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Historian douglas brinkley. david, i'll start with you. the president says this fbi investigation will end up being a blessing in disguise. meantime, politico is reporting mcconnell told senators flake, collins, and murkowski, this investigation wasn't going to make voting for him any easier. so how are republicans feeling exactly about kavanaugh's chances? >> well, look. i think we're going to have to see how this unfolds over the next few days. something interesting, though, ana, on friday, before the senate was done for the week, the debate on his nomination on the senate floor kicked off. ...

Thursday, of course, but even a bit earlier throughout this process. remember both thof women's senators expressed reservations about this candidate before these allegations even came to light. they have always been seen as the two swing votes, must-get votes. but they're also meeting with senators flake and manchin, and they're discussing the idea of moving forward as a bloc. it is important to look at the extended fbi background check now. certainly more information can be turned up. dr. ford could be corroborated but this extra step could gift think cover for voting yet. political you have ...

Realize that this is about doing the due diligence that needs to be done. it's not about guaranteeing any outcome. and folks who are hanging on a specific outcome could be very disappointed, and they need to understand that's part of the deal. >> you know the person who can talk to us about this investigation? >> if only we had a former -- >> philip mudd. so, phil, we learned tonight that senators flake, collins, murkowski, they gave some terms to the leader mcconnell, that the investigation would be limited, right? current credible allegations. focus on -- should focus on mark judge, the frie...

Allegations, can you explain what that means, what you're looking from, from the fbi? >> obviously that includes the allegations and also i'm sure that "the new yorker" piece has allegations. but they'll have to decide what that is and how far that goes. >> so let's talk about how this investigation might shape up with cnn national security analyst julia kayyem. and cnn legal analyst renato mariotti. i say we've got it covered here. you guys would know how this works. so thank you so much for joining us. chris, we know that senators flake, collins, murkowski set the terms of this investigation...

There's probably some fuming going on, but publicly more conciliatory. lindsey graham, probably the most outspoken, said these fine, we should allow this to proceed. of course, the president signed off on it. i think as aaron said, if the fbi comes back in a week and says we couldn't turn up anything, which is probably the most likely scenario, then flake, collins and murkowski can say with clean conscience we're going to proceed and they have a strong talking point to throw back at democrats, we conceded, the fbi didn't find anything, so i think it bolsters their case and could give strong po...