Good Monday morning, I'm Jake Sherman and welcome to your political playbook audio briefing.

Stay tuned after the show for a message from AARP.

And I'm Anna Palmer.

We are 50 days out from the election and the big question everyone is asking this morning

is can Brett Kavana hang on?

In normal times, Kavanaugh would be under tremendous pressure to abandon his bid for a lifetime

appointment to the Supreme Court. His accuser has spoken on the record, detailing allegations of

sexual assault when they were in high school. But obviously, these are not normal times,

and as of now, that is early Monday morning, Kavanaugh is still a nominee for the highest

court in the land. Republicans say they are still weighing their options and will figure out if there

is a path forward today. And yes, we are acutely aware that this entire situation can change at the drop

of a hat. Republicans of the Senate Judiciary Committee put out a statement

on Sunday at 303 saying it is disturbing that these uncorroborated allegations for more than 35 years

ago during high school would surface on the eve of a committee vote after Democrats sat on them

since July. Now that Ford has put her name to these allegations, it's going to be tough to

dismiss them. President Donald Trump has not publicly reacted to the allegations, it's going to be tough to dismiss them.

President Donald Trump has not publicly reacted to the news on Kavanaugh.

His team is back-channeling that he'll continue to stand behind him.

Let's break down the options a bit.

If Kavanaugh hangs on, if you are a Democrat, how do you vote yes?

Part of the deal with Kavanaugh's nomination was always that it would put red state

Democrats like Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Joe Mansion of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North

...