White House Not Controlling Scope of FBI Probe on Brett Kavanaugh
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Please post a video to Instagram telling us what is motivating you this year. Use this hashtag, #whyIvoteCNN, for a chance to be featured on our show and on CNN's Instagram Feed. I think it's going to be a fun project.</s>POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: You'll see it every day here. This is just about your voice. So let us know what you think. All right, good morning, everyone. Top of the hour. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York.</s>SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto. And right now eight members of the Supreme Court are coming together to hear the first case for a new Supreme Court term. Member number nine still in flux as a brand-new controversy rages over a reopened FBI investigation into the nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Specifically into claims that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted a teenage girl when he was a teen himself in the early 1980s and later exposed himself to a classmate while a college student at Yale. Sources tell CNN that the White House, not the FBI is deciding exactly what investigators can and cannot look into for the purposes of this investigation, and whom they can or cannot question.</s>HARLOW: Right. What will the scope of this be? We'll see. Not being questioned so far, as we know, is the former college girlfriend -- former college friend who put out a scathing statement overnight. A statement that accuses Judge Kavanaugh of a, quote, "blatant mischaracterization of his drinking at Yale." A mischaracterization this friend alleges was done under oath, by the way. Back at the White House, President Trump is hailing a last-second breakthrough in trade talks with Canada and Mexico, a new deal to replace NAFTA. He will tout it one hour from now in the Rose Garden. Remember, this was a key, key promise of the president on the campaign trail, and he has followed through. Let's begin, though, this morning with the battle over the Supreme Court. Ariane de Vogue is outside of the high court with more. So what more do we know in terms of the scope of this investigation, who the feds will be able to talk to and who they won't be able to talk to.</s>ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT CORRESPONDENT: Right. Good morning, Poppy and Jim. Well, as you said, here we are, the first day of the court, totally overshadowed by Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation process. Here is the latest. We know that Rachel Mitchell, she's the outside prosecutor hired by the Republicans late last night, she issued a report. And she said, look, I know that this wasn't a trial. It was a hearing, but she said no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges. And she actually issued a statement, a bottom line. She said, "A he said-she said case is incredibly difficult to prove, but this case is even weaker than that. Dr. Ford identified other witnesses to the event, and those witnesses either refuted her allegations or failed to corroborate them." But it's worth noting that the Democrats and supporters of Ford, they totally dismiss this report. They say that she didn't even interview Kavanaugh. She was hired. This is just one side of the story. They want the focus on the current FBI background investigation. And we've learned that yesterday the FBI did reach out to one woman, Deborah Ramirez, and Ramirez alleges inappropriate behavior. And here's what's key about this. Is that Ramirez gave the FBI the name of other witnesses. And the question will be whether or not the FBI and the White House allow those witnesses to be contacted. That's where we are now.</s>SCIUTTO: Ariane, thanks very much.</s>HARLOW: One of Kavanaugh's classmates at Yale is claiming overnight that he lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee about his drinking habits and behavior. This is a statement to CNN, and in it, Chad Ludington says that he witnessed Kavanaugh visibly drink heavily. He also says -- led me read part of his statement. "When I watched Brett deliver his testimony under oath to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, I cringed. For the fact is, at Yale, and I can speak to no other times, Brett was a frequent drinker and a heavy drinker. I know because especially in our first few years of college, I often drank with him. On many occasions, I heard Brett slur his words and saw him staggering from alcohol consumption, not all of which was beer. When Brett got drunk, he was often belligerent and aggressive."</s>SCIUTTO: Now to be clear in his statement, Ludington says that he does not think that Kavanaugh's behavior in college should condemn him for the rest of his life but he did say the following. He said, "I do believe that Brett's actions as a 53-year-old federal judge matter. If he lied about his past actions on national television and more especially while speaking under oath in front of the United States Senate, I believe those lies should have consequences. "It is truth that is at stake. And I believe that the ability to speak the truth, even when it does not reflect well upon one's self, is a paramount quality we seek in our nation's most powerful judges." Now to be clear, as you often have in cases like this, there are contradictory accounts. One of Judge's -- rather, one of Kavanaugh's other classmates, Chris Dudley, also a basketball player and a close friend of Dudley since -- of Kavanaugh's since college, says he is certain that he never saw Kavanaugh black out or crucially behave inappropriately with any women. We're joined now by CNN political commentator Marc Short who until recently worked in the Trump administration. Marc, thanks for taking the time this morning.</s>MARC SHORT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thanks, Jim. Thanks for having me on.</s>SCIUTTO: First, on the question of the FBI investigation this week, in your view, who controls it? Does the FBI control it or does the White House?</s>SHORT: It's my understanding actually that it's more controlled by the Senate. The Senate is setting the terms for it. The White House actually has to make the requests to the FBI, but in some ways the White House is the middle man for those senators who are asking I think a pretty narrow scope. Jim, I think it's important to remember for those who are clamoring for a wider investigation, I have not yet heard one Democrat say that based upon the investigation, they'll reopen their opposition or consider again their evaluation of Brett Kavanaugh. They all remain opposed. So this investigation is really focused on the request of Manchin, Murkowski, Collins, Flake, is what they want answered in the scope.</s>SCIUTTO: But let me ask you this. Just in terms of fairness, to take off the administration had just for a moment, it's an FBI investigation. They're experienced in doing background checks. Why would it be the White House or Senate Republicans who set the outlines? Shouldn't they hand it over to the FBI, to the bureau, and say, listen, we trust you with this. You're experienced in this. You guys decide how far this should go?</s>SHORT: I think, Jim, we're forgetting that actually Brett Kavanaugh has gone through six different FBI background checks that are quite expansive. They go back and ask neighbors of all the places you've lived about character, about what you've done, what you haven't done. So I think that we're overlooking that. The reality is that this is a he said-she said. There's plenty of questions about witnesses that Dr. Ford has alleged were there who basically deny ever being there. And so I think, though the Senate Republicans who are still wrestling over this have asked for a narrow scope, and I think that's appropriate.</s>SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this, because it's partly the alleged behavior, right? And you and I imagine, have some experience with background checks. You, of course, went through one. I have been called about friends who have been up for various positions. And they do ask about, you know, how much you drank, what was your behavior like, going back to your youth. If the nominee lied about that before the Senate, which we know lying before the Senate, it's against the law. In your view, let's set aside for a moment whether you think that's disqualifying, but do you think that's consequential if he lied about his behavior?</s>SHORT: Absolutely, Jim. Any witness who lies and perjures himself would be disqualified, not just Brett Kavanaugh, but any potential nominee. But I also think it would be great if we as a society and as a Senate were actually spending as much time on the 300 opinions that Kavanaugh has written and the federal court of appeals as much as we do to discussing drinking games 36 years ago in college.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, let me ask you about that, because of course, that is the key when you're talking about a Supreme Court justice. Particularly this Supreme Court justice is going to have enormous influence over key legal decisions facing the country. Recalling Kavanaugh's testimony last week, he said something that caught the attention of a lot of folks about the politics in Washington. And he made what sounded like something of a threat. Have a listen. I want to ask you about it.</s>BRETT KAVANAUGH, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: This grotesque and coordinated character assassination will dissuade competent and good people of all political persuasions from serving our country. And as we all know in the United States political system of the early 2000s, what goes around comes around.</s>SCIUTTO: What did the nominee mean by that? Was he, as some Democrats have interpreted, threatening that he will in effect get back at Democrats from a seat, potentially, on the Supreme Court?</s>SHORT: I don't -- I don't know the answer to that, Jim. I don't think that that's what he's intending. My interpretation of that is that if and when Democrats have the presidency and are putting forward a nominee, I think he's saying the Republicans would use similar tactics potentially. But you know, I do think there is a serious concern about the quality of people who are willing to stand for these sorts of positions because no longer is it really an evaluation of your merits or again the role of advice and content. It's become one that is search and destroy. And I think that that does concern a lot of people who are not willing to stand for Senate confirmation any longer.</s>SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this as a final question. One thing that struck me just as a father of a daughter and the husband of a wife was that Kavanaugh didn't really barely reference at all Blasey Ford's testimony when he -- and it would have been -- it struck me as a fairly easy thing to do, say, I listened to this woman, and my goodness, what a heart wrenching thing she went through. Moved on as if the morning hadn't taken place. Yourself, were you disappointed that he didn't express any acknowledgment, really, of what the Senate had heard just moments before he took the chair?</s>SHORT: Jim, I think all you have to do is see the support that he has from his wife and from the girls on the basketball team and his daughters to know that I think Brett is a pretty strong husband and father. I think that -- you know, I think that he said that during that morning he was actually preparing his testimony, so he hadn't listened to Dr. Ford's testimony at that point. So no, I didn't question him as a father or as a husband.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, on that point, I should say that there were some question that he then later said under some circumstances that he did listen to some of her testimony. Just as a point of fact, and I know that there are many points of fact under dispute here. Marc Short, I do want to thank you for taking the time and taking the hard questions.</s>SHORT: Thanks, Jim. Thanks for having me on.</s>SCIUTTO: Yes.</s>HARLOW: All right, so still ahead, the president will speak in less than an hour's time in the Rose Garden. Touting a deal he promised we would reach, and we have. A new trade agreement with Canada and Mexico to replace NAFTA. This morning what it means for you. Also, search and rescue teams under way, scrambling to find any remaining survivors in Indonesia after that tsunami and earthquake has claimed the lives of nearly 850 people.</s>SCIUTTO: And under pressure, Senator Susan Collins of Maine is one of two pivotal GOP votes in the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh. CNN spoke with constituents of Senator Collins to get their take on that crucial vote.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is where I needed to be. This is the work that I needed to be doing today and encouraging Susan Collins to please vote no and protect our Supreme Court and our daughters and our country.