

JOHN MCCORMACK, THE WEEKLY STANDARD: They'll all have access. They'll have all ability to read this thing. In terms of the actual substance of the matter, I think what matters is whether it actually changes any of the underlying facts. Does it change the fact there is no corroboration? Does her lifelong female friend who says she has no recollection of this party and she doesn't even know Brett Kavanaugh, does she somehow change her story in a way that would be dramatic? That's really what's going to matter here.

The senators are going to have plenty of time to review this. The FBI here, they're not doing a criminal investigation. They are doing the Senators. The Senators have requested this. The White House has done this for the purpose of the senators to do their due diligence in their role of advise and consent.

BREAM: Her team obviously very upset that at this point it appears they are not going to interview, the FBI isn't going to interview Judge Kavanaugh or Professor Ford. Senator Grassley had been pushing for all kinds of information about the polygraph test, who they talked to, her therapists, and they say we'll give them to the FBI, but we're not giving them to you, when they interview her. But David, so far they say they haven't called. And that's a really big sticking point for a lot of people who say without that they're not sure they can feel that this FBI investigation is complete.

BRODY: Right, and that's a sticking point. Quite frankly, everything is a sticking point with the Democrats. They also say they talk about they want a thorough investigation, but the truth of the matter is they didn't complete the whole sentence. They want a thorough investigation dot-dot- dot, until November 8th. That's when they want a thorough investigation because at that point if they take control of the Senate then it's a whole different ballgame. That's what this has been about all along.

It's funny, I noticed you chuckled, and I did too. I don't know if we were chuckling for the same reasons, but when you read the part that it's going to be in the safe. Let's be honest, it's Washington. Hello? One copy is 1,000 copies. It doesn't matter whatsoever.

BREAM: I wonder if it's going to be armed guards. I don't know.

But I want to talk through some tweets that John Roberts had that we saw coming in at the top of the show. This is one of the original tweets out yesterday from the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is their account, obviously controlled by the majority, the Republicans here. They say "Nowhere in referring to the past six FBI reports on Judge Kavanaugh which the committee has reviewed on a bipartisan basis was there ever a whiff of any issue at all related in any way to inappropriate sexual behavior or alcohol abuse."

Senator Durbin, clearly one of the top Democrats on the committee, says "This tweet is not accurate. Committee Republicans must correct it." And eight of the ten Democrats on the committee have sent a letter saying you've got to fix this. Then the Senate Judiciary tweets back, "Nothing in the tweet is inaccurate or misleading. The committee stands by its statement, which is completely truthful. More baseless innuendo and more false smears from Senate Democrats." A.B., we noticed Senators Coons and Klobuchar didn't sign that letter.

STODDARD: Right, it's very tempting for Republicans and it's useful to focus on the Democrats, but they really need to get this whole thing across the finishing line with Senators Flake, Murkowski, and Collins, who are Republicans. They would love to get the votes of Senators Joe Manchin and Heitkamp, two Democrats who are still on the fence, but those three senators I mentioned are Republicans.

So as much as they want to focus on the hocus-pocus of the Democrats and goalpost moving, and all of this stuff, it is about the Republicans who are on the fence, and whether or not they can go home, Flake is retiring, but particularly Collins and Murkowski, to a national campaign against and for his confirmation in their states to their voters and defend the process, and defend the FBI investigation. And if it was just a routine background check and they didn't follow up on enough leads, and we learned more about this as it may or may not get leaked, those two women are in the hot seat. It's not about the Democrats writing letters and insinuating things about his drinking. It is about those two women.

BREAM: John, final word to you on this.

MCCORMACK: You've now seen Democrats shift the goalposts. They're trying to talk about this idea that he perjured himself about drinking which simply isn't true. He said he drank to excess. He said he drank to the point where he fell asleep, where he threw up sometimes, but he that didn't blackout drink. I think they've done this because a lot of the other allegations, particularly Michael Avenatti's client, those allegations have completely fallen apart. They were implausible to begin with. They are no longer even remotely credible if you watch that interview the other night. I don't think the alcohol argument is going to work for Democrats.

BRODY: I don't think the ice argument is going to work either, throwing ice.

BREAM: We'll let people decide if that's a factor for them when they get to a vote if they finally do. Panel, thank you very much.

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