. tonight on "kqed newsroom," a startling op-ed from inside of the trump administration. and contentious hearings for supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. and san francisco is pushing for a controversial approach t the pioid crisis. plus a new ad campaign reignites a debate over politics and sports. he and welcome to "kqed newsroom." i'm scott schaefer in for thuy vu. we begin with politics. president trump's pick for the supreme court brett kavanaugh faced three days of tense an contentious questions on capitol hill. at stake are his opinions on gun rights and contr and whether the president could be protected from prosecution in office. meanwhile an explosive op-ed but an unnamedor sen official in

the trump administration claims the president's own staff have been tryingo stop him fro acting in, quote, a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic. to discuss all of this and more, i'm jined by kqed politics and government reporter marissa gos and professor of law rory little andpotical strategist with walsh consulting. ell kind of ran out of superlatives but's begin with the op-ed piece. sean, the author sayingth tha president is anti-democratic, .oral, errat should we be reassured or scared to death having read that? >> well, i guess the bottom line is if you are ccerned about the president, people in there that are trying to drive the administration one way or another, with regard to broader based policy, i think it is a fear tactic. i mean you have general mattis at d.o.d. and pompeo at state and this is one person who had an ax to grind and wants to be

the deep throat that comes out ten or 20 years from now and say i was the guy or gal. >> i wonder if it is one person or a concert effort. we've heard the rumors, and the bob woodward book came out and with the op-ed. if you are worried about someone unstable and feeling like tl tlar -- feeleg like they being undermined is the best way to stabilize the white house. it is not. >> throwing gasoline on a fire. serving,bit of self don't worry there is adults in the room and trust us, it is all going to be okay. if it is that bad, why aren't you standing up and saying i'm out of here. >> i think this perso is a hero in some sense. this is not something who to lose their job. they are trying to do the right thing for the country.y the not running the country, just exerting whatever influence they have -- they're probably lose their job and sooner or later and identify and why would they quit because somebody else put in place will

be worse. >> what the president of course is calling this treason and cowaco ardice, is this a patriotic thing to do? >> there is a certain level ofc rdice, i've served two presidents and two governors and if you hve a problem and don't like the way things are going, put your papers innd resign and so if you think the country is in that much peanlyou have the huberous that you are the one person to save the day. >> but it sounds like there are multiple people involved because it said many of us. >> so many of us. so you sit around the coffe table and oh, god this tweet just came out today and you have a kibitz in the executive coffee shop. continuing narrative throughout the presidency. this is not that shocking because we've been hearing thet es. and again the woodward book exposed them but his isories dripping out for months and months so of course it is clearly somebody who is not happy with things. to rory's point it is interesting because what -- i haven't seen are the people who

actually do leave the administration speaking out either. so at that point -- >> they haveto sign their agreement -- >> so let me tell you who is real. not hap the leaders in the republican caucus and the house and the heenate. sounemployment numbers came out today, another 200,000 jobs adde african-american and latino unemployment numbers at record lows. the economy is zooming along and people are feeling really go and yet you got an election coming right around the corner and youe may stem tide but yet you get this kind of noise in the background. >> you worked in administrations, you worked in the white house. what is something like this, although it is unprecedented, do you imagine something like this doing to moral in t white hous >> i think moral is terrible. because now you have the president yelling and screaming, let's find who he or she is. and you don't want a jihad going through each office, who leaked what and when. and in the white house, people leak all of th time for policy goals and objectives and if you want to get caught up in who is the leakerame. you don't want people coming to

the office and grilling you. it is terrible moral. >> and the woodward book came out and does it strike you that it came out in a week where the confirmation hearings. >> i thinkhe editorial was -- was written by woodward. there was an intermediary through woodward saying similar things and it seems ttme advancin sales of that book, i'm a little cynical about that. or interesting. it is a paame in d.c. as to who might have written this. sean, what -- you have heard anything, seen anything, read anything that you think makes y focus on one person in particular. >> i believe it came from the office of the vice president, from the senior speewrer or another speech writer or someone in the communications -- the way it wasid written and out. the tact that they touched part of thes of the elephant, the tail or the trunk but not all of the administration. so someone who is close -- buto the quess what is a senior official. that is kind --

>> that is a term. >> it seemed to me like somebody who t maybeir portfolio included national security, foreign affairs. >> if you have a speecher wr you cover foreign affairs and domestic policy. that is my gu i don't want to cast aper shuns on these folks. >> we'll find out -- and every reporter in d.c. and the president's staff is looking for this person. >> and if it is a vnce presi if things crash -- >> i don't think -- >> i don't think he had any knowledge. if it came from that office, i th -- think i this is somebody that decided we could make some efforts ere and i could be the president's speech writer rather than the vice president's speech writer. and the cavanaugh hearings, what did we learn about this nominee we didn't know at the beginning> f the week. 'm not sure we know anything that we knew before. i think may our suspicions is

concerned and i think he is hostile to roe v. wade and perhaps that is confirmed by the documents a and learned mout the prose -- the process and broken down nature of the process. the fact of two and a half years of documents while serving the president in a close posion are not revealed even one page. the ideae that national archives was kept out of the process and that it wasl acated so that a private attorney is doing the -- >> and it makes you think they are hiding something and one or two or several e-mails were released. one on racial pfiling and another one on roe that really didn't -- is more smoke than fire i think. >> look, this is a foregone conclusion. as we've talked about on the show before, he was going to be confirmed goingnto thisand will be confirmed now. the only thing that would have detailed it is if something explosive happened. mr. booker tries toame i am sparticous and kamala harsz w a

hel be confirmed but the question is how many democrats come across the aisle - >>t's talk about process. regardless of where you sit politically, i think we c all agree this is a very serious matter. lifetime appointment to the me court. and i do think there are valid questions now they were raised and what we would have found out, maybe nothing or wouldn't have changed anything but i think there isd va argument the american people should have a good sense of who a nominee is it given he has come from a different background that he did work for the bush white house and in a very partisan manner. >> you are saying they should have released -- [ technical difficulties ] [ no audio ] [ no audio ]

>> what did you think of their style. paris was the prosecutor tis week. >> they're both running for president -- >> both dianne feinstein. >> booker and kamalas. harr and booker's pumper sticker is i'm sparticous andal k i have 53 people in my pocket and who in the law firm did you talk to. why didn'tyou say you talked to joe smith or susie q. t it law firm and it is all theater. and the complaints of we need more documents and they went in there sayinge will not vote foye for the guy and sohy need more documents. >> she asked questions that he wasn't prepareto answer, can you think of a law that restricts in any way men's iv reprodu rights for example. >> a medical procedure. this is typical to the style.

kamala harris is coming in hot and heavy and a more progressive rising star and wants to burn -- and she was prosecutorl and she brought that cross-examination and dianne feinstein is decorum and the old school nation -- or sitting next to the chairman because she is th ranking member and they have a relationship and trying to maintain that. she gotta ed by her opponent in that senate race for her style. but no surpris. and i think that -- the bottom line is kamala harrismay not harought any independence to her side but she certainly helped with the progressive -- >> both senators, i think we're the only state with two senators on that committee and i think they carr californiaell. i thought they represented well. and they actually provided a ni contrast as a duo -- >> what do you thinker seniority got her this week. >> you mean feinstein. >> feinstein. >> i think valuable.ority is she does have the ability to

speak to the chair and get him to pay attention a little bit.et they discuss tr, how do we -- handle these unprecedented protesters ithe back of the room. she is preferential and she gets to go first and make decisions on this document thing and they will have new rules and maybe the ranking member and the chair rulesorm the >> we're almost out of time. last question. is there a better way to do this? it seems like theater and really highly scripted -- >> i defer to my eli friend here. there were not hearings until the 20s when just is brandis came forwardtnd he said you my writing and didn't answer any questions and then potter iv stewart with rights and the same thing so the modern theater is relatively new and with the hearings that turned into a political theater and spectacle and this was a sect acle. i think it was embarrassing. >> perhaps an argument for keeping o cameras of the courtroom.

>> thanks very much rory little, sean walsh, marissa lagos, fascinating conversation. crazy stuff going on. san francisco could become the first u.s. city to facilitate these of hard drugs like heroin under medical supervision. a bill passed by the california legislature last weld allow the city to set up a three-year pilot project of so-called safe injection sites. supporters inclucng san franco mayor london breed say it will help reduce overdose death and get used syringes off the streets. but the facilities like that are illegal under federal law and a recent r op-ed renstein lashed out against the proposal and threatened, quote, swift and aggressive action against their opening and they would only worsen the opioid crisis. for more on ts issue i'm joined by scott wiener, the co-author and dr. scottge st the deputy medical director of fhe opioid treatment outpatient program at sancisco general hospital.

gentlemen, thanks for being here. this is a very sttish segment. let me begin with you, senator wiener. this bill is not a panacea for the problems around opioid but what would you hope and expect it would accomplish. >> safe injection sites are a way of really applying a public to injectionch drug use as opposed to criminalizing people who are addicted to drugs. and acknowledging that people are going to inject whether or not we have a safe injecti site. so instead of having them inject on your front doorstep or in front of a neighborhood store or a park, let's get them inside i a safed healthy and clean environment where they could get access toecovery services and health care and ultimately we want to get them into recovery and health care services, get them healthy and reduce the number ofdose deaths. >> what would you add to that, dr. steiger? >> i would just add that it is not a new thing. rit. there is over 120 sites like this around the world.

it is just that the united states hasn't adopted it as a strategy for reducing morbidity mortality for injection drug use and the evidence is strong from a public health and medical perspective this is an appropriate intervention. >> wat do you mean? what does it show. >> so i like to think about it should ould be -- w in favor of these things. if you are like me andoua have -- patients and treat people with drug abe problems, you like it because it gets people into treatment as the senator mentioned. more over it reducing the contracting of hepatit and keeps people alive longer and reducing the overdose deaths in the area of the facility. >> is it good policy, though, to allow somebody to shoot up in a safe environment and then let them out on to the stets? yeah, so the structure of the -- of these things is such that heople get tong out after they use. and have some period of

monitoring by their peers and by other peoplehat are there. if they have a bad reaction to the drug that they use, they t will be ab be taken care of and swiftly dealt with in a medical fashion if necessary. it is not something that ends up with people who are then intoxicated in such way they won't be able to care for themselves on the street. >> scott wien, as an elected official, i think you could appreciate this. if somebody leaves a facility and goes out and commits t crime, city liable? >> no. i don't think believe so.st and j to be clear, if someone is going to get highnd then commit a crime afterward, they're going to do it whether or not they're in a safe injection site. they will shoot up on t street, or shoot up inside and if they are shooting in one of the centers, i think they're going to be more likely to be stable and not do problematic things afisrwards. >> ill only covers san francisco, it will allow the county --he city and county to

set up this pilot project. were there other counties ntat to be part of this. >> the original bils-- this billround for a few years. it started out giving every couteries in the sthe option and then it was limited to i believe seven or eight counties. but in the end, san francisco is the only county that is prepared right now to move forward. i think los angeles is probably the next closest. and -- >> when you say prepared, plitd cally. >> and operationally. and we wanted to get a bill passed to do a pilot in california, the first one in the u.s. showed that the sky doesn't fall, that it could be successful and it could then be model and i think my colleagues agreed that allowing because isco to try we like to try new things here that everybody else models years down the road that it is a good idea to let us try itut here. >> and dr. steiger, is there money for education or treatment

in the bill but ar you hoping once they are in these -- this facility get to them without outreach workers. >> yeah. ere is notany designed for that in the bill but we already have in san francisco auge network of harm reduction teams, working with people who use drugs that are unstable -- a we already have the people and the know-how to do this right and it is just a matter of having sort of legal protecti to make it so that people will actually be able to implement it. >> and senator wiener, the governor has will do.d what he what do you think his concerns are? >> well i don't want to speak for the governor. what i will say is that the governor has aspoken to ut his concerns about open erin je -- injecon abuse in san francisco. >> in the context of this bill. >> no, in just talking to him in general. when i talk to him, sometimes we talk about san francisco. he was born here. and spent part ofth his y here

as he cares about the city. ut this governor has been a very public health oriented govnor. he has really signed some progressive forward-looking bills from the public health commuo ty. think he'll have an open mind to it. >> to what extent do you think he woul be concerned about the threat from the deputy attorney general that the feds could comt down and have er sanctuary city situation where federal funding could beat thed. >> i'm sure he'll take that into account and this governor is used to thats from trump and his cronies. they treatened us over our immigration protection law and the governor signed it any way and we beat -- and we will beat them when they try to come after us. they are going after our auto emission status -- they go after us all of the time. i don't think jerry brown is going to be stooped becaus rod rosenstein publishes a -- what

could only be characterizedas an ignorant and -- an ignora op-ed full of false hoods in "the new york times." >> and dr. steiger, if this bii ised and becomes law, what is your hope and how will you be assessing whether or not it is working. >> great question a couple of things. one would be we get to open multiple sites becauser theh is that people who are -- who are desperate to u drugs aren't going to travel across town to use one of these facilities and so my hope would be we would open multiple sites. and my hope wld be that people in the community notice less -- fewer syringes on the street, less examples of people injecting in front of them on e street and we get more people into treatment. so if we -- those are metricse could track and i would expect within a relatively short amount of time we'd be ae to see those improvements. >> and we'll know by the end of september whether or not the governor signs this. thank you both very much. >> thanyou.

>> thank you. n turning to sports. this week nike released a new ad campaign th reignited debate over the roll of politics in sports. the ad features former 49ers quartback colin kaepernick and reads believe in something even if it means sacrificing everything. kaepernick triggered a furious backlash from donald trump and others in 2016 when hefu red to stand during the national anthem. kaepernick said he was raising awareness of police violence against african-americans, while ny supportepernick, others saw it as unpatriotic. now notrp singly the response to the campaign has also been polarized. joining me nowo discuss this and more just as the nfl season kicks off, is san francisco chronicle sports columnistain killian. so this c ad verytroversial and a lot of attention. gutsy move on the part of nike? >> a multi-billion dollar company doesn't do- gut out

and they have a edge in advertising. they were criticized back in the day for backing michael jordan and making him a ftce o campaign because that was unusual for an african-american athlete, it is hard to imagine that now. but they've always liked that edge -- >> pushed the envelope. >> pushed the eelope a littl bit. this is in keeping with them. and i think they obviously speny probaonths and months analyzing it and breaking everything down and in terms of what thnancials were, what the market segment was, and i think that they realized that the demographic that they really want to sell the shoes to, the young demographic, the ones that buy multiple pairs of shoes and all of the time and for all sorts of different sports, they are going toci appe this. whereas maybe the other at demographic s going to hate it -- maybe they won't get them or a huge notrt -- part of the segment -- market segment. >> i want to go back to the ad

for a minute. because it doesn't show anything about colin kaernick kneeling. there is nothing controversiald in the >> it is inspiring, all athletes that we care about and -- >> yeah. so let's take a quick look. >> believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything. when they talk about the greatest team in the history of the sport, make sure it is your team. and if you are a gi from compton, don't just become a tennis player, become the greatest athlete ever. so don't ask if your dreams are craz t ask iey're crazy enough. >> so ann, that played on last night's season opener on the iladelphia versus falcons.

>> and they are in business with nike. nike is the official uniform creator, all of the -- almost all of the cleats.s i think play have some discretion over what cleats they use. but most of them are nike. there is a swoosh on pretty much everything you see related to the yet colin kaepernick is -- has filed a grievance and niz lawsuit was just allowed to go forward and the nfl lost in an early round wit an arbitrator so it is a very complicated thing and i'm sure that nike would have had to have said to them, look we're going to do this and the nfl probably isn't crazy about it, but -- >> it would have been worse to try to stop it. >> right. i mean, ase nfl made a lot of miss steps on this whole issue from the very beginning and so i think probably they avoided a mis tep bying to block it. >> so the nfl season is underway, 49ers play the vikings this weekend. jimmy garoppolo the quarterback phenomenonllwho did so w at the end of last season, excuse

me, are the expectati s for what he can do for this team too high, do you think? >> yeah. that is kind of the way the 49er fan base oerate. toast m-- most fan base -- they've been hungry to have a savior type quarterback. colin kaepernick at one point was supposed to be it and that didn't happen. and i think that the is just so much excitement because afler a couof -- some of the worst years a team could ever have, it feelsreike the on the right track. and it is not just garoppolo but obviously he came in and wowed people and he's got the look, he tutored under tom he's kind of looking like the whole package. >> good pedigree. >> yeah, we'll have to see. but they appear to have a veryu smart y coach in kyle shanahan. and an adult in the room in john lynch as the general manager. and so there is a very good feeling about this team overall. now they haven't had a winning

season since movingi to lso we'll see. >> across the bay, the raiders a different story perhaps. this is the last season in oakland -- aybe. >> perhaps. and they of course traded their elite pass rusher khalil mack and you wrote this week that makes it more poll -- palatabl to leave the city. >> i think people are done with them. there certainly the die hard fans and people who will buy season ticket n- las vegas. but i think that -- they made it very clear by trading one of the elite players in the league who didn't need to be tthaded b way, he was -- he was still under contract for another year. they made it clear that winning this year in oakland is not a priority. and i think a lot of fans hadth hoped he arrival of jon gruden that maybe they would have a chance to win and maybe win it all in this one last final season in oakland. that appears to not be the table any more. >> staying in oakland to wrap up here, the oakld a are red

hot. >> yes, they are. >> ty just took two of three for t for the yankees who they may face in the playoffs. what accounts for the success. >> they are young and talented.p they came through the system and really want to be here. they're not stopgap kind of players. they have a good manager in bob melvin who just had set the right tone and i think because ey're in oakland, because they have such a -- a lousy stadium and aren't expected to do anything, and they are just playing free and not have this enormous table and come in with the expectations and you them start taking down the astros and the yankees. maybe they could make some noise in the post-season. >> and they've over come adversity and injuries. >> a lot of injuries. they basically don't have a starting rotation which is tough in october but it makes it interesting. >> and the fans are taking attention. thank you very much. >> and that will do it for us. as always find our coverage at

kqed.org/newsroom. i'm scott schaefer in for thuy vu, thanks for joining us. >>

resident trump at odds with his own white house and a supreme court nomin moves step closer to nomination. i'm pete williams. robert costa will join us from the road. welcome to "washington week." president trump: the so-called resistance is angry because their horrible ideas have been merejected by the acan people and it's driving them crazy. pete: but the resistance is oirmenting from inside the trump administration according to a blistering op-ed said to be from a senior official. they said the root of problem is the p aresidentrality. president obama warned that a resistance inside white house, even with good intentions, should concern all americans.