cynthia, since you were here for the testimony, let s talk about the victims. i found is so interesting that senator murkowski s vote is a fluid matter tonight because, like so many senators, victims have come from alaska to washington to say this matters to us, to say right. in ways that grassley can t understand, that hearing was a triggering event. seeing her, seeing him was a triggering event. this has given an electric charge to the community of victims across this country. right. people come up to me and want to tell me and i had somebody the other day want to come tell me about her story. i can t imagine the numbers of people that are going to see murkowski and collins and flake and manchin. it s one of the problems with us spending a lot of time on the process of the fbi investigation which i do think is important. but we have gotten away from the core the core issue here, which is what do we think about the credibility of dr. ford versus the credibility of judg
a report in the new york times characterized the strategy this way. the in creasingly aggressive attacks on judge kavanaugh s main accuser and the dark warnings about democrats from his supporters are harnessing republicans outrage i ll get it right supreme court seat. with us tonight to talk about it, white house reporter for politico and eli stokols, white house reporter for the los angeles times. nancy, law school style, if i asked you to make a case that this is helping the gop, we have seen a spike in the ratings of fox news channel over the last few days. certainly the first few days of this week. could you make said case? you could, and there was also a recent poll from npr marist earlier this week that really showed that this kavanaugh nomination fight is closing the enthusiasm gap as you said between democrats and republicans. and democrats before were
i can t get up in the morning and look at the life experience that i ve had and say yes to judge kavanaugh. so here s where we are. two story lines have now emerged following the release of the fbi report on kavanaugh. first the republicans. top members of the judiciary committee walked into a press briefing with reporters today. and while no one wanted to sound like ageism, some couldn t help but do the simple math here, a combined age of 416 years, an average age of 69 years, and as a group today their tone was one of vindication. what we know for sure is the fbi report did not corroborate any of the allegations against judge kavanaugh. i feel very good about where this nomination is right now. this person is very well qualified. no corroboration, no confirmation of any of these outrageous accusations that have
tonight, just hours away now from the first critical vote on brett kavanaugh for the supreme court, he shows up in the wall street journal tonight where he admits he might have been too emotional at times, while over 2400 law professors have now signed a letter saying he has no place on the court and a former supreme court justice agrees. protests erupt on the hill today as republicans exude confidence after reading the fbi report and democrats say the investigation was a sham. and all eyes on the four key senators now, murkowski, collins, flake, and manchin. we ll get a late live report as the 11th hour gets underway on a thursday night. well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 623 of the trump administration, a fast-moving day in this drama surrounding the nomination of brett kavanaugh for the supreme court.
think back, you know, what did we all think then? what was our gut on her credibility? and remember that not only do we have our gut on her credibility, but this is a woman who was telling people ten years ago or six years ago or whatever it was, many years ago before he was nominated for the court that he was the person who had done this to her. and at the same time we know, as he walked into that hearing room, his credibility had been challenged by a person no less than senator leahy who has accused him of not telling the truth on a number of different issues. so as important as this investigation is, on some level you don t really need it to make a determination here. even though i would prefer that it was a much more thorough and decent investigation. it is obviously a sham. but you don t really need it because you have a very credible victim and you have an incredible judge kavanaugh. bob, i ve been thinking about you because i ve been thinking