This is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Bret Baier," September 28, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
SEN. JEFF FLAKE, R-ARIZ.: I think it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to but not more than one week in order to let the FBI continue -- to do an investigation, limited in time and scope, to the current allegations that are there.
SEN. CHRIS COONS, D-DEL.: I think he showed courage and determination today in making it public that he will not moving ahead with a final vote on Judge Kavanaugh on the floor unless there is a brief FBI investigation.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I'm going to let the Senate handle that. They will make their decisions, and they have been doing a good job.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
BRET BAIER, ANCHOR: Some of the sights and sounds from this delay, an FBI investigation into Judge Kavanaugh, part of the stipulations that Arizona Senator Jeff Flake made. Just moments ago, the Senate majority leader taking to the floor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL, R-KY.: This is a nomination that deserves to move forward, and that is precisely, Mr. President, what is happening. I commend our colleagues on the committee for sending this impressive nominee here to the floor with favorable recommendation. Now we will keep the process moving. The full Senate will begin considering Judge Kavanaugh's nomination today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: So just interpreting there, they are starting the clock. And the Senate process, which is sometimes arcane, starts, and then when the FBI investigation is finished, they will be ready to vote on the floor.
Let's bring in our panel: Bill Bennett, former education secretary; Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at The Federalist; A.B. Stoddard, associate editor at Real Clear Politics, and Jason Riley, Wall Street Journal columnist and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. OK, Bill, thoughts on this day and what we have seen over the past day and a half.
BILL BENNETT, FORMER EDUCATION SECRETARY: Steady, calm, statesmanlike president that we have come to know. Right? Very cool, everybody was waiting for him to erupt like Vesuvius. He didn't. He may yet depending on how this thing turns out.
Lindsey Graham has become the chairman of the department explaining political science to Democrats and to the public. And he explained to the Democrats today that if you win elections you get to pick the nominees to the Supreme Court. Sorry, guys, we won this election. But another lesson today, which is that if you win the Senate by only one or two votes, you have to be able to count and you have to be willing to do things like this week.
I don't think much damage will be done provided its limited. I can't imagine the will ask for an extension for Professor -- yes, right. I think it's OK. I only feel badly for the judge. Another terrible week for him, and there will be some craziness.
BAIER: A.B., it really is just numbers here. If they had two more senators who were ready to sign on, they wouldn't have to have this over a barrel situation.
A.B. STODDARD, REAL CLEAR POLITICS: There is no doubt this is just the political reality has forced them into this corner, to provide the FBI investigation and an additional week. That said, it is going to help the Senate, it's going to help the court, it's going to help Judge Kavanaugh, and it's going to help the country if this concludes in a cleaner, more comprehensive way, a less divisive process.
And I just think an FBI investigation could have been concluded by now if it was permitted 10 days ago. So I think it's the best way to swear him onto the bench of the Supreme Court if that's what the outcome is going to be. He needs this removed from him before his tenure there.
BAIER: Mollie?
MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, THE FEDERALIST: Yes, I think that the real reason why people were asking for an FBI investigation was that they were just trying to delay the process. But there is no problem with having an FBI investigation at this point. And there were many things that happened that are good for people who would like to see Brett Kavanaugh seated on the Supreme Court.
It got out of committee today. That was huge. And it got out of the committee with Jeff Flake saying he is going to vote yes pending the return of this investigation. And the FBI investigation itself actually has fewer investigatory tools than the Senate has. They are not able to compel testimony. We already know who all the players are. They have already given statements. It should not take long. It only took a couple days to investigate the Anita Hill situation. It only took a couple days to investigate Anthony Weiner's laptop. It certainly is not going to take more than a couple days to find out what's going on here.
And I think the public appetite for this delay, delay, delay -- oh, I can't fly, oh, we can't comply with this -- is gone. So, it just has to happen now. And when it comes back, I think we can move forward.
BAIER: Is there a conventional wisdom that any one of those Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee after an FBI investigation if it comes back clearing his name is going to somehow vote for Judge Kavanaugh?
JASON RILEY, WALL STREET JOURNAL: I can't imagine. These are redundant investigations intended to delay the vote, not to seek the truth as to what did or did not happen. Just to give you an idea of the bad faith that the Democrats are arguing in here, shortly after -- almost immediately after the Republicans agreed to an FBI investigation, Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a Democrat senator, tweeted this. He said of course there should be an FBI investigation, but whatever they find doesn't change the fact that Kavanaugh, especially after his performance yesterday, is the most dangerous Supreme Court pick of our lifetime. Democrats have already come out and said a week? How can we get this done in a week?
This is not about seeking the truth, Bret. It is simply to ride out the clock here, to run out the clock.
BAIER: All right, so let's say in the election coming up, how does this play? You have two senators who said they support this FBI investigation, Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Manchin. Trump won North Dakota by 35.7 percent, West Virginia by 42.2 percent. They are looking, obviously, at races, maybe more Heitkamp than Manchin, but how does this play not only with this delay but also for women who do look at Dr. Blasey-Ford and say I see someone who came up and told her story?
BENNETT: Are you asking me about women?
BAIER: Yes.
BENNETT: I don't think we are allowed to comment anymore.
BAIER: Yes, you are. I'm going to ask you, too, hold on.
BENNETT: I think in the case of a woman, Heidi Heitkamp, I think if she looks at the numbers and it's fair, I think she will end up supporting. If nothing else comes out then I expect to only things that will come out will be some more craziness out of the woodwork, then I think she may well support him as will Manchin.
I think it's possible this could heal to some extent, what A.B. said. But it's also at the same time on the part of the Democrats a ruse. But what does one week get them? I don't know what one week gets them. Again, they would have to extend this further, wouldn't they?
STODDARD: You are assuming that's their plan is to push it past the midterms. You can't take Senator Coons at his word? He asked for a week.
BENNETT: I guess I can't.
RILEY: But women also believe in due process. They have husbands, they have sons, they have brothers.
BAIER: OK, all right, but listen to President Trump today, listen to President Trump on this testimony and on Dr. Ford.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I feel that her testimony was very compelling, and she looks like a very fine woman to me, aery fine woman. And I thought that Brett's testimony likewise was really something that I haven't seen before. It was incredible. It was an incredible moment, I think, in the history of our country. But certainly she was a very credible witness. She was very good in many respects.
I just want it to work out well for the country. If that happens, I'm happy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BAIER: Mollie?
HEMINGWAY: Some people may find Dr. Ford credible. Other people will not. That's why in this country we go with what evidence is, not how you feel about someone but whether you have provided the evidence to destroy a man's life and to destroy his career.
And I just want to reiterate what Jason said, which is women are not some monolithic block. We all have different ideas about things. Just because we are women does not mean we don't care about the constitution or due process or rule of law. And we also just care very deeply as people who love men, who love our husbands and our fathers and our brothers and our sons. And we don't want to see a country where you can have your life destroyed without having evidence to destroy someone's life.
BENNETT: Two separate credibility questions I think are being collapsed into one, emotional credibility and factual credibility. Emotionally, they were both credible, seems to me they were both persuasive. I generally believe she believes what she is saying. I know Brett Kavanaugh believes what he is saying. But in terms of factual credibility, the case is overwhelmingly strong for Kavanaugh, and she has no evidence, factual credibility.
RILEY: Brett Kavanaugh has passed a half dozen FBI background checks in the past quarter century.
BAIER: Without these allegations though. I get it, I get it, the allegations, understanding the timing and the process, they weren't a part of those six investigations.
BENNETT: You know the way they work, you are asked -- I have been through dozens of them, and you are asked is there anything in this person's background that ought to be brought to our attention, which suggests limitation or problem of character, reliability, dependability, violations of law.
BAIER: There are two separate things here. One is the process the Democrats had and how they held the ball and Feinstein had the letter, and they could have started this process a long time ago. The other is the actual credibility of the incident in the early 1980s. Those are two separate things.
STODDARD: If I may, I have criticism of the process, the way both parties have handled it. And I think you can criticize the Democrats if they in a week ask for another extension. But they, in good faith, joined with Jeff Flake who has given them cover.
BENNETT: Yes, he has.
STODDARD: He's given Collins cover, Murkowski cover. He's given Democrats in red states cover to be able to vote for Judge Kavanaugh by saying this was a clean process.
Women and men out there watching this testimony yesterday, and millions of them did, who are not partisans, they're not members of the political cognoscenti, don't about July 30th and some letter from Feinstein's office. What they learned about yesterday was that there hasn't been an FBI investigation and subpoena for Mark Judge. They heard it all day long. And they want to know the answer to that, which is why Jeff Flake came out with this demand. It is -- in the interest of healing --
BAIER: Do you think any of those Democrats at the end of a week when the FBI comes back and says you know what, we didn't find anything that corroborates her story. Do you think any of those Democrats are going --
STODDARD: I think Senator Heitkamp and Manchin, I bet they will vote yes.
BAIER: Coons? Anybody on the Senate Judiciary.
STODDARD: Coons already said he is voting no after the hearing executive power.
BAIER: Klobuchar?
STODDARD: It is about healing the divisions of the committee and not trashing the Senate.
BAIER: But why wouldn't they vote yes, then?
STODDARD: Because they already have complaints about him on policy question.
BAIER: I know. That's my point.
STODDARD: It's all about healing the divides that have exploded in the last few days about the process and helping the court retain its respect and trust in this country as the only institution left that has it. You know what --
BAIER: My point is Lindsey Graham pointed for all of these senators.
STODDARD: And Bret, unfortunately those days are done. I agree with you. I wish this was a bipartisan process.
RILEY: But the precedent is important here. Think of the precedent we are setting. Allegations decades old, and allegations alone. None of Dr. Ford's supposed witnesses corroborate what she is saying, and several of them refute what she is saying. Think of the precedent.
STODDARD: I have complaints with both parties about how they have handled the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh. I think it's in his best interest to go through with this and see it through another week and not go past.
BAIER: Last word. I've got 10 seconds.
HEMINGWAY: I think this week will do a lot to provide healing for the left. The right will still need to be healed by what they saw and what they saw this man being put through. And that is something that people really need though think about, and the anger that has been unleashed but what they've seen.
BENNETT: I don't care about healing the committee. Healing the country, if it does some good in that direction, fine.
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