. 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 aontroversial approach to the opioid crisis. plus a new ad campaign reignites a debate over politics and sports. hello and weome to "kqed newsroom." i'm scott schaefer in for thuy vu. we begin with politics. president trump'sick for the supreme court brett kavanaugh faced three days of tense an contentious questions on capitol hill. at stake are his opinions on g rights and control and whether the president could be protected from prosecution infi oe. meanwhile an explosive op-ed but an unnamed senior officialmp in the trdministration claims

the president's own staff have been trying to stop him from acting n, quote, a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic. to dcuss all of this and more, i'm joined by kqed politics and government reporter marissa lagos and professor of law rory little and political strategist with walsh consulting. well kind of ran out of superlatives but let's begin with the op-ed piece. sean, the author saying that the president is anti-democratic, amoral, erratic. avould we be reassured or scared to deathg read that? >> well, i guess the bottom lini is you are concerned 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 hado an ax grind and wants to be

the deep throat that comes out ten or0 years from now and say i was the guy or gal. >> i wonder if it is one perso or a concerted effort. we've heard the rumors, and the bobward book came out and with the op-ed. if you are worri about someone unstable and feeling like tl tlar -- feeling like they are being undermined is the best way to stabilize the white house. is not. >> throwing gasoline on a fire. >> and alf bit of s serving, don't worry there is adults in the room and trust us,t is all going to be okay. if it is that bad, why aren't you standing up and saying i'm out tf here. >>nk this person is a hero in some sense. this inot something who wants to lose their job. they are trying to do the right thing for the country. they are not running the country, just exerting whatever influencehey have -- and they're probably lose their job and sooner or lat 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 co cowardice, is this a patriotic thing to do? >> there is a certain level of cowardice, i've served two presidents and two governorsnd if you have a problem and don't like the way things are ygoing pr papers in and resign and so if you think the country is in tat much peril and you have the huberous that you are the one person to save the day. >> but it sounds like there are multipd people involecause it said many of us. >> so many of us. so you sit arouthe coffee table and oh, god this tweet just came out todayou andave a kibitz in the executive coffee isshop. >> ts a continuing narrative throughout the presidency. this is not that shocking becausethe've been hearing stories. and again the woodward book t exposm but this is stories dripping out for months and months so of course it is clearly somebody who is not thingsith to rory's point it is interesting because what -- i haven't seen are the people w

actually do leave the administration speaking out eithe so at that point -- >> they have to sign their agreement -- is so let me tell you who really not happy. the leaders in the republican caucus and the house and the senate. so the unemployment numbers came out today, another 200,000 jobs added. african-american and latino unemployment numbers at record lows. the economy is zooming along and people areeeling really good and yet you got an election coming right around the corner and you may stem the tide but yet you get this kind of noise in the background. >> youked in administrations, you worked in the white house. what is something like this, althou it is unprecedented, do you imagine something like this doing to mora in the white house. >> 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, peoplea ll of the time for policy goals and objectives and if you want to get caught up in who is the leaker game. you don't want people coming to

the office and grilling u. it is terrible moral. >> and the woodwame book c out and does it strike you that it came out in a week where the confirmation hearings. >>k i th the editorial was -- was written by woodward. there was aninrmediary through woodward saying similar tand it seems to me advancing the sales of that >>ok, i'm a little cynical about that. interesting. it is a parlor game in d.c. as to who might have written this. sean, what -- you have heard anything, seen anything, read anything that you think makes you focus on one person in particular. >> i believe it came from the office of the vice president, from theenior speech writer or another speech writer or someone yn the communications -- the it was written and laid out. the tact that they touched part of thes of theepnt, the tail or the trunk but not all of the administration. so someonecl who is e -- but the question is what is a senior official. that is kind -- that is a term.

>> it seemed to me like somebody who maybe their portfolio included national security, foreign affairs. >> if you have a speech writer you cover foreign affairs and domestic policy. that is my gut. 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. is>> and if i vice president, if things crash -- >> i don't think -- >> i don't think he had any knowled. if it came from that office, i th -- thi t is is somebody that decided we could make some efforts there and i could be the president's speech writer rather than the vice president's speech writer. andhe cavanaugh hearings, what did we learn about this nominee we didhet know at beginning of the week. >> i'm not surehi we know an that we knew before. i think maybe our concerned and i think he is

hostile to roe v. wade ands perhat is confirmed by the documents and learned more about the prose -- the process and broken down naturef the process. the fact of two and a half years of documents while serving the president in a close position are not revealed even one page. th idea that the national archives was kept out of the process and at its accelerated 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. on racial profiling and another one on trot 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 med going into this and will be confirmed now. the only thing that would have detailed it is if something explosive happened. mr. booker tries to came i am sparticous and kamala harsz and he will be confirmed but the

question is how many democrats come across the aisle -- >> let's talk about process. regardless of where you sity, politicali think we can all agree this is a very serious matter. li time appointment to the supreme court. and i do think there are valid questions now they were raiand what we would have found out, maybe nothing or wouldn't have changed anything but i think there i a valid argument the american people should have a good sense of who a nominee gs iten 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 tyle. paris was theosecutor this week. >> they're both running for president -- >> both dianne feinstein. >> booker and kamala harris. and booker's pumper sticker is i'm spartous and kamala, i have 53 people in my pocket and who in the law firm did you talk to. why didn't you say youalked to joe smith or susie q. in that law firmnit is all theater. and the complaints of we need more documents and they went in there saying we will not vote foye for the guy and so why need more document >> she asked questions that he wasn't prepared to answer, can hat think of a law restricts in any way men's reproductive rights for emple. >> a medical procedure. style. typical to the

kamala harris is coming in hot and heavy and a more pogressive rising star and wants to burn -- and she wasprosecutorial and she brought that cross-examination and dianne feinstein is decorum and the old school nation -- or sitting next to the cirman because she is the ranking member and they have a relationship and trying to sintain that. got attacked by her opponent in that senate race for her styl but no surprises. and i think that -- the bottom line is kamala harris may not have brought any independence to her side but she certainly tolped with the progressive -- >> both se, i think we're the only state with two senators on that committee andy i think t carry california well. i thought they represented well. and they actually provided a nice contras as a duo -- >> what do you think her eniority got her this week. >> you mean n.feinst >> feinstein. >> i think her seniority is valuable. she does have the ability to speak to the chair and get him

to pay attention a little bit. they discuss together, how do e we -- handle these unprecedentet ters in the back of the room. she is preferential and she gets to go first and decisions on this document thing and they will have new rules d maybe the ranking member and the chair will form the rules. >> we're almost out t ofme. last question. is there a better way to do this? it seems like theater and really highly script -- >> i defer to my eli friend here. there were not hearings until the 20s when just is brandis came forward and he said you got my writing and didn't answer any questions and then potter stewart with civil rights and the sameodhing so then theater is relatively new and with the hearin thatturned into a political theater and spectacle and this as a sect acle. i think it was embarrassing. >> perhaps an argument forg keep cameras out of the courtroom. >> thanks very much rory little,

sean walsh, marissa lgos, fascinating conversation. crazy stuff going on. >> b san francisco couldome the first u.s. city to facilitate the use of hard drugs like heroin under medicalpe ision. a bill passed by the california legislature last week would allow the city to set u a three-year pilot project of so-called safe injecti sites. supporters including san francisco mayor london breed say it will help reduce overdose etath and get used syringes off the stre but the facilities like that are illegal under federal law and a recent op-ed rod rosenstein 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 this issue i'm joined by scott wiener, the co-author and dr.ott steiger, the deputy medical director of the opioid treatment outpatient program at san francisco general hospital. gentlemen, thanks fo being

here. this is a very scottish segment. let me begin with you, senator wiener. this bill is not a panacea for the problems around opioid abugs but what would you hop and expect it would accomplish. >> safe injection sites are a way of really applying a public healthpproach to injection drug use as opposed to p criminaliziople who are addicted to drugs. and acknowledging that people are going to inject whether or not we have a safe injection sitf so instead having them inject on your front doorstep or in front of a neighborhood store or a park, let's get them inside in a safe and healthy a clean environment where they could get access to recovery services and health care and ultimately we want to get th into recovery and health care services, get them healthy and reducee number of overdose deaths. >> what would you add to that, dr. steiger? i would just ad that it is not a new thing. right. there is over l 120 sitese this around the world. it is just that the united

states hitn't adopted as a strategy for reducing morbidity mortality for injection drug use and the evidence is strong from a pualic health and medi perspective this is an appropriate >> what do you mean? what does it show. >> so i like to think about it b as who would -- who should be in favor of these things.li if you ar me and you ha have -- patients and treat people with drug abuse problems, you like it because it gets people into treatment as the senator mentioned more over it reducing the contcting of hepatitis and keeps people alive longer andr ucing the overdose deaths in the area of the facility. >> is it good poli, though,o allow somebody to shoot up in a safe environment and then let thm out on to th streets? >> yeah, so the structure of the -- of these things is such that people get to hang out after they use. and have some period of

monitoring by their b peers and other people that are there. if they have a bad reaction to the drug that they use, they will be able to 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 thento cated in such a way they won't be able to care for themselves on the street. >> scottwiener, as an elected official, i think you could appreciate this. if somebody leaves a fa olity and go and commits a crime, is the city liable? >> no. i don't thnk believe so. and just to be clear, if someone is going t high and 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 the street, or shoot up inside and if they are shooting in one of the centers, i think they're going to be mo likely to be stable and not do problematgs thi afterwards. >> this bill only covers san francisco, it will alw the ounty -- the city and county to

set up this pilot project. re there other counties that wanted to be part of this. >> the original bill -- this bill is around for a few years. it started outiving every countries in the state the option and then it was limited to i believe seven or eight counties. but in the end,an francisco is the only county that is prepared right now to move forward. i think los a eles isobably the next closest. and -- >> when you say prepared,litd 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 a model and i think my colleagues agreed that allowis san fran to try it because le like to try new things here that everybody models years down the rd that it is a good idea to let us try it out here. >> and dr. steiger, is there money for education or trthtment ibill but are you hoping

once they are in these -- this facility get to them without outreach workers. >> yh. there is not many designed for that in the bill but we already have i san francisco a huge network of harm reduction teams, working with people who use drugsun that are able -- and so we already have the people and the know-how to do this right and it is just a matter of having sort of legal protection to make it so that people will actually be able to implement it. >> and governor hasn't decided what he will do. what do you think his concerns are? >> well i don't want to speak for the governor. what i will say igo that the rnor has spoken to me about his concerns about open erin injection abuse in san francisco. >> in the context of this bill. >> no, in just talking to h general. when i talk to him, sometimes we talk about san francisco. he was born here. and spent part of his youth here

as he cares about the city. but this governor has been a very public health oriented governor. he has really signed someog essive forward-looking ills from the public health community. so i think he'll have an open mind to it. >> to what extent do you think he would be concerned threat from the deputy attorney general that the feds could come down and have another sanctuary city situation where federalo fundingd be threatened. >> i'm sure he'll take that into account and this governor is used threats from trump and his cronies. they threatened 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 . they are going after our auto emission status -- they go aft us all of t time. i don't think jerry brown is going to be stooped because rod rosenstein publishes a -- what

could only characterized as an ignorant and -- an ignorant op-ed full of false hoods in "the new york times." >> and d steiger, if this bill is signed and becomes law, what is your hope and how will you be assessing whether or not it is >> great question. a couple of things. one would be we get to open multiple site because the truth is that people who are -- who are desperate to use drugs aren't going to travel across town to use one of theseti faci and so my hope would be we would open multiple siteso and my would be that people in the community notice less -- fewer syringes on th stree less examples of people injecting in front of them on the street and we get more people into treatment. so i awe -- tho metrics we could track and i would expect within a relatively short amount time we'd be able to see those improvements. >> and we'll know by the end of tember whether or not the governor signs this. much.you both very >> thank you. >> thank you.

turning now to sports. this week nike released campaign that reignited debate or the roll of politics in the ad features former 49ers quarterback colin kaepernick and reads believe in something even if itmeans sacrificing everything. kaepernick triggered a furious backlash from donald trump and others 26 when he refused to stand during the national anthem. kaepernick said he was raising awareness of police violence against african-americans, while many supported kaepernick, others sa it asunpatriotic. now not surprisingly the response to the campaign has also been polarized. joining me no to discuss this and more just as the nfl season kicks off, isan francisco chronicle sports columnistain killian. so this ad very controversial 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 face of the campaign because that wasl unusor an african-american athlete, it is hard to imagine that now. hat they've always liked edge -- >> pushed the envelope. >> pushed the envelope a little bit. this isn keeping withthem. and i think they obviously spent probably months and months analyzing it and breaking everything down and in terms of what the financials were, what the market segment was, and i think tha they realized that the demographic that they really want to s the shoes to, the young demographic, the ones that buy multle pairs of shoes and all of the time and for all sorts of different sports, they are going to appreciate this. whereas maybe the other demographic that is going to hate it -- maybe they won't get them or a huge not part -- part segment -- market segment. >> i want to go back to the ad for a minute. because it doesn't show anything

about colin kaepernick kneeling. there is nothing controversial in the ad. g, all athletes that we care about and -- >> yeah. so let's take a quick look. >> believe in mething, even if it means sacrificing eveeything. when talk about the greatest t hm in theistory of t sport, make sure it is your team.d ju you are a girl from compton, don'tst become a tennis player, become the greatest athlete ever. so don't ask if your dreams are crazy. ask if they're crazy enough. >> so ann, that played on last night' season opener on the philadelphia versus falcons. >> and they are in business with

nike. nike is theic ol uniform creator, all of the -- almost all of the cleats. i think players have some discrethn over what cleats use. but most of them are nike. there is a swoosh on pretty much everything you see related to the nfl. yet k colinpernick is -- has filed a grievance and niz lawsuit was just allowed to go forward and the nfl lost in an early round with an arbitrator so it is aery complicated thing and i'm sure that nike would have had to have said the 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 sit. >> right. i mean, the nfl has made amiot of steps on this whole issue from the very beginning and so i think probably they avoided a misstep by trying to block it. >> so the nfl season is ingsrway, 49ers play the v this weekend. jimmy garoppolo the quarterback phenomenon who did so well at the end of last season, excuse me, are the expectations for

what he can do for this team t high, do you think? >> yeah. that is kind of the way the 49er fan se operate. toastst m-- fan base -- they've been hungry to have a savior type quarterback. colin kaepernick at point was supposed to be it and that didn't happen. and i think that there is just so much excitement because after a couple of -- some of the worsa yea team could ever have, it feels like they're on the right and it is not just garoppolo but obviously he came in and wowed people andthhe's got look, he tutored under tom brady. he's kind of lookinghe like t whole package. >> good pedigree. >> yeah, we'll have to see. but they appear to have a very smart young coach in kyle shanahan. and an adult in the room in john lynch as the general anager. a there is a very good feeling about this team overall. now they haven't had a winning

season since moving to levi so we'll tee. >> acros bay, the raiders a different story perhaps. this is the last season in oakland -- >> maybe. >> perhaps. and they of course traded the elite pass rusher khalil mack and you wrote this week that makes it more poll-- palatable 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. t i think that -- they made it very clear by trading one of the elite players in the league who didn't need to be traded by the 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 fansad hoped with the 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 on the table any more. >> staying in oakland to wrap up here, the oakland a's are red

hot. >> yes, they are. >> they just took two of three for t for the yankee who they may face in the playoffs. what accounts for the success. >> they are youngnd talented. they came up through the system and really want to be here. they'reopot p kind of players. they have a good manager in bob melvin who just had set the right tone and i think because they're in oakl have such a -- a lousy stadium and eden't expeo do anything, and they are just playing free and not have this enormous table and come in with the expectatns and you see 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 toarting rotation which ih 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 schaefe in for thuy vu, thanks for joining us.

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