captioning sponsored by cbs >> brennan: it's sunday, july 8th. i'm margaret brennan and this is "face the nation." there is breaking news this morning as the operation to rescue 12 young boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in thailand is under way. we'll have the latest. here at home, president trump prepares for what could be a crucial week in his presidency. first up, a final decision on who he plans to name to the supreme court. >> and they're all great. they're all great. >> brennan: that announcement comes tomorrow night. then it's off to brussels to meet with nato. that alliance of u.s. military allies are still reeling from a disastrous g7 summit last month in canada. >> i'm going to tell nato, you

got start paying your bills. the united states is not going to take care of everything. and we're the schmucks that are paying for the whole thing. >> brennan: another controversial meeting on the president's itinerary. a one-on-one next monday with russian president vladimir putin. >> getting along with russia and getting along with china and getting along with other countries is a good thing. it's in the a bad thing. you know what, putin is trying. he's fine. we're all fine. no but things are not so fine with north korea. secretary of state mike pompeo spent two days in pyongyang without meeting leader kim jong-un. he told reporters the two sides were still working toward complete denuclearization of north korea. >> no one walked away from that. they're still equally committed. chairman kim is still committed. >> brennan: but just after pompeo left, north koreans called the meetings regrettable and accused the u.s. of making

cancerous and gangster-like demands. the secretary of state flashed back. >> if those threats are gangster, then the world is a gangster, because there was unanimous decision at the u.n. city council about what needs to be achieved. >> brennan: and it's official. the trade war has begun. the president imposed tariffs on $34 billion on chinese imports. beijing responded for tit for tat on u.s.-made goods and accused the president of starting the biggest trade war in economic history. we'll speak with the president's ambassadors to nato, kay bailey hutchison, and check in with key senators on both sides of the aisle. iowa republican joni ernst and delaware democrat chris coons. plus we'll have plenty of analysis on all the political news of the week coming up on "face the nation." good morning and welcome to "face the nation." we begin with a story that is dominating world headlines. the efforts ofree 12 young boys

and their soccer coach, who have been trapped in a flooded cave in thailand for 16 days. that rescue has been under way in at least -- and least four of the boys have been saved. cbs news correspondent ben tracy is near the site in chiang rai, thailand. ben, what can you tell us? >> reporter: well, margaret, so far this is the news that we had all been hoping to hear. these four boys now out of the cave after 16 very long days. we now believe that all four of them were transported to the hospital in chiang rai via helicopter and then ambulance. we did see the head of this rescue operation gave a news conference. he said this was much more successful than they thought it would be, that it went very smoothly. he said from the time the boys exited the mouth of the cave to when they got on the heli and he says that was five times faster than when they tried this in their rehearsals. so they are feeling very confident tonight that the first stage of this operation, getting

four boys out of this cave, has gone extraordinarily well. margaret? >> brennan: why did this rescue operation happen now, and what's next? >> reporter: well, you know, they really felt a sense of urgency. they felt like they had a very small window of time to attempt this. keep in mind, this is not the preferred mode of doing this. this is a very dangerous operation to bring these young boys, they're just ages 11 to 16, out of this cave this way, the way that trained navy seals would do it. the reason they did it is they felt with heavy rain, and it is raining here now again, heavy rain could flood that cave again and cut these boys off from supplies and from any sort of successful rescue. that potentially could mean they would be in that cave for months on a very small piece of real estate that would shrink as the cave flooded. so they felt like they had a little window of opportunity with the weather. they felt the boys were in the and so far they have been right.

these four boys have come out. we have every reason the believe that all four of them are alive. we do not have any sense of their actual condition in terms of what kind of shape they're inch they will be evaluated at the hospital now for three the five days. >> dickerson: president trump tweeted this morning that the u.s. is working closely with the government of thailand to get the children out. he said, "very brave and talented people are at work here." what do we know about those efforts? >> reporter: for the last week we've been sitting outside the entrance to this cave, and we have seen u.s. military personnel on the site. they have been there in various capacitieser as advisers, but we're also told there were american divers in the water as part of this rescue. this was an international effort. you had a team of 18 divers, t wref which w international. so you had the u.s. you had britain. you had australia. this is really something that has captivated the world and

tries l over the world sent personnel there. just being there on that site and seeing how many people showed up to help in so many different capacities, it's really quite striking. w successfulthat's a big part so far. >> brennan: ben, this is so risky, this rescue, but the alternatives are so tough for some of those parents there who have been waiting to hear about their loved ones. i know you've been speaking with some of them. what are they thinking right now as this is under way? >> reporter: i can only imagine. we talked to the father of one boy, the youngest boy in the cave. he's just 11 years old. his name is titan. we talked to his dad. he says this has just been horrible. it's been nerve racking every day to it sit there waiting for news. first it was they couldn't find the boys. then once they found them, that sense of elation all these parents had, but then to find out that this rescue mission was going to be horribly dangerous. so this has really been a roller coaster for these families. i can tell you out at that cave

site, there was basically a tent where all the family members, most of the mothers, were just sitting in chairs watching tv coverage of this, waiting for some news about their sons. they today, we are told, were standing at the mouth of the cave as this operation was happening, and that will now be reunited with their sons at the hospital. >> brennan: how much anger is there at the situation itself? i know these boys were being supervised. they had a soccer coach with them. he's been heavily criticized for putting them in this position in the first place. is he really to blame here? >> reporter: well, let me set the scene for you here. this was a soccer team. they had finished their practice, and from what we have been told by multiple people here in thailand, there was some sort of birthday celebration that was going on. that's the reason they were going to this cave. they were celebrating somebody's birthday. so they went into this cae ly wh them. there are big signs outside this

cave warning of the danger this time of year during the rainy season, that this cave floods and it can be unsafe. so certainly that is something this coach will have to address with these parents and with the larger community at some point, however, the coach did issue an apology from inside the cave via a letter to these parents. the parents and the kids were sending letters back and forth the other day, and in several of the letters, the parents went out of their way to say, we don't blame you, coach, please take care of our kids in there. we know you love them. we know you're trying to protect them. and we have heard reports that this coach, when they went in there with very little food, i imagine they probably had some snacks on them because they had been playing soccer, he gave all of his food and his water to these kids to keep them alive until rescuers came. we are told he's in one of the weakest conditions of anyone in that cave. so certainly he's done his best while he's been in there. he apparently also taught them how the meditate to try to keep them calm to conserve their energy and to not panic while they have been inside.

margaret? >> brennan: ben, thank you for your reporting. and we will continue to follow the rescue efforts in thailand here on cbs news and our streaming network, cbsn. we want to go now, though, to omaha, nebraska, where iowa republican senator joni ernst has crossed the state line to talk with us this morning. good morning to you, senator. >> good morning, margaret. thank you. >> brennan: i want to talk about another story in asia, and that is what has been happening overnight with our secretary of state, mike pompeo. the north koreans seem to be bashing president trump's host here for a -- president trump's hopes for a quick denuclearization deal. mike pompeo is speaking in positive terms, but the north koreans said he had gang gangster-like diplomacy. have you seen any indication of tangible progress? >> i do think talks are progress, so i applaud the secretary of state, mike pompeo,

if engaging in these discussions. the ultimate goal is denuclearization of the korean peninsula. and if these talks will eventually lead to that, i am very, very supportive of those efforts. of course, we're going to hear hard talk coming from north korea. this is not the path that they want to take. but it is what the rest of the world wants to see. >> brennan: how long do you think the u.s. should wait before restarting its military exercises? >> well, i think we should continue with military exercises. obviously i believe they have a purpose in keeping the peninsula safe and making sure that should anything ever happen, we're well rehearsed with our allies to engage. so i would say soon if we don't lkue. >>rennan: b si on armed services, i want to get your views here on the upcoming meetings the president will be having this week with

our military allies onn adversay would describe him, vladimir putin, a few days after that. when he was on this program last week, ambassador john bolton, the national security adviser to the president, proposed partnering with russia in syria to oust iran. are you concerned that in exchange for such an agreement the u.s. would draw down its almost 2,000 forces that it has on the ground in syria? >> i would be concerned. we need stability in that region. and i would just caution the president as we move forward with any discussions with russia. obviously russia is not our friend. we oppose many of the actions they've taken going back to the invasion of crimea and so forth. so i would be very cautious in those moves. but if there is a way that we can partner and put a lid on iran, i would support that. but again, being very cautious

because i don't see that russia would ever be a true friend or ally to the united states of america. >> brennan: some of your republican colleagues recently traveled to moscow this week and met with russian officials. do you think it was a mistake for senator soon -- thune and nor shelby to have gone? >> new york i don't think it's a mission take. again, if we can engage in discussions that are productive, that's okay, but just being very cautious and understanding they will never be a true friend to the united states of america. so again, just as it is with north korea, discussions are good. and if we can move toward a resolution where the world becomes a safer place, we should always strive for that, but again, we just need to be very cautious with a number of these leaders, because i don't know that they have the same interests that the united states of america does. >> brennan: i want to ask you about something close to home for you, and that is what china is now calling the largest trade

war in economic history. what are you hearing from so many of those voters in iowa who are supportive of the president but worried about what this will mean for them? >> and you hit the nail on the head, marking kent. our voters are supportive of president trump. our farmers just really think that he is doing the right thing. but unfortunately we are caught in the crosshairs. america's farmers and ranchers are always the first to be retaliated against in these types of trade negotiations. and the tariffs that have within imposed and the retaliation stemming from that puts us in a very vulnerable position as our markets go down. so i would just encourage the president, of course, we want great deals. i know we'll be able to negotiate those, but we would like the see a number of these trade agreements wrapped up in short order. the sooner the better. >> brennan: well, do you hear of any progress? it sounds like the president is only talking about escalation?

and are you asking the president to send any type of financial aid to these farm centers. >> no. smart, we pushed back on financial aid. here in the midwest we believe in trade, not aid. we don't want another welfare-type program going to our farmers. they want to produce and they want to sell their goods to markets. so that's what we strive for. but i did speak with ambassador lightheiser, our u.s. trade rep yesterday, and i did get encouraging news from him. i think there are a number of agreements we're very close on, and he's working on a number of new free trade agreements. so i am encouraged. i would ask that we stay strong, but at some point we have to close the deal. and as i said, i would like the see the president do that sooner rather than later. >> brennan: just to clarify, you're talking about markets other than china, perhaps deals with mexico, canada? >> absoluly.

markets other than china. i believe that we can work to a point where we have mexico and canada on board. i think china will be a much wde ambassador, as well as the president, to get those done soon so that we can start developing those opportunities for our iowa farmers. >> brennan: senator, you are a strong female leader in the senate, and i want to ask you about words the president said this week about one of your colleagues, elizabeth warren. >> i'm going to get one of those little kits, and in the middle of the debate, when she proclaims that she's of indian heritage, because her mother said he has high cheekbones, that's her only evidence, that her mother said she had high cheek bones, we will take that little kithao dot gently, becaue we're in the me too generation, so we have to be very gentle. and we will very gently take

that kit, and we unfamiliar for the president to attack senator warren, but he's seen to be mocking the me too movement, which is about defending those who are victims of sexual harassment. how do you respond to that? >> i take me too very seriously. of course when i was a young woman, i volunteered at a women's crisis shelter and n ames, iowa. so when we see survivors coming forward, i think that we need to take that very seriously. and we need to learn from this episode in history and make sure that other survivors are able to come forward and, of course, it is something that we need to discuss throughout society, because we need to make sure that we're protecting men and women. they should never go through sexual harassment, sexual assault, or anything remotely similar to that. so i do support the me too movement, and i hope that others will, as well. we need people to speak up, not hide these horrible circumstances. >> brennan: senator, thank

you. >> thanks, margaret. >> brennan: if you want to learn more about the trade war with china and what prompted it as well as how it could actually impact you, you can go to our website at "face the facethenat. as for the "face the nation" as for the "face the nation" broadcast, we'll be right back with democrat chris coons. when poachers enter the area, the animals run for it. which alerts rangers, who can track their motions and help stop them before any harm is done. and turn the poachers into the endangered species.ulat ♪ ♪ oh, look... another anti-wrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® works in just one week. with the fastest retinol formula available.

it's clinically proven to work on fine lines and wrinkles. one week? that definitely works! rapid wrinkle repair®. and for dark spots, rapid tone repair. neutrogena®. see what's possible. >> brennan: we're back for some perspective from a key democrat. delaware senator chris coons sits on the judiciary and foreign relations committees. he joins us from wilmington this morning. senator, because you're on foreign relations, you have oversight of the state department. i want to ask you, given the developments with north korea, have you been given any detail as to exactly what was agreed upon at that singapore summit with president trump? >> new york we haven't. we haven't gotten the sort of detailed strategy or updated briefing from secretary pompeo that i think we need and deserve. my concern, margaret, is that the singapore summit last month

was really not much more than a reality tv handshake summit that didn't really accomplish much in terms of getting north korea to commit to verifiable and irreversible denuclearization. i fought for diplomacy. i commend secretary pompeo for how hard he's trying to make something out of nothing. but so far i don't see that we've accomplished much, and my concern is that president trump unilaterally gave away doing military exercises with our vital allies, south korea and japan, without consulting with them and we got nothing but empty promises of denuclearization from kim jong-un. >> brennan: speaking of allies, the president is heading to europe this week and to that nato summit. he's got a good new story to tell. spending among our military allies is actually up since he came into office. the budget at nato has grown. so has his tough talk actually paid off? >> well, i hope that president trump, as he goes to the nato

summit, will claim credit, will declare victory and say that nato's budget, as you've said, has gone up by more than $14 billion since he became president and that he will lock arms and join forces with our vital nato allies in order to confront two real threats to the united states, china on trade, and russia on security and defending our democracy. i'm concerned, margaret, that instead what we're going to see is a repeat of last month's show where president trump went to the g7 summit in can this and put a thumb in the eye of the prime minister in canada and picked fights with our vital allies on tariffs and trade and on security issues and then went to singapore for a summit with kim jong-un that, as i just said, didn't produce much. looking forward to next week, my concern is they'll continue to stir the pot with nato, undermine the credibility of our commitment to mutual security that is at the core of nato, and then go to helsinki for a summit with putin where i'm very concerned about what things he might give away or what things

he might say with vladimir putin, who really is a core adversary of both the united states and the nato alliance. >> brennan: we will be watching this, because you sit on judiciary, i want to ask you about the announcement we expect tomorrow from president trump on his supreme court justice pick. we know according to our own reporting at cbs from jan crawford that there are three contenders now, brett kavanaugh, raymond kethledge, and amy coney barrett. with kethledge it appears now in the first-place position. of those three, are there any that you would support, or are you opposed in principle to all three? >> well, margaret, first, i don't think we should be having this conversation, because we seem to be playing by different rules with different presidents. i'll remind you that the republican majority refused to even hold hearing for ten months on an emanyonely qualified, confirmable moderate judge who was nominated by president obama.

we're just four months away from an election now, an we should be playing by the same rules. i'll do my job on the judiciary committee and i will assume president trump will nominate someone of that short list prepared for him by two right-wing activist group, the heritage foundation and the federalist society. i meet with his nom know, review their record and ask them tough questions to try to get to the core issue here, which is how will this next justice tom indicated by president trump affect the rights and feedz of average americans. margaret, this is a very important decision. it's going to affect the affordable care act and the protection of preexisting conditions. it will affect reproductive choice and individual freedom for millions of women all over the united states. it will affect consumer protection, environmental protection, l.g.b.t. rights. justice kennedy was at the center of many key decisions on exactly these issues. i'll do my job on the judiciary committee. we'll have a difficult

confirmation hearing this fall. but i hope folks who are watching will also speak up, call their senators, express their view, and see this as what it is, the consequence of an election and a reason to be more engaged and to vote. >> brennan: sounds like you're saying you're keeping somewhat of an open mind here. but majority leader mccome says he wants this new justice seated by october. do you see any path for other democrats to block that plan? >> well, it will be very difficult for 49 democrats and the two independents who caucus with us given the change to the rules that was made by the republican majority in the run-up to the last supreme court nomination of justice gorsuch. it doesn't require 60 votes anymore. it requires just 50. if all the republicans stick together along with the vice president, they'll be able to confirm whomever president trump nominates. i'll remind you, margaret, that there are many trump judicial nominees who have cleared the judiciary committee unanimously. it is not impossible for president trump to find a highly

qualified conservative judge who could be confirmed on a bipartisan basis. but the folks who are on that list prepared by the federalist society represent the far right end of the american constitutional and judiciary community. those are folks who i think will be very hard for democrats to support. >> brennan: senator coons, thank you. we'll be right back. don't go away. >> thank you. >> this portion of "face the nation" is sponsored by charles schwab. schwab. own your tomorrow. do you offer $4.95 online equity trades? great question. see, for a full service brokerage like ours, that's tough to do. schwab does it. next question. do you offer a satisfaction guarantee? a what now? a satisfaction guarantee. like schwab does. man: (scoffing) what are you teaching these kids? ask your broker if they offer award-winning full service and low costs, backed by a satisfaction guarantee. if you don't like their answer, ask again at schwab.

>> brennan: be sure to student into the president trump's special coverage of the announcement of his supreme announcement of his supreme that's on cbs news and cbsn. wa to have 100%

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>> brennan: and that was a memorable moment from last year's nato sum. during president trump's first trip abroad, he brushed past montenegro's prime minister. the president will be center stage again this year as he ramps up pressure on nato allies to spend more on their own defense. we go now to brussels and the u.s. ambassador to nato, former texas senator kay bailey hutchison. welcome to the program. ambassador, how much of a threat is russia to the military alliance? >> well, thank you, margaret, very much. we're seeing russia with maligned activities on so many fronts right now, especially the hybrid area where they are through social media sowing discontent and even false information to try to divide our allies and take them away from the west and toward some dissidents and then hopefully

they think influenced by them. they are also doing things like the terrible attack, the nerve agent attack in great britain. they're supporting a syrian dictator who is using chemical weapons on his own people to kill even children. and it's just on and on and on. they are also in violation of the very important inf treaty with the united states. they are not supposed to be building ballistic missiles at an intermediate range, but they are. and we know they are. so there are so many areas where they are workingains interests of freedom and democracies and peace in the world, and it is a big... it's a big part of our deterrent effort to keep them from taking over sovereign nations as they did in the ukraine when they took

crimea in 2014. >> brennan: well, on that point, president trump has seemed the leave the door open to recognizing russia's annexation of crimea in some public statements. last week on this program, ambassador john bolton said, while that's not u.s. policy, he said the president is open to changing that. can you reassure our allies that the president won't agree to recognize crimea as part of russia when he meets privately with vladimir putin? >> well, i think that our alliance is very solid and including all of the efforts that the united states is making to shore up the involveernty of the ukraine. the ukraine people, they stood very tall in their really peaceful revolution is what it was. they have stood strong for their sovereignty and their right of self-governance, and we are

standing behind them on that. and there is no lying between any of our allies on that very important issue. >> brennan: and the president, it sounds like you're saying, won't change his position on that. but the president seems to be muddying the waters on this question of whether vladimir putin is a friend or a foe. i mean, just this week he called putin "a fine man." is that how you would describe putin? >> well, i wouldn't, but i will say that despite how the many maligned activities that vladimir putin has been doing, just in the last few years, nato talks to russia, we have what's called a nato-russia council, where the ambassador from russia meets with our nato ambassadors. many of the foreign leaders in our alliance meet with putin. most certainly the europeans do.

but the effort... and our military does, too, as well. we have military-to-military talks with the russian chief of defense. but this is to de-conflict, it is not to allow escalation of hostilities, and also i think the president will encourage vladimir putin to start changing their behavior, to be... we'd like for russia to be an ally, a trading partner. but right now we have sanctions against russia because of their maligned influence and the things they're doing that areveo diur a. so, yes, we should be talking to vladimir putin and many of our allied nations do, as well. but it is to try to bring them in the tent instead of just constantly seeing them do these things that are attempting to

disrupt us but will not. >> brennan: ambassador, we will be watching that meeting closely. thank you for your time. >> thank you, margaret. >> brennan: and we'll be back in a moment. ah! nooooo... noooooo... nooooo... quick, the quicker picker upper! bounty picks up messes quicker and is 2x more absorbent than the leading ordinary brand. ahoy! (laughing) bounty, the quicker picker upper. another anti-wrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair works in just one week. with the fastest retinol formula to visibly reduce wrinkles. neutrogena®. crisp leaves of lettuce. freshly made dressing. clean food that looks this good.

delivered to your desk. now delivering to home or office. panera. food as it should be. >> brennan: it's time now for some political analysis. reihan salam is the executive editor of the national review and a policy fellow at the national review institute. kelsey snell is a congressional reporter for npr, mark landler and toluse olorunnipa cover the white house for "the new york times" and bloomberg news respectively. let's start off with you, mark. this nato summit, we heard from ambassador hutchison, this strong alliance standing up to russia, but the concern is what happens in the days afterward? why are our allies so concerned about this summit? >> well, i think as senator coons said on the air earlier, a lot of people fear a repeat of the president's trip to the g7

in quebec followed by his summit with kim jong-un. he was extremely antagonistic if not outright hostile to our g7 allies and then had this lovefest with kim. i think the fear is, given some of the things the president has said in the last few days about nato, he said the other day in montana that they're killing us, that he'll go and have yet another rocky, antagonistic meeting in brussels, and then he'll go on the helsinki and nd of harmonious meeting. and that is a pattern that at the very least runs counter to six decades of american foreign policy, but it's extremely damaging, and it becomes against the back drop of increasing trade battles with europe, questions about obviouth on ther defense, and so there is a lot of fear that we've gotten locked into what they view, our allies view as a very dangerous and damaging pattern. >> brennan: toluse, you don't hear praise from democrats very often of the president, but

senator coons said there is a good-news story because spending is up. so why is the president focusing on what he says is the problem and not the win? >> the president wants to push our allies as hard as possible to move in the direction that even if they're already moving in that direction, he wants them to go even further. he won't accept a win. a lot of the spending increases that happened started under president obama, and it's increased under president trump, and president trump has taken credit for that. he's said that jen stoltenberg, the nato secretary-general, is his biggest fan because spending is up in nato. he con flaits the issu e issue of security assurances. he wants nato countries to help the u.s. by spending more on their own defense, but also to we see the president talk about those things as one in the same, the trade deficit between the u.s. and the e.u. and the nato spending issue.

the president believes that the u.s. is getting taken advantage of and that the u.s. needs to push much more harder on its allies, even more so thankers as very safes. >> brennan: reihan, the other thing we will start this week with, which is big news in and of itself, is this announcement of the president's supreme court pick. monday night, 9:00 p.m., prime time presentation here. of the three contenders, who is most pleasing to conservatives here? who do you think is actually going to become the nominee? >> welsh conservatives are divided on the question, partly because different groups have different objectives. if your objective is to have a justice, who like william brennan, plays the role of strategist and chief diplomat for a new majority on the court, then someone like brett kavanaugh has very, very strong credentials. if you want someone who is likeliest to get confirmed, then you perhaps want kethledge. if you want somebody who is going to make a mark culturally and politically, if you want someone who will provoke a constructive fight within the senate, then perhaps you want

amy coney barrett. >> brennan: what do you mean constructive fight? >> what that means is if politically speaking you don't necessarily want this to go easily, right, if you have domestic political considerations at work, if you want to draw out contrasts in our larger political conversation, then it's possible that a more polarizing nominee is actually a better fight for the trump administration. so again, it really depends on what your objective is, because if you have one nominee who goes down, that could also create a larger conversation and also that could be very difficult for some of the senate democrats running for rellection in 2018. >> brennan: kelsey, you're ending where i want to pick up with you, which is there is the politics of getting confirmation, but theray nationally in the november races. what's the connection? >> the connection is extremely strong, particularly for those red-state democrats, people like heidi heitkamp in north dakota, donnelly in indiana.

they're in an awkward position where they have to decide, do they vote in a way that many of their more conservative voters would be happy or have them help approve one of these justices, or do they want to be in a situation where they're bolstering democrats going into 2020? it's a really awkward scenario for them. it's also fairly awkward for people like susan collins is again in a position where she could be a deciding vote here. it's not something she's uncomfortable with. it's something she relishes, the moment of being the decider, somebody who gets that moment of being important, but it is still really awkward for republicans and forwhf float in that middle, that very narrow middle that doesn't exist very much anymore. >> brennan: mark. it seems like from both liberals and conservatives, they want to make this a relit gait of roe v. wade. is it really that simple? >> well, you know, some legal scholars will tell you that they think the odds of roe v. wade being relit gaited by this court

are relatively low, that that isn't necessarily the kind of fight that john roberts, for example, is looking to take on. i have to say, that may be the case. there may be a desire on both sides of the spectrum, but by all accounts amy coney barrett, the person who is most likely to be the catalyst for that, appears to be fading in the kind of sweepstakes, and the other justices, the ones who appear to be or the other judge, the ones who appear to be the finalists are less likely to automatically lead to that kind of outcome than barrett would have been. >> brennan: it was interesting to hear our paula reed report in a conversation with rudy giuliani, the president' lawyer, he said to her that any supreme court justice should not recuse him or herself from any inig shoul rea that court. democrhat s tort lculus? >> you can expect this to come up during the confirmation

hearing. some potential nominees have written on this topic, specifically on whether a president would have to submit himself to an investigation or a lawsuit, criminal otherwise, and it's clear that this is something democrats want to put on national tv during these hearings, so that the american people will continue to hear about the mueller probe, will continue to hear about this whole idea of conflicts of interest in the trump administration and among his appointees, and if the president chooses someone who has written anything that democrats can seize upon, you can expect them to focus on that very significantly during these hearings and make them try to make some commitment, as you saw during the hearings for various cabinet secretaries early in the administration. are you going to recuse yourself? are you going to weigh in on issues where the president may be under investigation? and it's going to be clear they're going to try to get those commitments early on. you could probably epe hear this nominee sort of dance around the issue as they often do without committing one way or the other,

trying to satisfy democrats while also not necessarily making any specific commitments. >> this is particularly a case for kavanaugh, because of his being on the team, the ken starr team and what he wrote in the starr report about grounds for impeaching bill clinton. he laid out a fairly broad set of grounds that you could use to impeach a president, and i think one of the perhaps problematic parts of the kavanaugh candidacy is that were he chosen, the democrats would be able to go back to the starr report and ask him fairly pointedly, these grounds that you've set out, how do they apply potentially to the president who nominated you? that's something that's on the minds of a few people in trump's circle. >> brennan: fascinating to see all the dimensions to this. kelsey, i want the bring up to you, you know, i asked senator ernst about the president's comments at his rally this week about senator elizabeth warren in which he seemed to dismissive of the "me too" movement. if you put that in context of

other things over the course of the week, in particular his hiring of bill shine to the communications job, this is a former fox news executive who was pushed out of that company because of allegations that he helped to silence women who had been abuseled by the former c.e.o., roger ailes, is that an unfair dot to connect here? are people being overly judgmental, or is this a pattern of behavior that suggests the president doesn't take this seriously? >> i think it's not unfair to suggest that there is some pattern here. i have talked to many republicans, included, who feel that way. there is some concern, though, that republicans don't all agree with the "me too" movement. i was just out reporting in several different states, including washington state, where i talked to a lot of republican woman who feel like the "me too" movement is an arm of the left, essentially it's the kind of feminism they don't connect. with they don't connect with the idea of "me too." it may be that the president sees that in his base and doesn't feel that he has to be part of what many people feel is

not just a movement in american politics, but is a greater cultural movement. across the world. so thereion hait makes it very uncomfortable for particularly republican women, like joni ernst, who want to stand on the side of women and not necessarily have to be defending the president again on this. >> brennan: explain that, because this isn't necessarily a feminist platform aligned with certain positions. this is a movement. about defending victims of abuse. what is the perception in conservative circles? >> well, again, the conservative world is very diverse and multifaceted, so i can't give you a single answer. it's much more of a coalition than a unified movement. >> brennan: but for the president to feel that his base finds this something they agree with? >> i'll say this: if you're looking at the gender gap in our politics right now, it is very pronounced. it is very extreme. this isn't just a development in the united states. this is true in all of the market democracy increasingly.

donald trump does not fare well with women voters. it was very curable that he went over married suburban women in 2016, and that's a group where he's absolutely vulnerable. but it's also the case that even if you're looking at younger voters, he's doing respectably with men. so you don't really know what kind of counter-movement. you might see. and also democrats are very successful in recruiting female candidates in this cycle. but that also goes along with the fact that many of these female candidates are very ideologically progressive in very pointed ways. that's something that might also elicit a backlash down the line some we can't predict exactly how this will turn out. >> brennan: i need to point out that the president did pull the plug on his e.p.a. administrator this week, scott pruitt. someone who withstood a lot of negative headlines. does he have a political future, and do you see his deputy stepping in as any kind of wholesale change? >> i imagine that the underlying policies will be consistent at

the e.p.a. but as for pruitt's political future, he is someone who is deeply political, deeply ambitious, has been for a very long time, had been lobbying. he endorsed jeb bush earlier on, and there are reports that he was very slicetive of having a senior role in the federal government. so i think that he's certainly going to try to make a political comeback in the future, whether or not that effort succeeds is an open question. >> and there are several investigations that are still going to run after he's gone. >> brennan: good point to leave it on. those investigations continue. we'll be back in a moment with cbs news justin and homeland security correspondent jeff pegues. he's got a new book out on russian efforts to tamper with the u.s. election.

department and homeland security for cbs news. he's got a new book out called "kompromat," that's the russian term for compromising mateal about a public figure and the question of what russia held that kind of information about president trump is one of the questions in the ongoing f.b.i. investigation into his campaign.

with presidents trump and putin set to meet next week, we thought the timing was perfect to talk to you. >> reporter: somehow it worked out. >> brennan: tell us, because we know the senate intelligence committee came out with the final version of their report saying the intelligence community was right to conclude, as they did, that the kremlin was trying the harm hillary clinton and the fact that they would also help president trump win this election. why does it matter for the president to acknowledge this? >> well, it matters because if you don't have a uniformed approach to preventing this from happening during the mid-terms or the 2020 presidential election, that's a problem. and that's what we've seen and that's what i report in this book, is that you have this system of trying to hold back these russian intrusion, however, the states are doing -- they have a different plan, if you will, from the fedeon wome e that i've talked to say that it's because there is no coordinated response coming from the top. and you need that to hold back

what is some of the people that i've talked to have said is a russian army attacking these states. you can't have these states doing this alone, and that's why a lot of people think there has to be this coordinated response with leadership from the top. >> we heard the ambassador to nato talking about this kind of russian interference in other countries, as well. when it comes to our mid-term election, this are just right around the corner, how much concern is there about interference? >> this is an ongoing threat. and i think that's one thing that is lost with the mueller aspect of this investigation is that this is an ongoing threat and you hear that from intelligence agencies and you hear that from law enforcement agencies.econ system in this country. so you have to have this coordinated response to prevent this from happening again. this is a new form of warfare. something else i think is lost, which is why i wanted to delve

into the subject in this book "kompromat," this is a new form of warfare. yes, the russians have meddled in elections before, but not to this scale with this cyber influence campaign that is affecting social media, that is affecting so much of what we do. and if you think about it this way, and these are some of the questions that i was asking myself when i started writing this book, if you can influence what americans think, well then of course you can influence how they vote. fin wat's why it's so against these russian intrusions. >> brennan: the president's national security adviser was on this program just last week. he drew a distinction. he said vladimir putin personally told him the russian state did not carry out the hacking. what's the difference? >> well, there is no secret in cyber circles that some of these countries hire contractors to carry out these cyber operations, even vladimir putin has said in the past that

patriotic hackers may have done this, people that he doesn't control. but u.s. intelligence agencies, they laugh in the face of information like that. >> brennan: because they say there's very little that putin doesn't control? >> exactly. that was the case here. this was such a widespread operation, as i said, it's ongoing, so there is no way that it could have happened without putin's blessing. >> brennan: i also want to ask you, because i know you're continuing to cover some of the reporting with the oning probe.n iniew on anotherrm lawyer and fixer for the president, who has been wrapped up in some of these financial probes. and now there is a question about whr cooperate with authorities. how do you explain that? >> i've spent a lot of time over the last year or so talking to michael cohen, and he is lately at east tried to avoid talking to reporters. but what i can tell you is that i have talked to people around

him who say that he has been act rd by some of the statements that rudy giuliani has made about him, questioning his credibility, and what we've seen just in talking to him over the last year or so is his approach the president trump and his allies has become much more adversarial. and this is so unusual for michael cohen, who liked to consider himself the president's fixer. he was someone who respected the president a great deal, and so to see this change in approach, he's hired new attorneys, lanie da represented president clinton. there's a new approach here. i've been told he feels sort of isolated from the white house and the president's allies. now, could that translate into him flipping, we'll just have to see. >> brennan: we'll be tracking that. that. jeff, good luck with the book. >> thank you. >> brennan: we'll be right back.

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>> brennan: that's it for us today. thanks for watching. just a reminder that i'll see you tomorrow night at 9:00 p.m. for our cbs news special report on the president's supreme court

nominee announcement. and, of course, we'll see you right here next sunday. for "face the nation," i'm margaret brennan.

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