hispanics. they said he needs the number well up into the 60s if not higher if he wants a shot at ted cruz. >> thank you, phil being my reporting partner in crime. thank you so much for joining us. hope to see you back here sunday at 8:00 a.m. eastern. wolf starts right now. hello, i'm wolf blitzer and it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. thank you very much for joining us. we begin with breaking news. the latest counter proposal in negotiations with the u.s. supreme court nominee. attorney for christine blasey ford said she is willing to testify about the sexual assault accusation against kavanaugh. holding the hearing on monday would be a deal breaker. now republicans are responding with their latest offer. let's go to manu raju. what's the latest? what are you hearing?

one thing they discussed is christine blasey ford did not want to testify about on monday, there will not be a monday hearing. she proposed that brett kavanaugh would testify first and she would go second. they want to come back and say they want kavanaugh to go first and whether or not outside counsel would be allowed to question both ford and kavanaugh at that hearing. republicans were concerned about the optics of having 11 men on the panel question ford.

they thought about bringing in a female to question her. republicans are discussing that as a possibility. two sources that told them that was part of the things they were discussing, bringing in outside counsel to come forward. it's unclear if that's what the republicans are going to propose. there will be a formal proposal later today. democrats are rejecting the notion of any outside counsel questioning ford and kavanaugh. one senior democratic aide said republicans need to do the questioning. that appears to be one area of negotiation going forward. it appears that the differences are narrowing and the likelihood of a hearing happening next week

on the notion of an outside counsel, they are suggesting that the same person question both the supreme court nominee and his accuser or different outside counsels questioning the two individuals. how hard they will push to demand that. a bit of a subject and negotiation going forward. in large part because ford's camp made clear she would have strong objections to doing the

question. whether they will agree to this wednesday hearing. i was told they said they were uncertain whether or not she could deal with her family's safety. can she get to washington. we expect a more formal response from senate republicans in a matter of hours. we will see how the ford camp and the democrats respond when the proposal comes. >> as you point out, the other issue is who testifies first. whether it's judge kavanaugh or professor ford. who goes first is an issue on the table. there is a lot they have to work out. we will get back to you i know you are working your sources at the same time. president trump is abandoning his earlier measured response to the accusations against the supreme court nominee, brett kavanaugh. now directly attacking kavanaugh's accuser in a series

of tweets saying among other things, i have no doubt if the attack on dr. ford was as bad as she says, changes would have been immediately filed with local law enforcement authorities by her or her loving parents. i ask that she bring the filings forward so we can learn date, time, and place. the radical left lawyers want them to get involved. he skirted with an attack in a motor cal rally in nevada. >> why didn't somebody call the fbi 36 years ago. you can also say when did this all happen? what's going on? to take a man like this and -- with that being said, let her have her say and let's see how it all works out. the president is getting ready

to speak in north las vegas. sarah is on the scene for us in las vegas. do we expect president trump to stay on the attack? >> he is showing no signs of backing down and spent the morning going after christine blasey ford and going after the democrats for the way they handled it. he said she should be given respect. last night here in las vegas, trump started to show for the first time, signs of switching gears in the interview when he questioned why professor fort didn't go to authorities 36 years ago when she said the alleged attack took place. republicans are walking a tight rope trying to rush to the

confirmation vote while appeasing the more moderate gop senator who is prefer to hear ford out before they procee to the vote. trump's flame throwing could make the already difficult process that much harder. white house aides fear these tweets were coming since ford first came forward on sunday. in addition speaking here at the vet an's hospital behind me, trump is holding a rally in missouri later today. we could hear more grievances about ford and senate democrats before the day is over. >> i suspect we will. thank you, sarah. on the scene for us in las vegas. one of the people who does not plan to vote for judge kavanaugh is from new hampshire and she joins us live from manchester. senator, thanks for joining us. >> thanks very figure me, wolf. >> what do you think about the senate judiciary committee's counter proposal? you just heard the details from

manu raju. >> i just did hear the details and i'm disappointed. along with the comments from president trump this morning, what we are seeing is exactly why it's so hard for survivors of sexual assault to come forward. especially when they are traumatized teenagers as doctor ford was when this assault that she reports now happened. these comments reflect the way society has been treating women when they do try to come forward. they try to diminish and doubt them and attack them. president trump is part of the problem. he is really trying to marginalize her and attacking her and trying to shove her back into the dark. what we all need to do is make sure that she is supported and respected. i am very concerned that senate republicans in their response today are really indicating that they are just setting this hearing up so they can say they listened to her, but they are

planning to confirm judge kavanaugh no matter what she said. she said there should be an fbi investigation when by the way, if you lie to the fbi it's a crime. she is willing to talk to them and willing to make sure that the senate gets the actual facts and then proceeds with a decision about whether to confirm judge kavanaugh. it is very concerning to me when i hear the take it or leave it proposals that the senate republicans are putting forward. it seems to me that they think that the answer here no matter what dr. ford says and no matter what an fbi investigation reflects, they have no intention of it affecting their vote. that is deeply, deeply disappointing. >> speaking of senate republicans, mitch mcconnell said judge kavanaugh will take his place on the country's highest court. here's what he said here in

washington earlier today. listen to this. >> you watched the fight. you watched the tactics. here's what i want to tell you. in the very near future, judge kavanaugh will be on the united states supreme court. so, my friends, keep the faith. don't get rattled by all of this. we are going to plow right through it and do our job. >> all right, senator, what's your reaction to the majority leader? >> one of incredible and extreme disappointment. you know, back in 1991 when a nida hill brought forward her claim of sex null harassment by judge thomas, the process that the senate used at that time was widely criticized. there were multiple witnesses

and yet everybody realized that it was keeply unfair. what the senate republicans are saying they are going to do a process that is even worse. rather than listen to doctor ford's report of what happened and what they are really telling us, senator mcconnell seems to be saying from what i just heard, it doesn't matter. to him or to the senate republicans whether judge kavanaugh assaulted a woman. a crime. he committed a crime. it doesn't matter to them what happened. nobody has a right to a united states supreme court appointment. we need people who are highly qualified in the law to be sure, but we need people of impeccable moral character with the

capacity for compassion and objectivity. judge kavanaugh does not demonstrate his capacity to be objective and to be compassionate in my view. i found many things about his testimony and the documents we reviewed concerning. he doesn't seem to suspect the constitutional rights of all americans, among other things. he favors corporations as opposed to individuals. beyond that, what we are seeing from the republicans is just unbelievable. they are saying that even if dr. ford comes forward and tells her story, even if they subpoenaed a witness which they are refusing to do who was reportedly present at this assault, they don't care. that should concern every single american. no one has a right to this

appointment. there are certainly better qualified, highly qualified people who could do the position of supreme court justice well. this is just incredibly distressing. >> senator, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> coming up, we will continue to follow the breaking news of a possible, possible wednesday hearing for brett kavanaugh's accuser and the no win situation for republicans. some evangelicals are warning they may stay home for the mid-terms if judge kavanaugh's nomination falls apart. the secretary of state mike pompeo lashing out again at the predecessor, john kerry. much more right after this. i don't keep track of regrets.

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sexual assault accusations, but holding the hearing on monday as originally demanded by the republicans is not an option. this comes as president trump is now attacking professor ford in a series of new tweets earlier today, questioning why she or her parents didn't seem out an investigation at the time of the alleged incident. joining us are gloria borger and cnn commentator and the host of se cup unfiltered that airs saturday nights here on cnn. let me start with you, gloria. is it likely they said the earlier deadline for a monday hearing. they said a wednesday hearing, they want her to testify first and they don't want the senators to ask the questions. they wanted outside counsel to ask questions. >> they are trying to get to yes

here which is a good development. the fact that it may be on wednesday instead of thursday is not a big deal. i think the real question is the format here. the big question for professor ford as well as judge kavanaugh. professor ford's team, i was told last night really wants the senators to be asking the questions for her. she doesn't want to be cross examined by a professional. she wants the senators who are going to vote to be the ones interrogating her and asking questions. she also by the way does not want a limit on her opening statement. she wants to be able to tell her entire story the way she wants to tell it. maybe they will get to yes. i think it's in all of their interests to get to yes. >> what do you think? >> i agree with gloria completely. no one benefits from not having this hearing.

that said, it's going to be hard for either side to have a clean win on this. it feels like everyone will lose here and that's because this thing has been tainted. for better or worse, maybe no one's fault, but it has been. on the democrats's side, while no one should question the timing of professor ford's revelation, you can question the democrats's timing of revealing it. if they successfully knock kavanaugh out of the running, i think it will look very politically craven when a guy with an otherwise pretty qualified professional record falls by the wayside due to one accusation, fairly unprovable. for republican fist they push this guy through as mitch mcconnell is suggesting they

will, professor ford will be an asterisk on brett kavanaugh for decades to come. just look at anita hill. joe biden was talking about 1991, 27 years later. revisiting the ghosts of anita hill. i think at this point this hearing has to happen. it has to happen both for christine ford and republicans and it has to happen for democrats. in the end, i'm not sure anyone gets a victory out of this. >> it's interesting because the president all of a sudden had a relatively restrained posture in the past couple of days. i'm looking at the tweets going on the attack. we were not used to this restraint from the president. people in the white house are saying you are not doing any good if you start questioning

professor ford and you are also not going to help us with suburban women. he could only contain himself for so long, obviously. he is upset about it because he wants kavanaugh to get through and thinks it's political and he may have a point. everything about the supreme court hearing is political. but he couldn't restrain himself from taking her on. why didn't she file a complain 35 years ago? come on. he just couldn't do it. i'm not surprised, by the way. i was surprised he was restra restrain restrained. >> a lot of people were surprised by the initial restraint. is a fine man with an impeccable reputation under sought by people who don't want the answers, they just want to assault p assault and delay. i go through this with them every single day in d.c. why do you think he shifted his

tone? >> well, because i believe he actually just revealed his true self. he is actually shifted back to type. what was out of character was his initial restraint. trump has behaved this way against the face of his own accusers, blaming the victim by trying to smear his own accusers. this is -- this today, these tweets are not out of character. they are problematic for many reasons. one, the tweets smearing christine ford are gross. they counter the narrative by the white house that she had not be attack and should be heard. three, they seed the point that the gop makes and trump is asking why the fbi did not all those years ago investigate

something that republicans said that they should not have. the most important problem coming out of this tweet is for someone like susan colins who has been carefully trying ingi navigate this in a wait and see mode. this does not make it easier for her to throw her arms around brett kavanaugh. if you are the gop, you are increasingly worried that senators like susan collins are maybe not in the yes column. that's a problem for republicans. >> it's a problem for the republicans on the committee as well. you could argue that chuck grassley, the chairman has bent over backwards to try and come up with some kind of a deal. offering all kinds of, you know, compromises so that they can get her in front of the committee. they learned lessons here and they know this election is coming up and they were all there for anita hill.

most of them were. they learned lessons and the president who learned nothing, inserts himself into this and throws everything up in the air and all of their efforts to lower the temperature here a little bit are gone. they are gone. >> already, guys. thank you very much. important programming note to the viewers. her program on cnn, 6:00 p.m. eastern. se cup, unfiltered. president trump's number one fix it man, michael cohen spending hours and hours over the past month with robert mueller. why is president trump attacking brett kavanaugh's accusers. we will ask a key member at the white house. stick around.

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from allies to enemies. there are reports president trump's former attorney michael cohen has spoken with the special counsel, robert mueller's team several times. lanny davis tweeted this. good for michael cohen providing critical information to the mueller information without a cooperation agreement. no one should question his

honesty, veracity and loyalty to his country over potus. rudy giuliani said the president's lawyer, cohen is a professional sdeefr. if anyone believes him it's only because they want to get president trump so badly, they lost any sense of fairness or objectivity. let's bring in our prosecutor, laura coats. why do you think he has been meeting according to the reports for hours and hours on a voluntary basis. there is no cooperation agreement apparently. >> the word voluntary is suspicious. he has not been sentenced yet. he doesn't have an agreement, but he is providing information being cooperative, hoping that somehow when he is sentenced in the future, he will be sentence and have much more of an amicable al cushion by the prosecution, saying this person is deserves a lenient sentence. people have to understand if you

were to provide information, you have a cooperation agreement and it can be verbal and an expectation that you will do all you can to help the government and this is happening here. >> the sentencing is december 12th when he is scheduled. even though he doesn't have to do all of this cooperation, he is doing it on a voluntary basis, hoping that in the end, the u.s. attorney for the southern district of north korea and the special counsel, robert mueller, and others are so grateful, they send a note to the judge is. >> it doesn't mean when he has to say is not credible or that they have an expression that would not be a warranted sentence. ultimately they made the decision that this person did not get the benefit of a cooperation agreement or a reduced sentence through the plea agreement he issued. they are waiting and have the power to do so. if he cooperated, if it turns

out that he can be corroborate and substantiated, it will go to his benefit. >> it was a 1-2 punch for president trump. we have a graphic and i will put it up on the screen. you can see that not only michael cohen is now cooperating after he pleaded guilty, but paul manafort pleaded guilty to eight felony counts the other day. the former trump campaign chairman is cooperating. michael cohen is cooperating. take a look. allen weisselberg and the ceo of american media, he has immunity in exchange for his testimony and allen weisselberg who has been the chief financial officer of the trump organization, he has immunity as well. this must make the president nervous. >> i'm sure. the last three are important because they are linked by the testimony of michael cohen.

weisselberg was named in the infamous call, the recorded conversation leaked by lanny davis about michael cohen and the yet that we want david pecker in case he gets hit by a bus. we want to clear up the agreements they have. the la two, david pecker and allen weisselberg was named in the conversation. they are distinct from paul manifort whose role is for the campaign. there is the ability to at this point in time, they are linked by the president's own realization that at all fronts whether in his financial dealings or organization and corporation, he is being attacked or through the idea of using paul manafort on the campaign trail. there is one key thread here. michael cohen's conversation with david pecker and about allen weisselberg was about campaign finance related issues and whether or not to suppress information from the american people and that is the main threat that should make him nervous. >> i'm sure they are all very,

very nervous. thanks very much for the analysis. how the hearings are playing out potentially next week. why president trump in a major reversal is saying he may not release classified russia probe documents after all. the director of legislative affairs, mark short, he is standing by live. we have lots to discuss. ♪ ok here we go guys, you ready? hi! cinturones por favor. gracias. opportunity is everywhere.

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the senate judiciary committee proposed wednesday for the hearing of christine blasey ford and brett kavanaugh. now they are seaing christine blasey ford may not be able to get to washington, d.c. until thursday. for days the president's response was relatively measure and restrain and tweeted this about christine blasey ford. i have no doubt if the attack was as bad as she said, changes would have been filed by either her or her loving parents. let's discuss this with mark short, the former director of legislative affairs. thanks very much for coming in. you worked with the president for a long time. what's your reaction to clear change in tone as far as all of this is concerned? >> i think the president is frustrated by the process.

more should be on senator feinstein, somebody who has been in washington for 25 years and an 25-year-old senator should know better than to not kavanaugh in private about it. have an opportunity to share that letter with republicans on the committee and never do that and unveil it the week before the vote is supposed to happen. it was a political move. >> she was in an awkward position because professor ford said to her and said to others i'm telling you this, but i don't want to go public and i don't want my name out here. s should what you should know going into the hearings. >> she had every opportunity to go behind closed doors. >> you know as soon as dianne feinstein would violate that agreement, that confidential agreement she had with professor ford, it would have exploded. >> why it leaked in the first place, keep in mind senator feinstein is not running for

reelection. she is running against a left wing democrat. she is trying to say i took down one of the president's nominees is political for her. >> how should this play out with the affairs director. what would you like to see happen? >> republicans are bending over backwards to give her an opportunity to testify. >> she wants to go second. she wants judge kavanaugh to go first. what's wrong with that? >> i'm not sure she should be in a position to dictate the terms when there have been hearings that she had to sit through and answer questions multiple times. they are even trying to provide outside counsel to ask the questions so she doesn't feel like she will be politicized by senators. >> it's not a done deal. the kavanaugh confirmation. i don't know what's going to happen. there are 51 republicans and 49 democrats. if you lose one, you're okay.

then it's 50 and mike pence, the president of the senate, the vice president can break a tie. if you lose two and no democrats vote for kavanaugh, it's over. there are some republican senators who are still on the fence. >> it's a close margin, no doubt about it. if she fails to testify, republicans likely will vote to confirm kavanaugh. another question is what do red state democrats do? they have not come out and said, but there will be pressure on them to support president's nominee here, too. >> senator donnelly of indiana, too. all of a sudden the president said earlier he will release all these documents. un redacted and now all of a sudden he is tweeting this morning, you know what, not so fast. i can't do it. the inspector general has to review it. allies are complaining he flipped. why didn't he have those conversations before the need to reverse the earlier decision? >> that's a fair question, but

he is taking caution because people said there could be sources and questions. >> he should have known that early before he announced he was releasing the documents. if you had been working there and he said what do you think? let's review. we are the director of national intelligence and procedures to prevent confidential sensitive information to the adversaries of the united states. >> the procedures have been put in place. >> why weren't they put in place earlier? >> they can ask the question about them earlier. the president responds quickly to the american people. >> this time he responded to his intelligence and law enforcement community. not so fast. >> if he did it in reverse, he would be. >> thank you very much for coming in. coming up as tensions escalate between the u.s. and iran, mike pompeo is now not ruling out possible military action. his one-on-one interview with

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♪ will chair a united nations security council meeting on iran spot lighting what the kwhaus is calling its violations of international law. ahead of it the secretary of state mike pompeo is setting the stage, just a little while ago he sat down with our global affairs correspondent elise labott at the state department and talked about the hard line the u.s. is now taking against iran. >> you've had two attacks by iranian-backed militias in u.s. diplomatic facilities in iraq,

the u.s. has said that it's going to make sure all iranian troops are going to leave syria and is willing to stay the course. are we headed towards a confrontation with iran? >> well, iran has been confronting the world as the world's largest state sponsor of terror for quite some time. >> seems there is an escalation, though. >> they have armed militias, the hezbollah and militias in iraq, they are arming the houthis, launching missiles into the gulf states. the united states has begun to apply economic and diplomatic pessure on iran to prevent them from doing this. that's our mission. it is true, elise, we have told the islamic republic of iran that using a proxy force will not prevent us from responding against the prime actor. we will not let iran get away with using a proxy force to attack an american interest, iran will be held accountable for those incidents. >> even militarily? >> they're going to be held accountable. if they are responsible for the arming and training of into he is militias, we're going to go

to the source. >> elise is joining us right now. pretty tough words from the secretary of state. >> very tough. that's the hardest i've heard him really -- you know, you said t wolf, he's setting the scene for next week where iran is one of the premiere issues. not only is president trump going to chair that meeting, the secretary of state, john bolton, are both going to be giving major speeches on ooirp. that's going to be the real discussion. secretary pompeo meeting with the iranian dias. i think now what they're doing is iran is the new soviet union, the boogie man of the world and going against them everywhere, whether it's financial, weather it's in the region, whether it's just meeting with the people and supporting the people, kind of trying to weaken the regime from within. >> we used to see at least in the last few years of the obama administration some meetings between u.s. and iranian officials. next week the opening of the united nations general assembly the u.s. will be there, the president of the united states

will be there, the iranian leadership will be there. any meetings in the works? >> none scheduled. there has been a little dance back and forth. president trump said like kim jong-un he would be willing to meet with the iranians. it doesn't look like the iranians want to meet with them. what secretary pompeo in the interview did criticize is former secretary of state john kerry who as you know negotiated that iranian deal has been meeting with the iranian foreign minister and others with other u.s. officials that were in the obama administration, telling them to stay in the deal, stay the course. secretary pompeo very tough on that, really criticizing what secretary is doing, saying that he should get off the stage, no american should be trying to undermine the president's policy, and he said the real program with secretary kerry is that he never treated our enemies like our enemies and that's what we're doing, iran is an enemy worksful. >> we will have a lot more of your interview today in the situation room. thanks very much for that, elise. good work. coming up, south carolina in crisis. one week after hurricane florence made landfall, waters

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>> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. major breaking news coming into cnn right now courtesy of the "new york times." "the new york times" now reporting a bombshell report. let me read the lead of the "new york times" that just posted.

the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, suggested last year that he secretly recorded president trump in the white house to expose the chaos consuming the adminitration and he, rosenstein, discussed recruiting cabinet members to invoke the 25th amendment to the u.s. constitution to remove mr. trump from office for being unfit. there are a lot of details in this story, but clearly this is a bombshell. rod rosenstein, the number two official, the deputy attorney general of the united states in this meeting secretly recording the president of the united states and actually discussing the possibility according to the "new york times" of invoking the 25th amendment to the constitution that would remove the president from office. let's go to our justice reporter laura jarrett who is monitoring this development. apparently according to the "new york times," laura, the

rosenstein mentioned this secret recording to some fbi and justice department officials. >> that's right, wolf. this is explosive new reporting from "the new york times" and he mentioned it to fbi and justice department officials, in particular embattled former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe, who documented those conversations contemporaneously in memos, just as former director, fbi director, james comey did, and according to sources that i'm told familiar with the matter, he then distributed those memos to the special counsel robert mueller, but i want to read to you a statement directly from the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, who is pushing back against this entire reporting, and i want to read it to you in full, wolf. he says: "the new york times" story is inaccurate and factually incorrect. i will not further comment on a story based on anonymous sources who are obviously biased against the department and are advancing their own personal