sources about what the thinking is there? most importantly, they tell me, the president is not involved with the preparation. they re trying to keep president trump away from this situation. of course, the white house publicly and privately standing behind their nominee for the high court. but they know that this situation is, as sheryl said, delicate. they re not sure how the hearing will go, if the hearing is going to happen. negotiations continue. and so they want president trump to stay on message as he has been for the most part for the last few days. surprisingly muted even to some of his own aides. robert, there s new polling out tonight from nbc news and wall street journal. should brett kavanaugh be confirmed to the supreme court is the question? he is now under water. 38% saying no. 34% saying yes. 28% having no opinion. women overwhelmingly opposed to his nomination. do you think, robert, that matters to the white house and to those on capitol hill? it does matter to t
hassen about the idea of the republicans on that committee, it s all men, 11 men, bringing in a female attorney, a woman, to do the questioning? well, you know, this should be about getting to the truth, not political optics. but let s take a step back here. we know that women who come forward with allegations of sexual assault, with stories like dr. ford s have historically been vilified. they ve been diminished, they ve been doubted even though we know how prevalent sexual assault is in our society. and what we have seen is that we all need to do better in listening to women, investigating these claims, taking them seriously. and the senate needs to do better. so now you think back to 1991, to anita hill s testimony in that hearing. that hearing had an fbi investigation beforehand. it went on for three days. it included multiple, multiple witnesses. and even that was considered to
that? or are we going to continue to move forward and recognize that women are people too and are entitled to respect, and should not be assaulted at any point? and, you know, obviously it s a matter of hearing all the facts from everybody. and i m looking forward to the hearings. and i keep an open mind as my mentor the late senator paul simon would say, the question is whether the nominee has a good head and a good heart. there s no question, but that that nominee has a good head in terms of his legal baacumen. can misconduct, even that far back, be just kind of overlooked, boys will be boys, or is this a matter of recognizing we want the best that we can find in america for the highest court in the land? it s interesting. what i hear from you in sort of making this decision is that what vote vated you in terms of primarying dixon and the vote for thomas, wasn t the treatment
persuadability on the republican side, that there are members, colleagues of yours that have an open enough mind that you think that something can be accomplished here in terms of a presentation of the evidence? well, i certainly hope so. and that s why i think it is so important that we get this hearing right. i think it is so important that dr. ford s concerns about her safety and about feeling respected in the process really need to be honored. and i think that s why it s so important for there to be serious good faith here. i am concerned, when i hear some of my republican colleagues say that, you know, we ll have the hearing on monday and then we ll vote on wednesday when, in fact, what happens in an investigation and hearing should then determine when and if a vote happens. yeah. and you have the chief counsel on the judiciary committee for senator grassley saying we re going to confirm them, which seems to be tipping the hand a little bit. senator richard blumenthal and
be grossly unfair and inadequate. and now, today, senate republicans are talking about a process that is far worse. we should be trying to fulfill our constitutional obligation to get to the truth here, to vet this candidate fully. and i continue to be just amazed that the republicans aren t insisting on an fbi investigation, which is the kind of foundation you need to have a productive, effective hearing in which you can actually get to the truth with multiple witnesses because there are more than two witnesses in this matter according to dr. ford s account. what do you ascribe the i mean, let me give you the argument that republicans have been making. you can respond to it. that this was all done in bad faith. that the ranking member, senator feinstein, sat on this. and that it leaked out and it was a bomb exploded at the last minute as a sort of desperate attempt to fore stall this. and the mishandling has brought