traumatized. they are concerned about being blamed themselves for their assault. they are concerned about being shamed and victimized again. and the concern about not being believed. so it is a very common occurrence for victims of sexual assault to delay in reporting. so i think to the extent that becomes an issue at this hearing. that should be debunked as it does not mean that the person is not credible. there is a logical explanation for a delay that occurs in reporting a crime of sexual assault. mieke, quickly before i go, i m not saying i know which of these stories is true, but since president trump today established the standard of proof here, that there can be no doubt, there can be no doubt that brett kavanagh is telling the truth, that s the standard of proof that the president said we should be using. that means we can have no doubt that brett kavanagh is telling the truth when he s talking about his drunk teenage high school years. how can anyone have no doubt about th
me that there is meat on these bones and, therefore, i think kavanagh is going to have a hard time. and i don t want to bet tonight, but if i have to bet tonight, i think you re absolutely right. and the other two big things that happened today is the president established a standard of proof in this case saying no one should have any doubt. so brett kavanagh is now under a responsibility given to him by the president today to remove all doubt, all doubt, no one can have the slightest doubt about brett kavanagh in order to vote for him, and then dr. ford is handling this strongly tonight, and i don t think i m not sure she s aware of this, but from a senate strategic standpoint, absolutely masterfully. this demand she is making that the fbi do an investigation first is a masterful strategic stroke. it looks to me like dr. ford is actually more in control of what happens next than chairman chuck grassley, and i don t know if chuck grassley knows that yet. and chuck grassley is on
difficult. and when he talk about memories from that long ago. mark judge himself actually wrote very compellingly and fairly recently about an incident where he was actually beaten by a coach in high school. and he writes about it quite vividly. it s because even when you re young, you have very strong and vivid memories of things that are traumatic. so they may not remember this if it s not the sort of thing whether or not it happened, it may not be the sort of thing they remember if it was unremarkable for them. but for dr. ford, clearly this was very traumatic and something that she has remembered and may remember much more clearly than the people who were otherwise involved in it. we re going to have to take a break in here. thank you all for bringing your unique perspectives to this. when we come back, president trump is really terrified of robert mueller and so that means he is listening to his handlers very carefully about what he says about brett kavanagh because he is afr
bob corker might not have known how soft chuck grassley was going to come out here tonight because chuck grassley clearly does not know what to do next as of this minute tonight. yeah, you know, from a matter of process, the whole nation is watching. a generation of children are watching. and it s important that we get this right as a matter of process. this is a lifetime appointment. and i understand why they want to get it done before the mid terms. . we have a couple of months before that. delaying this a week or two while we do a thorough investigation is really in everybody s interest, best interest, including brett kavanagh. if he is rushed through at this point without a thorough investigation of this allegation, then his position on the supreme court will forever be tainted. and so i think for his interest, for the legitimacy of the court and to show america that we take allegations of sexual assault seriously, there should be a full investigation. the suggestion that the fbi
calendar and the senator said we ve got to get this done quickly. he told the white house, based on my reporting, that kavanagh had too many documents in his history going back to his time in the bush white house. mcconnell s people tell me he couldn t predict this kind of allegation would come up, but he was looking for someone like from kentucky mcconnell fafrtd favorite to move it through the senate. this is just months before the midterm elections. the republicans in the senate, mitch mcconnell was in the senate at the time of the anita hill hearings, hatch was. they didn t spend a minute of thinking about what happens in the next version of an anita hill hearing in the senate judiciary committee and they suddenly have to try to figure it out on the fly. that s exactly right. as one republican senator told me today that they thought kavanagh and they still believe he is in their view, squeaky clean, there wouldn t be an issue like this. now there is talk of 1992, like