some point next week or some sort of attempt for a push for a hearing on the monday when dr. ford says she can't be there. at this hour we just don't know. it's clearly a fast-moving story. that does it for "the beat." "hardball" with chris matthews is up next. the accuser to testify. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews. in washington, dr. christine blasey ford, the doctor who has accused brett kavanaugh is going to have an appearance for next week. at this hour her lawyers are working with the judiciary committee to come up with a plan. according to an email, her e-mail, her lawyer deborah katz wanted to discuss conditions under which she would be prepared to testify.

katz goes on to say, quote, she wishes to testify provided that we can agree on terms that are fair and which ensure her safety. wow. she said the deadline of monday imposed by the committee's chairman, senator chuck grassley was not possible and the committee's insistence that it occur then is arbitrary. however, in a letter sent to the judiciary committee, judge kavanaugh reaffirmed his wish to testify on monday. dr. ford said brett kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the '80s. an allegation kavanaugh has called completely false. sorry. senate republicans seem to be counting on her failure to appear. >> ultimately we'll have to move forward based on what we know and that is, you know, his years of experience on the bench and 12 years on the circuit court already in d.c. and move forward from there. >> if the information is not provided after the time we've spent on this, it's time to move forward and get the votes in

next week. >> if she appears, dr. ford would face questions 123r9 1 republican men on the judiciary committee. aware of the optics, what it's going to look like. nbc has learned that republicans are looking to hire an outside lawyer ideally for them a woman to handle the questioning of . dr. -- brett kavanaugh and dr. ford. casey, i have to start with you. it seems like the ball is back in the republican's court because dr. ford says i'll come next week. >> she does, chris. she has said that it's not possible for her to be here on monday so republicans are going to have to decide how much do they want to give here, but i think a lot of the energy has been focused on making sure that they -- that this doesn't turn into the debacle that it turned into for anita hill in 1991 and, you know, back then the entire

committee was all men. this time around there are four democratic women involved and on the republican side just 11 men and so they've come to this attempted strategy to try and have a female lawyer question dr. ford as well as judge kavanaugh. it was explained to me as an attempt to try and turn down the heat, take the politics out of it, make it less emotional. of course, it also takes the pressure and potential criticism off of each potential senator in the room. there isn't anything democrats can do to prevent this from happening. i think both sides all want to hear from dr. ford and, of course, from judge kavanaugh, but this is something that's been used before in the senate. you're a student of the history of our law making in congress. it's happened before, but it's been decades since it was done this way. >> of having a counsel doing the questioning itself. what about the conditions that dr. ford has set, that she wants to see other witnesses called. mark judge who was according to

her at the scene of the sexual assault. the other person who's not mentioned i guess, patrick smith. there's of course christina miranda, christina smith. christina king, actually, who apparently knew about this incident from that time period. are they going to be included in the list of witnesses? >> and there's actually one additional person, chris, an unnamed person who has not gotten back to the committee. we know that the others have in some form communicated with the committee, either to provide a statement or to say they're not interested in speaking to them. you're right, this was a condition that dr. ford had laid out. we should point out that in the latest statement she didn't totally drop but basically said she would testify even if the fbi investigation is not reopened. they did not revisit this question of other witnesses but it does seem as though the strategy has been to draw attention to these places where dr. ford feels as though she's not being treated fairly or her lawyers are arguing in her favor but that really the ultimate

intent is going to be to testify. i think you're going to see attempts by democrats to make sure that these other people who are involved are central to the hearing bringing up whatever statements they have or haven't made potentially trying to talk about their backgrounds and credibility but right now it doesn't look as though that's a point on which the republicans are going to be willing to cave but clearly these negotiations are actively ongoing as we're all sitting here talking about this tonight. >> thank you so much. hang in there, kasie. susan, it seems like there's an inconvenient truth here, this professional, this psychologist with a ph.d. has a story to tell and it's her memory that she's counting on and it's clear, it's tragic and it's crystal clear in her mind. how do republicans deal with, how do you believe that it just was made up? who's going to believe it was made up? >> if you want to know how nervous republicans are about this, just consider that you've

got 11 republican senators who are voluntarily giving up tv cameras. >> you're right. >> when was the last time that happened? it's happening -- >> that's a great point. >> -- the peril -- >> they're giving their life's blood away. >> the perils are so great. even if they push brett kavanaugh through, the perils have not ended. what if there are more allegations. what if we have a more serious investigation after they succeed in pushing him through? this has both short-term and long-term dangers for the gop. >> i think the phrase, dr. ford, peter, is going to be powerful. dr. ford, tell us what happened. not what's her name as art hatch calls her. this mixed up person. this confused woman. i mean, the phrase is used by some of these republicans so far are awful, but now when they have to do it one to one, face to face, excuse me, they're going to have to call her dr. ford and they're going to have to listen to her. >> that's right. that's what susan just said correctly which is why they want a lawyer to do it who would keep

them from looking so political and by the way keep the democrats on the other side from doing that same thing. remember several of those democrats are running for president and they obviously have an interest in, you know, pretty argumentative perhaps interrogation of judge kavanaugh. so the republicans look at this and it's in both their interests to make it a little bit more professional by having a lawyer do it. take the temperature down. dr. ford, we'll see what kind of witness she is, what kind of presentation she makes. a lot will depend on how she presents herself. how credible she appears. how persuasive she is. it's hard to imagine why somebody would come forward with allegations like this if it's not the truth or at least that they believe it's the truth. i think what you'll hear on the other side as a defense is rather than questioning that, rather than questioning whether this actually happened to her, questioning only does she remember the right person. was it really judge kavanaugh 36 years ago? >> yeah. >> could it possibly be somebody

else, some other boy who was there that night? >> according to nbc news kavanaugh spent part of the day hunkered down prepping for the possibility of testifying next week. on tuesday kavanaugh spent two hours being grilled by a small group of senior white house staff about his past, his dating life and his accuser. nbc news has confirmed that dr. ford has hired ricky seiben to help offer personal advice. a source familiar with ford's preparations tells politico that unlike kavanaugh dr. ford has not been participating in mood hearings or other mock proceedings at least as of yet. let me go to cynthia on this about kavanaugh. how do you question a guy who says he doesn't remember anything. he doesn't remember the '80s as far as i'm concerned. he doesn't know anything about any party, but if you're really honest, did you ever drink at a party? how many parties did you go to in the '80s when you did drink? is it possible you might have forgotten something?

did you ever get a buzz that got you out of hand? did you ever have a blackout? did you ever drink so much that you had to be driven home? all kinds of questions. what's your limit? eight beers? 15 beers? what did you drink in those days? it seems like he's going to have to admit that he existed back then. >> obviously there's a lot of cross exam that comes out of his yearbook and his statements in the yearbook about drinking and sexual statements. something that will come out, did he even know her or remember her. obviously identification is a different thing, if she knew him before the party and another important thing will be, you know, who else was at these general parties because sues soon's right, this is all going to be investigated. the republicans can hide. somebody will win a pulitzer or the fbi will step up but everybody is going to know what happened at this in the next six months and it will begin with his testimony finding out what he's willing to say about what he knew about herr and the manner in which she testifies. and remember -- >> this isn't a long-term

investigation. they're going to vote next week. >> it doesn't matter. it's not over. it's not over. it will affect the politics down the road. remember, when she testifies, once those cameras are on her, she can say and structure it any way she wants. so she can do an opening statement and say, this is what happened to me, and these are the people that you should have talked to if you had taken the time and she can really set the stage. and what is grassley going to do, interrupt her? no. he can't. what are those -- that collection of old white men going to do? they have to listen to her. >> susan, it seems like -- i said this last night, i think it's true that the two parties are looking at this differently. and i think democrats are always interested in the truth. lewinsky and all of that mess, they weren't interested in the truth. now they're the ones who want this woman to have her day in court, hear what she has to say, give her full dignity and respect. republicans are focusing on the rules. how come you didn't come in

earlier? how come feinstein didn't tell us about this earlier? how come you're interrupting our schedule? it's like why are you on my lawn, you know? the republicans don't seem to be focused ond finding out the truth here, they're focusing on the schedule and the rules of their committee. >> there are things you can criticize about democrats for sure when it came to the monica lewinsky investigation, but this is a different time. this is going to resonate, i think, in a different way with americans generally and especially with american women. we've just had a year of coming up on the one year anniversary of the me too movement that empowered hundreds, thousands of women to come forward with stories that are pretty similar to dr. ford's. >> do you think we'll hear more stories coming in this case? >> i don't know. >> why would anybody come forward after what she's been through? >> public opposition to brett kavanaugh's nomination, the supreme court has spiked. in the new poll which was

conducted sunday through wednesday, that's yesterday, 38% of voters say they oppose kavanaugh's nomination. 34% a lesser number supported. that's a 12 point increase in opposition since july. i love this number. only 5% of democratic women support this nomination. i want to go to kasie on that. this is a powerful number. it talks to the suburbs, the voters that may not have voted for hillary clinton but are darn ready to vote. 5% support for kavanaugh. if he gets confirmed, there's going to be a rage out there, i think. >> and i think that it reflects the degree to which women are paying attention because quite frankly before all of this unfolded with dr. ford, you know, the campaigns against kavanaugh had been still focused on women. a lot of the defenses that the white house had lined up from the beginning had to do with finding women to vouch for him because they knew that a lot of the conversations in the hearing were going to center on roe versus wade and they would need

to persuade these two women senators, lisa murkowski and susan collins, so they needed to strategize around that. i think these numbers reflect that. i will also say, chris, that one of the things that we know that president trump pays very close attention to are poll numbers and -- >> yes. >> -- one of the key factors in whether kavanaugh ultimately makes it onto the bench is just how much the white house is willing to support him and are they at some point going to cut -- you know, cut and run and say, look, you know, we've had enough. we can't defend you anymore. you're willing to defend yourself. it's not good enough. this is the kind of thing that i think you could see end up inside the president's head in a way that could impact the process. his track record has indicated that's a possibility. >> kasie, i'm thinking like that. trump is like the humphrey bogart character in kaasa kblank. i stick my neck out for nobody. i don't know why he would stick his neck out for brett kavanaugh

having a sense, i'm not saying a familiarity with this woman's testimony, but trump must believe this woman is telling the truth. he must believe that. i don't think in any of his cases women made up anything. your thoughts? >> well, look, i don't think president trump has any particularly strong or -- relationship or affinity for judge kavanaugh in a personal way that would make him say i want to really stand be by him but i do think he gets his back up when it comes to issues of sexual allegations against women. look what happened with roy moore in alabama in the senate race. look what happened, he defends other prominent people who have been accused of things, fox news host and so forth. he hired bill shoochein. he has this idea that men have been accused unfairly. he defended rob porter even his own aide who was accused of -- >> well, okay. >> -- spousal abuse. >> you havedelynn knee eight

here. if he did what he is accused of, stands accused of in this case, close the door, shoves a woman into a room with the help of somebody else -- another guy, throws her on the bed, jumps on top of her, covers her mouth when she screams for help. it seems to me that's in a category of sexual assault that's a bit more egregious than these other cases. i don't want to delynn knee eight but how does he turn his back and say, that doesn't matter. >> i don't think that's what he says. i think -- i've been struck by how president trump has kept his options open to dump cavanaugh if she's credible, he says, then we have to assess where we stabbed. this is in contrast to what george h.w. bush did with clarence thomas. he was much more full throated in getting behind clarence thomas than president trump has been in getting behind brett kavanaugh. he's left the door wide open. >> you are so right. >> the bushes treated clarence thomas as a friend of the family basically. susan, cynthia, peter and kasie,

thank you. coming up, as the supreme court showdown continues now, what risks and opportunities do red state democrats, they exist, face ahead of the mid term elections and will republicans pay a price from women if they push this confirmation all the way through? plus, two years after the 2016 presidential election remains, did the trump campaign benefit from the russian conspiracy or did it actively act to encourage it? and dr. ford now says she will be prepared to testify before the judiciary committee next week but under certain conditions. will senator grassley, the chair, accept her request. finally, let me finish with trump watch. this is "hardball" where the action is. here the action is. "what is your nationality?" and i would always answer, "hispanic." so, when i got my ancestrydna results it was a shocker! i'm everything, i'm from all nations. i would look at forms now and wonder, what do i mark?

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welcome back to "hardball." the path forward for judge brett kavanaugh is still very murky right now, but with november's mid term election coming just 47 days from now. both parties are handling up the allegations of sexual assault against kavanaugh. one that's going to have implications at the ballot box, don't you think?

kavanaugh's fate turned a watch. north dakota's heidi heitkamp, joe donnelly and west virginia's joe manchin. all voted for trump's last nominee kneel gorsuch. the allegation may change the stakes for them noting there is rising confidence among many leading democrats that at the very least the claim of sexual misconduct deprives republicans of a potent issue to wield against those senators who vote no. the washington post reports on the challenge facing republicans on kavanaugh, the party's push to install him on the high court by next week could come at a steep political cost with women. i'm joined with any panel. joe, isn't it true that these democratic senators who are running for re-election, conservative pro trump states are safer now to vote against this nominee because of this allegation? >> i know that's what some have said. i have some good sources within

some of those red state democrats and they don't think they are. >> they think they're still in trouble? >> not necessarily that they're still in trouble, but they still have to see what miss ford says, what she says next week, how it's received. they don't believe that just this scuttlebutt this week takes them off the hook. i think a lot of progressive democrats obviously feel differently but those democrats that are on the griddle in those trump states don't feel like they have a free pass. >> let's talk about those in new york and l.a., it seems to me 5% of democratic women support this. there's a larger african-american vote for trump. i mean, 5%. what do you think of this? >> chris, if you look at republican women, they've increased their support of kavanaugh from july, to august to where it currently stands now. so while you may -- >> democratic women, what have

they seen they like? >> you may look at independents. when you look at the three democrats in the states that they won, i'm almost certain you would see an increased amount of support for kavanaugh. >> we talked about this. this isn't about kavanaugh, this is a litmus test. this is tribalism. i don't think people see kavanaugh as kavanaugh, they see it as trump. if you're joe manchin, you say dr. ford has a compelling case. you have a lot of voters who think this is donald trump. this is a standup for donald trump. i don't think they have the license to take a step back. >> why not? >> i would agree with that, but i think for republicans, they're looking at those numbers. sure, we can talk about democrats. sure, we can talk about independents, but at the end of the day this is a left or right thing. they're looking at those numbers. they're seeing that republicans are cemented in their support of kavanaugh. i have to go back. >> what is going to swing it dramatically against kavanaugh? independents radically --

>> chris -- >> 31 point shift since july. >> i mean, i think if you look at this is the era of women right now, i would argue. there are a significant number of women who are running for office. there are a significant number of women more in the political process. those independents aren't as hard lined as those in my party or some as extreme on the left. >> the kavanaugh thing is a neutral tribal thing, parties right versus left, why are the independents sweeping? >> i think they think it's problematic. that's why. i do think that. >> i disagree. >> i think this kavanaugh thing, this isn't just an isolated incident. this is trump getting elected, admitting to sexual assault. >> that's not -- >> the continuation of a narrative. it's not new, but this is the latest salvo that women voters feel. 183, big number, 183 record number of women running in the house this cycle, chris. that's a record. over 60 more than we've ever

had. >> why do republican women go along with this, trump bragging about grabbing women by their whatever? how do you get away with that politically? >> i think a lot of those republican women, i'll use evangelicals. you had franklin graham made a statement they need to confirm kavanaugh. >> that's a joke. >> that may be to you. >> no, he's not. >> wait a minute, to offer it to many republicans, that is not the case. they look at those individuals as being legitimate sources of leadership, if you will, for things they believe. so they may look at trump and they may have character flaws but they will look at the tangible things. we got neil gorsuch, we're getting kavanaugh, we're looking at other things such as building a wall. there are legitimate things -- >> let's talk about it. i know there are a few moderate republicans left. what if they have people from middle of the road states, pat toomey, people running against

bob casey, running against, what's his -- sherrod brown, all kinds of moderate people. do they want to defend this thing? >> of course not. >> kavanaugh. >> of course they don't, but in order to win, they have to sort of model trump. >> they want the trump candy. >> that's the only way you can win now. it's more hardline than a year or two ago. >> do you think trump is really behind kavanaugh? really behind him until the last dog dies? >> i think trump is behind him as long as it serves trump's interests. that is what i will say. >> stick his neck out for nobody. >> if i was donald trump and if i was republicans, you know what i would want? i wouldn't want brett kavanaugh alive and tarred and fed jather. that charge is -- >> no, it's not. >> that charge is up for republican debate and they're going to put another more conservative person on behind him. >> you made your point, joe. who knows what will happen after

next week after we see dr. ford testify. >> testimony, yeah. >> but trump does a really good weepy story about kavanaugh. poor justice kavanaugh. >> he's held his fire on dr. ford. >> thank you 3w0both. up next, new reporting on russia's attempt to hijack the 2016 election. a new segment of the newspaper today all about what russia's done. this is "hardball" where the action is. the action is.

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welcome back to "hardball." it's now been more than two years since americans got the first glimpse of russia's intrusion into our democracy. ever since a steady drum beat of revelations has shed greater light on the truex tent of kremlin influence here. the question remains whether the trump merely benefitted from the russian conspiracy or acted to encourage it. today "the new york times" was out with a special supplement to the paper giving a wide account of the cyber attack on this country and the intriguing behavior of the candidate who occupies the white house. it talks about how well the russians worked noting in nearly every case the trump aides and associates seemed enthusiastic about their exchanges with the russians. while president continues to discredit the investigation itself, the times points out how

mr. trump's position on the russian contacts has evolved over time. first, that there were none. then that they did not amount to collusion and next that in any case collusion was not a crime. well, joining me right now is malcolm nance, author of "the plot to destroy democracy." there you are in front of independence hall. that seems appropriate. it goes all the way back when our democracy starts in the 18th century. there we are with a foreign power trying to destroy our democracy. how do you read the latest times effort to put it together comprehensively? >> i think the times did a good job chronicling all that we've learned over the last two years. it was actually on this set two years ago when i sat down and said that the nation was under attack in a wide ranging cyber warfare influence operation which was designed to break the american electoral process and

to put donald trump into power. and what we've seen since that time is this snowball effect of information that has led us to understand that it was more than just to get donald trump into office. that was just one result that they wanted, but it was to break hillary clinton's campaign, divide the democratic party and fundamentally change the american system of government and push it away from where it was, democratic -- you know, a democratic constitutional republic to what we're leaning towards which is an autocracy. >> are you impressed by how much they know about us? i don't think we as americans would know how to screw up the soviet or russian system. they understand our tribal differences, ethnic differences, the conflicts, the attitudes towards hillary clinton, the internals of the democratic party, jennifer palmieri, what

she said and what podesta might have said. they seemed to know our pressure points politically. >> you know, i was actually mocked by russia today when i said vladimir putin was the former director of the kgb when in fact he was the head of the fsb which is the kgb with two different letters. what we're seeing is a culmination of strategic goals that the russians have wanted since 1917, and it was only when they became a capitalistic, you know, society which became ultimately very conservative and aligned themselves with conservatives in the united states and gave their intelligence organizations enormous, billions of dollars of money, only then could they actually achieve and target goals that they had wanted since the beginning of the old communist soviet union. >> so -- >> and that was to affect a u.s. president. >> so putin is doing what he would have been doing under the old soviet world? if it had been the soviet union

today, he would be trying to underminus the way they always wanted to undermine us. >> it would be like making me president, an old intelligence guy. i'd want to be carrying out operations left and right. he is a career kgb officer. granted, he got out, went out and liquidated the soviet assets in st. petersburg and became a multi-billionaire but it's the strategic goals of aligning themselves and making russia go from a third rate super power to take on, challenge and lead around by the nose ring a president they installed. that is a very old soviet objective. you know, there were movies and fiction about that. it's happened now. >> let's talk about today, right now. robert mueller appears to be closing in on the president himself. abc news today is reporting that michael cohen has participated in multiple interview sessions lasting for hours with investigators from the office of special counsel. specifically, the special

counsel's questioning of cohen has focused primarily on all aspects of trump's dealings with russia. so how much does michael got on trump on russia? >> i think he has all of his financial transactions, his relationships with the russian mafia. craig unger has a great book out about that. the relationships with real estate dealings. when the soviet union broke up, they liquidated all those assets, took their illicit money and put it into real estate all around the world but that money is a vehicle for buying governments and individuals. and like in all good counter intelligence operations, the first thing a good officer will do is scrub your bank account to see if any of that money comes from a foreign power. with donald trump, that is an absolute necessity. if mueller is focusing on that with cohen, mueller already knows and he just wants to lock it down. and it's going to be a

documentary case. it's not going to rely on michael cohen coming in and diving out donald trump. that's just going to support what they already know from counter intelligence, law enforcement and international intelligence zbleks so let's talk about the end game. former fbi director james comey has weighed in on the progress of the mueller probe. here's what comey said last night. >> how do you read the mueller investigation, as to where it is now? >> i don't know. i know it's been incredibly productive. in just over a year it's produced all kinds of charges and convictions and so they've been working really hard and produced a lot of results, but i don't know. i think there's an argument to be made that the conviction, plea and cooperation by paul manafort may represent that we are in the fourth quarter because the way you normally do investigations is you work from the bottom up so they're getting pretty high.

>> what do you think, malcolm? this fall get a report from him on everything? >> i don't believe that we'll get a report from him this fall but, you know, i think jim comey is absolutely right about this being the fourth quarter. but you have to understand, this is probably the fourth quarter of just one tentacle of this octopus. it could be dirty tricks team a with michael flynn, paul manafort, donald trump jr. we found over the last two years there were multiple teams of people reaching out to the russians, multiple russian operations reaching in to the trump campaign and they seemed to have been in synchronization and conspiracy. all of those are going to have to be adjudicated. there's not one report that's going to come out. it will be, you know, obstruction of justice to stop these investigations and, of course, going out and seeing who exactly conspired against this nation to betray us and to break our fundamental electoral process for their own profit.

>> well, it sounds like this probe is going to go right into the 2020 election because that election is going to start within about a day after the mid term elections are over. thank you, malcolm nance. up next, judge kavanaugh's accuser is reportedly negotiating on the senate judiciary nominating committee over how she will testify. we'll see what happens. you're watching "hardball." g "h. that's why we created expedia's add-on advantage. now after booking your flight, you unlock discounts on select hotels right until the day you leave. ♪ add-on advantage. discounted hotel rates when you add on to your trip. only when you book with expedia. named 'park' in the u.s. ninety-six hundred roads it's america's most popular street name. but no matter what park you live on, one of 10,000 local allstate agents knows yours.

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pg&e wants you to plan ahead by mapping out escape routes and preparing a go kit, in case you need to get out quickly. for more information on how to be prepared and keep your family safe, visit pge.com/safety. welcome back to "hardball." the big story is dr. christine blasey ford. the woman who has accused brett kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in high school. if certain conditions are met ford's lawyer debra katz asked to sipt a phone call to discuss the terms of testifying. the ball is in their court. let's bring in our roundtable. tamara keith is a white house

correspondent for npr. howard fine is an msnbc analyst and we have a reporter from u.s. news and world report. take the long view. are they better having this pulled next week, sometime, this nomination or getting a guy in with his taint on. >> who's that? >> brett kavanaugh. >> are the republicans better winning dirty or throwing in the towel and saying, obvious, we didn -- okay, we didn't know about this, we'll pull him? >> it's very close. this was cruising along on the theory, well, trump was elected. he seems like an okay guy. you know, we could have done worse. let's just get it over with, the nightmare continues, let's get it over with. as soon as there was a hitch in this thing people began to look at brett kavanaugh in an entirely different light. i'm not just talking about women who are just tired of what seems possibly to be this kind of guy in this kind of situation. they're starting to look at, you

know, what was -- how truthful was he or was he not in his testimony? is he kind of too political kind of a political schemer, this kind of thing? the slower it goes, the worse his situation is. >> tamara, here's the question. how do you deny being at a party you don't remember? i understand how a lawyer would say just deny the damn thing. i don't remember anything, i don't want anything. it's like sergeant schultz in "hogan's heroes." you do remember parties you drank too much at. you do remember who you're with. you may not remember everybody you made a move on if you will but you do have a vague memory of the year, the parties you went to and the kind of women -- young women you hung out with, girls. you do remember it. >> he is going to be able to say that it was 36 years ago and he is going to -- he's going -- he has to continue to be categorical. at this point he's put out two statements that categorically

deny that this happened, that he ever did anything like that. he has to stick with that. >> how can he say i wasn't at the house, if he doesn't know what house? david, he said, i wasn't at that hughes? what house are we talking about? you just said that house, whatever that house is? >> sure. do we know if he is going to testify if she doesn't agree to? i don't be know if you can have a hearing with just brett kavanaugh. >> she says she'll do it next week. >> they're playing semantics. monday is not good, maybe wednesday is. i think there's a tipping point here. it was the democrats were ahead on this issue. it's starting to swing towards republicans. they're overplaying their hand. i think it will so lidify the jeff flake's, bob corkers. pull his nomination the base will go crazy. the republican base will go crazy and that's the last thing the republicans have left to at least hold -- to play even in this election. if the base stays home, this will be an onslaught. >> good point. meanwhile, president trump is

heading to nevada to campaign for dean heller. he's been far from an avid supporter. weeks before he had said he was 100% against clinton, that's hillary clinton, 99% against donald trump. but a knew reuter's poll says tight race out there, 3 points over the challenger, jackie rosen. 46-43. there's so many of these close races this year. >> absolutely. you know, in wave years it either tips one way or it tips another way. jacky rosen is a dant not particularly well known in nevada. >> is she exciting? >> i can't make value judgments on whether people are exciting, but what i can say is the fact that president trump is going out there means that they are trying to rally the base and base voters, republican voters tend to turn out more in lots of mid terms but especially in nevada. there's a big falloff in mid

term years. >> heller is now praising trump calling him -- this sounds chinese, a great leader. heller isn't the only republican senator once critical of the president looking for his support. trump will campaign in texas for ted cruz, his good buddy, who he accused of having a father who helped kill kennedy. howard? >> of course the democrats are putting up billboards and putting advertising out there quoting trump talking about ted cruz. >> really? >> yes. so -- i mean, but this is the problem and the profit that the republicans have. they have donald trump, it's all about donald trump, it's all his party and one of the problems i think they have, and you eluded to it, is donald trump has spent so much time telling the republicans that everything is going great. forget the blue wave. there's going to be a red wave. i'm in charge of the red wave. that republicans may think, okay, he's in charge of it. we don't have to bother turning out. that's why he's got to go to these places. >> i think there's a lot of

debate, do you bring trump in, do you not? you bring him in. the mid term rule is you have to stoke your base up. it is not about playing to the middle because turnout drops down so the only people that are coming out are people who really, really care. i don't know, are you that passionate about dean heller? probably not but if trump shows up and tells you to show up, dean heller might have a shot. that's the only chance is trump gets in there, revs up the base. >> trump is the big name on the ballot. >> he's the only thing on the ballot. i've been covering these for a long time. mid terms for a long time. i've never seen one that is so determinantly and exclusively just about the character really of the president of the united states. >> here's my question, mark. i think democratic women are doing dynamite work all around, philly, winning everywhere. how many republican women, we had a guest on a moment ago that said -- sharon michael said republican women are more for this judge now that he's in trouble for women. i don't get this. what do you make of that, tamara? women, they like -- i don't get

it. >> well, the idea is that republican voters are basically picking trump and so anything that's associated with trump they support it. so even though in the past, for instance, trade, you know -- >> free traders. >> republicans were free traders. well now you ask them how they feel about tariffs and the president on trade and they say, all for tariffs. whereas, a couple of years ago they didn't. >> david, you don't like this. >> what? >> republicans are rej imtal. she wanted to come pro price on immigration. border tough, i'm with the president. she's running in the general election. she's running this as a general. >> they go trump. >> clark county huge hispanic vote in clark county which is lafgs. >> she's in clark county. stick with us. tell me something i don't know.

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we're back with the "hardball" round table. tell me something i don't know. >> there's only been one white house press briefing in the entire month of september. if sarah sanders were to hold a briefing every single weekday until the end of the month she would still not be able to catch up with the briefings in september in a single year in obama and bush administrations. >> democrats are in maryland in montgomery county, maryland in that party, the kavanaugh party might have taken place, looking closely at statutes to see if there can be a criminal case filed there. >> watch the iowa governor's race, no one's talking about. democrats are primed to pick up that seat, knock off kim reynolds out there. the new governor would be fred hubbell.

he's be getting calls from kamala harris, fred hubbell, remember that name. he could be the democratic governor. >> enough days from now until 2020. >> calls the day after. >> this election from 2020 is starting soon. thank you tamara keith, howard fineman. we finish with trump watch. you're watching "hardball." i'm ken jacobus, i'm the owner of good start packaging. we distribute environmentally-friendly packaging for restaurants. and we've grown substantially. so i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy. and last year, i earned $36,000 in cash back.

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trump watch thursday, september 20th, 2018. president trump has been keeping

a safe distance from his supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. he's praising him, but not quite defending him. and this is consistent with trump's go it alone approach in life, whether it's with nations or people, like the humphrey bogart character in casa blanca, he sticks his neck out for nobody. there's something added in the case of kavanaugh. i wonder if trump suspects that the accusation made by dr. christine blasey ford would be true. why would trump not this it so? he may figure the democrats as a group are out to screw him on this nomination. he may assume they're playing as tough as mitch mcconnell has played on court appointments, as tough as he plays on everything. but assuming democrats are playing tough doesn't mean they didn't have this ace in their hand, doesn't mean that dr. ford's story isn't an accurate account of what she remembers that night from high school. and her story, as horrific as it is, isn't from something that

actually happened. well, the key fact as i see it is that donald trump may recognize the behavior accused here against brett kavanaugh as just what happened. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being us. "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on "all in." >> we believe. >> dr. ford responds, and says she wants to testify. tonight, as the attack ads begin -- >> i thought he might inadvertently kill me. >> the latest on negotiations for a hearing next week. plus -- >> who is not asking the fbi to investigate these claims? the white house. >> does judge kavanaugh deserve the benefit of the doubt as he hung hunkers down inside this white house. and breaking michael cohen news.