To say its been a busy week is an understatement. Before we go, a quick programming note. Msnbc is teaming up with the Global Citizen festival to help bring an end to extreme poverty. The Global Citizen festival is tomorrow. There will be performances by janet jackson, Janelle Monet and john legend. Catch it all here starting at 3 00 p. M. Eastern on msnbc. Thank you for watching. Deadline white house with Nicolle Wallace starts right now. Hi, everyone. Its 4 00 in new york. Breaking news this afternoon on the Supreme Court nomination fight that has gripped the nation. Republican senator jeff flake dropping a bombshell on his Senate JudiciaryCommittee Colleagues saying he would only vote yes on Passing Kavanaugh Out Of Committee if the fbi investigates dr. Christine blasey fords allegations of Sexual Assault before any final Confirmation Vote on the floor. Flake will not support final confirmation until the fbi concludes its limited investigation. Here was that announcement. Weve had conversations ongoing for a while with regard to making sure that we do Due Diligence here. And 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. And limited in time to no more than one week. And i will vote to advance the bill to the floor with that understanding. And i have spoken to a few other members who, on my side of the aisle, that may be supportive as well. But thats my position. His position ultimately prevailed and we learned he had at least one important republican ally, Lisa Murkowski saying she was on boortd with
flake saying, i think its important that we do our Due Diligence and this is yet another step in that Due Diligence. Flakes democratic colleagues on the committee expressed emotional relief that the process for a final vote on kavanaugh would be informed by an fbi investigation. Chris coons who flake consulted before announcing his decision, had an emotional reaction. Let me simply say this. Senator flake is a genuine conservative. Hes written a book about the conscience of the conservative. He and i do not share a lot of political views, but we share a deep concern. Sorry. Senator flake and i share a deep concern for the health of this institution. And what it means to the rest of the world and to our country if we are unable to conduct ourselves respectfully and in a way that hears each other. Of course, its the white house not senator flake or any of his allies who will have to ultimately request that
investigation. Weve just heard more about what an investigation would entail. Breaking in the last hour, mark judge, kavanaughs longtime friend who dr. Blasey ford says was in the room during kavanaughs alleged attack says hell cooperate with any Law Enforcement agency that investigates confidentially. Thats according to reporting from the ap. Here to help us track the latest breaking developments, capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt. Matt miller, former chief spokesman for the Justice Department and Jonathan Lemire. Jonathan swan, for axios and careen jean pierre for moveon. Org. Some News Breaking before we came on the air. Tell us what it means. We are learning that chairman Chuck Grassley putting out a statement saying they will, in fact, request the administration instruct the fbi to conduct this investigation. And john cornyn told my colleagues here on capitol hill that they will proceed with this. And what that tells you is that the leverage that weve been
but if this gets kicked to the fbi, theyll not give a hoot about any of that. Theyll follow the facts and what fords testimony did was, obviously, raise questions in the minds of important anchors on fox news. In the minds of the president himself. In the minds of senators that had to vote on judge kavanaughs nomination that perhaps we should know a little more of the events of 37 years ago. How will the fbi proceed . Theyll go out and immediately start to interview all the available witnesses related to dr. Blasey fords allegation and potentially the other allegations made as well. Its important to remember. This is not a criminal investigation. So its different in two ways. One, they dont have the investigative tools they have in criminal investigations. They cant compel anyones testimony through a grand jury subpoena. All interviews are entirely voluntary. So theyll seek to interview judge kavanaugh, Christine Blasey ford, mark judge and potentially once theyve interviewed those key principle witnesses theyll move out to other people, some who have been identified in the press. Some of whom dr. Ford has identified in her testimony. And what they will do at the end, instead of reaching a conclusion like in a criminal investigation, where they say recommend charges or recommend no charges to the Justice Department, theyll compile all of the evidence theyve found and get it to the appropriate decisionmakers which in this case is the senate. So the big question going forward, the Judiciary Committee said in this statement that they the fbi investigation should be limited to current, credible allegations. I think the real question for me is, who gets to decide whats a credible allegation. Does the fbi get to decide or the white house, which can limit the scope of this investigation. Do they ask them only to look at dr. Fords allegation and not the others that have been made by Deborah Ramirez and swetnick and others that may come in anonymously over the next week. Kasie hunt, are you waiting for mcconnell to either rubber stamp the recommendation from the Senate Judiciary committee and make that formal request, or is the request from the committee sufficient for the
white house to go ahead and do what matt miller just described . The committees request is the one that matters. Mcconnell will always say i defod defer to Chuck Grassley. But i do think the question that matt raised is the right one and i meant to mention that at the top. The statement does say credible allegations. And i do think that that demand is likely to come, at least in part, from the senators. So what do jeff flake, susan collins, Lisa Murkowski think are the credible allegation gops they want julie swetnicks allegations visit gated, for example . Or do they want to set that to the side . Are we only looking at the incident from dr. Christine blasey ford . The committee had been in receipt of a couple anonymous allegations, some that seemed more credible than others. Is any of that going to be subject to the investigation . And im sure that the administration is going to have a lot of say there. But again, lets just not forget that the leverage is with flake, collins and murkowski. So were going to have to let them define that. Ive already put this question to the committee about what they consider to be credible. So far i havent had a response. And with that kind of leverage comes responsibility. What is the white house take me inside the white house yesterday in that i understand the period between fords testimony and the commencement of kavanaughs testimony was incredibly fraught. And that really everything was on the table. Thats right. There was great concern among the president himself and those around him as to what happened. They want the president started his day yesterday in new york and traveled back to washington, leaving from the united nations. He is catching up on dvr on Air Force One and back at the white house. Glued to the Television Watching everything happen. As he said today in the oval office, he found dr. Fords testimony to be very credible and people around him were very concerned that judge kavanaugh was going to have a very uphill climb to overcome that. They then rallied. When he went out there and delivered a fiery sort of defense of himself and sort of
himself but he listens to advice. For goodnesss sake. They wrote him a list and he put out the list. Trump didnt know those people on the list. He knew like three of them. He released a list in the campaign. He listens to advice. He knows how important that list was to his victory. He is proud of gorsuch. He wants kavanaugh to be confirmed. And it has been rammed into his head by the people around him, forgoodnesss take, if you say anything incendiary today, theres collins and mccowsky and flake gone. He doesnt know anyone from adam. The Federalist Society clicks, shes a these are not his circles. He didnt run into them in his trump is not steeped in constitutional law. I dont think thats a controversial, like, assertion to make. Trump had no idea really about the Supreme Court beyond a very Pop Culture Conception of it. Had you picked up any sense that this period between fords
testimony and kavanaughs, anything and everything was on the table . I dont know about on the table. I dont think there was ever a moment. I didnt get that from my reporting. Its possible others did, that they were ever going to pull kavanaugh. But, for sure, they were nervous about kavanaugh because they thought he was very unconvincing on fox. A lot of them did. And they thought his first testimony on the hill was really poor. And that he was evasive and not particularly telegenic and so they were very, very nervous. And the message to him was, dont screw up. The worst Case Scenario for kavanaugh was described to me on the day that the Washington Post piece ran and everything and i dont know for whom seeing dr. Ford was necessary to believe her. I thought reading her account in the Washington Post was enough for me and enough for most men and women that i spoke to. But certainly seeing her cemented something in a much wider group of peoples minds, including, it would appear, the president based on his comments. Where do you think we are that
the democrats were moved to tears at something that should have been baked in. An fbi investigation into serious and credible allegations of Sexual Assault . I think that we are in a place of we havent learned from 27 years ago. We should not be in this place today. If you think about it, dr. Ford is getting less than what professor anita hill got 27 years ago. If donald trump had asked for an fbi i shouldnt call it investigation, but to reopen the Background Check, just like george h. W. Bush did in 1991, we probably would be done right now. The fbi investigation would be done. Wed be one step closer to wherever we were with this scotus pick. But something that did happen today which was surprising is we had bipartisanship. And that is the first time weve seen that in a long time. You had flake work with Senator Coons and others coming together and saying, you know, we cant move forward. We need to hold this. We need to have the fbi reopen the Background Check on
kavanaugh. And i think thats a big step. Also, lets not forget what happened to flake this morning. He was in an elevator and you had women survivors confront him and say, you dont believe me. I wonder if he was tempted to say, wait twoe20 minutes. Im about to drop a bomb in the committee. They said his head was down, he couldnt he just couldnt even believe what was going on with the process. I want to ask you something, matt miller. Brett kavanaugh believes he believes in his own innocence. I think that came through in his testimony yesterday. How does his testimony and what he presented to the senators, how is that going to be different from what the fbi presents to them when their product is stripped of emotion and its simply, i imagine it will be a report on paper that they submit. But can you contrast those two pieces that will now be in front any of democrat or republican senator who has to vote on kavanaughs nomination . I think the most important thing is it will be stripped of all the emotion and anger we saw
yesterday because that might help him, right . That could have been offputting. It depends. That hurt him with a lot of people. It rallied the republican senators on the committee. You saw it regurgitate the same emotion and anger. What it will look like is the standard fbi 302. Theyll go out and interview him and ask him a lot of factbased questions. The more important thing is, hell be forced to answer a lot of factual questions he wouldnt answer yesterday. If you looked at the Democratic Senators questions, they were asking very specific questions about his alcohol use, about whether he ever blacked out, and he was very uncomfortable answering those questions and sometimes he wouldnt answer them and would turn around and in an add way ask a question of the senator who was asking him. You cant do that with an fbi official and fbi interview. Its completely inappropriate. So what youll see is hell have trained investigators who arent interrupted after five minutes who can ask him a long series of detailed questions, and most importantly, when they go get
accounts from other witnesses, they can come back to him and follow up and put that in a detailed written report thats turned over to all the senators on the committee. Matt miller, thank you for being here today. Kasie hunt had to run off to chase somebody. If she gets a scoop well bring her back to you. Well show you that moment. The man at the center of the kavanaugh compromise. Jeff flake confronted by protesters before his Bombshell Call for an fbi investigation. Will todays announcement help bring both sides together after yesterdays raw testimony . Well be right back. When i found out i had agerelated macular degeneration, amd, i wanted to fight back. My doctor and i came up with a plan. It includes preservision. Only Preservision Areds 2 has the exact nutrient formula recommended by the National Eye Institute to help reduce the risk of progression of moderate to advanced amd. Thats why i fight. Because its my vision. Preservision. Also, in a greattasting chewable. Family and farxiga,re fighting Type 2 Diabetes with food, the pill that starts with f. Farxiga, along with diet and exercise, helps lower aic in adults with Type 2 Diabetes, its one pill a day. And although its not a weightloss drug, it may help you lose weight. Do not take if allergic to farxiga. If you experience symptoms of a serious allergic reaction such as rash, swelling, Difficulty Breathing or swallowing, stop taking and seek medical help right away. Do not take farxiga if you have severe kidney problems, are on dialysis or have bladder cancer. Tell your doctor right away if you have blood or red color in your urine or pain while you urinate. Farxiga can cause serious side effects including dehydration, genital Yeast Infections in women and men, serious urinary tract infections, low blood sugar and kidney problems. Stop taking farxiga and call your doctor right away if you have signs of ketoacidosis which is serious and may lead to death. Ask your doctor about the pill that starts with f. And visit farxiga. Com for savings. If you cant afford your medication,
astrazeneca may be able to help. Not long ago, ronda started here. And then, more jobs began to appear. These techs in a lab. This builder in a hardhat. The welders and electricians who do all of that. The diner staffed up cause they all needed lunch. Teachers. Doctors. Jobs grew a bunch. What started with one job spread all around. Because each job in energy creates many more in this town. Energy lives here. To me. That you let people like that go into the highest court of the land and tell everyone what they did to their bodies. Do you have an answer, senator . No, no thank you. What do you think . Maam no, i want to talk to him. What do you think . Are you going to respond . I understand, but tell me. Im standing right here in front of you. Why now . Why not wait . Why not wait . Why not wait for the investigation . Theres no harm. I watched enough aaron sorkin meetings to think maybe that was them. That was jeff flake before he went public with his call for an fbi investigation into blasey fords calls. The kavanaughs side case against the fbi investigation was a weak one. Why would you resist that kind of investigation. Sir, i welcome i wanted the hearing last week. Im asking about the fbi investigation. The committee figures out how to ask the questions. Ill do whatever. Ive been on the phone multiple
times with committee counsel. Judge kavanaugh, will you support an fbi investigation right now . Ill do whatever the committee wants to personally, do you think thats the best thing for us to do . You wont answer . Look, senator, ive i have said i wanted a hearing and i said i would welcome anything. Im innocent. Joining the table, my colleagues, msnbc anchor Stephanie Ruhle and al sharpton host of politics nation. And president of the National Action network. You were on the air when a lot of this was going on today. I was emailing you n wanted you to come back. This has had time to sink in. Mitch mcconnell is on the floor now. Kasie hunt said going through the formality of approving what the Judiciary Committee request chd is something that if theyd asked for at the beginning they