During extensive pre-hearing coverage on Thursday’s Today show, co-host Hoda Kotb was already wondering if Senate Republicans would abandon Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh: “Is there a point in here where some Republicans just say, ‘You know what? This is a little too muddy. Why don’t we just go ahead and put Brett Kavanaugh over here and go with our next person in line’?”
NBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent Kasie Hunt eagerly predicted: “I think that’s an entirely realistic possibility, Hoda, standing here at this hour of the day.” She then added that such a decision should at least wait until after the hearing actually happened: “We’re gonna obviously have to reassess once this hearing has concluded.”
Hunt went on to describe the intense “emotional pressure” being place on Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, arguing it was “a lot to ask” of them to support Kavanaugh:
But I mean, if you think about what it’s like to be Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski, they’re the two Republican women in the Senate who have been such a focus of this, this is gonna be a history-making moment for them. This could potentially be what they are remembered for, depending on how this hearing goes today. And it’s a lot to ask those women, especially in the context of this #MeToo movement that we have been living through. There’s gonna be a lot of very emotional pressure on them.
The reporter lamented that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was “asking them to potentially do a very, very difficult thing” and that the female lawmakers would “rather see him take the pressure off of them.”
Apparently McConnell is the one guilty of placing pressure on Collins and Murkowski, not the Democrats or the liberal media.
Appearing on the Today show a week earlier, Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd suggested Kavanaugh should just withdraw before a hearing even took place and spare the country such a contentious “tinderbox” proceeding.
Ahead of Thursday’s hearing, the media objective seems clear – just “muddy” the waters enough with unsubstantiated allegations against Kavanaugh to get the GOP to surrender on his nomination.
Here is a transcript of the September 27 exchange:
7:38 AM ET
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HODA KOTB: And, Kasie, this is a really delicate situation. Is there a point in here where some Republicans just say, “You know what? This is a little too muddy. Why don’t we just go ahead and put Brett Kavanaugh over here and go with our next person in line”?
KASIE HUNT: I think that’s an entirely realistic possibility, Hoda, standing here at this hour of the day. We’re gonna obviously have to reassess once this hearing has concluded. But I mean, if you think about what it’s like to be Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski, they’re the two Republican women in the Senate who have been such a focus of this, this is gonna be a history-making moment for them. This could potentially be what they are remembered for, depending on how this hearing goes today. And it’s a lot to ask those women, especially in the context of this #MeToo movement that we have been living through. There’s gonna be a lot of very emotional pressure on them.
And my sources have also told me that, you know, there’s a little bit of a standoff and a push/pull because Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, has literally made his life’s work of shaping the court. And he’s asking them to potentially do a very, very difficult thing. They may rather see him take the pressure off of them. So all of those dynamics are gonna be at play over the next few hours.
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