captioning sponsored by cbs >> brennan: it's sunday september 9th, i'm margaret brennan this is "face the nation." it has been a dramatic week of denials after a bombshell book detailing white house chaos by legendary "washington post" reporter bob woodward. and a damning op-ed in the "new york times" written by an anonymous administration official. it sent the president been a furious frenzy. >> it's a failing "new york times" has an anonymous editorial, believe it, anonymo anonymous? a gut goes editorial. we're doing a great job. interest the book is a work of fiction. if you look back at woodward's past he had the same problem with other presidents. >> brennan: are the leaks and allegations that paint a picture

of staff trying to protect the country from the president accurate? we ask vice president mike pen pence. >> the only thing that's wrong about that narrative is everything. because it shows -- it shows a complete misunderstanding of how this white house works. >> brennan: who wrote it? it's the biggest mystery in washington since watergate deep throat. the president calls for an investigation by his justice department. >> i would think jeff should be investigating who the author, because i really believe it's national security. >> brennan: is it an issue of national security. we'll ask the top democrat on the senate intellig committee, v.'s mark warner. and in yet another never before occurrence. a former president vented his frustration at the way the house is running the country. >> it's not conservative. it sure isn't normal. it's radical.

it's a vision that says the protection of our power and those who back us is all that matters even when it hurts the country. >> brennan: with the two party chair, democrat tom perez and republican ronna mcdaniel. plus as football season begins and colin kaepernick makes headlines again, mark leibovich joins our panel to talk about his new book on the future of the game. all of that and plenty of political analysis coming up on "face the nation." good morning, welcome to "face the nation." at the end of an explosive week in the trump administration, we spoke with vice president mike pens at his home on the grounds of the naval observatory here in washington. we begin by asking him about the ewed and

than two dozen high ranking trump administration officials who have denied writing it., yon you were lied to by michael flynn, he was fired for lying to you. do you believe the denials this time? >> i do. because i know the men and women who serve with us in this cabinet. but i also do because whoever wrote that editorial, and the narrative that comes out of some other writings recently, just doesn't know what really happens in this white house. i've seen this president in action. is he demanding, yes. is he a strong leader who expects things done yesterday, yes. but for someone to say that what we've accomplished in the last 18 months is in spite of this president'sde ts aboutresident adminition.bout our >> brennan: one of the claims-n disc

25th amend tomorrow even remove the president from offi office. have you ever been part of a conversation about that? >> no. the truth of the matter is over the last eight years despite what we heard from president obama on friday -- >> by the time i left office, household income was near all all-time highs and uninsured rate had all time low, wages were rising, poverty rates were falling. i mention all this for when you hear how great the economy is doing right now, let's just remember when this recovery started. >> this country is struggling. upswing began on his watch. it was the weakestcomic >> i know he said that but i recoveryince the great don't think too many americans noticed it. >> brennan: you said there depression, because having inherited a recession president are other writings that you also think are inaccurate here. obama's answer was to raise bob woodward had this book about taxes, to doubl themi to come out describing in detail a number of incidents inside the white house where he basically

described people around the president trying to protect the country from him. what is it that you think is i inaccurate in his description? >> well, the only thing that's wrong about that that narrative is everything. because it shows a complete misunderstanding of how this white house works. what president trump provides for this country every day is strong and decisive leadership in the oval office. the narrative that i've picked t opin suggests that the en l andpenpi of nothing could be further from the truth. i mean, our founders envisioned all executive power invested in the president of the united states and people should know all the progress that we're making as a result of the fact that president trump engages in debate, he gets all of the facts

and he's not afraid dash he spoke to 100 people he has recordings, he as notes to back up these firsthand accounts and one of the instances was, he said that the president was developed from tweeting about withdrawing u.s. personnel from south korea. is there specific instances. you saying they didn't happen? >> what that suggests and what i get from other examples in narratives is, is that people are managing the president when in fact what happens in the white house every day, margaret, is the president invites opinions. he tends to put people around ie over what policies ought to be embraced. he makes a decision and we go forward whether it's foreign policy, domestic policy, whether it's legislation on capitol hi hill.

exactly -- that's exactly the kind ever leadership the american people want when they elected president donald trump. >> brennan: some of the instances, publicly has not jeff sessions but in this book these are specific instances of disregarding the commerce secretary to his face. insulting other cabinet officials. do you dispute all of these examples? >> well, i would tell you i know this president has great respect for the men and women. these accounts are very foreign to me. and i'm just not aware of instances where they have occurred and -- or they would occur. but, look, i -- i stipulate that working in the white house is not for everybody. this president is tough. he's demanding. he wants things yesterday. and i this it's one of the reasons why we've accomplished so much in such a short period of time. and the truth is, i think president donald trump is the

most accomplished president of my lifetime and i think already one of the most successful presidents in american history. >> brennan: do you think people should be fired because of this? >> i truly believe that whoever penned this opinion editorial should do the honorable thing and resign. the truth of the matter is that the opinions that they expressed not only deceitful and false, but they're also unamerican. and they represent an assault on our democracy. >> brennan: the president has de clear that he doesn't agr es week he suggested that jeff sessions should not have brought charges against two republican lawmakers who were running for reelection because he thought it could jeopardize the party's control of congress. this suggests that the justice department should be taking politics and making it a

priority. do you agree with that? >> i think there are guidelines in the department of justice about not making decisions or taking action that may impact elections. that's long standing through numerous administrations. but look one -- >> brennan: suggest that you agree with -- >> what i want to say is what the american people appreciate is that this president says what he thinks. he let's people know what he feels about things. and really in a very real sense what you see is what you get. with president donald trump i think that is the reason why he's made the connection that he's made with people all across this country. >> brennan: something of that l matters -- >> these various controversies he's focused on their interests. >> brennan: may be what he thinks but there's a danger to saying things like that. because it suggests that rule of law -- should be sublimated to employ particulars. >> this is a president who has strongly affirmed our commitment

to the rule of law. and to our justice system. i think you need look no further than hearings this week with judge kavanaugh to hear his strong affirmation of independent judiciary as president reflected throughout the policies of this administration. but look, he's always going to be transparent about how he feels about things and as i said there's long standing department of justice guidelines that have to do with making sure that actions are not taken. that inadvertently impact the electoral process. but all that have being said, i really do believe the presiden president's candor is one of the reasons why the american people appreciate. >> brennan: what are your plans to sit for an interview with special counsel robert mule sneer. >> we fully cooperated over the last year. he has not. we provided any and all information and we'll continue to do that. >> brennan: you'd be telling to sit with if he were --

>> i would be more than willing to continue to provide any and all support in that. we have outside counsel that will advise me accordingly, but i just have to tell you, margaret, it's just not been my focus. it's not the president's focus. the reason why we're making the progress that we're making all across this country, rebuilding our military, restoring american strength in the world, seeing the opportunity for peace emerge on the korean peninsula. we're hearing, we're expect ttng communicating again as he did last week his r reaffirmation of his commitment to de,n 689 denurses. i had the privilege remains of 55 fallen americans in the korean war were returned to american soil. >> brennan: you don't think that -- secretary of state called off his visit? >> well, i actually believe that

when the president cancelled the meeting a week ago because he wasn't seeing enough progress in denurses that may well have resulted in what kim jong-un communicated to a south korean envoy just last week. we're anticipating the letter. all the while our sanctions remain in place. >> brennan: do you think you need to cast the deciding vote to confirm judge kavanaugh? >> well, we hope not. i think -- >> brennan: not sure on the vote count yet? >> we'll see where we are. but i have to tell you, despite the embarrassing display by many senate democrats in the judiciary committee, judge brett kavanaugh showed the intellect, the temperament, the judicial philosophy that i believe should

generate broad based support in the senate. we have every confidence that judge credit kavanaugh will very soon be justice brett kavanaugh and take his seat on the supreme court. >> brennan: one of the challenge of television interviews is going back and clarifying your words after the cameras have been turned off. we experienced that in our interview with the vice president saturday. here is what we asked at the beginning of the interview about who wrote the 'unanimous op-ed. >> you don't think anyone on your staff since they're calling themselves trump appoint tee had anything to do with this? >> i just -- i wouldn't know. i really would hope not. i was -- i was heartened to see so many of our colleagues make it very clear that they weren't involved in thian. i can tell you, serving alongside this president an incredible privilege for me. i know it is for every member of our cabinet and all the senior personnel in our administration. this is a president who litera literally gets up every day and

works to keep the promises that we made to the american people. when you look at the record of success over the last 18 months truly been remarkable. >> brennan: after the interview the vice president told us he had misunderstood the question. and asked if he could clarify. so we turned the cameras back on. >> brennan: mr. vice president, i asked you earlier if anyone on your staff wrote this op-ed. have you asked your staff? >> well, i thought you were speaking about the administration staff. let me be very clear i'm 100% confident that no one on the vice president's staff was involved in this anonymous editorial. my p, rgaret. they get up every day and they're dedicated just as much as i am to advancing the president's agenda and suppor supporting everything that president trump is doing for the people of this country. >> brennan: you asked them? >> you know, honestly, i don't have to ask them.

because i know them. i know their character. i know their dedication and i am absolutely confident that no one on the vice president's staff had anything to do with this. but that being said, you know, whoever this was, they should do the honorable thing and resign. >> brennan: we'll be back in one minute with top democrat on the senate intelligence committee, mark warner. so it's no surprise that the company that led the charge to fast, who built the nation's largest gig-speed network, is already moving-beyond. beyond wifi that just connects. to wifi that thinks about what your customers want. helping you to compete. beyond the reliability you expect. to knowing that if the power goes out, business goes on. ♪ ♪ beyond ♪ ♪ing down netw to a network that shows you when and where there's an issue. beyond clumsy dial-ins and pins.

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there's an ongoing investigation that has now six guilty pleas, over 30 indictments, guilty pl plea, is that included campaign manager, the president's lawyer, the president's cfo that got immunity and mr. pop top husband one of the -- pop top husband, he had been offered on hillary clinton and clinton e-mails there was outreach from the trump -- russians to the trump operation. so the fact that vice president pence is cooperating is great, i wash his boss, mr. trump, would have the same level of cooperation. donald trump continue to say he's done nothing wrong he should sit down and talk to the mueller investigation. >> brennan: do you have any questions for the vice president about what he may have known about what happened in 2016? >> i'm not going to go to where we are at this point in our intelligence committee investigation. we've had interviewed over a hundred folks. we still got folks like mr. po mr. popodopolu, is that we want

to pursue but the main activity and clearly mr. mueller has lot more tools in his tool chest than we have at the senate intelligence committee. >> brennan: still no date when you might get the former foreign policy advisor to the trump campaign to sit and answer questions with you and do you intend to go back to the attorney general to ask why he did very different testimony than george had about conversations regarding setting up a meeting with vladimir putin? that. >> that is something that the mueller investigation is looking into. we want to see george and michael cohen who indicated he would come back without immunity and testify before our committ committee. our committee is the last b bipartisan effort that trying to pursue these facts. if you step back and you look at all of the guilty plea, is that mueller has received, and the total number of indictments, the fact that this president still

undermines the mueller investigation, this president who this week basically calling into question somebody who wrote a memo about the activities or op-ed of activities inside the white house, a president who basically asking the justice department to back off on criminal indictments of republican members, this is not a president who understands how our system and that really ra brennan: it doesn'toulike yr >> i think we'll be hard press pressed. what we had four pieces of our investigation before we got the collusion. the first which was reconfirm intelligence committee asses assessment that the russians intervened to help trump hurt clinton. second, election security we've got bipartisan election security legislation that i wish the senate would take up and pass, unfortunately mitch mcconnell held off on allowing us to vote.

third is, we will be fairly marsh on some of the activities from the obama administration and fbi then we've also just this past week we had another hearing on social media or again we're trying to look not only at what happened in 2016, but on a going forward basis, we made a lot of progress with at least facebook and twitter in terms of policy issues. then we've got this final issue obviously of collusion. >> brennan: do you see any national security concerns that would justify the president call for the attorney general to look into who authored this anonymous op-ed by someone claiming to work within the administration? >> i wish that whoever written the op-ed would have revealed their identity. i see absolutely no national security issues. i wonder when the woodward book comes out and my understanding he has documented interviews with over a hundred folks in the white house, whether this president will try to sic the

justice department who talked with bob woodward. this is clearly a president a white house that is in chaos and president becoming more and more untethered. if you just step back for a moment and look at the last three months, we've had a president who had disastrous policy with separating kids and families at the border, we had the president had frankly i think unpresidential appearance with vladimir putin, a president who zig-zagged on tariffs, the senior officials who pled guilty, his frankly unseemly behavior towards john mccain now this reactions to both the book and the op-ed. it appears the walls are closing in on this president -- >> brennan: secretary mattis and john kelly put on the record denials of some of the reporting from bob woodward out there. do you take them at their word? >> well, i know that bob woodward has done this a number of times, the presidents of both

parties. usually he's been a pretty good journalist. but i'll let mr. woodward and i have great deal of respect for secretary mattis, let them litigate that out. >> brennan: vice president pence in our interview also said that the president was just speaking his mind and being candid with candor this week when he said that two republican congressmen who have been indied essentially ahead of the mid term races. does that trouble you those kind of statements or do you just brush this off as more as the vice president characterized it, candor. >> well, i think this is why this is white house in chaos because most responsible people in the white house realize the president of the united states can't make these comments and this president is so irresponsible, i don't think we can continue to excuse his behavior as anything resembling normalcy.

so, it will be interesting to see whether my colleagues are willing to stand up and call out these activities. i think very shortly as mueller probe continues we're all going to be at that moment where history will judge us. i think this president will be judged as well. >> brennan: senator warner thank you for join us on "face the nation." >> thank you, margaret. >> brennan: stay with us for more "face the nation." an energy company helping cars emit less. making cars lighter, nc oils for those an energy company hard-working parts.less. fuels that go further so drivers pump less. improving efficiency is what we do best. energy lives here. plaque psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream.

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>> brennan: we will be right back with a lot more "face the nation" including our political panel after a very wild week in washington, i know we say that a lot, we have got a lot to talk about. be sure to stay with us

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