And deep impact a week after the emotional appearances of dr. Ford and mr. Kavanaugh. A and Savannah Guthrie speaks to ellen degeneres. You dont remember where you were or what you saw, but how you felt. Everybody who is watching this is so angry because how dare you not believe us. Good day. Im Andrea Mitchell in new york, and republican and Democratic Senators sharply divided over the results of the fiveday supplemental background check into Brett Kavanaugh with the democrats complaining bitterly that the white house did not let the fbi do their job even as Mitch Mcconnell has scheduled the first critical vote tomorrow. And the democrats are hoping to peel off two or three of the undecided republicans, Lisa Murkowski, jeff flake or Susan Collins now seems bleak. Senator collins moments ago call calling the investigation thorough, and senator flake saying that he found no additional corroborating information. A source briefed on the fbi probe says that nine people were interviewed and not including kavanaugh or ford, and nor did they interview 40 others who tried to con kocontact the fbi relevant information. And President Trump briefed by the fbi is calling all of the allegations against the judge kavanaugh uncorroborated. Joining me is kasie hunt and Peter Alexander and msnbc justice and security analyst matt miller and former spokesman to attorney general eric holder, and Daniel Goldman, a former u. S. Attorney in the Southern District of new york. And kasie, first to you on the hill, and sharply divided senate where they have both had their hour or so with these highly, you know, closely guarded reports, and at this stage, the democrats are universally saying not good enough, and the republic republicans are saying satisfying and it seems that Mitch Mcconnell has the vote s to proceed tomorrow. Andrea, that is sort of the way that this is trending right now. We still do need more information and clarity from those three key senators in the middle, because you are absolutely right that whatever they are seeing behind closed doors in the report has caused both sides to dig in deeper. The republicans have come out saying that there is no corroboration of these allegations, and that they are eager to move forward to a vote. The democrats are saying on the other hand that the investigation was a sham, and the fbi was too limited and it did not go far enough and they did not talk to kavanaugh or dr. Ford. And so everyone is sort of hu hunk erring and bunkering down, if you will, and we we still need to get some final answers from the people we have been watching all week jeff flake, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. And we did speak to senator kol lin, and she said that she wanted to read the interviews again, and that was a telling comment and she had been looking for way to vote yes, so if she is going to go Mitch Mcconnells way, it is easier, but you need answ answers from senator flake, and he also told the reporters that he did not see any corroborating evidence in the fbi investigation, and senator Lisa Murkowski was look g fing for a to vote no, and that is seeming to be the case, but we have not had a chance to catch up with her in the wake of the report coming up here on capitol hill. And kasie, from what you have heard from those who have read the report the key is mark judge, because they did not go to Debra Ramirez possible witnesses, and other witness, more than 40 not contacted by the fbi and tried to contact the fbi, but the key is from what we have heard, mark judge in his interview who had not been interviewed before could not kr corroborate the allegations. Right. That is right, andrea, and it is raising questions, because the senators are talking about him interviewed for three hours by the fbi. So there have been some questions raised about, how, okay, if he does not remember any of the events in question, how could he have had three hour hours of comments for the federal bureau of investigation investigations, and that is Something Else that we are looking for, but we should underscore for the viewers that the senators are coming out of here not allowed to talk the at all about what they see sh, and that is traditionally how these reports are handled and usually out of consideration for the privacy of the nominee, but of course, there are concerns about the selective leaking, and so far, we have not gotten a lot of that as of yet, but there is a push from both parties to release some public summary of what they have, and so far, that has not happened, andrea. There is a lot of confidence projected by the white house at this hour. I think that you are right. And in my conversations with the white house officials in the course of the last 24 hours and certainly in course of the Morning Hours they are appearing increasingly confident that it will help to get Brett Kavanaugh confirm ed confirmed as the next Supreme Court juses tis here. And the white house putting out a statement saying that they are fully confident he is going to be confirm and the president has not seen the report, but hayes been briefed on it by another official here. The white house is working the phones in the recent days, and perh perhaps not as much the president , but the aides trying to speak to the senators to make sure they are comfortable with all of this, and based on the frustrations and dissatisfaction of Debra Ramirez and dr. Fords team, we asked if they could specifically tell the americans that it was a thorough job relating to the job that dr. Ford herself was never interview and sanders said a short time ago that the anybody who believes that ford was not given ample opportunity to say what she had to say must be living in a cave. And as evidenced by the president s tweets, these are totally uncorroborated allegations in his words, and the white house feels very good about this right now, andrea, and one thing that is important about the conversations with the sources is that in terms of the individuals who have not been spoken to, the thing that the white house is pointing to is that these are not witness, but stories on the side, and not someone in the room who can say anything declaratively other than the people they have spoken to, and the stories along the side have not done anything to kr corroborate it, and if they could, they would not be able to corroborate it, because they were not in the room, and absent of the allegations of mark judge as kasie was talking about. And daniel, when we talk about, what is left out is what Dianne Feinstein was saying, and first of all complained that the fiveminute increments of the questions is not the same as a more extensive a ability to interview and question dr. Ford, that they didnt have followup opportunity, and that an fbi investigator and fbi agent could follow up and get more information out of both judge kavanaugh and dr. Ford and neither were approached. And the other piece is that other things were not considered, drink iing, excessi drinking, and not telling the truth to senators, and his belligerent attitude and those are the questions that the democratic critics are saying that were closed off of the followup investigation. We were left after that hearing with two separate issues. One is the sexual allegations, and the al allegations of the sexual misconduct, and the other was some very suspect and potentially false testimony from Brett Kavanaugh. I do tend to agree that you probably wouldnt get much more of a story from dr. Ford, given that she had a lengthy opening statement, and she did have a lot of opportunity to say it, but a true investigation wouldle help to jog her memory with places, and location, and dates and that is how, you know, the fbi are very expertly can go through a story with someone and jog their memory, and the real issue though is what Brett Kavanaugh did in the fiveminute increme increments where he evaded the questions and filibusters and the democrats could not get him firmly on the record with the answers is very different than a fbi interview. If the fbi sat him down, no time limit and he could not answer the question with questions, and so that is the sexual allegations end of things and the corroborating thing, and i dont think that mark judge would say, yeah, my best friend did that and he is the only one in the room. What is interesting to me is that did they ask mark judge and Chris Garrett and tim gaudet his High School Friends what the definition of the terms were in the yearbook were, because they seem to be quite obviously and plainly wrong and incorrect. And if jeff flake is going to say that if he lied under oath that is disqualifying, and that is a more interesting angle frankly from the fbi investigation, and we dont know whether they asked those questions, and the white house has been trying to separate those issues from the allegations, but given how those statements of judge kavanaugh went directly to his defense to the allegations, theres certain ly thaw were intertwine and if fbi had carte blanche, we would have gotten the answers to those questions. And the indication that we have been given is that those were walled off and not part of the investigation of the supplemental background check. And matt miller, assuming that they did not ask him about the false statements and he was not interviewed, but others of his friends about the clear false statements that were made during his thursday testimony last week, this very narrow scope was clearly going to support his candidacy, and it is looking as as though it is giving political cover lets say to those wavering republicans and perhaps some democrats even who were looking for some sort of excuse to vote no. Yes, this is an incredibly braisen exercise of the white house and the Republican Senate majority to ram him through on the backs of the fbi investigation when they have not been allowed to conduct a full investigation. And it is more braisen when the white house has been telling the public not the trust the fbi. And now, the make the argument as Suzanne Collins did when she said that it appears to be a thorough investigation, and it is not true. As you pointed out more than 40 witnesses that they did not talk to, and Deborah Ramirez attorney delivered a statement from a College Classmate of hers to corroborate her accounted, and they refused to followup with that witness. Any way you look at the investigation, it was not thorough, and appears to be designed, you know, carefully to give Susan Collins and jeff flake an excuse to vote yes for the nominee. The one thing that we keep missing is about no corroboration, and no corroboration is that it does is set up a false choice here. The testimony from Christine Blasey ford was evidence. It may not be corroborated by other witnesses in the room, but it was evidence, and the republican senators whether they have corroboration or not, they have to be faced with with a choice of whether they believe her or not, and so they dont want to answer that question, so they have come up with a new dynamic and investigation that does not ask the right questions and to get the right answers, and so it is an extremely cynical act by everyone involved. The fbi investigation that was a oneweek extension may have helped judge kavanaugh more than anything else, because it is the white house the excuse that they had an extensive investigation considered thorough by senator kol lins so far until she has read the actual interviews. Thank you, Daniel Miller and Peter Alexander and Daniel Goldman and kasie hunt. And senator Richard Blumenthal has just seen that report, and he is going to join me next on Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. Whales. Oop. You hear that . vo our Subaru Outback lets us see the world. Sometimes in ways we never imagined. You always get the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed . Lets say it in a really low voice. Carl . Lowest price, guaranteed. Just stick with badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com the sun goes down. You did a million things for your family today. But speaking to pnc to help handle all your investments was a very important million and one. Pnc. Make today the day. Nobody is supposed to be guilty until proven innocent in the United States of america. The senate should not sett a fundamentally unamerican precedent here. Judge kavanaughs right to basic fairness does not disappear just because some disagree with the judicial philosophy. Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell is pushing ahead with a critical test vote tomorrow on judge kavanaughs nomination, and setting the stage for what could be confirmation for the judge as a justice of the supre Supreme Court as soon as this weekend. Democratic democratic senator has read the report, senator Richard Blumenthal, and i know that you will take more time later, and what are your impressions . I have seen it and i want to reread some of it, and my emphatic opinion is that this set of interviews is most chari charity incomplete. And it is a whitewash, and there so many contacts and witnesses that have not been interviewed and of the witnesses that i told the fbi and the white house that were necessary and my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee on the democratic side joined me on the letter and only a fraction have been contacted. They have not interviewed again dr. Blasey ford and judge kavanaugh and others and even some of the eyewitnesses who saw what happened to Deborah Ramirez have never been contacted. What do you say to those who say, well, dr. Ford and judge kavanaugh had hours and hours of testimony, and so, there is no point in reinterviewing them. Dr. Blasey ford wanted to be interviewed again so that presumably she could respond to some of the claims that judge kavanaugh made after she testified, but put them the aside. The idea that a survivor of Sexual AssaultDeborah Ramirez told the fbi in her interview about what happened to her and we oknow that from what she said p publicly, and then none of the potential eyewitnesses or corroborating witnesses who would substantiate her story and at least some of them were never contacted strikes me as a really negligent of the fbis duty, but, the fbi is not responsible. I think that the blame lies with white house that straitjacketed this investigation. I am inferring what several of your colleagues have said and what the people interviewed and not interviewed more importantly, that they did not look into all of issues as to whether or not he charitably, to put it charitably misspoke in some of the followup questions about the drinking and about the definitions in the yearbook, and about what happened when he was in high school and in college, and his social relationships. We are limited as to what we can say. We are barred from talking about the content of the interviews, although, the chairman of the committee has said that there is no hint of misconduct. In my view, that is wrong. Base odd on what i have seen, but we are limited to what we have seen. And senator booker has said that he has seen hints of misconduct. Certainly some misconduct that should have been pursued, andrea, no question that this report is blatantly and incomplete and in pursuing some of the very credible allegations that have been made. It is really the story of unfollowed leads, Unanswered Questions and uninterviewed witnesses. It raises more questions than it answers. If this does proceed with confirmation, do you feel that the judge who sat in front of you and said what Goes Around Comes Around referring to what he described as left wing conspiracies to try to derail his confirmation, and when he said what goes around and comes around, and do you believe he can be impartial and judicious sitting on the bench . That is key question, and for me, it ist the key question, temperament. Temperament and trustworthiness. Temperament with a lack indicated of his coming before the committee and threatening, and in effect trying to bully us with rage and acrimony and arrogance and the kind of demeanor that he exhibited, but most important blaming it on a partisan motive when these survivors of Sexual Assault came forward on their own initiative, and it belittles and demeans them, and the entire survivor commu community, but the temperament or the lack of it that he exhibited are a key point here, and of course, just to be absolutely clear, i said that i was a no on this nominee because of his extreme, out of the mainstream ideological views on issues Like Health Care where he would deprive millions of americans of protections against the preexisting conditions or the imperial presidency and exaggerated view of the president ial power and the constraints he would impose on a womans right to have children or the persons right of whom he or she wants to marry and those substantive positions are the reasons for my opposing the nomination, but temperament is clearly an issue here. What about senator mcconnell saying today that of course he was passionate and of