This is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Bret Baier," October 2, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL, R-KY.: The Senate will vote on Judge Kavanaugh here on this floor this week. Here on this floor this week. Our Democratic friends will try to move the goalposts yet again.
SENATE MINORITY LEADER CHUCK SCHUMER, D-N.Y.: The investigation itself, it should only take a week. We are not moving the goalposts back. We are looking at what Judge Kavanaugh says at age 53, not what he did at age 18.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS: Disagreement between the Senate majority and minority leader over whether or not the goalposts are being moved. We do know that Mitch McConnell did not file a cloture motion today, which means the earliest that a vote could be held would be on probably Saturday. And I'm also hearing from sources familiar with the investigation that the FBI report could be completed and delivered to the White House as early as tomorrow afternoon.
Let's bring in our panel now: Steve Hilton, host of "The Next Revolution" here on the Fox News Channel and author of the new book "Positive Populism"; Mara Liasson, national political correspondent for National Public Radio, and Tom Bevan, Real Clear Politics co-founder and president.
So Mara, let's start with you. Are the goalposts being shifted here? Because initially this was about a sexual assault. Now it's about personal temperament, not just judicial temperament. It's about Judge Kavanaugh's tone and tenor at the hearing.
MARA LIASSON, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: Right. Democrats are trying to do what they can to stop this nomination. And if they can use evidence of an accusation, they will, or the way he behaved when he raised his voice, sarcastically interrupted senators, they are going to use that.
But you know what, it doesn't matter if Democrats are moving the goalposts back. What matters is if Mitch McConnell can convince Flake, Collins, and Murkowski. That it is his audience. He's got an audience of three. If they think the process is fair, and they are satisfied that there is no corroborating evidence to Dr. Ford's charges, and if they are satisfied that Kavanaugh didn't like, because all of them one way or another said that would be a problem for them, then he is going to be able to them get confirmed.
ROBERTS: Tom, last Friday, Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona seemed to indicate Friday morning that he was going to vote for Judge Kavanaugh, not just in the committee, but in the Senate as well. Then he said let's do this FBI investigation. Now he is going pretty squishy on all of this.
(LAUGHTER)
TOM BEVAN, REAL CLEAR POLITICS: He is. Jeff Flake thought that, well-intentioned as he might've been, that this was going to restore some integrity to the process, it hasn't done that. In fact, we've gotten more allegations. We've had the media back, in my opinion, fairly irresponsibly putting people on television with uncorroborated allegations, and more leaks. We're now talking about bar fights and ice cubes, and whatnot. It hasn't. It hasn't brought to the process any closer to a conclusion. I think we're going to end up where we started and I think Mitch McConnell is going to hold the vote.
ROBERTS: Steve, a lot is being made over the tone that Judge Kavanaugh took them at hearing on Friday. So let's roll the clock back 27 years and look at the tone in 1991 here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THEN- SUPREME COURT NOMINEE CLARENCE THOMAS: This is a circus. It's a national disgrace. And from my standpoint, as a black American, as far as I'm concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: That was a pivotal moment back in 1991. Obviously things have changed. The political rhetoric has been escalated to a degree that we have not seen before. Do you think Kavanaugh went over the line?
STEVE HILTON, FOX NEWS: No. I think he responded -- on the personal front he responded exactly as I think any normal person would have to these outrageous allegations if, as he says, they are not true.
On the political front, pointing out the truth here, which is that despite what they may say about the process, it's clear, Mara touched on it, so did Tom. Right from the word go, Schumer and all the other Democrats said we're going to stop this with everything we have got. Now, the depths to which they have got to do that I think are going to leave a really serious scar on this country. I think the way that the division and hate has been fueled by the Democrat tactics here are really serious.
And I think that long after the votes are counted and even if he's not on - - whether he's on the court or not, I think the damage done by the Democrats hate-filled strategy here is going to be really serious.
ROBERTS: This always comes back to Merrick Garland. Chuck Schumer on the Senate floor today was saying, you held Merrick Garland for 12 whole months and you are talking about us holding Judge Kavanaugh for a week or maybe a week or a couple of weeks here. But is the Democratic strategy not to hold the seat open for two years?
LIASSON: If they could, they would, just like Mitch McConnell held the seat open in hopes that he would get a Republican in the White House and his gamble paid off.
Now, it was bloodless. He didn't destroy someone's reputation in the process. But what he did, he did destroy a norm. Nobody has ever been held up for that long. And he flatly refused to give Merrick Garland a vote. And for that, he became a hero. At the Values Voters Summit, you heard people like Tony Perkins saying this is never been done before. Mitch McConnell did something that took a lot of courage.
ROBERTS: So this really is payback. Some of these allocations are beginning to, I think, fall apart. It's probably saved to say the Julie Swetnick allegations, let's look at a quick clip from MSNBC, an interview that Kate Snow did with her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JULIE SWETNICK: I cannot specifically say that he was one of the ones who assaulted me, but before this happened to me, at that party, I saw Brett Kavanaugh there, I saw Mark Judge there, and they were hanging about the area where I started to feel disoriented.
KATE SNOW, NBC NEWS: NBC News has not since last week been able to place her in that time period, at those house parties, in that group of friends.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: They ran it up a flagpole and then they pulled it right back down again.
BEVAN: This is what I referenced earlier. I think the media has behaved terribly irresponsibly throughout this entire ordeal, and just in the one- week delay that we have had, has gotten even worse. NBC also produced a report where they implied very strongly that Kavanaugh had committed perjury before the committee, only to add a clarification later that oh, by the way, he mentioned that in testimony and basically refuted the implication that they were trying to put out there. So I think the media has not covered itself and glory in any way.
I agree with Steve. I think this is going to have lasting impact beyond the election, but I also think it is going to impact the election. I think we are seeing Republicans around the country galvanizing around this issue, and it may pay dividends for them in the Senate if not now.
ROBERTS: So Steve, in the time we have left, about 30 seconds, we've got the midterm elections, they're more than a month away, but we've got the vote, which is probably going to be Saturday or maybe a little after that. We don't know how Flake is going to vote. I'm hearing that Lisa Murkowski, Senator Collins may be a little more of a sure thing. Do you think Kavanaugh can get through?
HILTON: Yes, I do. And I think that it's important that he does for the sake of some really important principles, that you can't just take someone down on the basis of allegations that have no corroboration. That is such an important thing. And if this tactic and this strategy from the Democrats succeed, I think that is a dangerous territory for this country.
ROBERTS: Panel, thank you very much. I appreciate it, good to see you tonight.
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