ALSO: Sen. Coons (D-Del.) Says President Trump Mocking Dr. Christine Blasey Ford “Was a Low Mark in His Presidency”
EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) on Dr. Ford’s Testimony: “Every Sexual Assault Case is Usually ‘He Said, She Said,’ Except in This Case it’s ‘He Said, She Said, They [Witnesses] Said’”
EXCLUSIVE: Alyssa Milano Says we “Lost a Political Battle” but “are Winning the Cultural Battle”
PLUS: Tarana Burke on #BelieveSurvivors: “It’s not Believe Them Without Investigation, Believe Them Without Interrogation”
OCTOBER 7, 2018 – In an exclusive interview this morning on Meet the Press, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) told moderator Chuck Todd “it’s premature” to talk about impeaching newly-confirmed Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh. “There’s only been one justice that’s been impeached, and I think talking about it at this point isn’t necessarily healing us and moving us forward,” Coons added. “The Senate’s role in our politics is not to just reflect the country, but to help heal and lead the country.”
On the presumption of innocence in the Kavanaugh hearings, Coons said: “This is a confirmation hearing. No one is entitled to a seat on the Supreme Court. It’s not a criminal trial, it’s more like a job hearing. It’s more like a job interview.”
On President Trump’s comments on Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, Coons said: “I think one of the biggest tragedies of this past week was to watch the president of the United States publicly mocking and ridiculing Dr. Ford. His initial response, which was to say that her testimony was credible and compelling was where he should have stopped. But to instead turn it into a campaign rally event where he was mocking her, I think really brought this entire conversation down and really was a low mark in his presidency.”
Coons responded to Sen. John Kennedy’s statement earlier this week on how the process changed dramatically when Michael Avenatti got involved, taking us “into the foothills of the preposterous,” and said “I do think that he’s correct, that there was a widespread response, certainly on the Republican side, that these were not credible allegations.” Watch the full interview.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) also joined the broadcast in an exclusive interview, telling Todd that “every sexual assault case is usually ‘he said, she said,’ except in this case it’s ‘he said, she said, they said,’” adding: “the ‘they’ were the witnesses that she said were there all said it either didn’t happen or they didn’t remember it. One of whom is one of her best friends.”
“I thought she was credible,” Alexander said of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony, adding: “If listening to her was all I had to do, I would’ve said, ‘She seems to believe what she believes.’ But that’s not all I had to do.”
On Justice Kavanaugh’s testimony, Alexander said: “If you had a group of people deliberately trying to destroy your reputation with accusations that you know aren’t true … you’re not going to just sit there calmly and take that. You’re going to defend yourself against people deliberately trying to damage and destroy you … and I think the fact that he did that is the reason he’s on the court. I think if he’d just sat there and taken it, that people would, would’ve been very suspicious.”
On concern of the public confidence in Justice Kavanaugh, Alexander said: “It’d be hard to have public confidence, if you go through an inquisition, like he did, arranged by the Democrats.” Watch the full interview.
One year after the #MeToo movement re-ignited with a tweet from actor and activist Alyssa Milano, she and activist Tarana Burke joined the broadcast to discuss the movement one year later and the repercussions of the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation.
Milano said: “We may have lost a political battle, but I do think we are winning the cultural battle. And often I don’t fight for the win, I’m fighting so that generations don’t have to deal with the abuses of power that we’ve had to deal with.”
Burke opened up about the “believe survivors” mantra, saying: “It’s not believe them without investigation, believe them without interrogation … So the mantra ‘Believe Survivors’ is about, can we start with the premise that people do not often lie about the pain and the trauma of sexual violence. If we start with that premise, if you believe that it’s true, then you can have an investigation, you can have an interrogation of the facts and that kind of thing. This is not to say believe people blanket and don’t investigate and don’t do anything else besides believe them.” Watch the full interview.
NBC News Presidential Historian and author of Presidents of War Michael Beschloss, Republican strategist Al Cardenas, NBC News’ Kasie Hunt and AEI’s Danielle Pletka joined the broadcast’s roundtable for insight and analysis on the week in politics.
The Meet the Press Film Festival with American Film Institute (AFI) kicks off its two-day event in Washington, D.C. tonight, and most of the films are now available for a month-long showcase on nbcnews.com, on demand, and on streaming platforms.
Read the full transcript of this morning’s Meet the Press, and follow the show on Twitter and on Facebook for the latest.
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NBC NEWS’ “MEET THE PRESS WITH CHUCK TODD”
“Meet the Press with Chuck Todd” is where newsmakers come to make news — setting the political agenda and spotlighting the impact Washington decision-making has on Americans across the country. “Meet the Press” brings its authority and influencer interviews to MSNBC with “MTP Daily” weekdays at 5 p.m. ET and to the “1947: The Meet the Press Podcast”. It’s the longest-running show in television history, expanding its brand to include a political documentary film festival in collaboration with the American Film Institute. Chuck Todd is the political director of NBC News and the moderator of “Meet the Press“; John Reiss is the executive producer.
