Night. Well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 615 of the Trump Administration. And tonight there are two new allegations of Sexual Misconduct against this Supreme Court nominee, federal judge Brett Kavanaugh. That would bring the total number of allegations to five. We are now less than 12 hours away from a potentially gamechanging hae, judge kavanaugh and dr. Chris about ian ford who accused him of Sexual Assault, will appear separately before the senate squ ruche and the ace. Cav taug has denied that allegation as well as one from deborah ramirez. Today nbc news is reporting that the Judiciary Committee is investigating a previously unreported allegation of misconduct against kavanaugh. According to an anonymous complaint sent to republican Senator Cory Gardner of colorado kavanaugh if is a socialized with in the washington, d. C. Area in 1998 when was inebriated. The committee has released the anonymous letter in which the author writes there were at least four one including daughter. Tonight the Committee Also released the transcript of a phone call yesterday with investigators and kavanaugh. When he was asked if the events alleged occurred allegedly occurr occurred, kavanaugh responded no and were dealing with an anonymous had reletter noms person. No, ive never done anything like that. The same Senate Transcript also indicates they asked kavanaugh about an anonymous allegation of a Sexual Assault on a boat in newport, rhode island in 1985. Kavanaugh told the committee staff, i was not in newport. I havent been on a boat in newport. This is just completely made up or at least not me. Our colleague kasie hunt on capitol hill has been looking into this and writes there was broad agreement from those in both parties that this accusation was close to impossible to pursue because there were so many questions about its origins. Well, this morning we learned about another allegation. A different allegation from another woman named julie swetnick, who claims to have attended several parties with the future federal judge back in the 80s. Her attorney, Michael Avenatti, hinted at her story over the past several days. He has now released a sworn declaration from swetnick in which she says, i observed Brett Kavanaugh drink excessively and many of these parties and engage in abusive and physically aggressive behavior toward girls, including pressing girls against him without their consent, grinding against girls, and attempting to remove or shift girls clothing. Southwestn n swetnick also alleges she witnessed kavanaugh and his friend mark judge cause girls to be inebriated or disoriented so they could be gang raped. Today kavanaugh responded to swetnicks accusations through the white house calling them ridiculous and from the twilight zone. His attorney Beth Wilkinson added this. He doesnt know her. He doesnt hes never met her. And weve had people already calling our office and emailing us saying they dont know her, theyve never seen her at the parties they attended with him. But when you think of the allegations, they are alleging that for years there were gang rapes going on with multiple menw multiple women being victims. That is such a frightening allegation. No one ever went to the police . No ones gone to the police to this day to report those allegations . Its truly outrageous. Tonight Michael Avenatti says the fbi should begin looking into his clients allegations. Were demanding an fbi investigation proceed forthwith. My client is prepared to meet with the fbi. Shes willing to sit down with fbi agents, answer any questions they have about all of these allegations. This afternoon in his longest solo News Conference to date, only the fourth of his presidency, donald trump spoke at length about the allegations facing his nominee. It is. Its a con job. You know, confidence. Its a confidence job but they its a con job by the democrats. They know it. Ive had a lot of false charges against me. Really false charges. I know friends that have had false charges. People want fame. They want money. They want whatever. So when i see it, i view it differently than somebody sitting home watching television where they say oh, judge kavanaugh this or that. Its happened to me many times. Ive had many false charges. I had a woman sitting in an airplane and i attacked her while people were coming onto the plane and i have a number one bestseller out. I mean, it was a total phony story. There are many of them. So when you say does it affect me in terms of my thinking with respect to judge kavanaugh, absolutely. Im going to see what happens tomorrow. Im going to be watching. You know, believe it or not. Im going to see whats said. Its possible that they will be convincing. The president says they, though just one accuser is testifying tomorrow. Both dr. Ford and Brett Kavanaugh have released the advance text of their opening remarks for tomorrows hearing. Dr. Fords Statement Reads in part, i am here today not because i want to be. I am terrified. I am here because i believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and i were in high school. My motivation in coming forward was to provide the facts about how mr. Kavanaughs actions have damaged my life, so that you can take that into serious consideration as you make your decision about how to proceed. And this is what kavanaugh will say in part, and we quote, dr. Fords allegation dates back more than 36 years, to a party that she says occurred during our time in high school. I was not perfect in those days, just as i am not perfect today. I drank beer with my friends, usually on weekends. Sometimes i had too many. I am not questioning that dr. Ford may have been sexually assaulted by some person in some place at some time. But i have never done that to her or to anyone. The president also added this assessment of whats at stake in tomorrows hearing. This is beyond Supreme Court. This is everything to do with our country. Always i heard youre innocent until proven guilty. Ive heard this for so long. And its just a beautiful phrase. In this case youre guilty until proven innocent. With that lets bring in our leadoff panel for a wednesday night. Robert costa, National Political reporter for the Washington Post, moderator of Washington Week on pbs. Lisa lehrer, National Political reporter with the New York Times. And barrett berger. Shes a former assistant u. S. Attorney with both the Eastern District of new york and for good measure the Southern District of new york. We welcome all of them back to the broadcast. Robert, were anxious to get to you. There were serious people tonight in just the past few hours wondering, as you know, whether this nomination would survive the night, whether there would be a hearing tomorrow. Whats the latest on your reporting . . Brian, calling around the highest ranks of the senate gop, its clear tonight that the support for judge kavanaugh is soft. Talking to top senators, they say upwards of two dozen republicans are going to be closely watching the hearing tomorrow to see his responses, to see if dr. Ford comes across as credible. And their votes could be up for grabs, brian. And i asked bob corker, the senator from tennessee, retiring on the record, where does this stand, and he said thats true. Hes hearing that about half the caucus in the senate gop is going to watch the hearing closely tomorrow and then decide. And what did you discern, robert, from the president s wording, this man who says nothing accidentally . To most people listening, especially watchers of politics, left the door wide open today. Talking to Top White House officials in the last hour, they say the president showcased his defiance, hes standing by judge kavanaugh with this nomination, but he also knows that in this charged moment culturally, politically that judge kavanaugh is going to have to defend himself tomorrow. Hes going to have to come across strong. The president was disappointed, sources tell me, with the judges interview on fox news. He wants to see the judge really make his own case. It cant just be President Trump at a News Conference. So lisa, lay out the stakes for us. The stakes for dr. Ford for kavanaugh. This being a visual medium. For the assistant counsel that mcconnell famously called a female assistant being brought in to lead the questioning. And for the democrats, who can misplay and overplay the soap box of this. Right. Thats exactly right. I can tell you i was on capitol hill today and you could get a palpable sense that tensions were extremely high. Senator orrin hatch, whos generally known as someone fairly polite, soft spoken, shouted shut up at reporters and said he was in an extremely bad mood. There was a real sense among republicans in the senate that they were extremely worried about this nomination. I mean, dont forget that just a week and a half ago this seemed like a sure bet for them and now every day there seems to be another bad report. So what happens in this hearing will be pivotal. Republicans of course have outsourced a lot of the questioning to this prosecutor, a woman from arizona. So it will be interesting to see what they do. Do they ask any questions at all . What do they do when shes asking the questions . Its rare you that see senators opting out of talking. Generally, what they do is talk. Im curious about how thats going to look. Democrats, the shadow of anita hill has hung extremely large over this hearing. And democrats are really conscious of not being in a position where theyre seeming dismissive of any of either kavanaugh or dr. Ford. But i think theres some risk for them too. We saw from some of the questioning from the testimony that was released, the questioning that was released by the senate Judiciary Committee that this hearing feels like its sort of on the knifes edge between it could easily dip into the ridiculous. You know, theyre asking a lot of questions potentially about the judges sex life, about his drinking. So i think democrats have to be really conscious about being fair and tough but also having . Sense of decorum, which i think people want to see. And they also have to be tough with dr. Ford and seem like while being empathetic. They are trying to get to the bottom of what actually happened on that night if its possible to even do that. And barrett, im sure well say this many times during the coverage tomorrow, this is not a courtroom and the rules really discourage being on a roll in terms of questioning. Fiveminute limits for each senator. If you were appointed special counsel by the dems, what kinds of questions would you want to come at judge kavanaugh with to find what you wanted to find . So i think that look, we have a general sense of what both judge kavanaugh and what dr. Ford are going to say based on the written statements that theyve given. I think the goal for this you know, for this hearing is to actually see what they say when theyre under pressure. Right . What is their tone . How are they you know, are they striking an indignant tone, are they striking an apologetic tone . You glean a lot about a witness and a victim based not just on what they say but how they say it. I think if i was a special counsel i would obviously want to ask questions about his drinking, about the people he was associating with. But i think what really distinguishes this from a court of law is the fact that we are only hearing from two people. In any court of law you would never have, you know, a case like this going with just the victim and the alleged accuser. You especially when there are named people out there that could theoretically corroborate these stories or add more facts to the narrative. Thats the biggest difference between a court of law and whats going to be happening tomorrow is just the sheer absence of really critical witnesses. Robert costa, to continue the thread we started, what happens . Worst Case Scenario this guy doesnt make it and this nomination has to get pulled. Weve been waiting for that kind of moment all day. I continue to check my phone until a minute ago. Is this nomination really on the edge . Because what i have Top Republican senators telling me they have to watch the hearing tomorrow, they have to see the performance, with the president at his News Conference saying he has to watch how it all unfolds tomorrow. You have a nomination that is in a totally fragile state. But so far, brian, the Top Republicans in the country are telling the post, look, we know we had a short list before judge kavanaugh, judge park in kentucky a mcconnell favorite, judge Amy Coney Barrett in indiana but theyre not ready to start considering a plan b. They have to see in this crucible tomorrow how do people perform, can the parties somehow make it to a vote . Lisa, having read your news qulert for the times, if someone was on a plane during the president s News Conference today and you had the task of in 60 seconds updating them on his appearance, the demeanor, the content of his comments, how would you sum it all up . It was a gargantuan 81minute event. It was sort of the kind of News Conferences he gave frequently during that campaign, or more frequently. It was rambling. It was wideranging. It felt very free flowing. He i think in terms of the hearing the most salient point to me was that he said that his thoughts on this were influenced by his personal experience. He feels that he was falsely accused several times of sexual harassment, of Sexual Misconduct. And so when he looks at whats happening to judge kavanaugh hes thinking about what happened to him. But as bob pointed out, he also really left open the door to putting somebody else in if hes not happy with what he sees tomorrow night, which is not what republicans on the hill really wanted to hear. And there is a real question of timing. The reason republicans, part of the reason theyve wanted to really push this nomination through is because theres a real question of whether they could get someone else through the entire process before a new congress could come in. And the concern there of course is that republicans will lose control of the senate, which seems like more of a possibility than it did a few months ago. So they dont want to give up this dream theyve been working for for really decades of getting a conservative Supreme Court. So thats a major reason why you see them sticking with judge kavanaugh for as long as they have through this entire turbulent week and a half period that weve just been witnessing. Berit, you prosecuted sex crimes for a time. Beyond the obvious, how is it a different conversation . How did the rules change surrounding it . Look, i think one thing that distinguishes any kind of crime involving Sexual Assault or rape is that these are just messy cases. Youre not dealing with perfect victims. Oftentimes, it is just two people in a room. So you may only have two witnesses. Oftentimes, those witnesses will be inebriated. They may have imperfect memories. You also have situations where theyll have a relationship with each other. So i think they dont necessarily fit neatly into the box that people may want crimes to fit into. You have cases where the victims are going out on dates with their alleged attackers afterwards or in contact with them afterwards. So they dont necessarily these victims dont necessarily fit into a picture of what you would want an ideal crime victim to fit into. It doesnt mean these arent important cases. It doesnt mean theyre not difficult cases. But they are different than sort of a robbery or a drug case. And it makes it a challenge to get the tone right for anyone doing the questioning tomorrow. Robert costa, lisa lerer, berit berger, cant thank you enough for starting off our broadcast this wednesday night. Coming up, well be joined by a former white House Counsel who says it may have indeed been a fateful mistake by this committee not to have the fbi investigate. Later, at the u. N. Today trump accuses a foreign power of election meddling but probably not the foreign power youd expect. We are just Getting Started on a busy wednesday night. Lets be honest you need insurance. But its not really something you want to buy. Its not sexy. Or delicious. Or fun. But since you need both car and home insurance, why not bundle them with esurance and save up to 10 . Which you can spend on things you really want to buy, like. Well, i dont know what youd wanna buy because im just a guy on your tv. Esurance. Its surprisingly painless. The fbi told us theyve investigated judge kavanaugh six times, five times, many times over the years. They know him very well. But here there was nothing to investigate from at least one standpoint. They didnt know the location. They didnt know the time. They didnt know the year. They didnt know anything. President trump by way of defending his decision not to ask the fbi to reopen the investigation into kavanaugh. As this headline from the atlantic observes, the decision not to call in the fbi is looking worse and worse. In it bob bauer, the former white House Counsel to president obama, warns even if kavanaugh is confirmed, others will pursue what the fbi has not. Theres already been some discussion among democrats of an impeachment proceeding if they regain control of the house. Others have suggested a referral in the ford matter to maryland criminal enforcement authoritie