Thứ Bảy, 29 tháng 9, 2018

News on Youtube Sep 29 2018

I was there that day. I actually worked in Tower 2 the South Tower at the World

Trade Center on the 53rd floor. It was the second tower to be hit but it

was the first tower to actually collapse.

We're human connection arts and we all get this all works cause

it's September 11th on this day it's a very important very significant day.

We feel that it's one of the most important things we could do on this day

to exercise of freedom of expression, to exercise of freedom of creativity.

Being creative and expressive on 9/11

is a actually a form of patriotism

The idea that ART has an incredible power

Because ART is one of universal things that brings people together

And thats why we are here.

Which you think in some

ways is a really obvious thing but in other ways you know it's very...

People have a hard time understanding that kind of thing you know

so that's why it's important to do it I think.

I saw that a lot of people did chalk drawing in Washington Square Park and

then I was like a couple years ago and I said I would like to one day just draw

all the whole Park up myself and then after a while I was just thinking and I

was like this would be a great event for Human Connection Arts so I just told

people that were doing it and a whole bunch of people about 8 -10 artists all

came and we just did chalk drawing everywhere and we just added beauty.

We have used all of these shapes and connected them together and wrote

Human Arts because human and art is all connected in one.

I was in first grade when 9/11 happened

so and I was in Queens I went to the Catholic school in

Queens and I all I remember it was very traumatic for all of us because a lot of

the kids parents worked in the World Trade Center so all I remember is the

teachers coming in very frantically very hectic li and saying does any of your

parents work in the World Trade Center and a large number amount of kids in my

class raised their hands and they had to bring them downstairs and had to go and

call their parents to make sure everything was okay and I do know a

couple of parents that did get injured

A lot of people have lost family members that I know in this tragic event

so we're just trying to give back as much as we can

through what we know best which is art.

I think when you see art

you see colorful art it uh it just adds life to everything and I think all the

artists sort of you know have a lot of power today and I think everybody you

know they feel that power and they may not say something they may say something

they may just walk by it but sort of energizes everybody

When I was 23 I went to see the Taj Mahal and

I wanted to capture the beauty of it

and my memories of it.

It was the most beautiful thing ever saw

and it was large and colorful even though

it was just white it's a blue star it was

the best thing I've ever set my eyes on

Today is September 11th and it's about Freedom

and to me Freedom means

Freedom of expression and

I'm protecting my First Amendment rights

by freedom of speech

The whole thing is in 9/11 memorial today and so this is supposed

to represent all the eyes the different color the eyes of all people we lost that day

all the colors all different people were all different nationalities and cultures

that we lost that day this is just supposed to show the diversity oh it's

my loose interpretation chalk drawing

Today's 9/11 tragedy day for many but it's a celebration for her. How old are

you turning ? 32

32 look at that from Costa Rica...

I'm having random people come

together and help me color in this flower of colors.

Everybody comes from different country

or even I comes from a different age : I had children help me

I have birthday girls helping me I just it's a collaboration of bonding that's

what it is I feel art it's always about bonding

when you when you help others and now just help you.

I think that what we're supposed to do

is we're supposed to reach out to other people and I think

that what we're supposed to do is

express who we are and and listen to other people and

Sometimes the art speaks louder than any words that we could ever use

and I try to use words

and when I try to use words it doesn't work out very well but when I try to use

art it actually works out real well.

Today's 9/11 and I worked in the World

Trade Center so this is my tribute the World Trade Center is right over there

although you can't see it in the clouds or the cloudy day.

Fortunately Tower 2 we had got to work and everybody was at the windows

and I thought why is

everybody at the windows and there they were there because the other Tower had

been hit while I was coming up on the elevator I didn't really know what had

happened and so we left pretty much right away and went down the stairs

because all of our training for an emergency was to use the stairs so we

didn't get on the elevator we walked down 53 flights of stairs when

When we did leave I stayed in the area I was like six blocks south and just sort of

like watching a movie it seemed like like it wasn't real and policemen came

by and said you because I wasn't the only person there said you you people

shouldn't be here like what if the tower were to collapse no he didn't say

collapse he said fall over and I thought fall over that's never gonna fall over

and so I just stayed there for a while and

and then and then I saw the building like quiver and then it was like a light

switch went off and I I thought oh my god I got like panicked and I started to

run south. It took me about three years actually to not have nightmares because

I had seen those people like jumping out of the windows that was the worst part

That was kind of why I wanted to do this here because I really do believe that

like John Lennon his song imagine that if we just you know imagine the

possibility that peace could actually happen that that it could.

I'm creating a peace sign

with the word peace in various languages I've got an olive

branch over here and some flowers over here and actually there's a spot here I

have one space left over and I'd love for you to do it in Russian the word

peace in Russian.

MIR thats a word will be PEACE will be MIR in russian

Mir I knew that actually yes because of

the one of the Russian space spacecrafts was called MIR

Ok Let's do that MIR

-right there this

will be an R it's already R? oh WOW

Its a R- MIR - PEACE

I've never done anything on September 11th where

I've sort of taking my own ownership over that over that that whatever

holiday that day and so today we did

I love America , because its allowed us

to do that types of things we are doing.

And well sometimes America might do things that people might

disagree with not like. That doesn't stop us from loving it for what it gives us

and appreciating the freedom of expression that we do have.

so here we go

I'm gonna come and I'm gonna start and please join it.

O beautiful for spacious skies

For amber waves of grain

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed his grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

We've not allowed all the p eople to tell us how we're supposed to feel on a

certain day and it's not a matter of that there's a right way to feel the

wrong way to feel but it's either that you feel what you feel or you feel what

people tell you you're supposed to feel and so I'm proud because I think that in

some ways what we did today was more significant than what we've done on the

body painting days

I heard like people

: "Isn't it cool Washington Square Park "?

And we are creating all this

You think people understood? I think they understood like 9/11 like in other words

you would expect that what we would do here is have the Twin Towers and a big

nine and a big one and a big one and what we're doing is we're actually

moving forward but but in the spirit of it respecting it and end date but at the

same time like not being sort of defined by it and allowing ourselves to sort of

to not be sort of like like we're just have to be soldiers or or machines or

something you know that's important and and I think that people you know

Freedom only exists to the extent that you exercise that.

Freedom

For more infomation >> 9.11 Tribute / Chalk Art Day at Washington Square Park / NYC / 2018 - Duration: 11:43.

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Guided Explorations at the University of Washington Bothell - Duration: 5:33.

Instead of being like a normal class

this is more like an internship in the sense of you're doing things that you would in the real world

UW Bothell gives you a lot of resources to just try something new, but you have to be bold and try

When I came to UW Bothell, I would've never guessed that I was gonna be doing research, especially directly with an engineering professor.

Doing this research was among the best decisions I made in college, if not the best

(in background) So I would let you know that canal is pretty cold... when your'e at the bottom of it...

Spending time in the wetlands and hanging out there is really cool

There's a lot of opportunities for research if you actually want to get involved.

(in background) That's all really nice spawning habitat right there.

As part of this research, we're trying to get the local spawning population of

Kokanee salmon back into the streams around here

Historically they were here, but now they've been gone for about a hundred years

We built this salmon incubator box, or RSI, remote site incubator.

So the incubator box looks like a big cooler, and it has an egg tray

which you lift in and out and that holds the eggs

These boxes just protect the eggs and give them a chance to survive.

We're just trying to get the salmon back to a self-sustainable population that's natural

The Interdisciplinary Arts Program exceeded my expectations.

There's so many options. There's so many possibilities.

Any material that's in front of me, and speaks to me, I'll make art with it.

I'm from Brazil. I moved to America in 2010.

It was so frightening being an immigrant in a new place,

but I make myself belong here and I do that with my art.

(in background) teaching myself but I still have just like you said...

A lot of programs are so strict

You need to have that openness that this program has to choose any class you want, and I love that freedom

I've been on this project for one year now and most of that was as a pre-major

The goal of this project is to use what we call an OECT for short as a chemical or biological sensor

These sensors could be used in a variety of fields. For example a diabetic, to check their sugar,

they'll test their blood but there's potential with our device to be able to detect glucose in saliva

So that could change many people's lives for the better.

The scanning electron microscope can give us insight into our fabrication process.

I am kind of surprised that UW Bothell would get a scanning electron microscope because it's kind of a big deal.

Think it's important to get out of the classroom and work with my hands because I like doing it

But also it teaches me skills that I don't get to learn from a textbook

It's helping me build my future.

Mentors are really important, especially with me. I didn't know what I wanted to do

Professor Jensen helped me as a student because he actually cares. I don't have a scientific background

And so it was nice to have someone who I could talk to frankly

It's very important to have someone to challenge you and to take you to another level

Because it's so difficult to do it by yourself

Ted, he inspired me to go beyond

That's why I want to be a professor, because these professors inspired me so much that I want inspired people also

I'm the type of person that learns better when I'm able to make meaningful relationships and I get that, at UW Bothell.

Dr. Choi took the time to really get to know me as as a person and as his student

It makes me feel like my voice is heard and my opinion is valued

As a person I feel like I've grown a lot. I would HIGHLY, highly

suggest looking around for a project that interests you. We have a lot even though it's a smaller campus.

It's been a really rewarding experience

What excites me most is just seeing the actual impact that I can have, that you never think you would have as an undergrad

Humans are the cause of why Kokanee isn't there anymore. We caused this to happen, but we can also fix this.

My growth from the first day of class to today, I feel like I'm a whole different person.

After graduating from University of Washington Bothell

I'm gonna go to grad school and I'm so excited to see what art's going to bring next

I have to thank University of Washington Bothell for giving me that confidence.

I am an artist and I'm proud of that and I will never stop creating.

I challenge every student and everyone that is coming in, don't be scared. Don't be afraid. You just got to go for it.

For more infomation >> Guided Explorations at the University of Washington Bothell - Duration: 5:33.

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No. 5 Eastern Washington not underestimating MSU - Duration: 1:31.

For more infomation >> No. 5 Eastern Washington not underestimating MSU - Duration: 1:31.

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'200-year flood:' The Carolinas after Florence - Duration: 7:39.

For more infomation >> '200-year flood:' The Carolinas after Florence - Duration: 7:39.

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A historic Supreme Court showdown in Washington - Duration: 25:40.

ROBERT COSTA: A Republican senator stuns his party and stalls the nomination of Supreme

Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. I'm Robert Costa. Welcome to Washington Week.

SENATOR JEFF FLAKE (R-AZ): (From video.) I think it would be proper to delay the floor

vote for up to but not more than one week to ask the FBI to do that investigation.

It would be short and limited in scope.

ROBERT COSTA: A dramatic twist for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Republican Senator Jeff Flake votes yes to advance the judge's nomination, but it comes

with a condition that shook Washington in an instant: a call to delay the final confirmation

vote one week to allow the FBI to probe sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh.

SENATOR FLAKE (R-AZ): (From video.) I will only be comfortable moving on the floor until

the FBI has done more investigation than they have already.

I understand that some of these witnesses may not want to discuss anything further, but I

think we're - we owe them due diligence.

ROBERT COSTA: The move comes just one day after both Kavanaugh and his accuser,

Professor Christine Blasey Ford, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

JUDGE BRETT KAVANAUGH: (From video.) This whole two-week effort has been a calculated

and orchestrated political hit fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump

and the 2016 election, revenge on behalf of the Clintons.

CHRISTINE BLASEY FORD: (From video.) I believed he was going to rape me.

I tried to yell for help. It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett

was accidentally going to kill me.

ROBERT COSTA: Both the accused and the accuser noted the intensity of this national

moment and its costs.

JUDGE BRETT KAVANAUGH: (From video.) My family and my name have been totally and

permanently destroyed.

CHRSTINE BLASEY FORD: (From video.) My family and I have been the target of constant

harassment and death threats, and I have been called the most vile and hateful names imaginable.

ROBERT COSTA: We report on this historic week next.

ANNOUNCER: This is Washington Week. Once again, from Washington, moderator Robert Costa.

ROBERT COSTA: Good evening. An unexpected move by Republican Senator Jeff Flake has

pumped the brakes on GOP plans to quickly confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

The retiring lawmaker announced Friday morning that he would support Kavanaugh's

confirmation, but hours later he said his vote to pass the nomination out of the Senate

Judiciary Committee had a caveat: If Republicans wanted his support on a final floor

vote, the FBI needed to further probe the sexual assault allegations facing Kavanaugh,

including Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's allegation that he assaulted her while they

were teenagers in the early 1980s.

Flake's decision effectively ended Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's plans of

moving to a vote in the coming days as other senators signaled their support, and it came

after fiery exchanges on Thursday between Kavanaugh and Democratic senators.

SENATOR RICHARD DURBIN (D-IL): (From video.) Judge Kavanaugh, will you support an FBI

investigation right now?

JUDGE BRETT KAVANAUGH: (From video.) I will do whatever the committee wants to -

SENATOR RICHARD DURBIN (D-IL): (From video.) Personally, do you think that's the best

thing for us to do? (Pause.) You won't answer?

ROBERT COSTA: Joining me tonight, Seung Min Kim of The Washington Post, Geoff Bennett of

NBC News, Mark Landler of The New York Times, and Molly Ball of TIME Magazine.

Seung Min, I'm glad you could make it here from the Capitol, inside the Senate Judiciary

Committee room all day. What drove this decision by Senator Flake, a decision that

surprised his colleagues, surprised the country?

SEUNG MIN KIM: I think what was so stark today is just this rapid change of momentum we

saw for Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation, which revolved pretty much about Jeff Flake,

because we saw early in the morning Senator Flake had issued a statement saying he would

actually be a yes on Kavanaugh's vote. He had taken the night to digest this gripping,

riveting testimony from both Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh.

When we tried to talk to him last night, he made it clear he had not made up his mind,

and he was showing so much skepticism and doubt about where he would land.

And he even said, you know, whatever I decide and whatever we decide, there's going to be

as much doubt as there is certainty.

So when he issued that statement pretty early in the morning, I thought - I was a little

surprised that it was pretty early, but it was interesting, and we figured, wow, that

gives us the extra momentum that Kavanaugh needs to move forward with his confirmation

and at the very least advances him out of the Judiciary Committee on this key committee

vote. And then several other things happened.

First, we saw that dramatic confrontation with two women who were loudly and tearfully

telling him to stand with victims of sexual assault, which was playing right on my TV.

ROBERT COSTA: Let's take a look at that for a second if we have that video.

FEMALE: (From video.) I was sexually assaulted. Nobody believed me. I didn't tell anyone.

And you're telling all women that they don't matter, that they should just stay quiet

because if they tell you what happened to them you're going to ignore them.

That's what happened to me, and that's what you're telling all women in America.

Look at me when I'm talking to you. You're telling me that my assault doesn't matter.

ROBERT COSTA: Intense as anything we've seen.

SEUNG MIN KIM: It was just - absolutely just heart-wrenching to watch.

And then Senator Flake made his way to the committee, and as the debate was going on he

looked very much as he did during the testimony yesterday; he looked tortured and pained.

And I think what was really remarkable was Senator Chris Coons, who's a Democrat from

Delaware, he's actually one of Senator Flake's closest friends. They serve on the

Foreign Relations Committee together. They go to the prayer breakfast together.

They've traveled to Africa together in their respective roles on the Foreign Relations

Committee. He had essentially in his speech implored Republicans to come along to at

least figure out some sort of a third way, a middle way to at least get some sort of an

FBI investigation. And at that moment, after he spoke, we expected Senator Flake to

speak; it was his turn. But he didn't. It moved on to someone else.

He got up and walked over to Senator Coons, and also Senator Amy Klobuchar who sat - who

sits next to him, and kind of gestured to him, you know, come back with me, and went into

the backroom. And I remember telling my colleagues, I was like, just heads up, guys;

like, those three went to the back. It may not be -

ROBERT COSTA: Something's happening.

SEUNG MIN KIM: It may be nothing, but something seems to be happening. And this really -

and it was how just up in the air so much. Like, we don't know what they were talking about.

You know, Senator Coons and Senator Klobuchar comes back eventually, but Senator Flake

never comes back, and those two Democrats start talking to other Democratic senators.

They're whispering. They're talking to Feinstein. They're talking to Senator Feinstein's

staff director. All the aides are very excitedly starting to chat. And we were like,

what is going on? And this just went on for a while. One thirty came, which is when the

committee was supposed to vote. They weren't voting. The room was empty.

There was only about four senators in there of 21 senators.

And then - and all of a sudden, then Flake came out and said what he did.

ROBERT COSTA: What a moment. What are they saying at the White House, Geoff?

They wanted to move forward with a vote, get it done quick.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yeah, they did. I can tell you there's a sense of dread in the White

House about what this week might hold. The passage of time has never been on the side

of this confirmation, for a number of reasons. First, we know Republicans wanted him

seated in time for the October 1st start of the new Supreme Court term.

They certainly wanted to have him confirmed before the midterms. But there's also

this thought that the public perception of him could change negatively over time.

Well before Thursday's hearing there were more Americans who did not support Kavanaugh's

nomination than did support it; that was according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal

poll. So now there's this thought that over this next week there could be perhaps more

accusers that come forward, there could be more people who call into question the

things that Brett Kavanaugh said in his hearing. Up until this point, I can tell you

that President Trump, according to people close to him, is still bullish on Kavanaugh.

There's not people around him saying that he's spitballing other names as replacements.

But again, it all comes down to what happens between now and potentially next Friday.

ROBERT COSTA: Mark was with President Trump in New York this week, where he used two news

conferences at the U.N. to defend his embattled Supreme Court nominee and call out Democrats.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: (From video.) It is a disgrace what's going on. The good news

is the public is very smart and they get it. It's a con game they're playing. They're

playing a con game. This is a con game. Just a con game.

ROBERT COSTA: Con game in New York, yet a different message on Friday. The White

House seems to say today this nomination could be saved, let the Senate do its work?

MARK LANDLER: An extremely restrained response from President Trump. No tweets.

When he was asked about it in the Oval Office, he answered with I thought extraordinary

restraint in a week when he had shown very little restraint.

I mean, this is a president who was disappointed in Brett Kavanaugh's performance in his

interview on Fox early in the week when Kavanaugh, if you remember, was rather programmed

and robotic and not very impassioned. He clearly loved Brett Kavanaugh's performance

before the committee. He liked the anger. He liked the defiance. I think he relished

the heavily partisan tone that Kavanaugh took with the senators, the Democratic senators.

He tweeted this is why I nominated this guy. But now in the wake of this last 11th

hour switch, I think the White House's calculation is we don't want to upset this

process, maybe we're pretty close to getting where we want to be, so I think the

president was very restrained and is determined not to be provocative during this period.

ROBERT COSTA: And it's got to be tough for him, Molly. Senator Flake has been quite

the foil for the president. What did you make of Flake's decision? You've covered him.

Is this a retiring senator who's doing his own thing? Is he actually trying to check

the box to make sure the nomination goes through? What's the read?

MOLLY BALL: Well, you know, say what you will about Jeff Flake, he's a very earnest man

and he has styled himself as sort of the conscience of the Senate in a way that tends to

annoy both parties. He's not loyal enough for any of the Republicans to like him, even -

and some of - but then for the Never-Trumpers, he doesn't stand up to Trump enough.

And for the Democrats' part, he's too conservative and doesn't stand up to Trump enough.

So even though he's been quite an antagonist of President Trump, is retiring because of

his opposition to the president, wrote a whole book about his opposition to the president and, by

the way, will be in New Hampshire on Monday - (laughter) - speaking about all of the things that -

ROBERT COSTA: Are you thinking he's going to actually run in 2020? Is this part of the 2020 gambit?

MOLLY BALL: I have no idea, but that's something you do if you're thinking about it and

he hasn't ruled it out. And again, if he did that, I think he would - one hates to

give politicians credit for any kind of earnest motives - but if he did that, I think

it would be because he feels someone ought to step up and do it.

He is really profoundly, as Seung Min said, profoundly pained, profoundly disturbed by

some of the things that he sees going on. And I think he's driven as much, you know,

by the - he talked about, you know, the victims that he talked to and the women in

the elevator, but I think he's driven just as much by his concerns about norms and

process and bringing the country together. That was what he talked about -

ROBERT COSTA: Yeah.

MOLLY BALL: - in his statement announcing this move was, if we continue on this rushed

partisan basis, we're just further dividing the country.

This one-week delay is an opportunity to make this a more bipartisan process.

GEOFF BENNETT: Right. And he gave voice to that speaking to reporters just a couple

of hours ago. He said when he walked into the Senate meeting today, he saw Democrats

yelling at Republicans, Republicans yelling at Democrats, some Democrats leaving the

meeting early and he thought that this one-week delay was the one area of compromise,

and so it's interesting. In a current political moment that is so colored by tribalism,

this was a day that institutionalists really want, people who believe in institutions

and the processes that run them, this was a day that I think that - yeah.

MOLLY BALL: Well, and you even heard some Democrats annoyed with the Democrats on the committee -

GEOFF BENNETT: Yeah.

MOLLY BALL: - emphasizing process, emphasizing the FBI investigation, pleading with

their Republican colleagues only - you know, playing on this institutional motivation

rather than going a more partisan line, rather than confronting Kavanaugh more frontally

with Dr. Blasey Ford's testimony. But that appears to have been a working - a gambit that worked.

ROBERT COSTA: So we're talking about a gambit that worked, what about the whip count?

Does this actually adjust where the votes could stand a week from now?

If the FBI proceeds, could some red-state Democrats, who said today earlier they're going

to vote no on Kavanaugh, could they maybe change their minds, could this actually help

Kavanaugh down the line?

SEUNG MIN KIM: Well, it's interesting. We started earlier this week with Senators

Flake, Murkowski and Collins, the influential votes, and we end this week with Senators

Flake, Collins and Murkowski the influential votes. I think it's important to remember

that we don't know what the FBI is going to find. He has - Judge Kavanaugh has already

gone through six background checks. There is various public service positions.

It could be that the FBI finds nothing and it essentially kind of gives cover to folks

like Flake and folks like Murkowski and Collins to really full-heartedly support him at

the end of the day.

ROBERT COSTA: And are negotiations going on about what the FBI actually has to do?

Will they bring up Mark Judge for an interview, one of the alleged witnesses of this incident?

SEUNG MIN KIM: Yeah. And Mr. Judge indicated earlier today that he would be willing

to talk as long as the discussions were done confidentially.

One person I would really watch in the coming days is actually Senator Joe Donnelly

because he already - he actually announced earlier today that he would oppose Judge

Kavanaugh, which was very surprising. He was one of the three red-state Democrats

who backed Neil Gorsuch last year in a tough reelection race. We thought he would be

very likely to support Judge Kavanaugh, even as these - even as these allegations broke.

But if you've read his statement, it had - his statement didn't mention, for example,

concerns that Judge Kavanaugh would be a deciding vote to overturn protections in the

Affordable Care Act, which is something that a lot of red-state Democrats have talked

about. It talked a lot about this process, he was concerned that there was no FBI

investigation that had looked into these allegations.

So I don't think he's going to change his mind, but it would be something to watch.

ROBERT COSTA: Geoff?

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, it's interesting. He reached out to the White House to ask what

exactly that phrase this investigation should be limited in scope, what that really means.

The White House directed us to the FBI. We asked the FBI, the FBI directed us back to

the White House. So if the - if the White House takes the lead of Jeff Flake, then that

would suggest that only the accusations that we currently know of, certainly to include

the one from Dr. Blasey Ford, would be investigated, perhaps the other - the other two.

We'll have to - we'll have to see from there.

MOLLY BALL: And I do want to point out, the Senate Judiciary Committee said the

investigations would cover, quote, "current credible allegations." I asked them, so what

does that mean, just Dr. Ford or the other two or another one? And I haven't heard back yet.

ROBERT COSTA: So the nation was transfixed, not only today watching the Senate Judiciary

Committee, but by the riveting testimony of both Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh.

CHRSTINE BLASEY FORD: (From video.) I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for

help. This is what terrified me the most and this had the most lasting impact on my life.

It was hard for me to breathe and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me.

JUDGE BRETT KAVANAUGH: (From video.) I'm not questioning that Dr. Ford may have been

sexually assaulted by some person in some place at some time. But I have never done this.

I am innocent of this charge.

ROBERT COSTA: Mark, so different than that Fox News interview a couple of days earlier.

You had Judge Kavanaugh almost red in the face, indignant, fighting back. It brought back

memories of Clarence Thomas, Justice Thomas, at his confirmation hearings in 1991.

Was the White House urging Kavanaugh to take this approach on Thursday?

MARK LANDLER: The White House wanted him to be a fighter and they wanted him to show

defiance and that's what they got.

What's interesting about that performance, though, is that by being so nakedly partisan,

by dredging up the Clintons, by using terms like a "political hit job," I think that

Judge Kavanaugh has raised other questions that go beyond the scope of the sexual

misconduct allegations. They go to questions of, if he is confirmed, what kind of

emotional and psychological baggage will he bring with him into the Supreme Court?

It's often been said that Clarence Thomas was radicalized by that confirmation hearing in

his term as a Supreme Court justice. The other question is, what is Judge Kavanaugh's,

Justice Kavanaugh's position going to be on cases that come before the court brought

by progressive groups or Democrats? He has shown himself, perhaps unlike any previous

Supreme Court nominee, to be a partisan fighter, a partisan warrior. That might have

worked in solidifying his position, in fact perhaps in salvaging his nomination with

the Republicans on that committee, but it also raises some broader questions about

his suitability, his temperament were he really to take a seat on the court.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yeah, that's a great point, because certainly the way he behaved, I

think, calls into question his ability to be viewed as a neutral jurist.

But in the zero-sum political game, you talk to people in the White House, they say that

performance is what gave Republicans - in real time we saw this with Lindsey Graham -

gave Republicans cover to defend him.

Remember, they dispensed with the - or with the female prosecutor they hired.

ROBERT COSTA: Rachel Mitchell, the prosecutor from Arizona.

GEOFF BENNETT: Right. And then they all decided to speak up in his - in his support.

Although today we saw the political sort of center of gravity shift back to Jeff Flake.

He sort of put himself up there as a heatshield to take on all the incoming for the

moderate Republicans and so now they have leverage and the whole thing has just shifted.

ROBERT COSTA: Molly, I want to ask you about this Republican anger we saw, because

during Thursday's committee hearings, Kavanaugh didn't hold back his anger, as we've

said, and neither did South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.

JUDGE BRETT KAVANAUGH: (From video.) This confirmation process has become a national

disgrace. The Constitution gives the Senate an important role in the confirmation

process. But you have replaced advice and consent with search and destroy.

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): (From video.) This is not a job interview. This is hell.

This is going to destroy the ability of good people to come forward because of this crap.

Your high school yearbook - you have interacted with professional women all your life,

not one accusation. You're supposed to be Bill Cosby when you're a junior and

senior in high school and all of a sudden you got over it.

ROBERT COSTA: Molly, we had during Dr. Ford's testimony Rachel Mitchell, the prosecutor,

question after question, then the Republican fury just came out. What does that tell us?

MOLLY BALL: Well, first of all, I think you can't blame the Republicans for being mad.

There are so many questions about the way that this was handled by the Democratic minority.

And we have not gotten good answers for the really strange way that this ended up coming

out, why Senator Feinstein had this information, sat on it and then when it was after the

point where it should have probably been broached in some way, even confidentially, never

shared it with her colleagues, never shared it with the majority on the committee.

And then it comes out in some kind of leak, which also there are questions about, and

then this whole set of events happens. Whether that was a conspiracy or just incompetence,

I don't think you can blame the Republicans for being angry about that series of

events whether or not, you know, the allegations are true. And it - and none of that

is to say that we shouldn't get to the bottom of these allegations or believe Dr. Blasey Ford.

But you did have this outpouring of anger by the Republicans and, of course, by Judge

Kavanaugh as well, in a way that I think was very unexpected.

I think people expected him to be much more like the sort of controlled and even-tempered

person that he tried to be in that Fox News interview, and a lot of Republicans did end

up cheering at the end of the day, feeling like he was - he was being authentic in a way

that he hadn't before and in a way that they could identify with.

But the upshot of it all is that it was a tremendously ugly and angry and partisan

spectacle, and it's hard to imagine - this is what I wrote about this week - it's hard to

imagine that this doesn't erode public trust in the Supreme Court in the long term.

And that is something that was already declining, and that is something that hurts the

institution of the Supreme Court because the Court can't do its job in a credible way if

people in this country don't have confidence in it as an institution that is not merely political.

ROBERT COSTA: What about Dr. Ford? What a compelling turn for her, as well as we saw

from Judge Kavanaugh. There are talks among some of my Republican sources on Capitol Hill

after she spoke that maybe he'd have to withdraw she gave such a strong showing.

SEUNG MIN KIM: That's exactly right. And when we were able to catch Republican

senators coming out of that hearing who had to listen to her testimony in person and

asked what did you make of it, we had Senator Orrin Hatch telling us I don't find her

uncredible, and Senator John Cornyn said very similar things as well.

I mean, they cautioned that it was early; they wanted to hear from Judge Kavanaugh.

But you definitely sense Republicans feeling, wow, she is believable, she is credible.

And then the tone just changed so sharply after Judge Kavanaugh delivered his fiery

opening remarks, which I will tell you a source close to Kavanaugh told me that he wrote

every word of it himself.

ROBERT COSTA: No help from the White House?

SEUNG MIN KIM: No pre-clearance, no help at all from the White House.

It was him and a former law clerk who worked through the

night to put that speech - put that opening statement together. And then you also saw the

momentum shift, at least among Republicans shift completely back into Judge Kavanaugh's favor.

And as he finished his testimony at about six, seven o'clock last night, you saw all the

comments from Republicans backing up and defending Judge Kavanaugh, not only from the

committee as they were leaving the room and talking to us reporters, but also the stream

of statements coming in from all the other Republicans - almost all the other Republicans

not on the committee affirming their support for Judge Kavanaugh.

MARK LANDLER: I mean, just to take it out of the calculus of party politics for a

moment, there were other sides of Judge Kavanaugh that I don't think came out well in

that, particularly in the Q&A portion of his appearance when he made - threw charges of -

not charges but questions about drinking habits back at senators who were questioning

him; when he actually asked Senator Klobuchar, a Democrat, whether she had blacked out

moments after she described her own father's struggles with alcoholism, something for

which he apologized when he came back to the hearing table.

I think it showed a side of Judge Kavanaugh that perhaps fits too neatly into the picture

of privilege, of entitlement that some people were spinning about him. And so I do think

that while it all made sense politically and may have helped, and may indeed have saved

his nomination with Republicans, there's a cost attached to the way he presented himself.

ROBERT COSTA: I want to come back to what you were talking about in your TIME cover

story this week. This is about more than left versus right, about - as Mark was

saying - more than the political points.

I mean, we saw a visceral discussion of gender issues, power, politics as well this week.

MOLLY BALL: Yeah, and it's, you know, almost absurdly fitting that this would be the

consuming controversy right before this midterm election in an election cycle that

already for a year and a half now, almost two years, has been centered around women's

rage, women's anger, women's desire to make their voices heard and stop being silent

about things that they have suffered for years, women's buried pain and women's inability

to tell their own stories. That has been the subtext - or not even the subtext, the text -

not just of our politics, although it has very much been driving every aspect of our

politics and I believe will be the deciding factor in the midterms, but of our entire culture.

There has been this revelation of what was being the mask of all of these men who were

deciding what shows got produced on television and in Hollywood, the men who were making

the decisions about what laws got introduced in the United States Senate or how decisions

got made on the United States Supreme Court. And so for so many women it's been an

incredible awakening, and this debate just brought that to life in the most vivid way

imaginable. And that's why I think you saw such an outpouring of emotion all across

the country completely outside of politics around Dr. Blasey Ford's testimony.

ROBERT COSTA: Outpouring of emotion and the whole country was transfixed.

I mean, everywhere you went I got - it was a day where I got so few emails.

(Laughter.) Everyone was just watching it. A powerful moment in this country.

We'll see what happens next week. We have to leave it there.

Our conversation will continue online on the Washington Week Extra.

We will talk about the reaction President Trump received this week from world leaders at

the United Nations when he promoted his America first agenda.

You can find that later tonight and all week long at PBS.org/WashingtonWeek.

I'm Robert Costa. Thanks for joining us.

For more infomation >> A historic Supreme Court showdown in Washington - Duration: 25:40.

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President Trump at the UN General Assembly - Duration: 9:54.

ROBERT COSTA: Hello. I'm Robert Costa. And this is the Washington Week podcast, where

we pick up online where we left off on the broadcast.

Joining me around the table, Seung Min Kim of The Washington Post, Geoff Bennett of NBC

News, Mark Landler of The New York Times, and Molly Ball of TIME Magazine. President

Trump was in New York this week for the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting.

He advocated for American sovereignty and said the United States rejects what he has

called globalism. Trump took a hard line on North Korea last year, but this year he

was more focused on Iran, telling the U.N. Security Council this.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: (From video.) We cannot allow the world's leading sponsor of

terrorism to possess the planet's most dangerous weapons.

We ask all nations to isolate Iran's regime as long as its aggression continues.

ROBERT COSTA: He also told the U.N. Security Council

that China is meddling in the 2018 midterm elections.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: (From video.) Regrettably, we found that China has been

attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election coming up in November against my

administration. They do not want me or us to win because I am the first

president ever to challenge China on trade, and we are winning on trade.

ROBERT COSTA: Mark, you had an exchange with President Trump at his news conference

about China, about the way he seems to take a proactive view some days and then other

days takes this hard line.

MARK LANDLER: Yeah, I mean, one thing that interested me is he has always talked about

this great personal relationship he has with the president of China, Xi Jinping, and yet

this week he essentially accused Xi Jinping's government of trying to hurt him and his

party in the midterms, and so I wondered how the president can justify being friends with

this guy. And he said to me, in essence, he's trying to help his country; I'm trying to

help mine. And you know, so he sort of deflected the question. The other thing I wanted

to ask him is, how did he compare China's interference, alleged interference, with

Russia's interference in 2016. And his answer was, well, I think they're different,

then he did not explain how he thought they were different. In fact, China's - the

evidence we have for China's interference is pretty run of the mill. They've taken some

ads out in Iowa newspapers targeted at farmers who are the victims of retaliatory tariffs.

That's a fairly standard strategy by a country that's engaged in a trade battle with

another country. Japan did it years ago in the United States. So on the face of it

there's no comparison between what the Chinese are doing and what the Russians did.

What we don't know, though, is does he have other evidence.

He said rather tantalizingly there is other evidence, it's going to come out, I'm not

going to tell you what it is today, so we'll just have to wait and see.

My hunch is we may discover that what China's doing is really less spectacular and

undermining than what the Russians were doing.

ROBERT COSTA: Geoff, you were in New York as well with President Trump, covering him.

Last year at the U.N., all this talk about "little rocket man" and Kim Jong-un.

Now he's talking about bettering the relationship and maybe having another meeting.

GEOFF BENNETT: And he's making the - or did make the case, tried to make the case that

his, you know, brash brand of diplomacy is the thing that actually eased tensions with Kim.

Now you have the president and Mike Pompeo floating this notion of a second summit even

though, you know, as NBC has reported, Kim's regime continues to build upon its weapons program.

So what's interesting, though, is that, as you mentioned, this past week the president

had a new top target, Iran, and he's trying to - it appears he's trying to use the same

playbook against Iran that he used against North Korea, this maximum pressure, his tough

rhetoric, all aimed at bringing Iran to the negotiating table, although there's a

completely different dynamic between North Korea and Iran and there are very - a lot of

people who are concerned that we could tip ourselves into some serious conflict with Iran

if we're not careful.

ROBERT COSTA: Molly, what about this Middle East peace plan that Jared Kushner and

President Trump have been working on for over a year?

Is this different approach to Iran part of that, from your read of the whole situation?

MOLLY BALL: I sense more that the Iran push is about the hand of John Bolton in the

administration. He is a new element here.

He came in right when the administration was finally carrying out Trump's promise to

cancel the Iran nuclear deal - a deal, by the way, that many people said if he could get

anything like that with North Korea it would be quite a big victory. But there they

were canceling it and then proceeding to make these very bellicose noises toward Iran.

So it is actually not very clear what their endgame is, but Bolton has been an Iran hawk

for a long time and so has Pompeo, frankly.

And so this is the new sort of aggressive push that they're making, having canceled the

deal, to try to get the rest of the world to come along and help to further isolate Iran.

ROBERT COSTA: Seung Min, Molly's talking about the hawkish wing of the Republican Party

liking the president's approach here at the U.N. When you're on Capitol Hill, are

Republicans, in a sense, heartened by the hawkish tone he's taking with issues like Iran?

Or ahead of the midterm elections, would they want a little more calm, a little less

strident President Trump?

SEUNG MIN KIM: I think, generally, in any topic, whether it's domestic issues or foreign

policy, they would prefer a little bit of a calmer Trump.

But you had seen some concerns from - because you have seen some concerns from some

congressional Republicans because the president, as we've talked about, doesn't

necessarily take the traditional hawkish Republican Party view when it comes to foreign

policy. I think that especially when the president first announced that he would want to meet

directly with Kim Jong-un, which would be - is a historic meeting with sitting presidents

of those two countries, you had some skepticism from Republicans on Capitol Hill.

But we've seen in so many issues where Republicans cannot - congressional Republicans

cannot distance themselves from the president all too much because their base supports

the president that much. So you saw this kind of willingness to essentially hope for

the best and support whatever the president decides. But if you recall, immediately after

that summit, there wasn't a lot of clarity as to what was agreed to between the two leaders.

There was a lot of concern on Capitol Hill, particularly, I recall, from Senator Cory

Gardner and kind of that wing of the Republican Party, on, recall, the potential

suspension of the, quote, "wargames." That was a major issue that, actually, Vice

President Pence had to talk to them about. So you see just kind of how the congressional

Republicans have struggled to adapt to some parts of the president's foreign policy agenda.

MOLLY BALL: Well, and I - and I - and I think that we're very far from getting a

coherent sense of what the Trump doctrine is in foreign policy, right? Because he is

still, you know - and his speech at the U.N. was very much about this America first

agenda and talking about not being the president of the globe and so on.

And yet, you - and he does continue to, at the same time as he is cozying up to some of

America's traditional enemies, like Kim and Putin, and dramatically alienating some of

our closest allies, like the U.K. and Canada, engaging in these trade wars, including

with China, whose assistance he would need to get any kind of agreement with North Korea.

And so it isn't strictly an isolationist policy, it does have a lot of elements of the

more hawkish, traditional Republican type of belief set.

But it's really, more than anything, all over the map.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yeah, this was the third gathering of world leaders in recent months.

You have the G7, NATO and now the U.N. where the president in his speech made clear

that he sees little use for multinational organizations. Right?

But there was that one moment at the very beginning of the speech, you'll remember, where

the president trotted out that campaign line - it tends to work for him on a campaign

stage - where he said, you know, my administration has accomplished more in two years

than any other administration in recent history. And that line drew laughter from the room.

I think it was a glimpse, in some ways, of what, you know, world leaders' view of President

Trump, although he says that he intended to make that joke and he was in on the joke. Who knows?

MOLLY BALL: I mean, he literally said I didn't expect that. (Laughter.)

GEOFF BENNETT: Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

MOLLY BALL: And then he tries to claim that he did.

And also, to me, it was a reminder of how infrequently he is ever in front of an audience

that doesn't just consist of adoring crowds and White House staff. Right?

GEOFF BENNETT: Right, yeah.

MARK LANDLER: To some extent, the Security Council was a smaller example of the same

thing, because he found himself being criticized by one speaker after the other for

abandoning the Iran nuclear deal. The Chinese had a chance to respond to his charge

of interference and they slapped it down.

And he had the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, who is a classic Latin American

anti-American leader, basically blast the United States for colonialism and imperialism.

It's absolutely unprecedented to have Donald Trump sitting listening to that kind of

blast. I was fascinated to see how he would respond to it. And when they - and the

camera cut back to him, he said in a very monotone voice thank you, Mr. President,

and then moved on to the next leader. So he wasn't rising to the bait.

I wasn't sure whether he wasn't because he hadn't been listening or because he was being

smart and not rising to the bait.

ROBERT COSTA: Seung Min Kim, Mark Landler, Geoff Bennett, Molly Ball, that's it for this

edition of the Washington Week podcast. While you're online, check out the Washington

Week-ly News Quiz. And be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

I'm Robert Costa. See you next time.

For more infomation >> President Trump at the UN General Assembly - Duration: 9:54.

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How Jeff Flake forced a delay on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination - Duration: 3:08.

For more infomation >> How Jeff Flake forced a delay on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination - Duration: 3:08.

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Tensión en Washington DC ante conclusión del caso Kavanaugh en el Senado | Noticiero | Telemundo - Duration: 2:37.

For more infomation >> Tensión en Washington DC ante conclusión del caso Kavanaugh en el Senado | Noticiero | Telemundo - Duration: 2:37.

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The contentious, partisan vote on Kavanaugh's nomination, in 3 minutes - Duration: 2:27.

For more infomation >> The contentious, partisan vote on Kavanaugh's nomination, in 3 minutes - Duration: 2:27.

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Senators join call for FBI investigation into Kavanaugh accusations - Duration: 2:26.

For more infomation >> Senators join call for FBI investigation into Kavanaugh accusations - Duration: 2:26.

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Senators speak on Senate floor after Kavanaugh vote - Duration: 3:24:11.

For more infomation >> Senators speak on Senate floor after Kavanaugh vote - Duration: 3:24:11.

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'They should be ashamed': Orlando women react to Ford, Kavanaugh hearing - Duration: 3:21.

For more infomation >> 'They should be ashamed': Orlando women react to Ford, Kavanaugh hearing - Duration: 3:21.

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#DisarmPSU protesters plan vigil with Washington family - Duration: 1:55.

For more infomation >> #DisarmPSU protesters plan vigil with Washington family - Duration: 1:55.

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George Washington Carver Monument Hispanic Heritage Celebration - Duration: 3:12.

For more infomation >> George Washington Carver Monument Hispanic Heritage Celebration - Duration: 3:12.

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ARHU Insights with Mary Helen Washington - Duration: 3:55.

[MUSIC]

My name is Mary Helen Washington and I am in the English department.

I got interested in writing about Communists because I grew up Catholic.

As a child of the 1950's,

I grew up in that world that was terrified of the Atomic Bomb,

talking about the Cold War Period, the Red Scare Period, the McCarthy Period, and

in Catholic schools you actually even got anti-communist comic books.

Being at the catholic also meant that I was tremendously

interested in injustice and the ways in which injustice worked.

And that put me on the track of wanting to know more about

the association between communists and black people in this country.

What had been said over and over again was that black people,

especially black writers, black intellectuals,

were the dupes the communists, that they didn't really embrace communism.

And for years and years I worked on these writers as kind of apolitical writers,

or writers that were interested in race but

not necessarily interested in a kind of race radicalism.

But if you were a black writer where did you get reviewed in the 1950's,

who debated black literature,

who theorized black literature, who cared about black literature?

Well you need to go and look at all the communist publications from the 1950's in

order to understand that.

And that's what I discovered that when you began to really understand black writers

in the 1950's you had to understand that they were very much on the left and

maybe almost exclusively on the left.

This is a period

almost like no other in the history of the United States, where people who were

intellectuals really had to look over their shoulder and see where the F.B.I.

was and then he had to look over the other shoulder to see where was the C.I.A.?

This is a very interest part of the research because people who were in

a Communist Party, around a Communist Party, anywhere close

to the Communist Party didn't want to admit any of those associations.

Interestingly enough the artist Elizabeth Catlett, she told me in a interview,

" yes I was a communist but you can't say that, you can't write that," and

that's what I heard over and over again.

It was a challenge to try to figure out how I could say these writers or

these artists were communists when they refused to admit that they were.

Another part of the practice of my research, is reading through F.B.I. files.

Everything's blacked out that they don't want you to know about, so

you have to kind of try to figure out what does this mean, what does this mean?

But there's always a little gem in the F.B.I.

files that tells you something about what was happening to black literary figures.

So I find out that there's real pressure on black literary people,

black intellectuals, to soft pedal race,

to really soft pedal race in the 1950's.

One of my efforts is to get African-American anthologies and

literary histories to change.

All of these anthologies when they get to the 1950's they sort of collapse.

And they won't even mention F.B.I. surveillance and

being told what you can write and what you must take out of your books.

So that means that they cannot talk about the ways in

which African-American literature is being produced and

being pressured and being changed by these politics.

I'm always kind of looking for where are those progressive elements in the culture?

Where is that happening?

And if it's happening I want to be there to see if I can theorize it,

understand it, help it to grow.

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