i'm heidi choiniere, and this is my ancestry story. now with over 10 billion historical records, discover your story. get started for free at ancestry.com ♪ welcome to "kasie d.c." i'm kasie hunt. we're live every sunday from washington from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern. washington and the white house go nuts over an anonymous op-ed. we'll talk about whether the president's hunt is really all about the thrill of the chase. plus, disorder over the court. democrats grandstand. republicans play games over papers. is brett kavanaugh qualified or not? the third branch of the government politicized like rarely before. later, two presidents, two americas. we'll talk about how the return of president obama to the

political stage perfectly captures this moment in history. tonight, a piece of writing that is deeply consequential or completelyirrelevant. either an act of bravery or cowardice. more than two dozen trump administration officials have disavowed the anonymous op-ed. it's possible we haven't seen sun sinchronity. nickly hailey took an extra step signing her name to a piece in "the washington post" headlined, when i challenge the president, i do it directly. and here's the vice president this morning. >> do you think you know who anonymous is? >> i don't. i don't know, but i do know they should resign and leave this administration. >> should all top officials take a lie detector test, and would you agree to take one? >> i would agree to take it in a

heartbeat, and would submit to any review of the administration. >> do you think that the administration should do that? >> look, that would be a decision for the president. >> that, of course, is on the record. in the aftermath of the piece, two senior administration officials reached out to axios to say on background that the author stole the words right out of their mouths. i find the reaction to the nyt op-ed fascinating that people seemed so shocked that there's a resistance from the inside. a lot of us were wishing we'd been the writer, i suspect. i hope trump knows, maybe he does, that there are dozens and dozens of us. and with that, i'd like to welcome in my panel. white house correspondent yamish. nbc news intelligence reporter ken dilanian, jo ling kent and stuart stevens. great to have all of you on

board tonight. stewart, i want to start with you because you and i spent a lot time of on the campaign plane covering the flap or two. there were a series of what we then thought were crises for the mitt romney campaign. mistakes perhaps made by the candidate. it seems we're living in a world where the magnitude of those mistakes seems minuscule compared to what we are dealing with every single day here. what is your view of whether or not this op-ed reflects what is going on inside your republican party? is this in your view the dominant conversation that everybody else except for this handful of loyalists are having? >> i think there's a constant conversation about the president and about his office and about the decisions and the tone and the way he's conducting the office. it's often used, people say i don't like the tweets but it's really about something much

bigger than that. the main thing about this is that it's just completely distracting from what government should be about. i mean, government should be about not just the next news cycle but planning for the future and trying to accomplish big things that individuals can't accomplish. we seem to be consumed with this stuff. my view of the person who wrote it, a lot of people have said they think it's cowardly. i don't think that. i think it's good to hear these voices. and others should come out. >> yamish, you spend all your time reporting on the white house. what is your latest view from the inside? how destabilizing is this, and how many people in your view disagree with this op-ed? >> i think the people who disagree are the president's most loyal people around him, which is really probably melania trump, some of his children and, really, maybe a couple people from the campaign. but there are a lot of people as you know, republicans what they'll tell you off the record is an eye roll and a joke about

this president. there are a lot of people, a lot of republicans just around d.c. that are very worried about this president. going into the white house, president trump is fuming about this. already obsessed about the russia investigation and robert mueller. now he has the idea that there are dozens of people working in his administration that he doesn't know that are not only -- that are writing op-eds in the paper that he loves to say is failing. >> he reads it very closely. >> that he reads very closely. and this idea that he's -- that there are people turning against him. add to that the fact his personal lawyer paul manafort, all these people have guilty verdicts hanging over their heads. this is a president that feels increasingly isolated and angry about all this stuff. >> ken dilanian, let's talk about the national security implications. while, yes, we do talk about the potential damage to the -- or at least critics of the president talk about national security damage, there's a real question about the fact this was a duly elected president by the people and there are apparently people

working to subvert his policies potentially inside the government. >> i think this was unhelpful from that point view of because it's going to make that effort less successful. he's now going to be more resistant to advice. more suspicious and for all his supporters who think there's a deep state trying to undermine him, this validates that point. i think it may backfire and it only really helps the writer if eventually he's outed and he's going to get a book deal and can say he was on the record saying he was part of the resistance. i'm not sure this is a senior official. "the new york times" had to vet this person's background. if it was a household name, what kind of vetting? >> that household name test. >> jo ling kent. you've covered republican politics before. my bigger question is how the republican party ever recovers from this because this does seem to illuminate what is a very fundamental split inside the party. >> yeah. and there's a huge amount of interest. now this article is the most viewed on "the new york times" website for all of 2018 given

everything that's gone on. it goes beyond just washington and the bubble and what so many people here care about and goes into probably these primary races that we're seeing play out and the upcoming midterm elections. what i find so interesting is in of the issues the individual who wrote this brought up were tax reform, deregulation and increasing the military size. so those are actually things very much in lockstep with the broader republican party. so now the question is, how much does something like this really affect the outcomes of november and the midterms? >> to that point, stuart stevens, at what point, what joe just outlined, this person in this op-ed saying we did x, we did y, i was here for that. that's what republican members of congress say. tax reform, tax reform, judges, judges. in your view people that believe the president is damaging the country but are willing to stick around for these other things, are they selling their souls? >> this is sort of a plea bargain with history that the

writer is putting out there. that he or she wants to be remembered for these good things that are done. look, i think this is one of these things that's a very individual decision. every person in the administration has to make. do you want to stick around and try to make things better which i admire both sides of this. or do you want to be out there speaking for what the party ought to be which is a different vision of the party. one that where character counts, personal responsibility. i think everybody has to make that choice and certainly the party and in the long term has to make that choice. >> so there are a lot of people thinking about this and they are looking to this broader republican party to try and explain this "new york times" piece. msnbc's chris hayes writes the op-ed is an attempt to take out an insurance policy for the gop and conservatism if and when things get much worse. it's a very public hedge meant to preserve the reputation of the gop's entire political and governing class. and erick erickson writes this. trump supporters don't want to hear it but get together in any

off the record meeting of conservatives who have gone to assist trump n what you're reading in "the new york times" and the bob woodward book comes pouring out. there is no deep state here. this is the white house staff and the trump white house approved staff of the various cabinet officials. if you want a salacious story with which to rile people up, let them know these are not obama holdovers and longtime left-leaning bureaucrats. this is the republican establishment that trump beat and then absorbed along with movement conservatives who decided they needed to try to salvage what they could and save the country in the process. so, joe, this is exactly what we were talking about. >> yeah. but my question really is, how much is an op-ed really an insurance policy because no matter if you put your name on it or don't, really what counts to an american voter in new hampshire is what you actually do about it. and hearing from someone like

senator ben sasse this morning on "meet the press" or anyone who is running for office right now, where are the actions? and that's really what the swing voter is going to care about in the end. >> ken dilanian, how does this play into what's going on with the russia investigation because i think if i am extrapolating on this question and i think that for republicans especially on the hill, it's always been, what is the red line with trump? have we found the red line? every time we think something is going to be the red line, there's an explanation for it. mueller may be the red line. do we think this is the kind of thing that could push the president to -- for the most part republicans have been convinced he's not going to take? >> by firing mueller or jeff sessions? >> it's possible if they get close enough. they'll hear from a lot of republicans about their view of the russia investigation. they're skeptical there's going to be some smoking gun evidence of collusion that's going to be fatal to the trump presidency. >> it's going to be so muddy that we're not going to get a definitive outcome. >> increasingly, the sharks circling around trump make him

paranoid and act in irrational ways. he's tweeting about the russia investigation almost every day. the last two presidents have had cataclysmic crisises on their watch. george w. bush, 9/11, barack obama, the financial collapse. we haven't had that yet with trump. what if that happens and we have an emotionally reckless president on our hands. >> then a bureaucracy that from what we can tell, we haven't talked explicitly about bob woodward's book but he says jim mattis' ignored an order. do they know who they think this person is, where -- what are their prime suspects? what do they do next? >> the fact you have two dozen or more people come out and say it wasn't me tells you that i don't know if they know who the person is but there are a lot of people lining up to say it definitely wasn't me and please

clear me as soon as possible. whether they start giving out lie detector tests, i have not confirmed they'd do that but you can imagine president trump on monday or even over the weekend is saying, we have to get to the bottom of this and they're trying to strategize how they'll do that. in terms of whether or not the cabinet members and all the people that -- i think bob woodward's credibility is kind of unmatched. if you're going to put up bob woodward's reporting versus donald trump saying that never happened, you'll choose bob woodward 99% of the time. even if the president can find this op-ed writer he has to deal with all the people around him. i don't think we'll see mass firing because the president, one of the biggest reasons jeff sessions still has a job is because a lot of people are telling this president you cannot keep doing this. it looks crazy. >> also that he couldn't necessarily get somebody confirmed. we should also remind our viewers that deep throat, the main source for bob woodward in the watergate reporting, of course, repeatedly denied that

he was deep throat. a lot more to come on "kasie dc." is one of the most powerful figures in media on his way out. new reporting on les moonves. plus, president obama gets some things off his chest on the campaign trail. but first, you might have noticed there was a little news this week in the capitol. as we go to break, a look back at the whiplash week that was in washington. and, yes, this really all happened this week. ♪ biden went to church along with bob casey. president trump is taking on attorney general jeff sessions. bob woodward's new book -- >> describes a nervous breakdown of the executive branch. >> senior aides resorting to hiding documents. >> mocking sessions' accent. trump added, i'm quoting the prrkts the guy is mentally bleep. >> michael capuana losing to ayana pressley. >> first day of questioning for

judge kavanaugh. >> the book means nothing. it's a work of fiction. total piece of fiction. >> some breaking news. in the times today taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous op-ed. >> i'm part of the resistance inside the trump administration. >> the president's move is volcanic. >> speculation about the identity of the anonymous senior staffer. >> top cabinet officials denying they're the anonymous writer. >> about 12 suspects. >> it could quite literally be anyone. >> final day of judge kavanaugh's confirmation. this is the launch of the democratic campaign. >> the president has taken the podium. >> he's calling on the department of justice to investigate who wrote it. >> papadopoulos was just sentenced to 14 days in jail. >> fridays, man. fridays. when we were dating, we used to get excited about things like concert tickets or a new snowboard. matt: whoo! whoo! jen: but that all changed when we bought a house. matt: voilà!

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this week reminded us we live in a country of alternate realities. in one country the economy continues to do well with markets, job growth and wages all on the rise. in another, a past president called for an awakening amid political darkness. using the word dark four times in his speech. in one world, brett kavanaugh is a brilliant jurist ready to fill the shoes of anthony kennedy. in the other, accusations of a rushed confirmation to paper over his past and charges he may root out years of established

legal press depts. in one america there's a politically motivated dragnet meant to hamstring a duly elected president. in the other, an investigation that has already resulted in felony guilty please a and pris time. this is the country we live in. tonight, perhaps for the first time in modern history, two men stand at the center of it in an historic collision. >> we've got the best employment numbers in our history. >> when you hear how great the economy is doing right now, let's just remember when this recovery started. >> so we've started the wall. we've spent now close to $3.2 billion. >> we can't just put walls up all around america. >> you know when abraham lincoln made the get ttgettysburg addre >> i don't mean to pretend i am channeling abraham lincoln now, but that's not what he had in

mind, i think when he helped form the republican party. >> for many, president obama's words felt like a return to sanity. for others, it was a stark reminder of why president trump won the election. meanwhile, much of the country is just sick of all of it. >> i conceive of myself as an independent conservative who caucuses with the republicans but, frankly, neither of these parties have a long-term vision for the future of the country. there's massive stuff happening in america, and thesis matters are really content to do 24-hour news cycles screaming at each other. >> why stay a republican, and when is the last time you thought about becoming an independent? >> i probably think about it every morning when i wake up, but i figure out, why am i flying away from nebraska to go to d.c. we are going to get real stuff done? i'm committed to the party of lincoln and reagan as long as there's a chance to reform it. >> stuart stevens, before i ask the rest of the panel about

president obama, i am just curious. you personally, have you thought about switching your party allegiance as you've watched all of this unfold? >> well, i'm glad you played the ben sasse clip because it gives me the convenient way to say i'll consider myself a ben sasse republican. >> convenient. >> i think that there really is a battle here for what you have to call the soul of the republican party. a lot of us were drawn to the republican party because it was an optimistic vision. character counts, personal responsibility. fiscal responsibility with the debt, strong on russia. and all of those have been turned on its head. i worked for president bush and it's not like we were perfect but in our best moments, i think we aspidred to be better than w were. that idea of compassionate conservatism, flawed as it was. >> wasn't it rejected in 2016? why did republican voters reject all of that? is it because president trump pushed racial buttons?

>> that's a very complicated torturous question. it's difficult to talk about race in this. i don't think -- >> is it, though? i think a lot of people would argue it's pretty straightforward. >> i think that you can't look at the 2016 election and come to any conclusion other than donald trump won and it was a fairly weak field. i think the danger in it is looking at it and drawing these conclusions that the party has to be a predominantly white party. that the party shouldn't reach out. that the party should write off california. just because you won an election, he got less percentage of the overall vote than mitt romney did. this is not a future party that, in a changing america, where you're not going to have the ability to win national elections just by getting more white voters. you have to have a different vision. that's just math. and you can get through one or two elections. but, really, i think there's a moral imperative that you have

to represent more and there's a political imperative that's looming out there. >> yamiche, weigh in on that. >> it's straightforward to talk about race in the 2016 election. there was a presidential candidate that called mexicans rapistss s and criminals and millions who said that's okay. white people essentially in a large mass looked at donald trump and said this is what we want. that's not to say, obviously, that all the people who voted for him are racist, but it's to say that race was a very central part of the reason why president obama, i think, was talked about the way he was and why president trump is now in office. that said, when you look at the two different americas, obama was saying, i'm done with vacation. i'm back on the trail. a lot of people were very happy to hear that. i heard from a lot of sources like finally obama is back from vacationing. what obama is talking about is also, he's saying to democrats, you need to come on and bring it on. step into the ring and bring smaft fight. he's also saying for the people

that sit at home, for all those people who are millions of people who don't vote or take part in the democratic institutions, you need to not wait for a savior. he said that. do not wait for a savior and think things are going to get better. obama's message is more that people need to get more engaged. >> do you think there's any risk for him in activating the voters that voted for trump because they were so disdainful of him? >> in my mind, i don't think so mainly because president -- the republicans are really good at having villains. i remember i went to a rally for president trump. there was a woman there with a hillary clinton button. and i was like it's 2018. people are still incensed and motivated by the idea of hillary clinton. if you don't like obama and he's the reason you voted for trump, you're going to do that whether he's on the campaign trail or someone mentions his name in a speech. >> jo ling kent you were watching where obama took credit for the economy doing well. how much of that do you think is

fair? who is right about it? you cover this every day. and at the end of the day, are voters going to be more willing to give trump a pass because they're feeling better about themselves? >> what president obama said, is a fact. the huge recovery began under his watch. there were many moments you saw actual job creation supersede what we see right now under the trump white house. but the numbers continue to grow. wage growth was stagnant for a long time. labor force participation which is issues of people going out and seeking jobs and finding jobs. well, that was stagnant under obama as well. so if you look at the economy, though, it continues to be the number one issue most people are going to be voting around when it comes to the midterms. and if you want to look at issues in a way that matter to most regular americans, it definitely is how much money you can make. your prospect for prosperity in the future and what you can do to dig yourself out of whatever hole you're in or, perhaps, buy

a house. that's where the fed comes in and jerome powell comes in. so it's this big, complicated picture that it seems like you can really tug at both ways. but obama wasn't factually wrong. trump isn't wrong about the fact the economy is doing fine. >> you know what else happened. inequality in this country continued to increase. no bank ceo was held accountable for the financial crisis and the voters that elected trump in ohio, michigan and pennsylvania didn't feel their lives were improving. they didn't bargain for this craziness that they're getting with donald trump -- >> but they wanted somebody to try to shake it up. >> exactly. coming up -- president trump under oath? the president has reportedly agreed to provide written answers in a defamation lawsuit filed against him by a former apprentice contestant. we'll explain next on "kasie dc." this is an insurance commercial.

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sebcbs ceo chairman les moos is stepping down today. the new yorker reported that six additional women have come forward accusing moonves of

sexual harassment of assault. it ranges from forcing women to perform oral sex on him to unwanted touching and kissing to physical intimidation and retaliation. moonves has denied these claims which span from the 1980s into the early 2000s. in a statement, moonves said the appalling accusations in this article are untrue. what is true is that i had consensual relations with three of the women some 25 years ago before i came to cbs. cbs' board of directors issued a statement saying it's committed to a thorough and independent investigation of the allegations and that investigation is actively under way. these new accounts come just weeks after fair row broke a story that detailed similar behave with other women. the new yorker says it corroborated those women's stories, but nbc news, we should note, has yet to independently verify them. joining me is nbc news senior media editor clear atkinson.

it's good to see you. thanks for being here. can you walk us through how this unfolded behind the scenes at cbs. it's been reported through the afternoon this was a possibility. it appears to have been accelerated. >> absolutely. ever since the story broke, we've been hearing from sources that leslie moonves was accelerating exit negotiations. i had heard from the very beginning from when ronan's story first broke a couple of weeks ago that he had actually initiated exit negotiations when the second story broke it became untenable for him to stay. and just moments ago we heard from cbs and the controlling shareholder national amusements that he is indeed stepping down. the c.o.o. of the company is taking over and perhaps most importantly the statement says that $20 million of the severance due to leslie moonves is going to organizations that support me too.

that's pretty significant. the controlling shareholder is the person running the controlling shareholder of cbs is a woman. they are adding six new directors to the board of cbs. and already three women there. they're adding three more. so that says how seriously the cbs directors have taken the situation. some have alleged they weren't taking the situation very seriously at all given that leslie moonves didn't step down. he wasn't suspended by the board in any way when those allegations first broke. >> hasn't that been the knock on cbs? ronan farrow reported in part that a lot of these women came forward because they read the first story and watched while nothing happened at cbs. and there was also some argument that this culture extends down beyond moonves to jeff fager, the executive producer of "60 minutes" and others. >> i think folks were stunned

the ceo did not step aside. in fact, he went on to do a very controversial call with aminalys on wall street about how the company was going to grow. he was slated to speak at goldman sachs this week and talk about the future of cbs. folks are scratching their head, how can this be? he's been accused all of these terrible things by these women, some of them on record. and i think it really took a second batch of women to come forward and say what happened to them for any ramifications to happen. so we had times up make an initial statement. we had them saying we're watching things, folks. the second time around we had ultima violet and other women's groups saying this is just disgraceful and he's still the ceo of a major corporation. he's one of the highest paid executives in the country earning $69.9 million. how is it that he's still in the position? there's been a whole bunch of other folks accused of much less

and had to walk the plank immediately. >> jo ling kent, not only are the list of allegations on the record and on background pretty graphic and gross, quite frankly, but they also include allegations of retaliation and intimidation and women who have said after this happened and i rebuffed him, my career was ended. >> yeah, the reports from ronan farrow talk about how this is all about power. and if you take that power dynamic and you cross apply it over many years, regardless if something happened in the 1980s, '90s or right now, you can continue to see the impact that this person allegedly had. and looking at that nugget of information and all the stories that have been reported out, the real word that stands out to me tonight is inaction. and because of the inaction that happened, for so long, even just between the two farrow reports, you can see why cbs may have felt their hand was forced here even as these two separate law

firms continue their independent investigations. >> yamiche, you and i have covered this power dynamic. and i do think there had been a sense that perhaps there was something of a backlash against what happened to some of these people, perhaps that was part of what explained why less moonves was allowed to stay even after that first publication. this movement is still strong. >> this movement is still strong. while one person is talking about the idea that inaction is what comes to mind. what comes to mind is power in numbers. you look at the men that have had to go it's because women after women have stacked up to say he also did this to me and i, too, am part of this me too movement. if a woman feels violated by a man, you have done something egregious to a woman once and used your power even once to hurt a woman's career because she didn't want to sleep with you or go on a date with you,

that should be enough. what we're learning through ronan farrow's reporting and cbs news, when you have an article maybe a couple women in it, that wasn't enough. now you have to have six women for cbs to say this is enough. i was thinking about al franken. a lot of back and forth about whether al franken should have resigned. i remember his female colleagues said we cannot take this anymore. how many women is it going to take before al franken resigns and he ended up leaving. >> clair atkinson, i want to touch on the severance package for les moonves because it's an important part of this story. $20 million will go to me too. a lot of pressure to say no perhaps $100 million parachute for you. it seems they're trying to punt this out of the spotlight and perhaps give him a major severance package. >> the phrasing of the statement certainly suggests that while he might not be walking away with $100 million that there might be

something after the investigations wrap up. i think it's really important that we keep in mind that the cbs directors are probably asking themselves, can we get sued if we give les moonves $100 million to leave with. that certainly is something they might be thinking and there's a precedent for this with michael ovitz when he left disney. the board was sued for bailing him out. >> thank you for your insight and analysis. much more "kasie dc" when we come back after this. m. try delicious creations like new crunchy fiesta shrimp tortilla chip crusted then topped with a creamy blend of three cheeses and finished with pico de gallo. and there's new sesame-ginger shrimp. grilled and drizzled with savory soy-ginger sauce and sprinkled with asian seasoning. and don't forget the favorites you love, like garlic shrimp scampi! but endless shrimp won't last endlessly, so hurry in.

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welcome back to "kasie dc." president trump is facing legal issues on a number of fronts this week. "the washington post" citing a new court filing. reports the president will submit written answers under oath in a defamation case brought by summer zervos, a former contestant on "the apprentice." she accused trump of forceibly kissing and groping her. but this stems from the disparaging way trump denied her allegations in 2016. the president maintains the assault never happened. meanwhile, the 2016 hush money deal that his former personal lawyer michael cohen struck with stormy daniels will not be enforced. the president's legal team says he no longer believes the agreement is valid and that he'll also back off his threats to sue her for potentially violating it. almost simultaneously, essential consultants set up by michael

cohen has agreed to rescind daniels' nondisclosure agreement. it comes as stormy daniels herself is speaking out in a new interview on dutch television. >> is there something you know now which we will know soon that could bring down this presidency? >> i say that we have -- yes, there is stuff that i know and i would say it's a 50/50 shot at this point. which is pretty scary odds if you're the president. >> we should, of course, point out the president has denied ever having a sexual relationship with stormy daniels. ken dilanian, our resident -- i feel this segment should be ken dilanian explains it all because there's a lot here. what of these potential threats to the presidency is most important in your view? >> it's just a very dangerous thing in the background. he's got bigger problems. a criminal investigation. he's the target of the mueller

investigation in a sense. bill clinton was impeached because he lied in a civil deposition having to deal with sexual harassment. when donald trump has to give answers under oath. these are written answers so they'll be vetted by his lawyers. to the extent he's ever deposed in one of these cases, that would be perilous for him. >> can i ask you about the political of this and not to wear this topic thin, but, you know, the republican party at one point i seem to remember was the party of plurality, the family values party, the party that said bill clinton did not conduct itself well in the 1990s as regards women. now it seems that the voters at least don't really care because they knew a lot of this going in. is there anything here that you think will significantly impact how voters view this president around this issue? >> well, look. when it comes to donald trump, a lot of people are wrong in 2016 but i think few were as wrong as

i was. i'm probably a bad expert on predicting how people are going to react to donald trump. >> i tip my hat to you, stuart for being willing to acknowledge that. >> i was dead wrong. i didn't think he'd win the nomination or the general election. i think that these questions, even intering onatories are difficult for donald trump because unlike bill clinton, he didn't tweet and it's very typical of donald trump to contradict himself in tweets. we know the lester holt interview is out there. it's a fact. it hasn't been altered. it's out there and yet he's contradicting that. even if there's simple, bland questions, they will be under oath, and it will be the first time we have the president writing something under oath and the odds he might contradict himself in some form or another seem to me to not be small. >> fair enough assessment. stuart stevens, ken dilanian,

yamiche, thank you so much. appreciate your time. join the conversation with all of us here @kasiedc. a record-breaking 100 women may be elected to the house in 2018. we continue our series profiling women running for congress with maria al salazar who is trying to keep a republican seat in republican hands. we're back after this. helping new customers bundle and save big, but now it's time to find my dream abode. -right away, i could tell his priorities were a little unorthodox. -keep going. stop. a little bit down. stop. back up again. is this adequate sunlight for a komodo dragon? -yeah. -sure, i want that discount on car insurance just for owning a home, but i'm not compromising. -you're taking a shower? -water pressure's crucial, scott! it's like they say -- location, location, koi pond. -they don't say that. it's like they say -- location, location, koi pond. ♪ as moms, we send our kids out into the world, full of hope.

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welcome back. we are less than two months away from the mid-term elections. a new race by race enalsis is revealing that a record breaking 100 women could be elected to house in 2018. among them is a republican runni running. and she joins me now live from miami. thank you so much for being here today. >> wonderful. wonderful to be here. >> i want to start by asking you, she was frankly concerned about the district perhaps tilting away from the republican

party. what makes you think that you can hold onto it, where she was perhaps concerned she wouldn't? >> well, because i am the -- you know miami and we have the background dog of downtown miami that belongs to district 27. we are the ultimate melting pot and i am a product of it. we are the george community and the african-american community and the anglo community and the nick i'm sure i have the qualifications and the knowledge to understand what my community wants. and i have the guidance and i have the blessing like you said of iana ross, that she did a wonderful job for 30 years, stellar legacy she's leaving behind. and i intend to be a seamless

transition between her office and mine. >> what is the republican party doing today that makes you want to be a part of the republican party as opposed to being a democrat? >> well, listen, hispanic americans, we share some of the core values that are enshrined in the republican party. and i'm sure that sometimes democrats don't understand that, but that is the truth. we are self-reliant people. we are god fearing, law-abiding. we don't like government or we want a small government. we're family oriented, and those are the values that are enshrined in the republican party. sometimes people do not understand it, but that is why the south florida congressional delegation has been and will continue being republican. >> do you think this president embodies all of those values you just laid out? >> well, i think the president is a pretty unconventional guy and i'm sure you have been covering that for the last year and a half. so was i.

i was a news reporter for 35 years in this town. >> yes, i do know. >> the president is transformational figure. but i always say to everybody that asks me that question we have to look at what he does for the country not so much what he says. >> so does it matter to you he calls mexicans rapists? >> i agree with you the words he has used are not very sensitive, but at the same time i want to remind you that some of the actions that the democratic party has had with my community for the last 30 years have been pretty offensive. in 2008 presidential obama said to a group of spanish journalists we were going to have a re-formation law in the first year, and if that would have been the case we would not being vs the mess and problem right now we're having with immigration. number two, in 1996 president

clinton what he did, he signed immigration reform act, and you know what that does, that gave the legal framework for any administration to separate kids. he did not secure communities. this is not a matter of democrats or republicans. when it comes to immigration everybody is at fault. >> if you were elected to congress, would you vote to build the president's border wall? >> i would definitely vote in order to secure the border because not even the undocumented -- >> but does that mean the wall the president wants? >> any type of towers or technology or any type of guards or border security that will secure the border. because we do not want el chapo or his friends smuggling drugs. listen, the undocumented people do not want to be undocumented. that's why we need to reform our immigration system. and we need to give visas to those that are coming to pick up

ha jalpeno peppers in southern california. and they need to continue to work they are right now without a criminal record. >> before i let you go you are as you mentioned a former journalist. this president has spoken about the press in this country in ways that some people have called stalinist. he has said that we are the enemy of the people. do you think -- do you agree with that, first of all? and what would you say to the president about the press and whether or not they deserve to be defended? >> no, no, no, the press -- we have the best press in the world. i was central bureau chief for uno vision. i was one of yours up until january this year. i believe what happens is that

some journalists there are bad apples in this industry just like in any other. and some journalists and i'm sure you agree with this, just do not like the guy. they don't like him. and that's the problem. it is not important if we like the person or not. we need to continue doing our job being impartial, being unbiased because that we gain our credibility. and unfortunately sometimes that's not happening in main stream america. but the press we need always. >> i do appreciate that final thought and very much agree. thank you very much for your time tonight. >> thank you. when we continue is ted cruz's seat really in danger? why one trump administration official is speculating that it is. plus our team of producers has spent the entire week looking for the op-ed advisor. this is an insurance commercial.

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an explosive week in the trump administration. >> two disturbing accounts of white house dysfunction. >> that anonymous column in "the new york times" and bob woodward's new book. >> top advisors question the president's competence and character. >> describing the president as ignorant and unhinged. >> unpredictable, unprepared

unstable behavior. >> this white house is a reality show soap opera presidency. >> the only thing wrong about that narrative is everything. >> the person should step forward and resign. >> this person is -- cowards like criminals always tell the wrong person. >> the opinions that they expressed are not only deceitful and false they're also un-american. >> the economies doing so well. >> it's all an effort to distract attention from this booming economy. >> who wrote that essay in "the new york times"? >> the top of president trump's government rushed out public denials promising it's not them. >> do you believe the denials this time? >> i do. welcome to the second hour of kasie d.c. breaking news this hour, leslie

moonvise is leaving cbs as ceo and chairman. republican strategist and msnbc political analyst rick tyler, senior advisor jean pierre, and in san diego editor at large for cnbc, john harwood. as we mentioned we do have this late breaking news in the world of media. amid claims of sexual misconduct ceo cbs chairman les moonvise stepped down tonight after reporting six women have come forward accusing moonves of sexual harassment or assault. the accusations include forcing women to perform sexual acts, professional intimidation and even physical intimidation. in a statement to the new yorker moonves said, quote, the appalljug accusations in this

article are untrue. what is true i had consensual relations with three of the women some 25 years ago before i came to cbs. cbs's chief operating officer has been appointed to replace him in the interim. these aren't the first reports of moonves impropriety. ronan farrow broke another story detailing similar behavior he exhibited with other women. we should note nbc news has yet to independently verify these accusations. i want to go first to you on this because there was a sense and ronan farrow has talked about this on his tweets and alluded to it in his story itself, part of why they are now these additional women coming forward is cbs appears to be taking no action and quite frankly the women who had had these experiences were angry about that and saw it as contributing to an overall culture. >> well, and kasie, even more

recently than that people were angered by the prospect les moonves was going to get $100 million to leave his job in the wake of these reports. look, these are appalling, disgusting allegations of misbehavior, things that even what les moonves admitted to, which is not all of it, is things like going to see a doctor for a patient visit and trying to kiss the doctor. ronan farrow in that article has a medical journal article that was written by the doctor without naming a patient, but it seems pretty clear it's les moonves. and it's just unreal what happened. and in this article when the doctor got an explanation from les moonves about what happened, it was i can't control myself when i'm alone with women. no wonder those women wanted to push cbs to act and also to deny him severance. >> and corene, it does seem the

first round of stories should have been enough. but what is different about the me too movement is the juvolume the strength in numbers. >> i listened to that segment. it's sad we need the strength in numbers, but i thank the women for doing this. and as you were saying they came out in this particular story because they saw that cbs was taking too long, and they were. and we need to believe the women. it's important that we believe the women, and it's not easy for women to come out and tell their stories because someone like the head of cbs is incredibly powerful. and it should be in every industry. this should not be allowed. if men are harassing women they need to go. >> and that power dynamic is such an important part of it. some of the women cited in this article were massage therapists.

to politics now and that new york op-ed written by an anonymous trump administration official. rarely has a piece of anonymous captured a country like this one has and the white house is not impressed. sarah huckabee sanders slammed what she branded the media's quote wild obsession with the author and here's kellyanne conwrai. >> is it true the white house has a list of 12 suspects about who might have written this? >> why are you so obsessed with that? do you have an answer for me, why is this so important to you? >> the boss, however seems to be still interested, maybe obsessed with the column. >> the latest act of resistance is the op-ed published in the failing "the new york times" about an anonymous, really an

anonymous gutless cowered. >> "the times" should never have done that. i think it's a national security matter. it's treason. you can call it a lot of things. eventually we're going to find the person. no one knows who had hell is he, or she. i think of four or five, mostly people either i don't like or respect. we have lot of people that are protected and a lot of people call those people bad names. so they take one person out of thousands, but what's unfair, i don't mind when they write a book and they make lies because it gets discredited. we discredited all of them because it's lies. but i'll tell you when somebody writes and you can't discredit because you don't know who they are. why should we live with somebody in the white house who's subversive, in a sense? for the sake of our national security "the new york times" should publish his name at once. i would say jeff should be

investigating who the author of that piece was because i really believe it's national security. >> well, then, jeff mason, you were on that plane where we just heard that audio clip of the president talking there. clearly he is very interested in knowing the author of this op-ed. >> he's definitely very interested. i was not on that plane. i was in the room three days before when the story broke in the east room. and we asked him questions and he first showed how angry he was about it and then ripped a piece of paper out of his pocket and started going off about all his accomplishments he felt the media should have been focusing on. >> of course. >> but cleary this is something that's gotten under president trump's skin. and the fact he said on air force one on friday he thinks jeff sessions should be look into it, he's created even more of a controversy, honestly. >> what is the reporting of their status or search or lack

thereof on this person? >> i think part of the strategy is to get this story to move on, but it has kept on with its legs as it is some stories in this white house do not have. there's been some reports they've narrowed down the list to some people. i think it's worth noting, though, that the term senior administration official is one that we as journalists and also people at the white house and in the administration broadly can use to apply to a lot of different types of people. senior does not necessarily mean that inner circle or even super senior. >> right, i think it is an important point to make that a quote-unquote senior administration official may not pass the household name test, may not be something our viewers are aware of. rick tyler, this is your republican party, go. no, i mean have you -- ben sasse was on this morning talking about all this nonsense, saying

i think every day whether i should be on this party. are you still a republican? >> hanging on by a thread. and i appreciate what ben sasse said and i sympathize with it. and i haven't always been on the same page of stewart stevens but i too may be an obsessed republican. look, this op-ed -- i'm convinced this op-ed is written for one purpose, to get under the president's skin. because it doesn't have any -- >> well, why if you're making those arguments, though, would you try to get under the president's skin? if you believe this, wouldn't that make it worse? >> first of all, all the analysis we didn't elect advisers to say this, that's true. that's good stuff. we don't. and that person is not going to save the republic by staying anonymous and trying to guide the president, that shouldn't really work. and barack obama alluded to that in his speech. but the fact he mentioned and

wept on about john mccain in this article, it was designed to anger the president. and so whoever wrote it clearly wanted to get under the president's skin. there's no other reason for it. and i think ben sasse did say, why would you if you were trying to settle things down and not for the president paranoid, why would you write an op-ed that would make him paranoid? but it has yielded some interesting things. one is that the president has no idea of what treason is, he doesn't know what the justice department is for, we don't know what the attorney general -- >> but we knew that. >> it's confirmed all that. >> the shock thing about this op-ed was that it wasn't shocking. there were details in there you were like, wow, that's really scary. >> 25th amendment. >> exactly. that was intriguing and interesting to hear about, but we all knew he was erratic and unfit to be president. my thinking on this is what are

republicans going to do? they need to step up because they're not doing their constitutional duty to be a coequal branch of government. they're not holding this president accountable, and to me that is the question. and they knew this already, so what are they going to do? >> john harwood, let me go to you on that. it's sort of been my view and reporting that until the voters show republicans they're going to throw them out, frankly they all got beaten by president trump in the primaries so none of them are eager to run out into the firing line again. but what are voters telling you what's been happening in washington, this op-ed and whether or not any of it is resonating in america? >> well, i think it's clearly resonating. look, the president is not a popular president. in the state of california he's somewhere in the 20s in his approval. now, he's a little bit higher in orange county where i was

reporting on several congressional races there. but you hear from voters. they know a lot less about candidates for congress than they do about the president and his behavior. and they're disturbed by it. and voters i talked to were debating what strategies there could be for constraining him. and i think the significance of this op-ed is not simply on its own but you have an accumulation of portraits -- michael wolfe, omarosa, the op-ed, the bob woodward book. all of it essentially portrayed a picture, which is a president who doesn't know policy and is not mentally healthy. and the question is what do voters do about it and what do democrats if they take the congress do about it? >> rick tyler, to that point this is -- the reason for me reading this op-ed was so unsurprising is because i hear it on capitol hill every day. i mean, yes, certainly set aside

judges and the tax reform bill, et cetera. but whenever you get i mean the most high ranking official who in public will say i don't like the tweets, but tax cuts -- will say that they feel like they're living in crazy town, to use the words that bob woodward reported. what i don't understand is, is there really a future for the republican party if there are this base of voters that are with this president and the establishment and the elite in washington and other people watching him run this government, think this man should not be in charge? >> let's start with one notion, the republican party i knew is dead, it doesn't exist anymore. this is now the trump party. and a lot of voters that came into this party or into the new trump party, we're not republicans either, so he has attracted this other group of people. many of them are white non-college educated blue collar workers. that's great, all fine. they support him.

the republicans on capitol hill who we often call leaders, and i've pointed out on this show before, members of congress in general are not leaders. they're followers. they're followers of the constituents in their states or districts and are going to go where their constituents tell them to go. the one misconception about the president being elected is the reason why everybody did want get the prediction right about donald trump being elected was not because the polls were wrong. there was a bad poll in wisconsin, but the national polls were right. hillary clinton was going to win in a lan slide with a million of surplus voters, she did. it was going to be a close race in michigan, it was. there was one bad poll in wisconsin. the reason they got it wrong because if you study electoral college history you couldn't cobceive the fact he was going to win pennsylvania, michigan and pennsylvania and florida and ohio and all these other states. he changed the map. we don't have to speculate or wonder what's happening now. the president who the way the

economy is going the way it is and he's stuck in the 40s or as john just said, in the 20s in california, you don't have to wonder they're going to lose seats. it's just a question of how many. >> by how many, yeah. >> that's the only thing you have to speculate. >> yeah, we're going to talk more about that exact question with john harwood. >> but still to come we have the very latest on brett kavanaugh's confirmation hearing process where it was hard to tell what was signal and what was noise. >> people are wondering whether these hearings are turning into a circus, and i want to defend circuses. circuses are entertaining and you can take your children to them. this hearing is neither entertaining nor appropriate for young people.

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have you discussed mueller and his investigation with anyone at cas wits, benson and taurez? be sure about your answer, sir. >> well, i'm not remembering but if you have something you want to -- >> it's a really specific question. >> i would like to know the person you're thinking of because what if theirs -- >> i think you're thinking of someone and you don't want to tell us. were you a party to a conversation that occurred regarding special counsel mueller's investigation? and it's a simple yes or no. >> the answer is no. >> thank you. and it would have been great if you could have said that last night. >> that was senator kamala harris pressing smoet nominee brett kavanaugh whether he's discussed robert mueller's investigation with any individuals at the law firm founded by president trump's

personal attorney. harris says she has reason to believe such a conversation took place. but as of now she's offered no evidence and both kavanaugh and cas c kasowitz have denied. cory booker announced he would knowingly violate senate laws. >> i'm going to knowingly release the e-mail, by the rule bring the charges -- >> mr. chairman. >> bill burke, the attorney overseeing the kavanaugh records tells "the washington post" the records senator booker was referring to the already been cleared. >> is that true? are the documents already clear or are you violating the rules? i don't know. >> i violated the rules and i'm violating the rules. i'm continuing to release

documents that they haven't approved yet. >> so in the wake of those performances from two senators just about everyone in washington thinks will run for president in 2020, consider this from politico. quote, it hardly mattered to their primary audience, that kamala harris offered firm no firm evidence to support one of her sharpest lines of questioning. one thing democrats are learning from president donald trump as confirmation hearings for supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh drawing to a close, floating an incendiary charge with little to no factual basis. it isn't the details that resonate with base voters, it's the show. fair? >> i was thinking ability that the last couple of days about what happened this past week. and from what i've gathered from

folks that i've talked to in the base and people that i've talk today outside of the beltway, people do see that the fraud process was exposed. people do see it that way. they see that they got some knowledge how kavanaugh feels about roe v. wade, on affirmative action. there is an exposure peopling that people do see, and also, too, there were tweets by senato senato senators leahy and feinstein this weekend. these were two senators who don't throw that word around. and if he did, it would be troubling to her, and that's incredibly important. and so for us who are really fighting this fight, part of the real resistance, we really want

to stop kavanaugh because it's important because everything's at stake for us. so i think that is the issue here. >> john harwood, what is your kind of take how these hearings played out in the past week? and is it possible for us to have a real conversation about issues that gets kind of noticed and played out or do you you have to put on a show just to break through? >> i think it's a pretty sad situation that we're in where the nominees know what the right answers are, the performative demands on the senators from both parties sort of control what they do. i don't think kamala harris or cory booker did themselves any favors with those performances. particularly harris where she had this strong insinuation and there was nothing behind it. i also thinked kavanaugh looked

a little disingenuous when she was trying to get him to answer and he was acting like he wasn't familiar with the law firm. well, it turns out he's got a pretty good friend at the law firm. i think the attempts by democrats to sus out evasion or leading testimony or the performance of those senators while doing it, it all isn't going to change anything. and i think that kavanaugh is on track to be confirmed. and i don't know how we get back to a more constructive dialogue. i do think it's serious, though, as uindicated if pat leahy and diane feinstein are seriously making a charge that the nominee lied, that's not something they would do casually. i know the argument is that it was, well, it was softer than that. but that was the most

consequential thing in my view. >> and rick tyler, there was a time an accusation of lying under oath could be the thing that potentially stop a nomination. there's a possibility there, but certainly that's not how republicans are acting. >> no, i think this whole nomination process is terrible and it started when what's his name -- >> didn't get a hearing. >> apologies. no, he didn't get a vote, and so in a way you expected the democrats to fight back and the base expects him to fight back, but a lot of this was a sham. do i want to be a member of a party, yeah i would say democrats, but i was not impressed with this. corey booker diminishes himself. he pretends he was willing to give up his seat and came nowhere close to that.

and this whole thing about the document release, yeah the republicans held back democrats but the democrats didn't really need -- the whole thing was a sham. there's plenty of information to figure out whether kavanaugh is a decent judge or not and they had it and just made it show. >> and the reality is there has been in years past where the bar is the nominee qualifier. just ahead brand new reporting on a key term race, plus as the president heads to texas to campaign for a former arch-rival one of his closest advisers says ted cruz might have a likability problem. >> if you love our country and love your children as much as i know that you do, stand and speak and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom. god bless each and every one of you and god bless the united

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races we've been watching. democratic candidate andrew gillum with a three point edge over san tez. democrat stacey abrams and republican brian kemp deadlocked at 45%. as for the senate our new nbc marist pole tied. and former democratic governor phil bret is in leading republican congress woman marsha blackburn by two points in get this, tennessee. joining us now, dave, the numbers we just ticked through obviously are not for house reasons. but we talk about the overall landscape that very much feeds into this question whether or not it's going to be a wave, what are you seeing in the house race ratings right now and how real right now is this wave? >> well, problems keep popping up for republicans in surprising

places. it's like a game of wack a mole, because new races keep coming out to the board ipdistricts that should be safe for republicans. and what we've seen in the past year these special elections are even better for democrats than the generic polls would seem to suggest. >> according to an audio recording staffers, white house budget chief nick mulvaney, let's keep going, told republicans at a closed door meeting, quote, we would win a race in florida and lose a race in texas for senate. i don't think it's likely but it's a possibility. how likable is a candidate? that still counts. so rick tyler, this one is for you. as the former cruz strategist it does seem as though the signs are that ted cruz might actually lose this race. >> it's possible.

people will say, no, it's not possible because again you look at texas and you say it's a red state -- >> it's a democratic pipe dream. it's never going to happen. >> it's never going to happen. but mayor raurk has consistently outfunded and he's grabbed national attention. >> and jeff, the president said he's going to hold a campaign rally in the biggest stadium in texas. this is of course, there's been reporting that republicans down in texas they had to say to the president, hey, we realize you may run against this guy, you don't like him all that much but you've got to show up. >> a, the fact that ted cruz wants donald trump to help is

amazing, and it's also sort of a reflection how important donald trump can be in this election. people want him at least in some of these races where his base is critical, they want him out on the trail. >> and i do think it's going to be a really interesting test for some of the candidates he helped if that sends a general election the other way. i do want to go out to california now, the district currently said to be a toss up is said to be emblematic as they try to keep control of the house. marking the first time a republican presidential candidate has lost that district in get this, 80 years. the mix of changing demographics and some suburban voter's aversion to president trump's conduct has opened up a lane for liberal democrat katey porter to challenge incumbent republican

mimi walters. john harwood, you be been out there covering this race. what have you found on the ground as to how mimi walters is threading the needle when it comes to president trump and is this democrat the right potential person to take back the district for democrats? >> well, katey porter clearly is in this race. it's very close in the polling. dave has it as a toss up. mimi walters is trying to stick with president trump but not too closely. she doesn't fully embrace him in what he does, but he doesn't trash him either. and katie porter is somebody who was a former protége of elizabeth warren. i talked to them because donald trump is really the overriding issue in so many places. this is a district, by the way, where it's increasingly asian and latino. so the white population is just over 50%. so it's vulnerable to lot of the

same trends and views towards trump in some of those groups. but i asked mimi walters and katie porter whether they think donald trump is dangerous. listen to what they said. >> no, i do not. i think he has a very good team around him, and i think he's doing what he believes is right. and if there's corruption then it will play itself out, but what i'm focused on is making sure i deliver the promises to my constituents. >> i think that some of trump's actions have hepted a real threat to our democracy. part of congress' job is to be a check on the presidency. if you're not asking hard questions, if you're not asking the right questions, if you're not looking at the evidence of the corruption, you won't see it even when it's there. >> now, the republicans are trying to make as they are in many other places the prospect

or the looming possibility of a democratic congress to galvanize their own voters, and mimi walters is drawing on the ancestral conservatism of orange county. it was a base for reagan in the 1960s. and i asked mimi walters what she thought would happen if democrats took control. >> yeah, i'm not sure -- sorry, john, i'm not sure if we have that bite. >> well, what she said was we'll have socialism. >> fair enough. can i get your response to that and i also want to ask you about and you guys have been working on a project working with women kanld candidates in the house as well. >> did you watch the show the oc back in the day? >> i did. that's embarrassing. >> that's the district. the irany here is mimi walters

has skated through an election over the years. porter grew up in iowa, which is interesting in such a wealthy upscale traditionally republican district. and mimi walters is going to say she's a socialist, single payer out of step with the district. but all she needs to say is look, in a district that hillary won, that might be enough. >> and let's talk about women, too, because it does seem as though -- i mean you're saying 100 women could go to washington in this wave? i mean that's way above the percentage that we have right now. >> well, look, we could see -- and i think the likely outcome is between 30 and 40 new women added to the house in 2018. in 1992 we had 24 women come to the house. and that was the highest we've had ever. so this could shatter that record and make the year of the woman look small in retrospect. and what's really interesting

this time around, these are not existing politicians or state legislators or mayors. they range -- these women range from navy helicopter pilots to former national teacher of the year. they have diverse backgrounds, and they're not loyal. they don't feel allegiance to the democratic party's hierarchy. >> that's actually one of my biggest questions whether the democratic party while they may take back the white house could end up with a tea party style. >> how can you ditch nancy pelosi as the leader if democrats take back the margin. the fact more than 100 women could get elect today the house for the first time in american history has everything to do with democrats because republicans are actually going to see a decline in the number of women. >> nancy pelosi suggested in the event this happened and it was

women who carried it through it would have a hard time saying hey, nancy pelosi to date on the cover of "the times" magazine for the first time ever before. coming up, as hundreds of migrant children remain separated from their parents the trump administration up ends a decades old statute surrounding their detainment. we're back after this. this is an insurance commercial. but let's be honest, nobody likes dealing with insurance.

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carla is living with metastatic breast cancer, which is breast cancer that has spread to other parts of her body. she's also taking prescription ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor, which is for postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive her2- metastatic breast cancer as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole was significantly more effective at delaying disease progression versus letrozole. patients taking ibrance can develop low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infections that can lead to death. before taking ibrance, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection, liver or kidney problems, are pregnant, breastfeeding, or plan to become pregnant. common side effects include low red blood cell

and low platelet counts, infections, tiredness, nausea, sore mouth, abnormalities in liver blood tests, diarrhea, hair thinning or loss, vomiting, rash, and loss of appetite. carla calls it her new normal because a lot has changed, but a lot hasn't. ask your doctor about ibrance. the #1 prescribed fda-approved oral combination treatment for hr+/her2- mbc. the trump white house announced this week a new rule allowing authorities to detain migrant children with their parents for the definite periods of time while their asylum cases play out. the move up ends a decades old statute that prohibited children from being detained more than 30 days. meanwhile according to court

filings 416 of the more than 2,500 children separated from their parents while crossing the border still have not been reunited with their families. the controversial new policy will likely be taken up by the courts in the near future. and karine, this was an aversion what the obama administration was hundred running into, because the courts told them this wasn't allowed. >> and it was the floor's agreement and the obama administration followed it, right, they kept the families together for no longer than 20 days and released them if they -- you know, to go once that time period came up. look, this is incredibly disturbing, as i've said many times it's a humanitarian crisis. i think there's about a dozen children under 5 who are still not reunited with their families. and weave to understand why they got there in the first place,

why they crossed over the border. they crossed the desert, tla get to the border and what happens, they get torn apart. and it's just the incompetence of this administration. they put this process in place and now they're stuck and now these families are stuck and they can't bring them back together. >> jeff, what's your sense of how this is being discussed in the white house? is it an issue still on the radar screen in the highest level meetings or not? >> i think the radar question is the right one. you said the courts will be taking this up very shortly. i think the democrats will be taking it up very shortly as well on the campaign trail. there were people, very close advisers and relatives of the president who expressed outrage and concern when these reports first came out about the child separation policy, ivanka trump and melania trump. so i don't think it's gone away, but i do think it's interesting we haven't heard much about it in the last few weeks as some of

these other stories take so much airtime. but going into the campaign this is something people on both sides of the political aisle continue to be concerned about. >> rick tyler, i get the sense this is something that actually resonated deeply with voters, it's something that while we talk so much about how people are fed up with the noise, not paying attention what's going on in washington, this is story that broke through. >> i said on day one this is story that has legs, not going to be one of those overnight donald trump stories. it's going to carry on for weeks. thank you for bringing it up again. it is just so deeply offensive to me that families would either be ripped apart by gangs or ripped apart by our american government. and that's not who we are. and it's got to be fixed, and we've got to figure how to make it right. it's just inhumane. >> john harwood, in the context of your reporting did this issue come up? is it something americans are still worried about? >> it absolutely did because the

two things that mimi walters went after katie porter on, one, socialism, she said there'll be universal health care, she said that's a bad word in my district. but she also said open borders and crime associated with that. katie porter seems very comfortable and democratic strategists i say it's very comfortable to come back with no. child separation has changed the conversation on this issue. it provides democrats a way to push back against the president and connect that issue, the humanity of that issue with what the trump administration is doing in ways that is powerful for democrats. >> 416 children. 416. back with more kasie d.c. in just a moment. uhp. i didn't believe it. again. ♪ ooh, baby, do you know what that's worth? ♪ i want to believe it. [ claps hands ] ♪ ooh i'm not hearing the confidence.

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use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. those who have had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. with less pain, i can do more with my family. talk to your doctor today. see if lyrica can help. much to the chagrin of the kasie d.c. producers, this is my favorite thing. every week we ask you to share your photos of the dogs on social media watching kasie d.c. here is ken del everyone nian's dog teddy watching the show. here's my dog, radar. you may notice that radar here is eating out of his brand-new kasie d.c. dog bowl. thanks to marie dugo and her team. we just found out you can now get one just like it with your dog's name on it from msnbc store.com. can you get a heart and get a lightning bolt. there's a lot of other cool

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ing. so after this week, lots of

people in washington and perhaps all over america needed a drink. i was tapped to judge the anheuser busch beer festival. a competition among members of congress, they love competitions, they brewed their own specialty beers and i was a judge. take a look. ♪ >> you're going to rate that beer individually, 1-5. >> i don't know. >> i know i'm going to win today. i got kasie d.c. on my side. >> i think we will. it's a fraud, it's a sham if we don't. we're counting on kasie. >> are you serving water over there? >> we can't not win. everyone else is pretender. >> we're pretty sure it's going to kick some butt in this competition. >> we're going to win tonight.

>> cheers. >> and the winner of the 2018 brew democracy cup congressman mike quigley! [ cheers and applause ] >> i held up the stanley cup, this is almost as good. >> cheers to all of that. before we go, i think congressman quigley earned himself an invitation to the show from his performance. john harwood what are you looking for in the week ahead? >> you showed the poll earlier of the "washington post"/abc 14-point lead for democrats on the generic ballot. i'm going to see if that continues. >> careen what are you looking for? >> i think we should take a look at democrats who are going to continue to push hard this week on misleading and false statements by kavanaugh during

the hearing. we were talking about republican susan collins saying she wanted to take a look at that. and if it was true, it would be troubling. last, i think roger stone needs to have some steak dinners this week. because as he likes to say, his time in the barrel may be coming up very soon. >> rick tyler what are you looking for? >> i think this op-ed, anonymous search is not over and i think the president thinks it plays well for him politically. i'm looking forward to the search of finding "anonymous." >> jeff mason, what are you watching for? >> president trump will be doing some political traf l travel. i'll be watching to see if he continues to use president obama for a foil after president obama sort of coming out, process against trump this week politically. >> i actually echo jeff mason there i'm interest interested to see what the former president does on the campaign trail coming up. quick programming note for all of you, this week investigative journalist bob woodward joins

nbc news and msnbc for his first live interviews since the release of his new book. tomorrow he joins "the today show" and tuesday he sits down for an interview with rachel maddow here on msnbc. that does it for us tonight on kasie d.c. we'll be back with you next week. for now, good night from washington. ♪ ♪ this is already the biggest political scandal in decades. >> if you do that without cause, you could be impeached. >> failure, scandal, chaos, it's all come together, people. >> it was a tale of back-room deals with a foreign adversary. >> the entire thing has been a witch hunt. >> and denials at the highest levels. >> it was absolutely no collusion. >> fake news, folks, fake news. >> welcome to what is arguably the biggest presidential scandal involving a foreign government since iran contra. >> it's a scandal that