lawmakers that were on the committee back then are on the judicial committee again. senator patrick leahy, who did not vote for vote to confirm clarence thomas, but then oren hatch and chuck grassley, who did. i want to play for you just go back in time for a moment and listen to the way oren hatch was talking about anita hill while she was alleging inappropriate conduct by clarence thomas and what he is now saying about brett kavanaugh s accuser. senator, her testimony, she seems very credible, highly intelligent. it didn t plant any seed of doubt in your mind? yes, there were lots of seed of doubt in my mind from her testimony. about clarence thomas? no, i know clarence thomas. i have known him for 11 years. do you think that this in any way is going to derail his nomination? no. he s a straight-shooting, honest guy. i think when people listen to him, they ll know that he s all right. and i m not opposed to anita
talking about anita hill s proclivities when he was asking her. let s not forget oren hatch waving a copy of the exorcist as if she got the idea for clarence thomas s harassment of her out of a book. right. senators can look terrible, but they have a hard time giving up the spotlight and, you know, i have my doubts about whether they re going to do it. for the white house it is going to come down to credibility and who seems the most credible because kavanaugh struggled a little bit during his hearings where they got really testy at some points and that will be the question here, is does he respond in anger. how does he respond to the accusations which he has flatly denied even being at this party, anything with this woman. not saying he was there and he remembered things differently. he is denying even being there. as you heard from senator collins earlier, she said if he is lying that would be disqualifying for his nomination. of course, if this woman comes forward, she test
circumstances, even if her identity is confidential. lisa, if you still had your old job at the judiciary committee, i am sure at some point in the last few weeks it would have fallen to you to have a conversation somehow with this woman. what would you tell her? i would tell her what jill told her, which is that it is so important to come forward, if you can possibly come forward. certainly she would be attack. senator grassley was also there at the time and he also attacked anita hill just like oren hatch. but there are so many more women who have come forward, who would stand beside her, who would defend her against the secure l attacks of republicans who have been lining up with attacks on her. her character is her own possession and i know she would be surrounded by millions of other women who would stand by her. lisa graves and jill wine-banks, thank you for joining us in this important discussion. appreciate it. thank you so much. when we come back, another bad news
you. and the people who know you the best, and that involves hundreds of people, think the world of you. and oren hatch thinks the world of brett kavanaugh. today rep senator oren hatch issued this statement, i do not intend to allow judge kavanaugh s confirmation to be stall because of an 11th hour accusation that democrats did not see fit to raise for over a month. the claims are wholly unverifyable and come at the tail end of a process that was already marched by ugly innuendo, dishonesty and the nastiest form of our politics. the american people deserve much better from the senate as an institution. that is essentially the same defense that oren hatch offered for clarence thomas who faced accusations from anita hill after, after his confirmation hearing was over. but because there are no time limits on how long the confirmation process can take, the senate judiciary comttee
about jurisprudence and legal ethics would have done the same exact thing. that s all he has against sessions. so lindsay is saying he should be fired? you know, it was a strange statement from senator graham. he enjoys his golf buddy friendship with the president, and this may be another sign of it. i thought the most interesting part of that, graham has said before that he thought that it might be time for sessions to retire after the elections when the new congress is seated. i think in specifying that no new attorney general would be confirmed without a promise to keep the mueller investigation going, graham has actually moved a little further toward protection of the investigation than i had heard before. it is my understanding that senator oren hatch, the chairman of the senate judiciary committee, has said flatly that