president clinton to detail under oath the extent of his relationship with intern monica lewinsky. and he is suggesting is congress take a look at this and consider whether to essentially have a postponement or timeout. it s a perfectly reasonable position but he is speaking is a thoughtful observer and not as a judge periods big republican say the judge s views are being distorted and that his record is earned bipartisan praise. supporters note capital has not voted in any election since becoming a judge. to take himself at least in his own mind away from the political process. just be a neutral, nonpartisan judge. mike: thank you. bret baier and martha maccallum will coanchor our special coverage of the kavanaugh hearings tomorrow starting at 9:15 a.m. so far, democrats have complained about judge brett kavanaugh but seemingly have accomplished little. correspondent doug mckelway looks at the reasons why. it was only hours after brett
hopes were temporarily revived with the conviction of paul manafort and the plea deal of michael cohen. we should be pushing to postpone the kavanaugh hearings. this nomination is now tainted with a legality. hopes were revived when democrats accuse the administration withholding documents from kavanaugh s years as a lawyer in the george w. bush of administration. there s frustration. they look like they are going to rubber-stamp it. the volume of kavanaugh s paper trail, over 900,000 pages is white house associate counsel and millions of other documents from the d.c. court of appeals. a close examination of that would have delayed his nomination well past the midterms. that s a time frame senate republicans wouldn t tolerate. hearings get underway tuesday. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell said he fully expects kavanaugh to be seated on the high court bench when the next term begins october 1.
kavanaugh was nominated to the supreme court that progressives rallied with an unmistakable directive to senate democrats. i have one message for every senator ! the keys to our future and our freedom are in your hands! the word went out. $5 million spent on attack ads. call your senators and tell them to oppose trump s extreme nominee. stop brett kavanaugh. progressive s faced obstacles. change the rules that harry reid set in motion, requiring a simple majority vote. when the senate changed hands, majority leader mitch mcconnell upped the ante, flying that changed to supreme court nominees too. lacking the votes, democrats hoped for republican defections but rand paul, susan collins, lisa murkowski signaled their support for kavanaugh.
there has been more concealment of documents concerning his public service and his position on issues than ever and the history of the united states. senator grassley has been very fair. more documents than anyone ever nominated. anyone would be hard-pressed to say that the review of judge kavanaugh s record has been transparent, open, and fair. the democrats have more than enough information to understand this is a highly qualified tourist who should be the next supreme court justice. mike: here we go. kavanaugh confirmation week on capitol hill. among the war of words is whether a president dealing with the robert mueller investigation should be able to have a judge approved. take a listen. when clinton was under investigation, we approved justice breyer. my democratic friends did not have this view when clinton was president. there was no suspicion that the moment clinton was going to
midterms, donald trump after kavanaugh is confirmed, will have cemented his legacy. he will have pushed the court in a conservative direction for a generation or more. not just the supreme court but is also getting other judges confirmed at a rapid clip. that will be the most significant impact he has on american life. mike: heading into the epic week on capitol hill, republicans feel democrats haven t laid a glove on judge kavanaugh. they are certainly going to try there s no guarantee he will sail through though his past suggests he will give a good account of himself. the democrats are so frustrated. they have no one to blame but themselves. why did the filibuster go away with harry reid? it would have gone away. do you think mitch mcconnell would have kept the filibuster? the longer-term point i want to leave with his when the criticism is made of the traditional style and approach and philosophy, what chuck schumer said, it s