but you know, you don t have that to make that decision. so it s whom you prefer to believe frankly and you prefer not to believe her. joyce vance, last word. was this a good day or a bad day for law and those who love the law in america? this was a tough day for the rule of law. and i think the reason goes back to what you just said, eugene. i think that there may be folks who listened to her today who found her to be credible, but who decided it was so important to put a conservative justice on the supreme court that even knowing that she s speaking the truth they ll vote for him. that s a bad day for the rule of law. and that s where we ll have to leave our conversation at the end of this long day, along with our thanks to joyce vance, to eugene robinson, to michael steele. really appreciate it, gang, for joining us. it brings us to the last thing before we go tonight. it is about what we witnessed today. a moment of genuine high drama, human drama in washington, the likes of
asks tonight, will the kavanagh-ford hearing be a where-were-you moment? i would argue it already is. still with us, joyce vance, eugene robinson and michael steele. mr. chairman, i heard kasie hunt report tonight that part of what is motivating the clock, the 9:30 hearing, the word that there may be a full senate vote as early as saturday, is that they don t want her story to sit with people that long because it may, it may come back and resonate. right. her decency and her obvious expertise in her field may rattle around in folks heads. that s prut sad. it s sad, and i think largely true. but i would say to that extent, brian, the story already resonated. it resonated in the time she was sitting in that chair confronting that chamber. but here s the bottom line in all of this. there was a moment, and i think it was triggered by lindsey
one is reading a magazine, no one is talking. a woman from new york sent this out. when other women on your jetblue flight are watching an at cavanaugh hearings with you it s hard not to feel the impact dr. ford s testimony has on the greater american public. and there was the daughter who shared the picture of her father watching the kavanagh hearing while undergoing chemotherapy treatments. oh, americans watched and listened today, but political divides as we have chronicled here tonight, being what they are, people saw and heard different things today. that conversation continues tonight. it continues first thing tomorrow morning. the stakes couldn t be higher. it is time here on the east coast, at least, for this long day to come to an end. and that is our broadcast for this thursday night. thank you so very much for being with us. for all of it, and good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york.
today s discussion. it was. others have said this, but i ll say it again. it is clear he is lying about the degree to which he did drink and frankly probably the degree to which he drinks now. whether or not he drinks alcohol isn t the central issue of whether he should be a judge, but whether he s lying about it is. and it goes to the truth of the main issue here, which is did you sexually assault dr. ford. and if he was so drunk that he couldn t remember it or couldn t control it, or, you know, just doesn t want to admit all of that, that goes to that central issue. and there is no doubt in my mind in that answer, he was terrified to answer that question because the truth is he did drink too much. and that s why it wasn t just him asking a question of her, it was him getting defensive and belligerent, frankly. and, look, durbin asked the right question that we re all asking, all of america is asking. we re asking on tv, we re asking it to our neighbors. why don t you want the fbi t
lens, this is all part of, to quote my favorite american, now we are engaged in a great civil war, right? this is a war between the america that was and the america that will be. and this is a very, very difficult transition. this war has many theaters, many fronts, race, diversity, age, urban/rural, there are lots of fault lines here. and it s becoming more like, to mix my war metaphors, like world war i. we re dug into trenches. today dug those trenches deeper because dr. christine blasey ford was credible. i mean, she was totally credible. there s no mistaken identity. she happens to be qualified as an expert witness as well to testify in this case, so she knew exactly what was going on. not only what happened to her, but what was going on with her perception, her memory of it. she was as credible as you possibly could be.