the senator s i m sure i ll believe they are great questioners even though many may not be, but they want to have a woman questioning a woman. the democrats on the other side don t want to see that, they want to see a bunch of white guys questioning and playing victim. martha: what everyone thinks back to in this arena is anita hill and clarence thomas. they didn t get high marks for the way they did the questioning and some have said it didn t go well. i understand what the democratic senators are saying, that it strikes them as odd that they want someone else to be their voice in that room room. it s unusual in terms of the way these hearings have been conducted so far but there is ample precedent for it in the past, but this is not about fact-finding, it s about appearances. now the woman interrogator, i don t know who she is, she may be very good. she may be very strong on both sides and strong toward this woman accuser in a way that wouldn t look so good if a man were doing it
whether she shows up or not there will be a hearing. in terms of the broader impact of this, we will show you the protests happening at yale university against judge kavanaugh. ted cruz and his wife went out for dinner last night and this is how it went. [chanting] we believe survivors. we believe survivors. martha: that s unbelievable. obviously, sitting down for a nice dinner, they are dressed up and they go out and these people swarm around them chanting, we believe survivors. brit: right. well the thing about that is, that stuff may play well with the relatively small cadre of hard-core activists, and i guarantee you, martha. and i m not around washington for now seven or eight months in
back to roe v. wade. let s play this. do you have thoughts, is this about roe v. wade, are there people that initially went off the bat and said they never want to see you take a spot on the supreme court? where is this coming from? judge kavanaugh: i just want a fair process where i can be heard. martha: you don t have any thoughts for this is coming fro from? judge kavanaugh: i want a fair process to be heard to defend my integrity. martha: he didn t want to go there. brit: but it s absolutely the right christian. if somewhere along the way in a law review article or something he said in a speech, this judge had signaled that he was a supporter of roe roe v. wade, e think any of this would be happening? i guarantee it would not. and that s the root of this. is it roe vs. wade a decision reached almost out of nowhere that has been widely criticized, even many who liked the result
that s really the key. martha: so what about michalski? as you pointed out, this is really all about a couple of boats and how a couple people believe this process plays out. brit: that s exactly right. you hear the republicans have a whole need to do this, it s not about republicans, it s about a tiny handful of them, laser michalski being one of them. she sounds like she s ready to go. unless she delivers some staggeringly persuasive testimony, that kavanaugh cannot adequately rebut, then i think it looks like she s going to go. now we are not sure about jeff flake, susan collins is still out there, so there are still some boats out there but they can afford the republicans can lose exactly one vote and get this nomination done. martha: you ve also talked about the background of all of this and i asked him last night whether he thought this went
she added, she does not want to see further delay. republican richard burroughs said he merely following thursday s hearing, the judiciary panel should do more there. they are hoping to get more witnesses and drag this out longer. you are seeing tonight republicans closing ranks and saying we need to move forward as early as friday with the committee vote. then we will hear about procedural vote may be saturday and as early as tuesday, one week from tonight, we may see a senate floor vote on kavanaugh up or down. martha: so what are your thoughts on this discussion, at the the back-and-forth that you heard from the senators about the decision to put an attorney and there to do the questioning? there is considerable president for doing that. the issue is though that they haven t done that in the hearing. they have a special counsel or committee counsel who believe the questioning. but this is all about the politics of appearances.