[John Vause, Cnn International Anchor:] A high-profile Saudi Journalist missing and Turkish officials believe he was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Saudis call that baseless. The very latest in live reports just ahead. A primetime victory speech for Donald Trump and his newest Supreme Court Justice with Brett Kavanaugh promising he'll judge with no bitterness after a brutal confirmation process. The experts warning of a climate catastrophe just 12 years left they say to stop it. Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm John Vause and this is CNN NEWSROOM. The Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. has emphatically denied that a prominent journalists and dissidents been killed while visiting the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul. Jamal Khashoggi visited the consulate a week ago and has not been seen since. The Saudis insist he left alive but Turkish officials believe he was killed inside that building, an allegation which the Saudi Ambassador in Washington called absolutely false and baseless. On Monday Turkish President demanded the Saudi to produce evidence of proof of life.
[Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President, Turkey:] I feel responsible as president for getting to the bottom of this case. The consulate officials cannot save themselves by simply saying he has left but they have to produce concrete evidence. If he left then they must have video to prove it.
[Vause:] Jomana Karadsheh, joins us now live from outside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. And Jomana, the U.S. Secretary of State is now running a transparent investigation by the Saudis into what may or may not have happened here are. The U.S. Vice President a few hours early tweeted this. Deeply troubled, I hear reports about Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi. If true this is a tragic day. Violence against journalists across the globe is the threat to freedom of the press and human rights. The free world deserves answers. Putting aside all the irony here about the Trump administration claiming about violence against journalists but these statements coming from the Trump administration are pretty timid especially when compared with what we're hearing from other countries especially U.S. allies.
[Jomana Karadsheh, Cnn Correspondent:] Absolutely, John. You know, and everyone here has been waiting to hear from the United States. You know, they were there was some hope that he would come out with stronger statement, stronger action to back its NATO ally Turkey in this situation. You know, talking to colleagues and friends of Khashoggi over the past week, you know, they were saying only one country. You know, you hear all these statements coming from other European countries. They say the one country that really matters and has an obligation to step in to this situation is the United States because of the leverage it has over Saudi Arabia, the strong relationship it has with the Kingdom and that personal relationship that President Trump has with the royal family, with young Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman MBS who has been praised on so many occasions by President Trump. So when you hear the president saying yes, he is concerned about these reports but he's hoping that it will sort itself out as he puts it, that's really not going to impress many people here who were hoping that the president would have much stronger words and action in this case. John?
[Vause:] Obviously, we're now at the case of what the Saudis are saying, what the Turks are demanding and the sort of back and forth. It seems pretty simple that you know, if there is video out there to prove that he left, turn it up and, the claim that the cameras weren't rolling whether they were here for the Saudis doesn't seem very credible.
[Karadsheh:] No. And this is what we've been hearing, John, from Turkish officials for days now. You heard it yesterday from President Erdogan saying, OK, Saudi Arabia is saying he left the consulate, show us the proof that he did. And you know, we've observed this. Over the past week you've got so many cameras around this consulate. If he did indeed leave, why not release the video showing that. And as you mentioned they say that you know, some reports are quoting Saudi officials saying that the cameras were not recording that day. And this is where you hear Turkish officials saying that the answers they've received so far are not really convincing. So we'll have to wait and see what Turkish investigators have right now. This is not a remote area of Istanbul. This is a very busy commercial business district of the city. So there's a lot of surveillance cameras around here and we know that they are going through all that footage to try and see what happened. But as the Turkish president, other officials have said, it is on Saudi Arabia to prove what they're saying that he did leave the consulate. John?
[Vause:] Jomana, thank you. Thank you for the update. We appreciate it. Jomana Karadsheh there live in Istanbul. The major television moment at the White House in front of a room full of reporters and cheering Republicans, Brett Kavanaugh has been sworn in again as the newest Justice on the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh actually took the oath of office on Saturday within hours of his Senate competition. On Monday, President Donald Trump used a nationally televised ceremony to apologize to Kavanaugh and his family for the pain and suffering they've enjoyed during his Senate confirmation.
[Donald Trump, President Of The United States:] On behalf of our nation I want to apologize to Brett and the entire Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure. Those who step forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation, not a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception. What happened to the Kavanaugh family violates every notion of fairness decency and due process.
[Vause:] Well, on Tuesday Justice Kavanaugh will take his seat alongside his eight colleagues and hear his first case. And during that White House ceremony, he promised to be a force for stability and unity.
[Brett Kavanaugh, Associate Justice Of The Supreme Court Of The United States:] The Senate confirmation process was contentious and emotional. That process is over. My focus now is to be the best justice I can be. I take this office with gratitude and no bitterness. On the Supreme Court, I will seek to be a force for stability and unity. My goal is to be a great justice for all Americans and for all of America. I will work very hard to achieve that goal.
[Vause:] Earlier in the day though, the President did not hold back. He called Democrats and all those who oppose Kavanaugh's nomination evil. Jim Acosta has details.
[Jim Acosta, Cnn Chief White House Correspondent:] With his nominee Brett Kavanaugh heading to the high court, President Trump is still delivering some low blows.
[Trump:] False charges, false accusations, horrible statements that were totally untrue that he knew nothing about. It was a disgraceful situation brought about by people that are evil and he toughed it out.
[Acosta:] At a speech to law enforcement officials in Orlando, Mr. Trump did not make it clear whether he considered Kavanaugh's accuser Christine Blasey Ford as being evil as well. But before he left for Florida, the President's signal he could already see the battle in political terms predicting that many Democrats are suddenly going to abandon their hopes for a blue wave in the upcoming midterms.
[Trump:] A man that was caught up in a hoax that was set up by the Democrats using the Democrats lawyers and now they want to impeach him. I think a lot of Democrats are going to vote Republican because I have many friends that are Democrats. The main base of the Democrats have shifted so far left that will end up being Venezuela.
[Acosta:] The President's Kavanaugh playbook was on display at a rally over the weekend in Kansas where Mr. Trump accused Democrats of using mob tactics pointing to the protesters shouting as senators up on Capitol Hill.
[Trump:] It's unthinkable. In their quest for power, the radical Democrats have turned into an angry mob.
[Acosta:] The President may be forgetting he too has repeatedly encouraged unruly behavior as a candidate.
[Trump:] I like to punch him in the face. I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this, they'd be carried out on a stretcher folks. I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK.
[Acosta:] Still, the anger flowing through both parties after the Supreme circus is palpable when GOP Senator Lindsey Graham's emotional defense of Kavanaugh.
[Sen. Lindsey Graham , South Carolina:] I've never been more pissed in my life. I voted for Sotomayor and Kagan. I would have never done this to them. This is character assassination. This is wanting power too much.
[Acosta:] To the Democratic outrage directed at Republican Senator Susan Collins who now says she does not believe Kavanaugh assaulted Ford.
[Sen. Susan Collins , Maine:] I do believe that she was assaulted. I don't know by whom and I'm not certain when but I do not believe that he was the assailant.
[Acosta:] Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell got testy over the weekend when he left open the possibility he could support filling a Supreme Court vacancy during the next presidential election. Something he would not do when Barack Obama selected Merrick Garland in 2016.
[Unidentified Male:] If you can't question a direct question, are you saying that
[Sen. Mitch Mcconnell , Senate Majority Leader:] Well, the answer to your question is we'll see whether there's a vacancy in 2020.
[Acosta:] The President wasn't completely focused on Kavanaugh as he invited Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to ride on Air Force One. Rosenstein no longer appears to be on thin ice after he once talked of secretly recording the president and even having him removed from office using the 25th Amendment.
[Trump:] We had a very good talk I will say that. That became a very big story actually folks. We had a good talk.
[Acosta:] As for that meeting, the President had with Rosenstein, the White House told reporters the two men discussed general Justice Department business but there weren't many other details. Those details could be illuminating as Rosenstein is the Justice Department official overseeing the Russia investigation. Jim Acosta, CNN the White House.
[Vause:] For more now, political analyst and author of Standoff: How America Became Ungovernable, Bill Schneider is with us now from Washington. Bill, good to see you. If this was anything but your run-of-the-mill swearing-in ceremony and by that I mean it was actually a fake ceremony in some ways as Kavanaugh had taken the oath on Saturday and listen now to how the room reacted when Donald Trump walked in. And we also just moments ago from the President apologizing to Kavanaugh on behalf of the nation. In many ways, it seems Donald Trump just kicked off the Republican campaign for next month's congressional elections, the Midterms.
[Bill Schneider, Cnn Senior Political Analyst:] That is predictable. Donald Trump makes sure that the news is all about him. He obviously played any president plays an important role in a Supreme Court appointment nomination but still, the whole fight has really been about Donald Trump as much as it's been about Judge Kavanaugh.
[Vause:] Yes. And not long after this, you know, made for television but not legally required swearing-in ceremony, New York Times ran with this headline. Trump seeks to make Kavanaugh furor a campaign asset, not a liability. And so he goes on to detail a strategy by the president focusing on the treatment of men during this MeToo era and a lack of due process and how unfair all those crazy liberals are and the progressives have been. Given the incredibly low support among women to this administration, is this strategy best explained all the lines of what do we got to lose?
[Schneider:] Well, that's an explanation I think it works. And look, men came out for him in 2016. He's dependent on them to win. There is a big gender division over Kavanaugh's confirmation but there's an even bigger partisan division. That's the real division in the country. The difference between men and women was big but the difference between Republicans and Democrats was even bigger. And President Trump has really governed in an unusual way more than any president I think in certainly in memory and maybe in history, this president is a divider. He makes no pretense like most of his predecessors of trying to heal the division in the country.
[Vause:] We mentioned the polling numbers and there are new numbers out from CNN and it shows a slim majority of Americans now opposing Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court. At the same time support for his confirmation has actually in stop as well. That's because a poll taken back in August, many didn't declare a preference either way but. But now they do and this growing opposition, it's coming purely from the Democrat side. Republican support for Kavanaugh is actually higher than it's ever been. It since top you know, a few points there as well. You know, as you say, it seems this president with his divide-and- conquer strategy which is work to the past but this is about the Supreme Court and it seems that this is now at a whole new level, a level the country has never seen before.
[Schneider:] The Supreme Court even, the senator is supposed to be above partisan politics. Well, that hasn't been true of the Senate in a long time and it's certainly not true now. This was a historic division in the United States. I even compare it to what historian is called the great division in France during the Dreyfus Affair 100 years ago where all France was divided left and right. The left and the right dreamed of annihilating each other. Well, that's what's happened in the United States now. The Senate now which is supposed to be the place where partisan passions cool, the Senate has now become the real hotbed of partisanship and unfortunately, so is the Supreme Court becoming a partisan division. And that's very unfortunate because the Supreme Court is the voice of the Constitution and it's not supposed to be partisan.
[Vause:] Yes. The one major driving factor in politics in the U.S. right now seems to be anger at the other side. And you know, after he made this to the controversial appearance before the Senate committee last week, on Monday Kavanaugh tried to reassure those who doubt that he'll be an impartial, unbiased judge. This is what he said.
[Kavanaugh:] Every litigant in the Supreme Court can be assured that I'll listen to their arguments with respect and in open minds.
[Vause:] Now, compare that guy from the other guy at the Senate Committee hearing last week.
[Kavanaugh:] This is a circus. The consequences will extend long pass my nomination. The consequences will be with us for decades. This grotesque and coordinated character assassination will dissuade competent and good people of all political persuasions from serving our country. And as we all know in the United States political system of the early 2000s, what goes around comes around.
[Vause:] OK. So, who do you believe here, your mild-mannered, calm, reasonable Supreme Court sworn in Judge Kavanagh or angry, hostile, beer-loving you know what, goes around comes around frat boy like who testified last week?
[Schneider:] Well, we don't know yet. We're going to have to see what he does on the court. He would probably defend himself by saying, when he talked about partisan division and passion, he was talking about the Senate and the confirmation process. We can only hope so because when it comes to passing judgment, the Supreme Court is the final word. It has authority over both executives in the legislative branch. It is the Constitution, it's the voice of the Constitution. And for that to become partisan in the United States is a very severe blow to our democracy.
[Vause:] Yes, and it has just become more, more partisan since. Bill, as always so good to see you. Thank you.
[Schneider:] Sure.
[Vause:] Well, what could be a new revelation in the identity of the second suspect in the Skripal poisoning in the U.K. back in March? The intelligence Web site, Bellingcat, says the big details will be in public on Tuesday at the British Parliament. For your details now from CNN's Fred Pleitgen.
[Frederik Pleitgen, Cnn Senior International Correspondent:] After claiming to have revealed the identity of one of the two alleged assailants of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia in the Novichock poison that happened earlier this year, the British investigative Web site, Bellingcat, now claims to also know the identity of the second man alleged by British authorities to have taken part in the poisoning. Now, British authorities have always said they believe that two men were using aliases and the second man they named as Alexander Petrov. But Bellingcat now says that they believe that his true name is Alexander Mishkin. That he's 39 years old, a military doctor and that he was also recruited by Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU. Now, Bellingcat issued a press release because ahead of what they say tomorrow will be a larger press conference as to what exactly their methodology and also their sources was. But they do say that they talked to several sources both in St. Petersburg and also in the home village of Mishkin which they say is called Loyga, north of Moscow. Now, the Russian authorities we've been asking them for comment on this. We reached out both to the spokeswoman for the foreign ministry and to the Kremlin, as well. So far, they have not answered. In the past hour, of the Kremlin and the foreign ministry have said that they don't believe that any of the reports from Bellingcat are credible. But, of course, all of this comes after several days with embarrassing revelations for the Russians the GRU, of course, being accused by the Americans, the Dutch and also the British of having conducted cyber operations against these countries. And some of the alleged evidence was made public. So far, we're seeing a fairly muted response to the by the Russians to a lot of those allegations. But clearly, a lot of people here in Russia believe that this is a big setback and has been a big string of setbacks for the Russians and for their military intelligence service. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.
[Vause:] Still to come here. Hundreds are mourning Victoria Marinova, a Bulgarian television journalist found dead last week. She's the third journalist killed in the European Union this year, and E.U. officials demanding a speedy investigation to find her killer. Also ahead, the former head of Interpol now the target of a criminal investigation. The latest senior official caught up in China's anti- corruption crackdown. We'll explain.