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Don Lemon Tonight

Kavanaugh Set to be Confirmed After a Bitter Partisan Battle; Kavanaugh Classmate Speaks Out; Senator Manchin Drowned by Protesters as He Tries to Explain 'Yes' Vote. Aired 11-12a ET

Aired October 05, 2018 - 23:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[23:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon. Judge Brett Kavanaugh looks to be just hours away from a seat on the Supreme Court, but Americans and the Senate are bitterly divided. Republican Senator Susan Collins after days of silence laid her cards on the table with a 45-minute speech defending her decision to support Kavanaugh. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, the lone dissenting Republican explained her opposition on Senate floor tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R), ALASKA: Even in these situations, the standard is that a judge must act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the independence, integrity and partiality of the judiciary and shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety. And after -- after the hearing that we all watched last week, last Thursday, it became clear to me or was becoming clearer that that appearance of impropriety has become unavoidable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So there you have it. Judge Kavanaugh's heated testimony last week impressed President Trump but it hurt him with others like Senator Murkowski. And now with his confirmation all but certain, the question is, will the Supreme Court become just another partisan institution? And what will that do to this country? What will that do to America?

Let's discuss now. Douglas Brinkley is here, Susan Hennessey and Harry Litman.

Good evening to all of you. It's good to have you on. Douglas, people are increasingly asking me how do we put things back together again after the last few years. What are your thoughts?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: We're not going to be able to do anything, Don, with the midterm elections looming. I mean, if you are opposed to Judge Kavanaugh and you're angry tonight, you're going to have to do what Barack Obama always says and get out there and vote. You've got to look for Democratic candidates you like.

If you didn't like seeing all you know white men on the judiciary committee, you've got to vote for Claire McCaskill for senator in Missouri or Jacky Rosen in Nevada.

Meaning, this is just one battle in a larger fight where the country is headed in the future. It's a big loss for the Democrats but it's not a time to throw in the towel.

On a larger point, after the election, there may be a time to rethink how we don't have to have this debris strewn, you know, ugly fight that's so brutal for our Supreme Court nominee, that Kavanaugh is going to be on the court and today was the best day of Trump's presidency by getting him his second justice through.

LEMON: Susan, we heard Republican Lisa Murkowski a moment ago saying that the judge's behavior was one of the reasons that she could not vote for him. Why was she -- why do you think she was the only one on the Republican side that that mattered to in the end?

SUSAN HENNESSEY, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY AND LEGAL ANALYST: I don't know that she was the only one that that mattered to, but I do think that this was sort of this is the thing that pushed her over the edge, this open partisanship that we saw from Brett Kavanaugh in that Thursday testimony.

I think what she was speaking to is this notion that yes, the Supreme Court has always been a somewhat political body and we shouldn't pretend otherwise, but the basic legitimacy of the court depends on viewing judges as making rulings based on the law and not on their political preferences.

I think what she was speaking to is this idea that Brett Kavanaugh can't unring this bell. You know, even his attempts at "The Wall Street Journal" op-ed actually seemed to only make things worse. Now that he has been openly partisan in front of the American people, you know, every single decision that he makes, I do think that there's going to be an asterisk and a question mark, you know, about whether or not they should be viewing this as legitimate.

LEMON: Yeah. You know, Harry, what kinds of rulings do you think we'll see coming out of this court? How will this change America?

HARRY LITMAN, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Well, I think we can expect in fact the consolidation of a conservative majority for upwards of 20 years, but Senator Murkowski is dead on.

[23:05:05] There will be some 5-4 decisions that will come out and they will all of them have this sort of double asterisk on them. The court now, all it really has is its public credibility which has been historically high, but there have been several junctures where it took a real hit, but they were all based on decisions from the court.

Here, you essentially have from the outside this problem visited on the court a perception of partisanship that will be renewed with every new 5-4 decision which you just have to imagine will happen.

I don't think that you'll see, say, Roe V. Wade overturned but there are many areas and executive power, federalism, church and state, et cetera that the five-person majority will flex its muscles and with each time, the scab will kind of be torn off again and the feeling of unfairness of the process will be renewed.

LEMON: You know, Douglas, this is -- I guess the question is, does the process matter once he's on the Supreme Court? Because when Kavanaugh joins the Supreme Court, he's going to be a majority minority justice.

In other words, he'll be in the majority on the Supreme Court but was nominated by a president that lost the popular vote and was confirmed by senators based on (INAUDIBLE) representing minority of the American population. Is that a problem?

BRINKLEY: It is a problem but it reminds me back when FDR didn't like the Supreme Court's decisions being made so he tried to pack the Supreme Court from nine to 15 and he created a huge brouhaha, but he did get in William O. Douglas, the longest serving Supreme Court justice in U.S. history.

The Republicans never liked Douglas. They thought he was too liberal. They tried to impeach him in the 1960s and '70s for some of his behavior, articles he wrote in magazines and the like. I think the Democrats have to be careful to not start the impeach Kavanaugh movement.

Right now, you're getting the Democratic Party being anti-Trump, anti- Kavanaugh party. They need to tell the American people what they're for and worry about, you know, some of the issues when they flare up. Roberts may end up being the centrist vote here. I'm optimistic on that.

I think he's partisan at heart. But during the Affordable Care Act decision, he showed a kind of reasonable balance. So, you know, you just have to keep on fighting. There will be another Supreme Court slot opening in a few years.

The question is, will Donald Trump be president or somebody like Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota who I thought emerged as the great star of the Democratic Party from these televised hearings. She went to Yale also, University of Chicago. She goes to runs in Iowa. She may be the person to take on Trump. So, there's silver linings out there for the anti- Kavanaugh Americans.

LEMON: Interesting. Susan, the Supreme Court is now in a position. What does this mean? The court is in a position where it's significantly more conservative than the rest of the country.

HENNESSEY: I think there are two ways in which we're seeing the court really hurtling towards potentially a crisis of legitimacy. One is sort of the partisanship and the manner in which Kavanaugh was appointed to the court. Two was the issue of the president having lost the popular vote.

But it's also this notion that we now have five justices that are substantially to the right of the majority of the country on really, really important issues. Now, that can occur sort of at the margins. The Supreme court sometimes does things, they're not responsive to political polling. But whenever that happens too often and it begins to feel fundamentally undemocratic, and so I do think that either we're going to see something like Chief Justice Roberts moving to the middle, moving to avoid the 5-4 split, or more and more we're going to be hearing about potential large scale reforms to the Supreme Court, not just reinstating the 60-vote limit but also potentially considering things like 18-year terms.

LEMON: I got to play this, Harry. I want to get your response to it. This is Justice Elena Kagan on the makeup of the court.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELAN KAGAN, ASSOCIATE SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: In the last really 30 years starting with Justice O'Connor and continuing with Justice Kennedy, there has been a person who people -- who found the center or people couldn't predict in that sort of way. And that's enabled the court to look as though it was not owned by one side or another, going forward, that sort of middle position, you know, it's not so clear whether we'll have it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, whatever the disagreements, Harry, among the justices, how important is it that the court, that the Supreme Court be perceived as not owned by one side or the other?

[23:10:05] LITMAN: I mean, it's everything. Going back to what Doug said about the FDR effort, the reason that came about, I mean, it was considered ill advised, but the reason it came about, that was the last time we had the same kind of five-person (INAUDIBLE), and what really happened is you cease to listen to the other side.

You're going to be wasting the talents and thoughts of Kagan and Sotomayor and Breyer and Ginsburg. That court was the one that became greatly discredited, the so-called Lochner (ph) court, and after Douglas was appointed, it came into a different era.

But every time and there's only been a few you've had that kind of rock solid five-person majority, it's been bad for the court. You don't want that kind of (INAUDIBLE). You want them to talk to be able to talk to each other, bargain, reason and come to some kind of results that reflect something of the spirit of the country. There's a real risk when it gets out of step.

LEMON: All right. Thank you all. I appreciate your time. Judge Brett Kavanaugh all but certain to be confirmed, but one of his Yale classmates speaking out tonight saying he shouldn't get the seat on the Supreme Court.

[23:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The stage is set. The Senate is voting in a matter of hours. All but certain to elevate Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Bu the country is still bitterly divided tonight.

Joining me now on the phone is Liz Swisher. She and Kavanaugh were friends at Yale.

Liz, hello to you. You wrote an op-ed in "The Washington Post" along with your Yale classmates, Charles Ludington and Lynne Brookes, and is titled "We were Brett Kavanaugh's Drinking Buddies and We Don't Think He Should be Confirmed."

I just want to read a little bit of it before I get a response. You said, "We each asserted that Brett lied to the Senate by stating under oath that he never drank to the point of forgetting what he was doing. We said unequivocally that each of us on numerous occasions had seen Brett stumbling drunk to the point that it would be impossible for him to state with any degree of certainty that he remembered everything that he did when drunk."

So, his confirmation looks likely -- how are you feeling about today's developments?

LIZ SWISHER, FRIEND OF BRETT KAVANAUGH AT YALE (via telephone): Well, frankly, I'm grieving. I'm grieving on many counts. I'm grieving for the loss of truth and justice in our system, for the undermining of the Supreme Court process, and also for the women who bravely came forward and you know had their stories basically thrown away.

LEMON: Do you feel like people listened to you and your former classmates?

SWISHER (via telephone): I think -- I think people did listen to me, but I guess don't think it was enough because I think politics trumped truth and justice. So that's what I find so depressing because if we can sacrifice the Supreme Court just to political beliefs and not believe that we need somebody in the court who is honorable, tells the truth and is nonpartisan, then we have no check and balance in our system of government.

LEMON: Did you watch Susan Collins?

SWISHER (via telephone): I did not. I was at work, but I read her statement.

LEMON: What did you think?

SWISHER (via telephone): Well, I obviously don't agree with it. So, it's not clear to me that she was really on the fence. It seems like that was a very well prepared long statement that would have required quite a bit of work ahead of time. You know, I question did she really have an open mind in the last couple days.

LEMON: Yeah, if she was actually undecided. You mentioned the reasons why you don't think that Brett Kavanaugh should be on the Supreme Court. You talked about his temperament. He wrote an op-ed talking about -- explaining why he was emotional, why he shouted about the nomination being a political hit job, that he was speaking as a son, a husband and a dad. What did you think of his testimony?

SWISHER (via telephone): I didn't like it. He came out with a prepared statement. He just wasn't being pushed by the senators and then he snapped or broke. He came out with a prepared statement that was obviously auditioning straight to President Trump. With partisan rancor, claiming that these brave women who came forward were part of a Clinton conspiracy, that really undermines their stories.

LEMON: Yeah.

SWISHER (via telephone): You know, these women had nothing to gain. They were not paid. They were not -- they had no political gain from there. And so to sort of create that circus around it is demeaning to the women that he really should be apologizing to.

LEMON: Both Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez have several witness who they say have relevant information, but the FBI didn't interview them, didn't contact them. Do you believe there was a thorough investigation done?

SWISHER (via telephone): No, it was not a thorough investigation. I don't think anybody believes that was a thorough investigation.

LEMON: Since you and your former classmates came forward, you've gotten hate mail, you've gotten threats of violence, you've lost friendships, your entire lives have been turned upside down. As I remember reading, I think one of your co-workers, one of you even had the server hacked at your place of employment. Do you regret going public now?

SWISHER (via telephone): No, I don't because I think if, you know, when push came to shove, even though it didn't make a difference with the confirmation. If I had sat on the sidelines, I would have always regretted that. I would have always regretted not speaking my mind.

[23:20:02] I believe it was my duty. My daughters are proud of me. You know, I think it's the example that I want to set for my own daughters and, you know, how I want to live my life going forward. I want to speak truth. So, I would do it again.

LEMON: Liz Swisher, thank you so much.

SWISHER (via telephone): Thank you, Don.

LEMON: To a lot of the women, Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation is about much more than the court. But will this ultimately be a watershed moment for the women of the United States?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:25:00] LEMON: Anger over Brett Kavanaugh's nomination spreading across the country. Protesters even drowning out Senator Joe Manchin today as he tried to explain his yes vote on Judge Kavanaugh.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D), WEST VIRGINIA: I made my decision and I gave my reasons for my decision. Ours went out and we want to make sure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you going to listen to the people here? Are you concerned about --

MANCHIN: I'm very much concerned basically with the sexual abuse that people had to endure and very much concerned that we have to do something as a country. I had to deal with the facts I had in front of me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Here to discuss, Hilary Rosen, Tara Setmayer, Alice Stewart, also "The Atlantic's" Elaina Plott. Thank you all for joining this evening. I'm so happy to have you on to get your perspective. I have to be honest, as women, because this is an important story for the country but especially for women.

So Tara, I want you to take a listen to what Christine Blasey Ford said in her testimony about coming forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE BLASEY FORD, ACCUSER OF BRETT KAVANAUGH: Once he was selected and it seemed like he was popular and it was a sure vote, I was calculating daily the risk/benefit for me of coming forward and wondering whether I would just be jumping in front of a train that was headed to where it was headed anyway. And that I would just be personally annihilated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Tara, is that exactly what happened here?

TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Exactly what happened. And if anyone wonders why survivors or victims of sexual assault or abuse do not come forward, this is exhibit A, and I wrote about this at CNN.com. This woman was ridiculed. She was mocked by the president of the United States with a bunch of people clapping behind him, laughing along at this.

And that was a microcosm of what many women in this country felt like as survivors. And when those women approached Jeff Flake in that elevator and said look at me, senator, tell me that my assault didn't matter, that, at least he had some conscience to try to do something.

But you know what? The way the Republicans handled this, the way the president handled this, the way the White House handled this, the way the Senate Judiciary members handled this, it said that women who go through this, it doesn't matter.

Well, yes, we believe you. We just don't believe you enough if it gets in the way of someone elevated into power. And that is a horrible message to send to women. And it personally pains me to the point where I've had to rethink whether I'm going to continue to register as a Republican.

LEMON: Alice, you know a lot of conservative women like at the Trump rally where he mocked Ford, for example, we talked about it earlier this week. They supported Kavanaugh and they didn't support Ford. What are the main reasons?

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Quite a few. I think Senator Collins did a great job today of explaining that. First and foremost, she said say that the "Me Too" era is real, it matters, and it's long overdue. It's something that it's a good thing out of all this we've started this conversation.

But as far as Dr. Ford versus Judge Kavanaugh, look, it is no doubt that Dr. Ford suffered something many years ago a sexual assault and has traumatic consequences from that and has been living with that for more than three decades.

But I like many others including Senator Collins and those that voted to move this vote forward do not believe this was at the hands of Judge Kavanaugh. There are many reasons for that. More than anything is the fact that there are some details that were left out and as far as the corroborating witnesses and anyone to back up these allegations, it's simply weren't there.

In this country, while we need to hear women who are victims of sexual assault, we also have to believe in the presumption of innocence. And with all of the information that we had before us, it is critical that we make sure and look, not just be driven by emotion but also by the facts at hand and the other evidence that we have, and Judge Kavanaugh with his life of integrity and character, that went a long way to myself and many others standing behind him.

SETMAYER: It wasn't a court of law. It wasn't a court of law.

LEMON: I got four people that have to get in, guys. I got four people that have to get in, so you just please mindful of that. But both Tara and Hilary were shaking their heads, and Hilary hasn't spoken yet as she was saying that. It kept going to my mind as I saw this today, and I heard -- Alice is explaining on the other side though.

As I heard people here on the Democratic side, people will say they're trying to have it both ways. Is that what's going on here?

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: They're sort of giving lip service to respecting Dr. Ford, but if they respected Dr. Ford, what they would have done was actually have a legitimate FBI investigation where they actually interviewed witness who could corroborate more extemporaneously the experience she had.

[23:29:57] And, you know, look, I don't know how many times we have to go through this. If Susan Collins really wanted to express her concern for survivors of sexual assault, that's what she would have done. She would have said a full and thorough investigation. We did not have that.

The fact is, sexual assault does not have witnesses. People know what they're doing and for the most part, what they have are people who have been told at various points in their lives, all trauma experts say there are many pockets of things that people forget about.

But I think what we want to do is figure out how this standard holds up in our government. Right? We have seen the private sector take a hold of this. We have seen, you know, the similar kinds of situations where they do have corroboration from friends and family take their word for it.

The government has been unresponsive. Susan Collins jumped on Al Franken and said get out of the Senate. For putting his hand on a woman's ass. Right? Like, this is just outrageous. It's so partisan.

LEMON: Was it for that or for the picture of him in front of --

ROSEN: Yeah, look, I was for Al Franken to resign, too.

LEMON: When you're talking about the double standard.

ROSEN: Right. But I'm just saying that this notion that this was a respect of Dr. Ford is just nonsense.

LEMON: Yeah.

ROSEN: And I think what we have to do is -- it seems like the only way politicians are going to be accountable is not through their conscience.

LEMON: Yeah.

ROSEN: It's through party and elections. That's a shameful place to be in this country.

LEMON: Elaina, I want to get how you feel about this. What do you think?

ELAINA PLOTT, STAFF WRITER, "THE ATLANTIC": Don, one bit of news I broke earlier this week was that Senator Lisa Murkowski on Wednesday in a lunch with some of her Republican colleagues stood up at one point and said that she could no longer tolerate sort of the optics of a bunch of old white men shuttling through this nomination, ramming it through at the time they were even considering doing just that before the FBI report had even dropped.

And I think based on my reporting, that was the tipping point for her. That coupled with the mocking of Dr. Ford especially from President Trump at his rally sort of led Murkowski to conclude, you know, set aside Kavanaugh for a moment, the way that my party has reacted to the allegations made against him kind of the farce and circus his nomination has become is enough of a reason not to taint the judicial process by advancing his nomination to the floor.

So that is why, I guess you could say she's an avatar for one side of the thought among Republican women right now. Collins is an interesting counterpart. Collins is someone who is saying, you know, if you're to believe everything she said on the Senate floor today, I hear you, I hear that this "Me Too" movement is a conversation that is long overdue. However, I don't think that an individual one man should be forced to shoulder the burden of that movement.

And ultimately she concluded that those facts just weren't there. So, I do think when you're trying to -- as a reporter, when I'm trying to analyze what's going to happen in midterms, what turnout look likes among white suburban women for the Republican Party, those are the two different ideologies that I think are worth tracking.

LEMON: Here's the thing. When we talk about these issues when it comes to women, when it comes to misogyny, when it comes to racism, when it comes to bigotry, all of these things, we always say there's got to be a conversation, there's got to be a conversation.

Well, after awhile, you get tired of talking. And you want some action. And I haven't seen any action on any of these. I just hear a lot of people talking and a lot of people trying to get re-elected. And you mentioned old white men. I'm just being honest here. Chuck Grassley's comments today about women not being on the Judiciary Committee made jaws drop all over the country. I'll play them. We'll talk about it after the break.

[23:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: And we're back. Hilary is here, Tara, Alice and Elaina. OK, so, Tara, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley, was asked tonight about the lack of Republican women on his committee, and his response is that they tried to recruit women but haven't been able to.

And then when he was asked why, he said, "Well, it's a lot of work. Don't forget compared to a lot of committee meetings we have an executive meeting every Thursday. So it's a lot of work. Maybe they don't want to do it."

Apparently though, he tried to clarify that it's hard work for men and women, but I don't know. What do you think he was trying to get at here?

TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, you just couple this with the comments and just the righteous indignation all week long about Brett Kavanaugh and, you know, Mitch McConnell talking about a female assistant when they hired the prosecutor. It's just -- these men are out of touch. They come from a different era. It's sexism, flat out.

The way they approached the whole Christine Ford testimony, the fact that they -- she came across more as a nuisance. And they were so upset about poor Brett Kavanaugh. OK, yeah, it was a rough time for him. But it was also a rough time for Christine Ford.

And I'm sick and tired of these men acting like, you know, their lives are so much more important because they're somehow destined to reach these great heights like the Supreme Court and these nagging women with their sexual abuse problems, why don't they come out earlier?

[23:40:00] You know, that attitude is awful. It sends a terrible message.

LEMON: As much as we talk about this, there was -- it was a woman though, it was a woman though who was the deciding factor.

SETMAYER: And she decided to put party over principle here. She was being -- this is why our founding fathers worried about parties. You have to stand up sometimes.

LEMON: Let Alice respond.

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Don, there were 51 people who voted to move this vote forward. She just happened to be the one that was very articulate and very vocal towards the end. And the reality is, we got to this situation where there was such overwhelming public support across the country.

They may be silent but they are the silent majority, not the elevator screamers here in Washington. These are people that went to their members of the Senate and expressed their concern because what happened is the Democrats took what was a serious issue of sexual assault and turned that into a smear campaign where we're talking about devil's triangle and we're talking about alleged gang rapes of someone of tremendous integrity.

They took it way too far. They took it way to the extreme. We got off the initial issue which is talking about the jurisprudence of Judge Kavanaugh and allegations of sexual assault where people across this country say that is too far, that is too much. And that is why there was such overwhelming support for Judge Kavanaugh.

ROSEN: You know, this is not going back. And people ought to be ready for this because if what you're saying is we don't want to have to be subject to, you know, our history, our personal history every time we make a nomination to keep in power, well, guess what, that day is gone.

One of the things that this effort has done is it sort of created this massive coming out. And I kind of liken it to sort of the gay rights movement in many ways which is once so many people came out, all of a sudden claiming the very thing that held in their shame, all of a sudden people changed and culture changed.

And that is what we're seeing here with this "Time's Up," "Me Too" movement. Now that people are coming out, they are not going to go back, they are not to be silent, and every single person is going to be held accountable to a standard.

LEMON: Yeah.

ROSEN: Susan Collins put herself in this position. She wasn't a victim, she wasn't the 51st person. She was elected as a pro-choice independent-minded woman soliciting support for just that reason. She asked for this. And to dismiss these survivors as sort of elevator screamers, that is not going to end. These senators do not know what is about to hit them.

LEMON: Elaina.

PLOTT: Well, I think flip side of that is, of course, the opposing side fights back that much harder. I mean, listen, the reality is that we operate within a system here in Washington of political incentives. I think what you're going to see tomorrow when Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed as the next Supreme Court justice of the United States is a confirmation of Mitch McConnell's legacy.

He's been an incredibly shrewd tactician these last three years. When he gabbled in as majority leader in 2015, he said, I want to reverse Obama's judicial legacy, I want to reverse Harry Reid's remarkable success at judicial confirmations. He's done just that.

So, you know, yes, I do think there will be, you know, an outpouring of more and more survivors telling their stories. I also think the flip side of that that we have to keep in mind is that more and more, whether they're Republicans, Democrats, you know, politics is not really the point.

You know, the incentive structure is about winning at the end of the day. And I think ultimately that could supplant principle. So, whatever the benefits of more people having their voices heard, there could be incredibly negative consequences of that as well in terms of the backlash being greater than ever.

LEMON: I wonder, listen, it's been a year since -- I have literally 20 seconds left. Harvey Weinstein and on and on. How much progress has been made?

ROSEN: Look, I think it is a constant conversation now. You cannot get away with this behavior. The culture has changed. But this isn't really just about fixing the past. This is actually about changing the future.

LEMON: Thank you all. I wish we had more time. This is a fascinating conversation. Thanks. Have a good weekend.

Next, I want to talk about the guilty verdict in the trial of a white police officer who shot and killed a black Chicago teenager, and how that verdict sends a message to people who wonder whether justice will be hard to come by in the future.

[23:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: We are now just hours away from the Senate vote that will likely confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, making the court solidly conservative possibly for decades to come.

Well, tonight, millions of Americans are legitimately concerned about Kavanaugh's ability to be an impartial jurist on the highest court in the land. Here is why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRETT KAVANAUGH, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record, revenge on behalf of the Clintons, and millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups. (END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Shortly after Senators Susan Collins and Joe Manchin said they would vote to confirm Kavanaugh, an ominous tweet from a long time Republican strategist, his name is Steve Schmidt. He was a senior advisor to John McCain's presidential campaign in 2008. It is important to note that Schmidt left the Republican Party earlier this year to protest President Trump's policies. Nonetheless, here's what he tweeted.

[23:50:00] He said, "The price of Brett Kavanaugh's ascension to the Supreme Court is incalculably high. It will shatter the institutional integrity of the court and eviscerate standards and expectations for both honesty and non-partisanship and judicial nominees for years to come."

Wow, that is a strong warning from someone who was a GOP insider. And then there's former Justice John Paul Stevens saying he initially supported Kavanaugh's nomination but then --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN PAUL STEVENS, FORMER SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: I've changed my views for reasons that have no really no relationship to his intellectual ability or his record as a federal judge. I think that his performance during the hearings caused me to change my mind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Even Senator Jeff Flake, the Arizona Republican who last Friday forced the White House to order the FBI to investigate Christine Blasey Ford's allegations said this on Tuesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JEFF FLAKE (R), ARIZONA: The interaction with the members was sharp and partisan, and that concerns me. And I tell myself, you give a little leeway because of what he's been through. But on the other hand, we can't have this on the court. We simply can't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, it's about to happen. Senator Flake's ignoring his own words. He's voting to confirm. Last night, Judge Kavanaugh wrote an op-ed in "The Wall Street Journal," a last ditch attempt to save his nomination. He admitted his tone was sharp, at least in last week's hearing. And he said that he said things that he shouldn't have. He claims he's an independent and impartial judge, writing this.

He says, "I revere the constitution. I believe that an independent and impartial judiciary is essential to our constitutional republic. If confirmed by the Senate to serve on the Supreme Court, I will keep an open mind in every case and always strive to preserve the constitution of the United States and the American rule of law."

If he is confirmed tomorrow, it is up to him to prove those words, to make them true, to prove them true. Senator Collins kind of issued a challenge to him, maybe more of a plea, and she announced her support.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: My fervent hope is that Brett Kavanaugh will work to lessen the divisions in the Supreme Court so that we have far fewer 5-4 decisions. And so that public confidence in our judiciary and our highest court is restored.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: What happened with Judge Kavanaugh makes a lot of people question whether fairness and justice will be harder to come by in the future, but justice was done elsewhere in America today. And maybe Americans can take heart that there are signs of progress. A racially charged case was decided in Chicago.

Police officer Jason Van Dyke found guilty of second degree murder in the shooting death of Laquan McDonald, a black teenager, that happened four years ago. The incident was caught on tape and jurors were shown the video. Van Dyke claimed the video didn't tell the whole story, but jurors didn't buy it.

It's not often that police officers are convicted in controversial cases such as this one. When the victim is a young black man or a woman and the killer is a white police officer. But today, 12 jurors, only one of them black did convict. And the family of Laquan McDonald had a message after the verdict.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARVIN HUNTER, GREAT UNCLE OF LAQUAN MCDONALD: I'm saying to you, Chicago and America, let us begin to heal. But let us not heal and become -- and become docile. Let us heal and become motivated and activated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: A good message for Chicago and America. We'll be right back.

[23:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: For the past 37 years, one woman in California's remote north coast has dedicated her life to serving Americans in need. After being tortured as a child and coming to the U.S. nearly penniless, this week's CNN hero is giving back to the country that embraced her by tackling the rampant homelessness problem in her own backyard. Meet the tireless Betty Chinn.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETTY CHINN, CNN HERO: In China, my family was a target for the government. I separated from my family and I live on the street by myself. This all happened at a very young age. I had nothing to eat. Inside my heart, I don't want anybody to suffer what I suffered. I don't sleep a lot. I get up at 2:07, not 2:08, not 2:06. I tell myself time to go, somebody needs your help. (END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: To see Betty in action from sun up to sundown and all of the services she provides, go to CNNHeroes.com. Thanks for watching. Our coverage continues.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Good evening. We begin with perhaps the final dramatic moment in the Brett Kavanaugh's saga which has seen plenty of drama already.

[23:59:59] Republican Lisa Murkowski giving speech tonight in the Senate floor telling why she has reached the decision she has on Judge Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation. She spoke at length about divisiveness of the process. She spoke about what survivors of sexual abuse go through.