tv Andrea Mitchell Reports MSNBC September 20, 2018 9:00am-10:00am PDT
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i'm stephanie ruhle. >> i'm ali velshi and time to hand it over to "andrea mitchell reports." and will she or won't she? the supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh's accuser has a deadline to testify before the judiciary committee. >> if she shows up and makes a credible showing, that is going to be interesting, and we would like to have a decision. >> i would like to have us come together and the best of the way to proceed and not the seat of the pants stuff, and the latests being a letter from the chairman ono the democrat saysing that we have done everything that we can to contact her and that is such bull [ bleep ] i can't hardly stand it. >> metoo protesterers crowding the senate offices telling their stories and opposing brett kavanaugh's nomination, and the fallout of supporting him is falling out. >> my metoo moment is when i was
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serving in the united states navy. >> my me too moment was when i s served in the united states navy. >> initially i was ing ri that it happened. >> and initially i told was angry when it happened. >> and i told a bunch of people who didn't care. >> and i told a bunch of people who didn't care. >> most of them men -- and michael cohen is testifying, and the president is talking about the attorney general. >> and when you have these two things going on, this is what you will see. good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. we expect to hear from the officials in a aberdeen, maryland n i mome maryland, any moment now as there was a shooting and the
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death toll is mounting. pete williams is there. and first, we are less than 24 hours away from the deadline set by the chairman of the judiciary committee chuck grassley to find out if christine blais ford is going to testify before the judiciary committee. and she is pushing back from her legal team asking for a neutral position and requesting a investigation by the fbi into the conduct of judge kavanaugh when they were in high school. and joining me is correspondent kasie hunt and correspondent kristen welker, and also, the editor from the washington post. and kasie hunt, what is the state of play up there, and then to kristen, judge kavanaugh is back at the white house today and more on that in a moment. kasie? >> andrea, and you have showed some of this in the opening of
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the show, and today, emotional protests from women who are going from office to office and many members of congress who are not here, and the senate is out of session, and they are going into the front of their offices, and they are telling their own stories, and we obviously get a lot of protesters up here on a lot of topics and always a lot of yelling and chanting, and little bit of that today, but this is kind of markedly emotional, and in of the women here are saying that this is the first time that they have told their stories in public, and that they have talked about it. i spoke to onele woman who said that she hoped that by christine blasey ford doing what she is doing, and anita abraham telling her story in public, younger women will realize that they don't have to do it the way she has done it, and they don't have to be ashamed for 40 years. that is a dynamic piece of how people are unfolding here on the capitol hill, and the republicans have dug in and set
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the political deadline of monday and they could move it if they wanted, but they have coalesced by the idea that if she won't testify by then, they will go ahead with the vote. and if they do it, it is not a strategy without risk, because it has struck a chord across the country with women. and they know it and they have been hearing from the constituents, and susan collins continues to get in many cases harass i harassing or the abusive calls about this. so grassley seems to be standing firm here, but a lot of risks for republicans, andrea. >> and kasie and kristen and ruth standby, and we are going to aberdeen, maryland, where the the sheriff is jeffrey galler and a press conference. >> unfortunately, the county exec and i and all of the law enforcement officers have been here before and we stand here again today. many people have been affected by the events this morning, and the prayers and the thoughts and the prayers of the hartford k n county sheriff's office go out
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to all of those affected. we are so preliminary into this investigati investigation. i know that there is a a million questions, and we won't take any questions today. i know that you have many, but as christy said, it is so important that we deal in the fact facts there. are families that are irreparably harmed from today's event, and we don't want to make it as if you could make it worse, you certainly can and we don't want to be a part of that. we want to release the fact, and please allow us the time to gather the facts and share those with you. i will give you as much information as we can right now even though it is very preliminary and very limited. at about 9:06 this morning a report came into the dispatch center from the rite aid distribution center of the shots fired. immediately deputies, officers and trooper ss and other first responders responded, and we were on scene and in just over five minutes with arriving law enforcement and fire and ems units quickly paired up together and got into the building and
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ordered to render first aid where appropriate, and treat patients in an attempt to locate suspect or suspects. at this time i can confirm multiple wounded and multiple fatalities. based on what we know right now and again very preliminary, the lone suspect in this incident is in custody and critical condition at a local hospital. it appears to be a single weapon that was used, a handgun. there were no shots fired by any of the law enforcement officers responding to the scene. we do not believe that there is an additional threat anywhere to our hartford county community. we have set up a family reunification scenter working with the county executive and the county partners at the volunteer firehouse, and again, this investigation is early. i, and the office will be happy to give you more informations it is becoming available. i ask you to keep the victims of
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today's tragic event in your thoughts and prayers, and also, you have to thank the fellow first responders. we have responders here from federal government who were on scene within minutes, the fbi and the dea and the atf and the state police and the mbta police and the natural resources around and the local departments of aberdeen and grace and bel-air and you name it as we have seen in the community when something like this happens, you can't have enough police and have them fast enough. we were fortunate here that everyone worked oso well together and responded so well together to be on scene to get as much aid in as quickly as possible. that is what we have for you at this time. and christy going to put out when we will have additional details around and the county executive wanted to offer some thoughts this morning. >> sheriff, jeff geller, g-e- l
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g-e-l-l-e-r. >> thank you, sheriff. harper county executive and i got off of the phone with governor hogan a few moments ago and updated the governor on the incident so far as we know it. he offered all of his resources available under state government. we certainly appreciate the maryland state police. all of the allied agencies that responded. you know, i followed this probably from the moment that the call came in on the dispatch and listened to the radio transmissions, and unfortunately in today's world we have active shooter drilling and drills and i can tell you and the hartford county citizens that every agency performed at the top of their profession. the response from all of the allied agencies was great and the volunteer agencies responded with medical units a sound am thankful for all of the agencies who came out to help to usday which is coming through this which is too often occurrence and not only in the harper
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county, but throughout the country. and so we reach out to the families who are suffering right now, and have lost loved ones, and offer our services as we begin to get them reunified not only with the loved ones lost, but with the workers who have been displace. so i certainly thank all of the courageous men and women who have helped us this morning. >> sheriff, is there -- >> jane, we won't give any additional information right u now. and again, this is very fluid. you know us that we will be sure to are provide you the information as soon as we have it. follow the feeds, and i will absolutely let you know when the next media briefing is going to be today and we can nail down the details and give you a better picture of what up folded. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> and pete williams is joining us now from the newsroom. and pete, what do you know so far beyond what we have heard from the sheriff just now? >> what we know is that this is
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an unusual situation in that the person who did the shooting is a woman. most of these workplace shoot ings or the mass shootings are committed by men. so we are told that the woman is hospitalized and in critical condition with a gunshot wound, but the sheriff said that no law en s forment officials fired any shots, and so that suggests that the woman shot herself perhaps in and attempt to kill herself and we don't know that, but it is the first that we had heard that no law enforcement fired any shots. we don't know what the connection is to this rite aid distribution scenter where the shooting took place today and as for the number of people shot, we had heard that the number, the total number of gunshot victims was somewhere around seven and that the number of fatalities was ooeither three o four. and it is not clear to me which is the correct number, and we have heard both frankly, and a
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matter of waiting to get the information from the hospital, but, in any event, well over 100 people apparently employed at the rite aid distribution s center, and the number of casualties is less than 10. so it all happened starting at 9: 9:00, and over pretty quickly by the time that the law enforcement people finally found this woman, and got her out of there and declared the shooting over, andrea. >> pete williams, thank you. i know that you will be there on the phone with the officials and the fbi is on this and the atf and any details you get, you know where we are, and we will of course bring them to you. and thank you, pete. back to kasie hunt, and ruth marcus is with us, and kristen welker from the white house and talk about the on going controversy whether christine blasey ford is going to comply with the 10:00 a.m. friday deadline that the senator grassley has imposed on test fig at this hearing monday. she has pushed back with the w
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lawyers not saying that she would show up, but she believes that there should be an fbi investigation before that. and let me bring in ruth marcus on that narrow point before we go back to you, ruth, there is precedent for that and we both covered to a anita hill/clarence thomas hearings and when chairman joe biden got the initial information confidentiality from anita hill that there was an allegation against clarence thomas, he called then white house counsel boyden gray and he went to the president, bush 41 and called the fbi and ordered a reopened background check, and that is not an investigation, but a routine background check expanded to open up this investigation, and what happened after that is controversial, but up to that point, they went through the procedure that christine blasey ford is requesting. >> it would be normal for them
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to tell the truth and because they are trained questioners and not only christine blasey ford and brett kavanaugh, but question the third person who was a allegedly in the room, and the others who were allegedly at the party, and we have seen from robert mueller the dangers of not telling the truth to the fbi, and people have a way to opening up to the fbi, and they don't open up to others. it is not to say that it would fundamentally give us a solution one way or another, but it is a -- two things are simultaneously true. it is a perfectly reasonable thing for her and her lawyers to ask. it is for the democrats to ask and it is the thing that the republicans should want to do to help get out the truth about brett kavanaugh, and also i think if they are unwilling to do that, i would love to see her turn up anyway, because it is raeal ly important to the hear from her at this stage. >> and kristen, welker, do you know what is happening at the white house right now which is that he is there. we understand from your reporting and the colleague's
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report reportings there that he was basically there for nine hours there, and asked him about his dating habits and high school and i presume given t"the new york times" that there was drink ing in the high school can and lawle school and prep school, and alcohol could be a part of this, and a lot of questions could be asked and we know what has happened to other nominees, and we know that douglas ginsberg was eliminated as a leak from nina totenberg about marijuana marijuana use and quickly replaced by anthony kennedy by ronald reagan. >> and if that monday hearing does take place, and we no that he judge brett kavanaugh has been preparing vigorously, and that murder board on tuesday that you talked about that according to my colleague peter
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alexander who is working his sources lasted two hours and involved questions from don mcgahn, and sarah sanders and raj shah and just to name a few, and they did cover a range of topics and not only the incident in question, but the dating history and the history at prep school, but this source says that kavanaugh is determined and hopeful one official tell manage that he is champing at the bit to clear his name and he going to be prepared if that hearing does take place. and now, this is from kelly o'donnell just moments ago, andrea, who says that the white house official is telling her that judge kavanaugh as he goes through the process he and his family have received hateful e-mails and threats and in this confirmation period, and we know that obviously christine blasey ford has had to move out of her house according to her attorneys because she has received death threats and it is speaking to the level at which in is so incredibly politically fraught.
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it is speaking to the just how high the stakes are, andrea. >> thanks to you, and i know that you have to go back to reporting, and kasie hunt, one final question, and there is a whole issue as to the whether the rules committee could be brought in, and they could in fact order a private investigation into this, but judge, not judge, but chairman grassley does not seem to be inclined to do anything except to say that we will send the senate staff to interview, and so far, the attorneys are saying that is not good enough. >> that is right, andrea. and in fact, there was a lengthy piece of that letter that grassley sent yesterday trying to explain or claim that the way that it was handled when anita hill was going through the process that they are doing the it the same way and they claim that the fbi investigation only happened when they were anonymous and once it was public, the committee handled it, and obviously viewed different differently by the democrats who view and argue correctly that the investigation was very short
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in time frame and not actually that dissimilar in the context of where it came in the overallel nominating process in 1991 as is happening right now. but i will say, andrea, the one thing that we are all watching that i know that my sources on both sides of the aisle, republican and democrat and it is clear from the murder boarding at the white house, that it is on the minds there as well is that during a period like this, are there additional accusations or accounts that come up in the course of something like this, and i know that both sides on capitol hill are preparing to fight out the battle under noif those scenarios from kavanaugh withdrawal all of the way up to the republicans forcing this vote next week. so clearly everyone kind of on waiting with bated breath on this, andrea. >> and all of the reporting as you are going up and down the hallways, thank you so much very much, kasie hunt. and back to you, ruth marcus.
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when orrin hatch, and senator grassley both on the committee, and orrin hatch when he said whether or not there should be a fbi investigation back then. >> i have to say that chairman biden, and the ranking member thurman, when they heard about this the first time they immediately oord lly order ed t investigation which is the very right thing to do and appropriate thing to do and did what every other chairman and ranking member have done in the past. and the investigation was done and it is a good investigation. >> and so the question is then and now. and now he says that there is no need for the investigation, and that he is thinking that the accuser is mixed up. >>le well, that is -- some things stay the same, right? being willing to question the veracity of the people who say that they were victimized may stay the same, and the other parts may be situational and
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depend depending upon the politic, and is important for us to keep can an eye on something here. time is not of the essence and truth is of the essence and no, it should not be delayed or months or weeks, but there is a limited amount of investigation that could be done. i understand why republicans don't want to do that and i understand why they want to rush this through, but i don't think that is good for the court. i don't think it is good for the country, and i think that for the nominations council for senator grass lley to be tweeti and the tweet has since been removed that they are unfazed and brett kavanaugh going to be confirmed is suggesting that they have a goal here to confirm kavanaugh which is a goal that is subservient to getting at the truth which we all want. >> and why have a hearing and her go through the hearing if they have made up their minds and what is interesting with jeff flake, in the last 24 hours, saying that, you know, if she is not going to show up as we have already given her the courtesy that she requested and
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even senator collins suggesting. >> then don't bother. >> and you know, what is the hurry here? we know that they want the judge to be sworn in as a justice and se seated by the first monday in october, and that is only a week and a half away, but they could -- he could miss the first couple of arguments. >> and another worry here. >> the mid-term elections. >> yes, you got it. and as a political matter, it is a reasonable worry for the republicans, but this should be on both sides, and should be completely above, and as much above politics as any judicial nomination can be and politics are always going to play a role, and that is why we see the people taking different sides with 27 years apart, and let's work for the truth and not for just muscling it through. muscling it through is going to leave the court in -- and imagine that she does not turn up, and imagine that jeff flake sayses i am voting for him and
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susan collins says that i am voting for him and where does that leave the supreme court of the united states with two justices with a lingering cloud, and that is terrible for everybody involved, including the justices. >> ruth marcus, thank you very much for being with us. and the judiciary committee member chris coons join g ing u from capitol hill, and what is the latest state of play as far as whether christine blasey ford will or will not show up or should or should not show up, and what are you hearing from the chairman? >> i have heard nothing from chairman grassley that changes my expectation of what may or may not happen on monday. judge kavanaugh and dr. ford have both expressed the willingness to come forward and be heard, but they professor ford has asked for a completely reasonable first step which is that the fbi investigate herle allegations and do a quick expansion of the background
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investigation that is done on every nominee to a federal seat whether as a judge or as a justice. i'm looking back at the anita hill episode with the clarence thomas confirmation, and professor hill came forward with herle allegation, and in just a matter of days the fbi was able to interview a whole number of potential witnesses, and i will remind you that at that hearing, it was not just professor hill and judge thomas, because there were 20 other witnesses. i think that for our committee to proceed to a hearing with just professor ford and judge kavanaugh and not other witnesses like mark judge who she places in the room who i think is a key witness and some experts about sexual assault, its impact on the survivors and memory, what i think round out what should be a constructive and respective hearing. >> now, how do you explain senator collins, senator flake, bob corker, and two of them not
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running for relek shun and how do you explain them saying that this is not a reasonable request, and that she should avail herself of the opportunity monday or proceed to the vote. >> i have been disappointed in the statements and to me it is the republicans are closing rank and the path forward to give judge kavanaugh a opportunity to test fishgs and with the absense of any testimony or remarks by professor ford to proceed with the confirmation. >> do you think that she should yield and this is a game of chicken as described who will blink first, but if this is the only opportunity, should she talk to the committee staff or talk publicly on monday to at least slow down the process of a vote which would not even have her heard? >> andrea, she has a third option as well that i will mention which is to testify to just the committee or the senate in a closed session. i deeply respect the concerns
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that prevented her from coming forward with this allegation for a lifetime. look, survivors of sexual assault and trauma commonly across our country have hesitated or refused to come forward, and for good reason, and if we look back at how professor anita hill was treat ed by 2 judiciary committee and how many other survivors of assault have been treated over decades or generation, and there is a completely understandable fear or hesitation to be put in the limelight and miscast as sort of she said/he said and she is not on trial here and it is judge kavanaugh who has been nominated for a lifetime appointment and one of the most important roles in the public or the constitutional order, and frankly, the burden should more be on him to present the witnesses and present testimony. both of them have had friends, classmate, supporters come forward in a variety of letters in the last 48 hours which
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reinforces to me the idea that it is so difficult for the fbi to do a background investigation here. i don't think that it is credible. these two individuals went to small private high schools in the washington, d.c., suburbs, and a long lists of the classmates classmates and the friends have already come forward to supporting each of them and their claims, and i don't think that it would be an unreasonable delay for a matter of days or weeks for there to be some additional investigation performed performed. >> and what do you say that the president's attack on dianne feinstein and howl it is a la late -- and how she said that it is a late hit and deliberately covered it up and what are you and the colleagues saying to that. >> i was with senator feinstein in the room when she can disclosed this letter to the rest of the democrats on the judiciary committee last week and it is clear to me from how she spoke and said that she was deeply torn and that she respected professor ford's request and earnest and repeated
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request to remain anonymous, and put protecting the victim here first over public transparency and can accountability that a really frankly, it is only because of this leaked to the press by someone that she came forward with it at all. she was very reluctant to share it with the committee, because professor ford had asked that this traumatizing incident not lead to her being put on the stand and compelled to the te testify in the way that so many other victims have been mistreated in american history. >> senator coons, thank you for being with us today. >> thank you, andrea. >> and now, the attacks on the attorney general from the president leaving questions of how long he will remain in the cabinet. and the latest reporting coming up next. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. stay with us. stay with us.
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and confused in the confirmation hearings and he said that he is disappointed in his job performance and joining me is matt miller the chief spokesman for the justice department under the obama administration and justice and security analyst, and you know a lot of the people there at the justice department, and jeff sessions never popular but the unseemly way that the attorney general is being treated does affect the whole department. >> it does, and the people there at the department have been frustrated with the president's attacks and not just on jeff sessions and not just jim comey when he was there and a number of men and women who work for the department and sometimes by name and sometimes generally, and that said, i think that there is also, i would not speak for everyone, because there are a lot of opinions there at the justice department, but there is a frustration that jeff sessions won't do what the president wants in a lot of thecations, and he can't unrecuse himself when he has to be clearly recused in the mueller investigation. >> it is funny that the president thinks that there is an option. and not an attorney don mcgahn or anybody who had to say, it is
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justice department regs. >> right. he can't prosecute hillary clinton when there is no reason to prosecute her. and if you are watching the way he runs around the country talking about this trump era and the reasons why this president won and tings that the attorney general should not talk about and he has opened in things that have been con trtroversial of exploring ur ranium one because the president asked, and so -- >> so he is leaning over backwards to be more political in other contexts, because the president is so angry about other things, including this recusal. >> yes, the president has put pressure on him, an instead of standing up to the president, he is bent, and in terms of what the people in the department think, one thing they hear from him over and over is that jeff sessions has defended himself twice when the president has attacked him and he has never
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once defended the men and women who the president attacks, and that is rankling people inside of justice. >> and bruce ohr and we don't know if he has lost the security clearance and if he has, he is out of a job and he is highly regarded as a expert on the russian organized crime and this is the only sitting official, and not former official that he has put in that category. >> right. the only sitting official so far. if you are looking at the five people that the president singled out in the press release the other day that he going after, asking for the records to be released, four of them are former officials and they have been forced out of the department, and jim comey was fired directly by the president, and andrew mccabe was fired by jeff sessions, and bruce ohr is the only one left, and if he is removed from the security clearance, he will be out of the position now, and put in a different position in the department and low-ranking position, and end up with him leaving the department, because he could not do the job that he wants the do, and this is obviously what the president
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want wants. >> and in is partly again what chris christie had to say this morning about all of this. >> it is untenable for a bunch of reasons. one, because of the president's feelings toward the attorney general which are obvious. but also because we are in the midst of a very serious investigation, and that is being conducted by the justice department and i don't think that the president has an option to the fire jeff sessions right now, because if he did, it would create a political and legal firestorm that he would not be able to endure. >> and so he is clearly trying to get past the mid-terms, but if the mueller investigation is still going on which it likely is, and to fire jeff sessions after the mid-terms would, you know, be -- a major political storm. >> and it would seem like and t attack on the mueller investigation. and look, it is clear what the president wants to accomplish by firing jeff sessions. he wants to find a way to shutdown the mueller investigation and what is less clear if he is able to accomplish that even if he fires
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sessions, because the ten na k s -- tentacles are so far spreading that they have gone to the u.s. district attorney in washington and even if he fires jeff sessions, and if rod rosenstein becomes the acting attorney general, mueller is fine, and nothing will happen. but a new confirmed attorney general, then the senate will require that person to say that they will either recuse themselves or that they will in some way or another commit to not interfering with the investigation. i think that real question is if he can put an acting official in who would try to shut it down. that is the threat. it is a tough thing for the president to find someone who would do that. >> i am not so sure. but we will have to see. and something is clearly going to have to come to a head. thank you very much for your perspective as always. and a coming up, empathy gap. and president trump congratulationing a resident
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that area. ra ra really terrific. >> president trump was in the carolinas inspecting the flood relief effort and making head scratching moments there and pointing out that particular interest in lake norman in that region where of course he has a golf course. and today, of course, is the sad anniversary of hurricane maria that devastated puerto rico and where the president's behavior was widely criticized especially the paper towel tosses a. and today, he called it a historic recovery effort. and joining me is doris kearns goodwin with her new book "le "leadership in turbulent times." and you have been looking over some of your favorite president s s and the most interesting leaders, and what is this telling us the behavior of the president, and more empathetic than in puerto rico, but even in some of the asides in the flood zone, and so strange.
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>> well, i will tell you that i think that empathy is one of the most important characteristics in a leader, and when i am looking at the four guys, lincoln who may have been born wit, and teddy roosevelt developed it as a a political leader after he went into the tenements as a police commissioner in the slums, and franklin roosevelt with polio was more kind hearted to people whom fate dealt a unkind hand, and so em pathy is a naturalnes to deal with people who have gone through the tragedy and not only today with the carolinas, but at the point when florence was about to the come upon us, and he talked about the problems in maria and said that he had done it a-plus, and how much better to say, we didn't do as well as we wished we had, but too many died, and we will do better. anybody who acknowledges the errors will grow as a leader, and that is the self-refleck thun shun that we need. >> you have done so many books and study of lincoln and fdr and
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the other histories, what did you learn in looking back through your research doing new research and looking at the qualities of leadership in particular? >> well, i think that humility is one of them. the ability to understand the limitation, and empathy as i said, and resilience in the face of loss and all of my guys as i like to call them suffered from difficult adversities and grew as result. they produced a team of strong-minded individuals who are loyal no the job and not necessarily to you, and lincoln appointed his great rivals in the cabinet and all he cared about is that they were in the union. and dead roosevelt came into the cabinet of mckinley and so you cannot appoint those the guys, because they are not loyal. he said they don't have to be loyal to me, but to the work and the country, and if not, they will go, and if they are, they will stay. it is a different definition of loyalty to the larger cause rather than to the person. >> and, you know, the contrast with all due respect to the
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president, the contrast is so apparent. over and over again, when he is talk about his attorney general, and he is talking about his justice department, and i don't have an attorney general, because he is not protecting me, and the white house counsel, and he does not seem to understand the distinction down to the press secretary and not just being his press secretary, but the press secretary for the office of the presidency. >> it is that transition that you want between the candidate running for office and the candidate who is president of the united states, and he should be feeling an ambition that something larger than the self-interests that is for the collective whole and the good of the country. all of the leaders start out with personal ambitions, and they want to be successful and ambition and drive, but if you want to be a good and especially a great leader, you have to have the ambition larger than yourself, and risks for the country, and put it ahead of your own, and we have not seen the ability to get the me out of the presidency. >> in the book, you are talking about lincoln and you write that
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when angry at a colleague lincoln would fling off what he called a hot letter releasing all of the pent-up wrath and put the letter aside until heel cooled down and attend the mat wer a cooler head. and he would ready forgive intemperate public attack on himself. in the age of twitter, this is great advice to everybody. and don't hit "send." >> and they have to fig yure ou how to get a channel to get the frustrations out, and just like lincoln had the hot letters that were puts a side and we did not see them until the papers were opened and never sent, and never signed. and indeed when i did the exit interview for "vanity fair" to president obama, i said, do you do that and he said, of course i do. i write them and i get the anger out, and put them in the basket, but we would love the retrieve those. >> that could be another book the white house paper basket,
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and i don't mean anything specifically, but metaphorically. and the other piece is that all of the other leaders came through either the military background and through some public life, and this president has not made that transition, because he didn't come from that sphere, from the public sphere. >> no, i think that what you saw happening in 2016 is because of the the political system being broken, there was a desire to have somebody from the outside, but it meant that even because he was from the outside, had not had public experience and reagan had been governor before he was president, and all of the people had had public experience and they don't have a team to bring with them, because they have not been in public life and starting out from scratch, and they have to learn and need to learn from the people who are more experienced than they are, and the reason that link put the team of rivals together is that he knew that they didn't have the same experience as governors and senators, but we can't have a democracy unless we have people feeling a sense of goodness about the political leaders and that is what is lost
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in 2016, the institutional trust is gone, and when are you looking at it, only 37% believe in the presidency, and 11% believe that congress is doing a good job, and 30% for the supreme court, and 37%, and if the institutions are not trust and we don't trust the political leaders that is what is exciting about the activism that is happening now. a lot of the young people entering the public life, and a lot of the record-breaking women coming into the public life and we have to believe that people can enter the system and make it better and active. we can't wait around for some great leader to come out of the future, and we need to have the volunteer groups and the people at the local level and everybody is bubbling up from the bottom. we can change this thing and it is up to the citizens and not what is going to happen to mr. trump, but the political system needs a revolution. looking at the past leaders they had that, and the anti-vaif ri movement under president lincoln and the progressive movement under teddy and franklin roosevelt and so it is time for the citizens to understand that
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it is a two-way street for the leadership, the citizens and the leadership. >> and so as nup other than george schultz remind ed me the other day, that he is the first republican to care about the environment and the wilderness a areas. so thank you so much, doris, and another great book ide leadership in turbulent times." and we appreciate it. we appreciate your wisdom. >> thank you very much. and hitting home. how the democratic groups are using the kavanaugh groups to target vulnerable senators. the inside scoop of the midterms coming up next on "andrea mitchell reports" coming up next on msnbc. when i found you in my dna, i learned where my strength comes from. my name is courtney mckinney, and this is my ancestrydna story. now with 2 times more geographic detail than other dna tests. order your kit at ancestrydna.com
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talk to your doctor about xarelto®. advocacy groups sus po s su democrats in now pouncing on the scandal of the kavanaugh nomination. let's get the inside scoop from msnbc contributor sam stein, politics editor at the daily beast, and msnbc national reporter heidi prispa. wanted to show one. this is the dean heller race. very tight race in nevada. >> he was trying to attack me.
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i thought he might kill me. those are the describing the attack she suffered when she was just 15 years old. now her alleged attacker is nominated to the supreme court and it's up to the senate to allow for an independent investigation. when 15-year-old christine tried to scream, her a tacker covered her mouth so no one could hear her. >> so it is a very tight race. the president's heading there tonight for what is supposed to be a huge, as he's been tweeting, huge rally tonight. >> right. as you can see, the democrats are not pulls their punches here. they said she was muffled at that time, you know, he didn't let her speak, and now will the senate let her speak, so really hard-hitting ad. andrea, the whole idea here is basically to recreate that anger that we saw in the streets of virginia after the roy moore
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incident. all the women, you know, lined up to vote, to essentially do the same thing in these other purpling states like nevada. >> i spoke to a senator on the committee last night, a democrat senator, saying back home they care about farm prices, they care about tariffs. they like the stock market but they're not so sure about the tax cut because they got some immediate benefits so it depreciated their purchases of farm equipment and now they're stuck with the equipment but, you know, they're dealing with the tariff results. >> it's been like that for two years, where there's an immense news story that consumes washington, d.c. and maybe doesn't trickle down to the districts where things like the economy and health care seem to be prevalent. i still think it matters. i think it matters in the context of just general
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assessment. that, you know, women in general have been overlooked. they've been pushed aside. historic number of women candidates running for office this cycle. the thematics are all the same. if you look at cavanaugh's polling numbers, historically unpopular supreme court nominee. this would add an agitation to the mix that would be problematic for republicans. the trick is if he were to withdraw, for instance. there's no talk of it as i'm picking up in my reporting. it would depress the republican base. they're in this bind where they have to stick with this guy a little bit politically, even though there are complications for obvious reasons. >> unless they could always a rouse the base by saying now, look if you don't vote, the democrats could take over the senate. i mean, republicans tend to react more to a supreme court nomination issue than democrats have in the past. >> there's no one single issue that is firing up this coming blue wave. there's a certain sub group
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stirring it and that's women. the democrats have a 30-point advantage with women compared to 17 points just last year. there was a reason why there was a women's march, andrea. there were people who mocked women's march and said what's getting taken away from you. if kavanaugh is confirmed with this cloud still hanging over his head, he will be, many believe, the decisive vote in overturning roe v. wade. that is not anything to be discounted in terms of the impact that could have on stirring up the democratic base. i'm not saying republican women are going to have a strong reaction to that but certainly democratic women. >> we saw the protesters today on the hill. we're fog to have to leave it there. this is not going away, only excla daex c excla escalating in the next couple of days. xt couple of days i can't believe it.
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♪ south l.a. is very medically underserved. when the old hospital closed people in the community lived with untreated health problems for years. so, with the county's help we built a new hospital from the ground up and having citi as an early investor worked as a signal to others to invest. with citi's help we built a wonderful maternity ward and we were able to purchase an mri machine. we've made it possible for the people who live here
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to lead healthier lives and that's invaluable. ♪ before we go, a shout-out to the heroic effort by marines racing into action, rescuing all of the residents of a senior citizens home on capitol hill as their building was engulfed in flames. a four-alarm fire before it was finally brought under control. as you can see, this really a crisis situation. today, the fire chief here said that some of the residents are still in shelters. but that they are all safe thanks to the marines. that does it for this edition of
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"andrea mitchell reports." tomorrow, secretary of state mike pompeo joining me to talk about the high-stakes negotiations are north korea and the u.n. meetings. coming u nee ing up next week. i'll be in new york for that. craig melvin is up next. craig, tomorrow morning on "today," you've got the bidens here for their cancer program and we'll of course take some of that as well to share with our viewers. >> thank you, andrea. i'm headed your way. i'll see you in d.c. tomorrow. good afternoon to you. for now, craig melvin, msnbc news headquarters in new york city. supreme stalemate. the committee says the woman who's accusing supreme court nominee kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were in high school has 21 hours to decide whether she will testify. so will she or won't she. if she does what will that hearing look like? also, defending kavanaugh. i'll talk to a woman who is working to make sure brett kavanaugh gets confirmed. she has a unique peiv
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