Good morning. I'm James Holman from the Washington Post and this is the Daily

202 for Tuesday, September 18th. In today's news, the head of FEMA faces potential criminal charges as he oversees

the response to Florence.

President Trump orders the release of secret documents about the federal investigation into his own campaign and the

United States is closing the door to more refugees.

But first, the big idea.

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the woman who has accused him of sexually assaulting her decades ago

will testify publicly before the Senate next Monday, setting up a

potentially dramatic and politically perilous hearing that could determine the

fate of his nomination. Republicans including President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell remained defiant as they scrambled to protect Kavanaugh's nomination in the wake of the allegations by Christine Blasyisey Ford.

Ford told the Washington Post in an interview that Kavanaugh drunkenly pinned her to a bed on her back,

groped her, and put his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream during a House Party in the early 1980s.

Amid growing calls by members of both parties for Kavanaugh and Ford to testify publicly

and under oath, Senate Republican leaders effectively delayed a

committee vote that was scheduled for this Thursday and abandoned

tentative plans to try to deal with this matter behind closed doors.

The White House said in a statement that Kavanaugh looks forward to a hearing where he can

clear his name of this false allegation.

The hearing sets up a public spectacle that Senate Republican leaders

had been hoping to avoid 50 days before the midterms. Their majority in both

chambers is at risk and female voters are already energized about casting ballots and it seems likely that they'll become even more so when this is all over with.

Republican Senator Susan Collins from Maine, a crucial swing swing vote indicated that if it emerges

...