September 27, 2018

CNN co-hosts John Berman and Alisyn Camerota talked to political analyst David Chalian this morning about the impending hearing.

"One thing that is exposed, I think, is how broken this process is," Chalian said. "I think that is pretty clear. To your point, Alisyn, Judge Kavanaugh has been categorical in his denials from the get-go, from the very beginning of the first allegation being out there, and that is something he remained consistent through, his interviews and his statements, that he -- not only is this not true but it did not happen, it was not me.

"You are right, we have two people entering into the hearing room today with completely different recollections of what occurred, which is why I think it's important to remember, and this gets to what Laura was saying, today is not about who is telling the truth. Today is not going to be about fact-finding and actually getting to the root of what happened in 1982. That's not what today is about. Today is about a credibility test, and it's a credibility test of each of the witnesses that are there, and it's so important to understand that so much hangs -- the president said it himself yesterday, so much hangs in the balance here about how these people are perceived in the court of public opinion, and really for those key swing senators.

"The president described it yesterday, 'If the Republicans win today.' Obviously there's no win or loss in terms of a vote count today but what he means is if indeed Republicans and Kavanaugh win that battle of perception today, that is everything in terms of determining whether or not he's going to be a Supreme Court justice."

"That was such an interesting framing, wasn't it? It was also a subtle framing, David, and I'm glad you picked up on it," Berman said.."In theory, it's about hearing their stories. It's interesting for the president to think it was a win if Brett Kavanaugh is more convincing. I want to say one other thing here, we have not heard from Professor Ford."

Camarota noted there were few photos of Ford.

"And this is a photo of the polygraph as she is taking the test, and remember, Brett Kavanaugh has been in the political game his entire life, and she is about to walk into something in the likes of which she has not seen before, and she is facing not just the 11 senators who are more or less not opposed to her, but she's also facing a seasoned prosecutor," Berman said.

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