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New Day Saturday

Trump Orders FBI Kavanaugh Probe; Senator Jeff Flake Casts Doubt on Kavanaugh Confirmation; Rosenstein Agrees to Meet With House GOP Leaders; Judge Allows Democrats to Sue Over Trump Business Ties; 384 Dead After Earthquake Tsunami Devastates Indonesia; U.S. Pull Staff From Iraq Consulate Citing Iran Threat; Facebook Hack Exposes Nearly 50 Million Users' Info. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired September 29, 2018 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROTESTERS (CHANTING): Hey-Hey Ho-Ho Kavanaugh has got to go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Judge Kavanaugh can't unequivocally deny these allegations.

MITCH MCCONNELL, SENATOR (R), KENTUCKY: Judge Kavanaugh's qualifications have been affirmed by peers and by renowned legal scholars from across the ideological spectrum.

ANA MARIA ARCHILA, PROTESTER: What you're doing is allowing someone who actually violated a woman to sit in the Supreme Court.

JEFF FLAKE, SENATOR (R), ARIZONA: I think it would be proper to delay the floor vote in order to let the FBI do an investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The FBI investigation has to be very thorough, complete.

FLAKE: This is ripping the country apart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: This is New Day Weekend with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul. Good morning to you. Just when the GOP felt better about the votes that they had to get Brett Kavanaugh on to the Supreme court, they understood that unless they made one change, they would come up short.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN HOST: So now Kavanaugh's going to have to wait, everybody else is going to have to wait as the FBI is now conducting this new background check that's been ordered by President Trump.

BLACKWELL: Now the drama started when Senator Jeff Flake joined several other Senators in saying they would not vote yes on Kavanaugh without an FBI investigation.

PAUL: And to announce the probe he - the President said, he is still backing his nominee, in fact, President's going to be in West Virginia, later today for a re-election rally but he's starting this morning at the White House and that's where we find CNN correspondent Ryan Nobles.

Ryan, good morning to you. What are you hearing from the White House, this morning?

RYAN NOBLES: Well, Christi, good morning to you and good morning to you, Victor. The White House obviously not happy with this latest development in the nomination process for Judge Brett Kavanaugh. They wanted to see him confirmed as soon as this weekend but it's going to have to wait at least a week.

That's because of this dramatic move by Jeff Flake to say that he would not vote for the nomination without giving the FBI one more chance to look into Kavanaugh's background. It is a very short window of time for the FBI.

They have one week to determine whether or not they can find out any more information about this primary allegation against Kavanaugh and perhaps the other allegations against him as well.

Still the President seems confident that Kavanaugh will still ultimately earn this nomination and he's going to stick behind his pick. This is what the President tweeted not too long ago. He said, "Just started tonight our seventh FBI investigation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. He will someday be recognized as a truly great justice of the United States Supreme court."

And you can see what the President pointing to there that Kavanaugh's background has been thoroughly looked into over his lengthy time on the Federal bench and there is a very good chance that this investigation won't necessarily reveal any new information and of course we know about these allegations from Dr. Blasey Ford.

But there are a couple of other allegations out there and it's unclear right now whether or not the FBI will look into those in depth. This is what Senator Jeff Flake who started all of this said about his expectations about that FBI investigation. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you talk about credible allegations, can you explain what that means? What you're looking from the FBI?

FLAKE: Well, obviously that includes the Ford allegations and so to get a view over there and also to ensure that the New Yorker piece allegations but that we call (ph) to have to decide FBI, what that is, you know how far it goes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: So the question is can the FBI find out enough information in this short timeline, what the White House no longer wants to see is any further delays? They'd like the have this wrapped up by Friday of next week. Victor and Christi.

PAUL: All right Ryan Nobles at the White House, we appreciate it, thank you. BLACKWELL: All right, let's talk now, joining me CNN Senior Political

Analyst Amie Parnes, Senior political correspondent at 'The Hill', CNN legal analyst, Laura Coates, former Federal Prosecutor and CNN Supreme court reporter, Ariane de Vogue, welcome back everyone.

Ariane, I want to start with you. With the new reporting. This from the attorney for Leland Keyser saying that his client will cooperate with the FBI. Now, the third potentially crucial witness, if we could use that term, is part of this investigation. Detail her important here and what we're learning about who will speak with investigators over the next week.

ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT REPORTER: Victor, well, Brett Kavanaugh this time yesterday was a lot closer to the Supreme court vote and now it has come to a screeching halt and as you said, the FBI is going to start this investigation, not a full blown criminal investigation, that's not what we're talking about here.

But a background information and as a part of that, they're reaching out. The main allegation of course comes from Christine Ford and she has placed three people at this party and all three of those, they have said, they don't have a recollection.

But yesterday, they each issued statements saying, look, we don't have a recollection but we're happy to work with the FBI and cooperate with the FBI and one of those people is Leland Keyser.

Now, she's a long-time friend of Ford and she has said she had no recollection of the party but CNN has learned late last night, her attorney issued this statement to the committee and said look, she's happy to cooperate. She has no recollection but she also wants to make clear that even though she doesn't have any recollection of this party, that doesn't mean she's refuting her long-time friend, Ford.

She felt like during the Hearing, some people might have thought, she thought Ford wasn't telling the truth and she wanted to make clear in this statement that look, she just doesn't remember the allegation. So she looks like, she said she's perfectly happy to talk to the FBI.

BLACKWELL: So she will cooperate. All right, now, Laura let me come to you and let's put up full screen, see here guys. This is a line from the judiciary statement committee statement that they put out on the FBI investigation saying, "The supplemental FBI background investigation would be limited to current, credible allegations against the nominee and must be completed no later than one week from today."

How do they define credible, which of these allegations are and are not?

LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, that's the million dollar question here, Victor, of course the President yesterday spoke about this issue and called the testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford extremely credible, almost complimented her and noted that that was credible. We at least know, that one will go forward. Ramirez apparently may be

another one from the New Yorker article that was dictated talking about her own experience at Yale as a freshman, where then freshman in college Brett Kavanaugh showed his genitalia to her and inadvertently allowed her or made her touch it.

So yes, those two allegations, the third one that makes everyone wonder is whether or not the ones involving Swetnick will actually in turn be one of them as well. That was a woman represented by Michael Avenatti and the question is will that one also be included.

And this about his presence in parties where she herself was victimized by a gang rape and question was whether he was present or whether he was an actual participant in that sexual assault as well. So if all this really but the real thing for me is seeing that limited to credible allegations.

They are trying to close the flood gates. What they do not want to occur is that they have it being a foregone conclusion that he'll be confirmed, they don't want to invite other instances or other accusers to come forward.

They want to hone in on this, that's probably the only way they'll be able to limit this to a one-week investigation. If they had a full exploratory investigation about his entire life, looking for information, that was akin to those alleged, it would take a lot longer than a week.

BLACKWELL: And the reporting continues on Kavanaugh. Let me come to you, Amie, on this element of the President, what he said yesterday, he's been reserved since we've seen Dr. Ford in her testimony and saying, we'll do whatever the Senate wants to do in relation to this extended investigation from the FBI.

Is that a true representation of what's happening behind the scenes. Is he that resolved to this extra week of delay?

AMIE PARNES, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think behind the scenes, he clearly wanted this to happen, he made it clear that he wanted this to happen by the end of the week this week. He said it countless times at the UN, he said you know, the FBI has already undergone these investigations five or six times.

Last night, in that tweet, he made it known that it was, that they were undergoing a seventh investigation so I think behind the scenes, he's a little irked but he was also kind of getting signals from Capitol Hill saying, you know, why don't you backdown a little bit?

This is not helpful, every time you say something, it's hurting our case. So I think, that's kind of what you say yesterday and that he knew the votes weren't there, he knew that he had to kind of talk a little bit about Dr. Ford's testimony and how credible it was.

Every Republican, I'd spoken to, thought it was credible so he kind of needed to reflect that but I think behind the scenes, he is getting a little - he wants this testimony to -- he wants everything to come to an end because he knows that the longer it lingers, the harder it will be.

BLACKWELL: Ariane, Republicans and President especially, wanted Judge Kavanaugh on the bench, at the start of the next term, which is Monday. That obviously will not happen because the investigation goes for a week. How does that impact the court, impact the cases? What does that mean for the schedule?

DE VOGUE: You're absolutely right because the Supreme court is going to take the bench now on Monday.

[08:10:00] and the goal was to have Kavanaugh on the bench for this starting Monday. The Supreme court instead will be just eight members and keep in mind,

when the court is split 4-4, currently there are four liberals Justices, four conservatives on those hot button issues, there's not much they can do because when they split 4-4, all they can do is uphold what the lower court did and set no new precedents.

The Justices were just recently shorthanded, right after Justice Scalia died, they only had eight members for a long time and what that produced is sort of a blockage. If they did issue opinions, sometimes they were very narrow, it hampers the Justices and they don't like it.

And so this is a setback, not only for McConnell but for the Justices, they really like to have nine members on the Supreme can court.

BLACKWELL: Laura, what's your degree of confidence that these 302s, the reports that are written as a result of these interviews will get to the Democratic members of the judiciary committee because the White House is ordering the investigation and typically those reports go back to the White House?

COATES: The only way to judge the certainty of it is, looking thing past. And we've seen a lot of instances where transparency has not been provided to the Democratic members of Congress and there's been a lot of one-sided unilateral sharing of information.

So I have to judge from how it's been done in the past. However, in this instance, you're right, it will go to the President, it will go to the White House to decide whether or not these 302s show some founded allegations in any ways.

A track that happened 27 years ago, of you recall, over a three-day process for the FBI investigation into Anita Hill's allegations, they brought that back to the White House that then said that they determined that they were unfounded before it went to the Committee for the overall vote and then later the conformation of Clarence Thomas.

And so the idea that it would go to the White House, doesn't necessarily mean that even if it is found credible to them they will withhold it from the Democrats. What matters to them is whether or not, they will find that the allegations as investigated are founded in some principle way and lead to the President of the United States withdrawing the nomination. But as Judge Kavanaugh said, he has no intention of quitting but it will be necessary to hand information over the Democrats otherwise the farce and the sham would not simply be the hearing, it would also be the withholding of information, helpful to them at Jeff Flake's request.

BLACKWELL: Amie, very quickly, 15 seconds, are Republicans in the Senate, are they worried over the next week what will be found or are they as confident as they say they are?

PARNES: I think people are little confident. They - this kind of gives them cover a little bit, Collins, Murkowski to say, okay, we did a full investigation and you know, I feel comfortable going for it.

So I think this is ultimately a good move for them.

BLACKWELL: Amie, Laura, Ariane, thank you all.

COATES: Thank you.

PAUL: Well, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has agreed to meet with House Republicans in the next few weeks. Hel talk to them about his reported comments where sources say that he discussed wearing a wire while talking to President Trump and talked about recruiting cabinet members to invoke the 25th amendment to remove him from office says the allegation.

House Republican leaders struck an agreement to hold that meeting to avoid a potential impeachment vote against Rosenstein.

BLACKWELL: A federal judge has cleared the way now for Democrats to sue President Trump over the running of his businesses. At the center of the lawsuit is a provision of the constitution called the emoluments clause and it states that office holders cannot do business with foreign governments without getting approval from Congress.

Well, 200 democrats in Congress sued the President saying, the President is violating that clause by not seeking their approval from his businesses, specifically hotels to receive payment from foreign governments.

Now when he took office, the President removed himself from the day to day operations of his businesses but he remains an owner. This is the second time a federal Judge has allowed a lawsuit against the President regarding his ties to his businesses.

Senator Jeff Flake announced yesterday, as you know, he would vote in favor of Brett Kavanaugh, then hours later, he said, he had one condition for the second yes vote on the floor, that would be the investigation.

Next one of the protesters who may have changed his mind why she says she confronted him.

PAUL: And researchers or I should say rescuers are searching for survivors right now in Indonesia. A powerful earthquake, further the tsunami and we know now, hundreds of people have already died.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Well, Republican Senator Jeff Flake went from saying that he would vote for Brett Kavanaugh as nominee to the Supreme court. He said that around 9:30, yesterday morning. Take it a couple of hours later, he's then demanding an FBI investigation before the final vote. What happened in between?

A lot of people believe this confrontation in an elevator may have had something to do with it. Look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARCHILA: I was sexually assaulted. Nobody believes me. I didn't tell anyone and you're telling all women that they don't matter, that they should just stay quiet because if they tell you what happened to them, you're going to ignore them. You have power but so many women are powerless.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you not give them an answer, Senator? You just released a press statement, you don't have the courage to give them an answer?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have the future of our country Sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can be a hero today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Be a hero.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Now, Anderson Cooper spoke to one of those protesters that confronted Flake in the elevator. Here's what she said was going through her mind at the time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARCHILA: I felt like he really needed to hear, like he needed to understand that women feel incredibly enraged about this thought of our stories, of our experiences of surviving sexual violence being dismissed, laughed at, disbelieved.

[08:20:00] And I think, we - I just felt a great sense of urgency and I think I saw in his face that he understand that women feel incredibly enraged at the thought of our stories, of our experiences of surviving sexual violence, being dismissed, laughed at, disbelieved and I think we -- I just felt a great sense of urgency.

And I think I saw in his face that he could not escape the emotion and I wanted of him to really stay there and be present and think of the people he loves, think of his children and I wanted him to be a hero.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: When Christine Blasey Ford's account of being sexually assaulted was made public, there were a lot of people who asked, why didn't she immediately report the attack. Well, the after the President questioned the timing of Ford's allegations, there were a lot of women who wanted to answer that question.

They began explaining why they kept quiet, they did it on social media using #why I didn't report. Other people were writing about it, sharing their stories with the media. One of those women Ohio congressional candidate, Janet Garrett is telling her story. She's a survivor of domestic violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANET GARRETT, CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE, OHIO: I really thought he was going to kill me. It was the most terrifying experience I've had in my entire life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: And Janet Garret is with us now. Ms. Garrett, thank you so much for being here.

GARRETT: Thank you for having me.

PAUL: Absolutely. I understand that you were married and that you finally called police about your husband at the time, you called them on Christmas day. Help us understand what happened there.

GARRETT: He came home drunk, he beat the hell out of me, he grabbed his cell phone out of my hand after I dialled 911, threw it across the floor, started beating me again. I grabbed the house phone and dialled 911 again.

He grabs the cell phone, I mean, the house phone out of my hand and threw it across the floor. Kept beating me. He told me that he was going to rape me, dragged me into the bedroom but happily the police arrived. Now, they took us both down to the station and they took photographs of my severely bruised body which was very humiliating, I can tell you.

But they did not arrest him because they didn't want the poor guy to be in jail over Christmas. They had more sympathy for him than they had for me and I think this is the problem. We have too many men in authority positions, who are willing to feel sorry for the poor guy and not recognize the plight of the woman who is in this situation. You know what I'm seeing in this whole Kavanaugh thing is that people are lining up on both sides.

They are lining up on men verses women and they are lining up on Democrats verses Republicans and I don't think that's right. I think that this is sexual abuse is not a partisan issue. This is not a men versus women issue because sometimes men are sexually abused too.

PAUL: And domestically abused as well.

GARRETT: Yes. And domestically abused too. PAUL: I want to ask you about that moment, just so people understand,

so here you are, getting your picture taken of what this man's done to you. They're telling you they feel bad for him, what is it like in that moment when you've done everything they tell you to do?

You call police, you call the authorities, you try to get the help and the help is telling you -- and they're seeing on you what has been done. How do you decide -- what did you do next? What did you do after that? Did you stay?

GARRETT: Well, instead of putting him in jail, they drove him to a hotel that was in the next town and dropped him off there. So he didn't have a car to get back and he stayed in that hotel for a week until his buddy came and brought him back to the house and he was in the house for two very tense weeks until he finally moved out.

I insisted at that point that he move out because it wasn't safe. It wasn't safe for me or my three daughters. It was wrong and I knew it was wrong at the time but I didn't know what to do about it because I had called the police. I had gotten their help and I was in shock, honestly after going through an experience like that.

So I really didn't know what to do. If that had happened to this woman, I would have insisted that they arrest him or say, get the judge out of bed and ask for his opinion on this. I would have insisted for some kind of action. But in the moment I was in shock.

PAUL: Yeah, yeah. And that is absolutely normal. We know that. You tweeted, "ignoring sexual assault is not about politics but politics is how we can begin to fix the problem." Again, you're running for the Ohio fourth district congressional seat.

What is the first action, politically that needs to be taken to fix this, as the tweet says?

GARRETT: Well, we have got to start paying attention to women and that's what's critical in this moment in time because we are starting to listen to women and we are starting to take them seriously.

Ever since we sent out that video that you showed a small piece of, I have had so many women come up to me and say that was really empowering to me and I am so glad you did that and I'm so glad to see that even after being in an abusive relationship, you can carry on with your life and in fact you can find your voice and I have found my voice.

I am running against Jim Jordan in Ohio's fourth congressional district and when you're talking about sexual abuse, this is something that he has in his - his campaign is facing this scandal with OSU. He has not been abused, I mean, he hasn't been accused of being an abuser.

However, he is accused of turning a blind eye and I think that's one of the biggest problems, we have got to have men in authority stop turning a blind eye to sexual abuse. That's the first thing that we've got to do and when I get to Congress, that will be one of my missions. PAUL: Janet Garrett, thank you for telling your story. I know that

it's not easy. There are lot of women who understand it on a real raw level, as you talk about it.

We appreciate you take thing time to talk to us today. Thank you.

GARRETT: Thank you very much for have having me.

BLACKWELL: Hundreds are dead after an earthquake and tsunami devastate Indonesia. Now rescuers are scrambling to reach survivors. We are live in Asia, next.

[08:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Breaking news. Indonesia devastated after a powerful earthquake hit and then triggered a tsunami. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Can you imagine standing in your neighborhood and having all of that come at you? And that is right there on the coast and what one neighborhood's dealing with here, we know at least 384 people have died and hundreds are injured because of what you're looking at on your screen.

Rescuers are desperately searching for survivors right now and CNN's Matt Rivers is following this story for us. Matt, what are you learning this hour?

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the situation is more than likely going to get far, far worse at least in terms of the death toll. It's a 384 now but because rescuer's work is still ongoing, it's now night time in this part of the world, we do expect them to unfortunately find more victims and the death toll to rise.

We know that the immediate priority is to get the airport back open to make sure that they can get aid there as fast as possible. This is a very remote part of Indonesia and that airport was forced to close. We know that roads in the area are blocked.

And we know that there's a city not far from Palu, which is where that earthquake happened, there's another city that's not far away that has 300,000 people and that city has been effectively cut off from communication at this point. So when you're talking about rescuers work ahead of them, trying to not only assess the damage then get help to those that are affected.

They haven't even got in touch with the city of 300,000 people yet so that just gives you an idea what they're facing and in terms of the infrastructure in this area, the reason why it's going to be so bad, you know, the infrastructure is not good.

A lot of people that live along these shorelines live in wooden shacks, the infrastructure just cannot stand up not only to an earthquake, but also to a tsunami, certainly not to both. So unfortunately in totality here, the full picture is that this is a bad situation and it's only going to get worse.

PAUL: All right, hey Matt Rivers, thank you so much for bringing that to us and you all, looks like you got something going on behind you too, that lighting, my goodness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The United States is pulling staff from its consulate in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

The state department says, the consulate along with the U. S. Embassy in Baghdad came under indirect fire from Iran-linked militias.

PAUL: An Iraqi news agency posted these images here saying, they show the aftermath of rocket strikes near Basra international airport. Now CNN can't confirm, they're authentic but the U. S. Consulate is near the airport. CNN's Ben Wedeman is Live from Beirut with us now.

So how serious is this, first of all Ben and how credible is the U.S. claim that Iran is linked to these attacks?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's serious because this is one of the three main American diplomatic outposts in Iraq and Basra is the area from which 80% of Iraq's oil is exported and there are several important U. S. companies in the area.

Now as far as how credible it is, it's important to keep in mind the geography. The U. S. Embassy is within the perimeter of Basra International airport which is about seven miles outside of the city. And the missiles that hit the area did not hit inside the perimeter of the airport nor did they hit within the compound of the U. S. Embassy.

There were no casualties involved and minimal physical damage as well. Now the U. S. is pointing to Iranian-backed militias as being behind these attacks. But it's important to keep in mind that since July there have been major protests in this city of Basra over the deterioration of the infrastructure there.

More than - Tens of thousands of people have gone to the hospital because of contaminated tap water and you've had many days of serious unrest and during that unrest, protesters torched the Iranian consulate in Basra but four days later, the Iranian consulate was back in business.

So you have to keep it within the context of that and also keep in mind that since the United States pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, relations between Iran and the U. S. have deteriorated significantly and the United States in terms of rhetoric has really picked up the heat when it comes to Iran and we heard for instance John Bolton, the national security adviser to President Trump saying, there would be hell to pay if Iran continues to cross the United States and its allies.

And I think we need to look at what has happened in Basra in terms of the U. S. closing down its consulate in the context of those rising tensions. PAUL: All right, Ben Wedeman, thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: The U.S. military's most expensive fighter jet, the $115 million F-35B, an aircraft like this one crashed. This was - the first one to crash, this was in South Carolina near the marine corps station in Beaufort, Friday.

In a statement the marines says, the pilot ejected safely and is being evaluated. There were no civilian injuries. They right now don't know the cause of the crash, that's being investigated.

PAUL: And a search is underway right now for somebody who's missing following a plane crash in tiny Pacific nation of Micronesia. The Air Niugini plane was on approach to an international airport when it landed in an ocean. Look at this thing. It was just short of the runway there. It was carrying 47 people.

Now at first authorities believed all passengers could have been found safely and had been evacuated and then they learned there was one person who is still unaccounted for.

BILL JAYNES, SURVIVED AIR NIUGINI CRASH: I thought we landed hard until I looked over and saw a hole in the side of the plane and water was coming in and I thought, this is not the way it's supposed to happen. We came in low. We came in very low and unfortunately the flight attendants panicked and started yelling.

And I was trying to be calm and help as best I could and I called my wife and she cried. And I asked her why because I'm talking to her. Fortunately my injury is just like a head injury. But there are some pretty severe ones.

PAUL: They cried because they're still scared, here's what it is. There is no word on what caused the Boeing 737 to crash.

BLACKWELL: So Judge Kavanaugh's Supreme court nomination in the deeply divided senate. Jeff Flake, his words were that it's ripping the country apart. We'll discuss more with our next guest who is a Kavanaugh supporter. What does this now the FBI investigation mean, what will it accomplish?

[08:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Welcome back. Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme court nomination is on a brief pause, right now while the FBI looks into allegations of sexual assault made against him. How will this week impact the nomination even before the FBI completes its work?

Joining me now, Carrie Severino, Chief Counsel And Policy Director For The Judicial Crisis Network. Carrie, welcome back.

CARRIE SEVERINO, CHIEF COUNSEL AND POLICY DIRECTOR, JUDICIAL CRISIS NETWORK: Great to be here.

BLACKWELL: So let's start here with this. Do you agree with majority leader, Mitch McConnell who reportedly told Senators Flake and Murkowski and Collins that this week, this time, it will not make it easier to vote for Judge Kavanaugh?

SEVERINO: Well, I didn't see McConnell's comments but I think for them, they obviously feel this will give them an added level of confidence just knowing the FBI was into it. But I don't expect they're going to find anything particularly different from what the Senate Judiciary Committee has also found.

For the last two weeks, they've been doing an investigation, they've interviewed all of the alleged witnesses, all the people relevant to this and have gotten statements from them. It's the same penalty that applies to statements to the FBI.

So if that gives them an added level of confidence, that's fine. I don't think, we're going to see much difference from what we know which is, we saw two people yesterday with very compelling testimony, very heart felt stories but at the end of the day, Judge Kavanaugh's side, I think has all the evidence on it where everyone she put in the room said they don't remember this party happing.

Some of them said, it didn't sound like the Brett Kavanaugh they knew at all and--

BLACKWELL: You said, there's evidence that supports Brett Kavanaugh, is all the evidence on his side. What evidence is that?

SEVERINO: Well, I - there's all the people that she puts in the room or in the building even say, they don't recall this happening. So there's no corroboration for her story, I guess and when you have an uncorroborated allegation on one side and a further denial on the other, we live in a country with the presumption of innocence.

I think, that's the direction that the Senators will end up going in. This also--

BLACKWELL: And many would say that's the point at which you start an investigation. In fact, that went back to your Twitter account on the 27th during the testimony from Dr. Ford and it reads like a list of questions one would ask during an FBI investigation.

How did she get home? How did she get there? What time was the party? What year was the party? It seems you've already written the questions for the FBI investigation. Why would you be against it?

SEVERINO: Those were the questions that were asked of her during the hearing itself. My point was complete, those are the questions that she couldn't provide answers to. So the FBI can ask her them again.

I don't think we're going to get any more answers, this is 36 years later. So the Senate Judiciary committee has already asked all those questions and her story, had it shifted on some of them, she wasn't sure of the answers to many of the others.

That's the challenge with this. On the other than you have dozens of men and women who come forward saying, we knew Brett Kavanaugh, if it's time we may have known him for decades since as well.

None of this lines up with the character of the man that we knew so well at the time.

BLACKWELL: You also have former friends and classmates and roommates who say that, he was as we heard one yesterday, he was a sloppy drunk.

SEVERINO: That's right. We've got some people making other allegations. But I would say, certainly the bulk of people are saying this simply doesn't add up, including his high school and college girlfriend. But look, the senators are the one whose are going to have to assess this evidence.

What we have, the nature of the claims is that they're very old. The FBI is going to go in and the senate Democrats have said, we think this is sort of the gold standard for an investigation so I hope that we won't see them trying to push the goal post farther and say, oh actually the FBI investigation isn't enough.

We need more. Look, they're very clear on record saying, this is going to be enough so we'll look into it.

BLACKWELL: So the allegations from all three women and by all three women, I mean obviously Dr. Ford, Ms. Ramirez and Ms. Swetnick, should all of those be investigated? We're hearing that only the credible accusations will be investigated. They have not defined which they deem credible.

SEVERINO: Yes, I think that, I'm not sure, I think the White House and the Senate is going to be talking about which ones and maybe the FBI are the ones determining which ones are credible.

BLACKWELL: Do you think, all should be investigated?

SEVERINO: Well, I think that's going to be their call. When you have an uncorroborated allegation, it's limited how much investigation you can even do.

BLACKWELL: It's their call if he's conformed but you're clearly saying, he should be, should all of the accusations by all of the women who have come out be investigated?

SEVERINO: I'm happy to have the FBI investigate all three of those but again, that is something that the FBI and the White House are determining. I think frankly, there's a lot of the Democrats who are backing away from the - we have many claims, in particular but go ahead, if they want to try to paint him as some mastermind of a gang rape conspiracy.

BLACKWELL: All right.

SEVERINO: We'll see, I predict though at the end of this time next week, we will have a Justice Kavanaugh.

BLACKWELL: Carrie Severino, thanks so much.

SEVERINO: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Nearly 50 million Facebook accounts have been compromised in an attack that allowed hackers to take over users accounts along with other sites and apps that they log into using Facebook like Instagram, Tinder, Spotify.

Even Facebook Founder, Mark Zuckerberg was one of the victims. Now the company ensuring users that no credit card information was accessed. Here's some advice on how you can protect yourself if you think you've been hacked.

It still is not clear who is responsible for the attack but Facebook says, they have already fixed the issue and informed the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

[08:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: I just like the names and you would be?

BLACKWELL: The original, I mean, not the caveman but I'd pick original first if I could.

PAUL: All right, yes, it is a great idea.

BLACKWELL: All right, more news, straight ahead.

PAUL: Yes, on Smerconish. We'll see you next hour.

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