Reliable Sources

 
 
 
Hey there — ignore that picture up top and don’t let your eyes deceive you. This is Oliver Darcy, filling in for Brian Stelter who is at the Texas Tribune Festival. You can email me your feedback/tips or find me on Twitter. Now, let’s get to the news…

“Another week”

 
That is the headline on the Drudge Report this Friday evening, following a second day of high-stakes drama playing out on Capitol Hill over the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

While the Senate has decided to move forward with Kavanaugh’s nomination, there likely won’t be any vote on the floor until the FBI completes its investigation — which by agreement can last no longer than a week — into sexual assault allegations against the SCOTUS nominee. CNN has the latest here. All things considered, it was, as the NYT characterized it, a “confusing day on Capitol Hill.” So let’s break things down…
   

The tick-tock

9:28 a.m. ET: Sen. Jeff Flake announces in a statement that he will vote to confirm Kavanaugh.

9:32 a.m. ET: Two female protesters who said they were sexual assault survivors confront Flake in a Senate elevator. CNN cameras were there and captured the entire moment on video.

9:49 a.m. ET: The Senate Judiciary Committee approves a motion to vote on Kavanaugh at 1:30 p.m. ET. 

12:19 p.m. ET: CNN’s Manu Raju notices that during the hearing Flake had “left the hearing room and asked to speak privately” to Sen. Chris Coons in the anteroom. Sen. Diane Feinstein soon joins the duo.

— 1:45 p.m. ET: CNN’s Dana Bash reports there are “serious conversations” about Flake wanting an FBI investigation.

— 1:46 p.m. ET: Flake reenters the hearing room.

— 1:51 p.m. ET: Flake says it would be “proper to delay the floor vote” for a week “in order to let the FBI do an investigation limited in time and scope.” 

— 1:55 p.m. ET: Kavanaugh’s nomination is voted out of committee and onto the Senate floor 11-10, along partisan lines.

— 2:00 p.m. ET: Sen. Chuck Grassley abruptly adjourns the Judiciary Committee based on the “two-hour rule.” Feinstein and others can be heard and seem perplexed.

— 2:16 p.m. ET: Sen. Majority Whip John Cornyn says GOP leadership is “exploring” Flake’s proposal for an FBI investigation. 

— 2:36 p.m. ET: Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she supports Flake’s proposal for delay.

— 3:56 p.m. ET: The Senate Judiciary Committee formally asks the White House to instruct the FBI to do a background check.

— 4:56 p.m. ET: Sarah Sanders tweets a statement from Trump that said he had ordered the FBI to conduct a “supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaugh’s file.”

8:27 p.m. ET: Trump tweets, “Just started, tonight, our 7th FBI investigation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. He will someday be recognized as a truly great Justice of The United States Supreme Court!”

The moment that helped change history

As Flake was heading to vote on Kavanaugh’s fate, he was confronted by two female protesters who said they were sexual assault survivors. The extraordinary exchange was captured by CNN’s cameras and showed the Arizona Republican — clearly uncomfortable — being excoriated for minutes by the two women. “You’re telling all women they don’t matter, that they should just stay quiet because if they tell you what happened to them you are going to ignore them,” one of the protesters shouted. The video has been viewed millions of times online and replayed throughout the day on cable news.

>> Politico’s Jake Sherman: “I’ve spent 9 years covering the the Capitol. I’ve never seen anything like that. Ever.”

“He really needed to understand…

On his program Friday evening, Anderson Cooper interviewed Ana Maria Archila, one of the protesters who confronted Flake. She told Cooper that in the moments before the confrontation she had just learned Flake planned on voting yes on Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Then she said she “saw him running to the elevator” and “ran behind him.” Archila added, “I was not really prepared really for my own emotions but I felt he really needed to hear it. He really needed to understand that women feel incredibly enraged…”

How CNN captured it on video

CNN’s Brian Ries emails: I was curious how the moment came to be for the CNN crew who captured it, so I reached out to CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux, who was a part of it. She told me that after Flake’s email hit inboxes two protesters standing near their stakeout outside Flake’s office asked what was going on when they spotted Flake down the hall. “We got to him when he was in the elevator, and it was one of the women, one of the protesters, who stuck her foot out in the elevator door and it opened, and that’s when it all began,” Malveaux said.

>> Malveaux added: “It was a moment where we stopped asking questions, because we realized this was much more of an important moment that was unfolding between the senator and these two women who had experienced sexual assault, and this was their moment, and a very significant one, so we just let it unfold. We just watched it and observed it, as it unfolded before our eyes.”

Baldwin: This has been “pivotal moment in American history”

Brooke Baldwin capped off her show Friday afternoon with a poignant monologue about this “pivotal moment in American history.” Baldwin stressed that “this matters” and noted the Kavanaugh-Ford hearings on Thursday reopened “deep, painful wounds.” She concluded, “What good comes of all of this? What are we going to learn? It’s a generational opportunity to better ourselves and how we relate to each other as women and men. This matters the most.”

Nearly 20% of households with TVs watched

The Ford-Kavanaugh hearings on Capitol Hill Thursday earned monster ratings for networks. Brian Stelter broke the numbers down here, but here are some highlights…

>> Nearly 20% of households with televisions watched the hearings at any given time between 10 a.m. and 6:45 p.m., per Nielsen ratings…

>> Fox News averaged 5.66 million viewers at any given time, MSNBC averaged 2.83 million, and CNN averaged 2.51 million. 

>> As Kavanaugh testified, viewership on Fox spiked to 7.17 million…

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Hey there — ignore that picture up top and don’t let your eyes deceive you. This is Oliver Darcy, filling in for Brian Stelter who is at the Texas Tribune Festival. You can email me your feedback/tips or find me on Twitter. Now, let’s get to the news…

“Another week”

 
That is the headline on the Drudge Report this Friday evening, following a second day of high-stakes drama playing out on Capitol Hill over the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

While the Senate has decided to move forward with Kavanaugh’s nomination, there likely won’t be any vote on the floor until the FBI completes its investigation — which by agreement can last no longer than a week — into sexual assault allegations against the SCOTUS nominee. CNN has the latest here. All things considered, it was, as the NYT characterized it, a “confusing day on Capitol Hill.” So let’s break things down…
   

The tick-tock

9:28 a.m. ET: Sen. Jeff Flake announces in a statement that he will vote to confirm Kavanaugh.

9:32 a.m. ET: Two female protesters who said they were sexual assault survivors confront Flake in a Senate elevator. CNN cameras were there and captured the entire moment on video.

9:49 a.m. ET: The Senate Judiciary Committee approves a motion to vote on Kavanaugh at 1:30 p.m. ET. 

12:19 p.m. ET: CNN’s Manu Raju notices that during the hearing Flake had “left the hearing room and asked to speak privately” to Sen. Chris Coons in the anteroom. Sen. Diane Feinstein soon joins the duo.

— 1:45 p.m. ET: CNN’s Dana Bash reports there are “serious conversations” about Flake wanting an FBI investigation.

— 1:46 p.m. ET: Flake reenters the hearing room.

— 1:51 p.m. ET: Flake says it would be “proper to delay the floor vote” for a week “in order to let the FBI do an investigation limited in time and scope.” 

— 1:55 p.m. ET: Kavanaugh’s nomination is voted out of committee and onto the Senate floor 11-10, along partisan lines.

— 2:00 p.m. ET: Sen. Chuck Grassley abruptly adjourns the Judiciary Committee based on the “two-hour rule.” Feinstein and others can be heard and seem perplexed.

— 2:16 p.m. ET: Sen. Majority Whip John Cornyn says GOP leadership is “exploring” Flake’s proposal for an FBI investigation. 

— 2:36 p.m. ET: Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she supports Flake’s proposal for delay.

— 3:56 p.m. ET: The Senate Judiciary Committee formally asks the White House to instruct the FBI to do a background check.

— 4:56 p.m. ET: Sarah Sanders tweets a statement from Trump that said he had ordered the FBI to conduct a “supplemental investigation to update Judge Kavanaugh’s file.”

8:27 p.m. ET: Trump tweets, “Just started, tonight, our 7th FBI investigation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. He will someday be recognized as a truly great Justice of The United States Supreme Court!”

The moment that helped change history

As Flake was heading to vote on Kavanaugh’s fate, he was confronted by two female protesters who said they were sexual assault survivors. The extraordinary exchange was captured by CNN’s cameras and showed the Arizona Republican — clearly uncomfortable — being excoriated for minutes by the two women. “You’re telling all women they don’t matter, that they should just stay quiet because if they tell you what happened to them you are going to ignore them,” one of the protesters shouted. The video has been viewed millions of times online and replayed throughout the day on cable news.

>> Politico’s Jake Sherman: “I’ve spent 9 years covering the the Capitol. I’ve never seen anything like that. Ever.”

“He really needed to understand…

On his program Friday evening, Anderson Cooper interviewed Ana Maria Archila, one of the protesters who confronted Flake. She told Cooper that in the moments before the confrontation she had just learned Flake planned on voting yes on Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Then she said she “saw him running to the elevator” and “ran behind him.” Archila added, “I was not really prepared really for my own emotions but I felt he really needed to hear it. He really needed to understand that women feel incredibly enraged…”

How CNN captured it on video

CNN’s Brian Ries emails: I was curious how the moment came to be for the CNN crew who captured it, so I reached out to CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux, who was a part of it. She told me that after Flake’s email hit inboxes two protesters standing near their stakeout outside Flake’s office asked what was going on when they spotted Flake down the hall. “We got to him when he was in the elevator, and it was one of the women, one of the protesters, who stuck her foot out in the elevator door and it opened, and that’s when it all began,” Malveaux said.

>> Malveaux added: “It was a moment where we stopped asking questions, because we realized this was much more of an important moment that was unfolding between the senator and these two women who had experienced sexual assault, and this was their moment, and a very significant one, so we just let it unfold. We just watched it and observed it, as it unfolded before our eyes.”

Baldwin: This has been “pivotal moment in American history”

Brooke Baldwin capped off her show Friday afternoon with a poignant monologue about this “pivotal moment in American history.” Baldwin stressed that “this matters” and noted the Kavanaugh-Ford hearings on Thursday reopened “deep, painful wounds.” She concluded, “What good comes of all of this? What are we going to learn? It’s a generational opportunity to better ourselves and how we relate to each other as women and men. This matters the most.”

Nearly 20% of households with TVs watched

The Ford-Kavanaugh hearings on Capitol Hill Thursday earned monster ratings for networks. Brian Stelter broke the numbers down here, but here are some highlights…

>> Nearly 20% of households with televisions watched the hearings at any given time between 10 a.m. and 6:45 p.m., per Nielsen ratings…

>> Fox News averaged 5.66 million viewers at any given time, MSNBC averaged 2.83 million, and CNN averaged 2.51 million. 

>> As Kavanaugh testified, viewership on Fox spiked to 7.17 million…