Halfway through Thursday’s dramatic Supreme Court hearings, NBC seemed to decide that Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination was done, speculating about pulling the pick and even who might be the replacement. After Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony (but before Kavanaugh's), reporter Hallie Jackson said that White House officials “are not sitting in meetings, huddling about what they would do, should Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination ultimately fail. But that calculus should change in a matter of hours.”

Today co-host Savannah Guthrie offered a mind reading of senators, speculating about what senators are thinking: “If I vote no against Judge Kavanaugh, then what's the next plan?” She offered more hypotheticals: “We talked about whether it was even feasible to try to get somebody confirmed before the midterms? What about the lame duck session?”

Chuck Todd imagined what Mitch McConnell might be thinking: “If he doesn't have the votes, I think the President will want to pull him.” Todd proceeded to even muse on a replacement for Kavanaugh:

The crass political move, you pull it. You name Judge Amy Coney Barrett. She probably can’t get confirmed. It wouldn't matter because you aren’t fighting the confirmation before the election. See if her nomination fires the base, and you sort of use the new nominee as a way to fire up the Trump base.

All of this was BEFORE Kavanaugh spoke. Apparently, NBC journalists had already made up their minds.

A partial transcript is below. Click “expand” for more: