STEPHANIE RUHLE (HOST): Noelle, what's at stake here for Kavanaugh? What's your take?
NOELLE NIKPOUR (REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST): Well, this is kind of a Catch-22 for both parties. Whether or not these allegations -- we're not sitting here as a panel trying to go through her testimony to see is she telling the truth, is he, who's telling the truth here. What the problem of it is is the timing. The timing of this is absolutely despicable. They sat on this. They knew about this. They should have brought it forward. And now where push comes to shove, we're pushing the victim, the supposed victim, forward into a rush, you know, testimony. She's now saying that she wants -- or her counsel is saying she wants the FBI investigation, which we're not even sure if this is an FBI, really, moment to get into the he said, she said. When we were back in the green room, we were talking, how do you do an FBI investigation before you're proceeding with this vote? What is the FBI supposed to do? How many crazy teenagers that are now adults and working with families and jobs, are they supposed to go back and say, do you remember where you were X night and doing what?
I mean, really, what is the FBI investigation? Is that what they're holding up for to proceed with this vote? And if she does testify, you know, the #MeToo movement, one of the things that the #MeToo movement did do on a positive note was give victims the courage, people are applauding women coming forward saying you're victorious for being courageous to go out and challenge these guys. So it's almost setting it back a notch. Go and testify. If you're not comfortable doing it in an open setting with cameras everywhere, that's your prerogative. You have the absolute right to do it behind closed doors. But they're offering you a chance to be heard. And one of the biggest things, when you looked at Bill Cosby and you looked at other victims, is they didn't get the dagum chance to be heard and we're offering her, everyone's saying we want to hear you.
