Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Uncertain Fate; U.S. and Canada Updates NAFTA
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN HOST: -- investigators find that Brett Kavanaugh lied to lawmakers during his testimony. The judge's nomination is over. That from Jeff Fake. The latest on that ahead. Plus, after weeks of intense bargaining, the U.S. and Canada have reached a deal to revamp NAFTA. Also ahead this hour, a heartbreak in Indonesia. You see the damage there. Authorities say that hundreds of people, victims of this earthquake and tsunami will be buried in mass graves there. Live from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, we want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm George Howell. The CNN Newsroom starts right now. At three a.m. on the U.S. East Coast, we're learning more about the list of witnesses to be interviewed by the FBI and probe Brett Kavanaugh, apparently, neither Judge Kavanaugh nor his accuser are on that list. The president continuous to insist though, the FBI has free reign to speak to whomever they choose while conducting this one week limited probe. But sources tell CNN the White House counsel is working with Senate Republicans behind the scenes to keep the investigation narrow and to keep it focused. All this comes as a former Yale University classmate is claiming that Kavanaugh has not told the truth about his drinking. Saying in part this, quote, "At Yale, Kavanaugh and I, I can speak two other times Brett was a frequent drinker, and a heavy drinker. I know because especially in our first two classes at college I often drink with him." He goes on to say, "When Brett got drunk, he was often belligerent and aggressive" end quote. Kavanaugh overall drinking is not part of the probe, but of course it is a question that many are raising. More now on this investigation from our Boris Sanchez.</s>BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The ranking Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, Diane Feinstein sending out a a statement on Sunday afternoon requesting the exact directive coming from the White House to the FBI outlining the exact parameters of the FBI probe into accusations made against Trump's pick to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court, Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Diane Feinstein saying the stakes are simply too high and that senators on that committee should know exactly what the White House is telling the FBI to do. Two sources familiar with the investigation have told CNN that the White House is sort of outlining the exact steps that the FBI should take maintaining that specific questions about Brett Kavanaugh's drinking habits in high school are off limits and sort of outlining that there would only be a handful of interviews conducted during this probe. Now, even before Diane Feinstein sent out the statement President Trump was already weighing in saying that Democrats would be unhappy regardless of the scope of the investigation. He wrote on Twitter, quote, "Wow, just starting to hear the Democrats who are only thinking of obstruct and delay are starting to put out the word that the time and scope of FBI looking into Judge Kavanaugh and witnesses is not enough. Hello, for them it will never be enough. Stay tuned and watch." Of course this news coming from sources just days after President Trump said that the FBI would have free rein over this investigation, that is not sitting well with the number of Democrats including Senator Amy Klobuchar who spoke to Jake Tapper on State of the Union Sunday morning</s>SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D), MINNESOTA: The hardworking men and women of the FBI should be able to do their jobs. And on that I agree. But what we are hearing are reports that they're somehow trying to limit this to a few witnesses or tell them what they should do. White the White House decides who to nominate and then that person is submitted to a background check. I've never heard that the White House either under this resident or other president is saying, well, you can't interview this person, you can't look at this time period, you can only look at these people from one side of the street from when they were growing up.</s>SANCHEZ: Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was also on the Sunday morning talk shows saying that the White House does not want to micro manage the FBI, though, she admitted that she didn't know White House counsel Don McGahn had told the FBI who they could or couldn't interview and what questions they could or not ask. Boris Sanchez, CNN, at the White House.</s>HOWELL: Boris, thank you. The FBI investigation is now underway. It came about after Republican Senator Jeff Flake had a change of heart, saying that he would only vote to Kavanaugh's nomination to the Senate floor only with a one week delay for investigation. Not long before that, he found himself in this situation. It was a moment that played out on live television. This, when two women who say they are sexual assault survivors. They confronted Jeff Flake in an elevator at the Senate office building. They ask him what kind of message he was sending to women by letting Kavanaugh vote -- Kavanaugh's vote proceed without a probe. Shortly after that encounter, Flake told his Democratic colleague Senator Chris Coons that he had to chat, and they worked out on a compromise that led to this investigation of one week. Both senators spoke with CBS about what they thought of Kavanaugh's testimony.</s>SEN. CHRIS COONS (D), DELAWARE: I was really stuck that I thought his anger got the best of him and he made a partisan argument that would have been best left to be made and for his advocates and defenders on the committee.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It made you wonder about his suitability?</s>COONS: In my case, yes. It made me wonder about his suitability to serve on the bench.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But Senator Flake, you identified whether you understood it.</s>SEN. JEFF FLAKE (R), ARIZONA: Well, the part that he talked about that he mentioned of the Clintons and I didn't like either. It seems partisan but boy, I had to put myself in that spot, you know, I think you give a little leeway there.</s>HOWELL: Let's talk more about this with Steven Erlanger. Steven, the chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe for the New York Times joining this hour via Skype from Brussels, Belgium. Always a pleasure.</s>STEVEN ERLANGER, LONDON BUREAU CHIEF, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Hello, George.</s>HOWELL: Given what we've heard now from Senators Flake and Coons does this put additional pressure, new pressure on whatever comes of this extended investigation from your point of view.</s>ERLANGER: Well, it does, you know, it's not often in my life I feel sorry for the FBI but they are maybe being put in an incredibly difficult position not just with this but of course with the whole Mueller investigation which has Trump obsessed. I mean, Trump is right to some degree they are never would like to prolong this because if they can win control of the Senate or reduce Republican control in midterms which is not far away, then Kavanaugh's nomination is probably doomed anyway. So the Republicans are pushing really hard to get this done before those elections. And Jeff Flake, you know, is one of these handwringing Republicans who keeps saying he hates Trump and he's against Trump and then falls into line. So this is one of those real incidents where OK, he just couldn't bear it anymore, so he decided to, you know, let the Democrats have one more week. But he also said even before all this that he would vote for Brett Kavanaugh. So, I think there are still a lot to play for. And I think the White House is being careful. I don't think Trump has decided whether to keep pushing Kavanaugh or even to withdraw him. I think that's still an option.</s>HOWELL: So, you say the president may have some time to decide on this. And what about the Democrats? Those red states Democrats who maybe on the fence here and moderate Republicans who are watching this? Does more time on the clock make it harder to get to a yes or harder to get to a no?</s>ERLANGER: Well, I'm not sure. A lot would depend what the FBI comes out with, and of course, a lot depends on public opinion. Yo know, because we get reports from people who knew Judge Kavanaugh when he was a kid or when was a fresh man at Yale and how much did he drink and how much didn't he drink? It sounds, you know, if he's saying he wasn't much of a drinker and all his friends say that he was, that will create doubt. You heard that the two senators raising questions about his temperament and I think that's another question. It has nothing to do with what he did in high school. It has to do with the kind of person that he is in the way he reacts to stress. So, I mean, these are all issues that I think come to bear on public opinion.</s>HOWELL: Let's talk about the scope of this investigation, Steven. There are questions about whether the White House is somehow pulling strings to limit the investigation. And there is a limited amount of time, of course, for agents to do their work. So can this investigation be construed as thorough, can it be construed as impartial?</s>ERLANGER: Well, I think you can construe it -- I mean, the FBI will do it I believe impartially. That's not the question.</s>HOWELL: Well, even with limitations--</s>ERLANGER: Time -- well, you know, we don't actually know what all the restrictions are. That's the problem, you know. We hear it back and forth. And even your well informed Boris Sanchez isn't quite sure yet. So we would like to know that. But at the same time, you know, as a journalist, you know, you can do a lot of work in a week. You can talk to a lot of people. So, I'm not concerned about the time limit so much as I might be concerned about whether there really are restrictions on the people that the FBI could speak to and who puts those restrictions on the</s>FBI. HOWELL: OK. Here's an even bigger question. Look, this narrow investigation will proceed into the week. If you thought you saw drama last week, there might be more to come. We'll have to wait and see. But look, if more allegations come forward and if those allegations are left unchecked, could that further cloud the path for Kavanaugh?</s>ERLANGER: I think so. I mean, I think you have some senators who are really wavering who, you know, senators, yes, they are partisan. But they also know that, you know, their job is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. And their advice and consent function over nominations to the Supreme Court is very serious. And I think, you know, senators take it very seriously, so I think there are a lot of questions. We hope the FBI can answer some of them. But in the end, it comes down to the political consciousness and conscience of these senators to decide what to do. That's what we have elected them to do.</s>HOWELL: Steven Erlanger with perspective and analysis live for us in Brussels, Belgium. We appreciate your time and perspective. We'll keep in touch.</s>ERLANGER: Thanks, George.</s>HOWELL: The United States and Canada signed off on a new version of the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, as you may better know it, with less than two hours to spare before midnight deadline Canada agreed to allow the United States greater access to its dairy market and concerns about possible U.S. tariffs on Canadian auto exports were addressed. My colleague Cyril Vanier spoke with our Paula Newton about details around this agreement. Listen.</s>PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They will be calling us the U.S./Mexico/Canada agreement. Donald Trump wanted a branding change and he got it and in many ways, Cyril in terms of what substantially has gone on here, definitely the Trump administration is saying that, look, we have been able to negotiate a much more level playing field when it comes to things like automobiles. And obviously Donald Trump has been saying in many rallies in the last few weeks they wanted access to that all-important Canadian dairy market. So important to U.S. farmers, but what's to be understood here is that it's very important to American politicians who want to make sure that they can tout this deal as being better for U.S. farmers. In Canada, it came away with a lot as well, though. Completely intact word for word from the old agreement as something called chapter 19. What does that mean? It means that Canada can go to an independent referee when it has a dispute, the trade dispute with the United States and does not have to subject itself to any kind of U.S. ruling that remains intact from the old deal. All in all, it is not a wholesale change of the agreement that was already on the table. But enough administration officials say for Donald Trump to claim that he's basically had another victory on yet another campaign promise.</s>CYRIL VANIER, CNN HOST: So -- and you referred to this. Donald Trump during his entire campaign said NAFTA was one of the worst deals the U.S. has ever signed. It was terrible for the United States. Essentially what the U.S. gets out of one year of renegotiation is access to the Canadian dairy market? This is the big win?</s>NEWTON: Exactly. And it has to be said that whatever they are getting closely mirrors what Europe and the Pacific trading partners through what was called the TPP have already negotiated, something that Canada was already willing to do preparing the dairy industry saying, yes, we have to do this, we have to open up our markets. Having said that, on automobiles something Donald Trump also had said during the campaign was very important to him, it is about that level playing field, to make sure that U.S. workers are not undercut in their own backyard and that their jobs will not go principally to Mexico. It didn't really seem Canada was much of a threat in that way. But, no, you caught that right, Cyril. This is a win really for Canada in that regard, in terms of what they got out of the deal. And certainly Canadian officials are characterizing it that way.</s>HOWELL: All right. Still ahead, we are following the situation in Indonesia. The scenes of devastation and great despair. So much damage there, days after an earthquake and tsunami demolished thousands of homes. Survivors desperate for food, for water, and for shelter. We'll have the latest.