that wraps up this hour of msnbc live. i'll see you all again at noon eastern. stay right where you are. it's time for a.m. joy with my good friend joy reed. >> judge brett kavanaugh is a man of integrity. >> fantastic man. >> a stunningly successful individual.

>> he was born for the u.s. supreme court. he was born for it. and it's going to happen. it's going to happen. >> we have to fight for him. not worry about the other side. >> well, good morning and welcome to a.m. joy. it turns out the grand old party has a lot to worry about. with 44 days until the midterm elections and the most unpopular supreme court nominee in history galvanizing voters against them. dr. christine blasey ford, the woman accusing brett kavanaugh of pushing her on to a bed, putting his hand over her mouth and trying to sexually assault her when both were teenagers has now tentatively agreed to testify on thursday before the senate judiciary committee. brett kavanaugh has categorically denied her allegations. the details of dr. ford's testimony are still being ironed out. dr. ford's lawyers let it be

known in their view the demands of the republican led committee are, quote, fundamentally inconsistent with the committee's promise of a fair, impartial investigation into her allegations. white house spokesperson in a statement saturday tried to cast doubt on ford's account, saying that four people who dr. ford recalled being at the party where the alleged assault took place had denied any knowledge of the incident, including, of course, brett kavanaugh. one of the four people, the white house referred to is lsaie was close friends with ford and that she believed ford's allegations. thank you for being here. i want to start with you. her attorney sent an e-mail to the senate judiciary committee saying she doesn't recall the

event, she doesn't recall being at a party where brett kavanaugh was present with or without dr. ford. dr. ford's attorney responded to that saying as dr. ford has said she did not share her story for years. it is not surprising that she has no recollection of the ev evening as they did not discuss it. it is unremarkable that she does not remember attending a gathering 30 years ago where nothing of consequence happened to her. dr. ford will never forget this gathering because of what happened to her. >> it is unusual if your n your reporting for other people not to necessarily remember the incident that happened to the individual? >> i was on the phone on my way here with my sister who was there the day -- the night that i was raped. my sister was like, wait, what? she's not going to remember i

didn't come home and say -- actually we were main mexico. i didn't come back and say, this just happened to me. but for anyone like dr. ford or myself or all the women that experiences, you know exactly the details. one of the things that we haven't talked about in this whole process is the issue of intimacy and the violation of intimacy. that's why when people are questioning her, does she remember, this is somebody who she knew. >> right. >> that means that there was a relationship, not an sintimate relationship, a relationship. the person who attacked me was someone i knew. what happens is when you walk into that room, into that party, into the room, in my case, you're like, we know each other and then all of a sudden everything changes. it is a violation of intimacy. it is a question of memory. joy, the reason why you and i wanted to talk is because i just went through this.

i was raped in 1977. and it's only in the last three years because of a law and order episode -- are you serious -- a law and order episode on consent, i'm a grown woman. i had to see that. i had to see "13 reasons why" and then i'm like, oh, my god, that's what happened. when we name it, then we have to say, i'm a rape victim? no, i'm a rape survivor. >> when you look at the conditions she's asked for, does it surprise you just looking at it, do these seem like reasonable requests to you? she's very much not wanting to be in the same room with him. she wants to be able to give her testimony second. she doesn't want to have to respond essentially to him. and she wants this other guy, mark judge, to be subpoenaed.

this is something that the republican majority said they won't do, even though according to her, he was the only other witness. >> right. so this is why dr. ford is not a victim in this. that when we are able to understand our own narrative and understand what happened and take control of it and do therapy and talk with our husbands and our families and they support us, then you are able to take control. yeah. i have been thinking a lot about her as she's making these demands, which are not demands. she's talking about something that happened to her when she was 15 or when i was 16. it's horrible. so to me, yeah, we would want to give that. does anybody watch law and order svu? what are they saying? it takes time. this is difficult. it is a process. republican women love law and order. democratic women love law and order. independent women love law and order. we all know that women who are survivors have to be treated.

dr. ford should be given the minimum of that. and her capacity to demand these things is really seriously bad-ass of her. >> she has added to her legal team. she has got a good legal team around her, clearly. what do you make of the fact that there is still a negotiation here predicated on the fact that republicans say there is a deadline, that this must be done next week? what do you make of that sort of deadline setting by the republicans? >> yeah. i mean, look, the deadline setting is completely arbitrary. there is no deadline. they have a solemn duty to thoroughly evaluate the fitness of brett kavanaugh to serve on the nation's highest court for a lifetime appointment. and, so, they can leave no stone unturned and this deadline of next week is totally artificial. with that said, dr. blasey ford said she will testify next week. the negotiations are ongoing. what i think is really important

for the american public to understand is that she is being treated worse than anita hill was treated. it seems hard to believe that could be the case since it happened 27 years ago and haven't we learned anything. but what she is asking for is just basic, normal stuff. she's asking for greater scrutiny on the claim. she's asking for an fbi investigation, which anita hill -- happened before the anita hill and clarence thomas investigations. she's asking that other witnesses be subpoenaed. she's asking that senators be questioning her. look, the 11 men who serve on the senate judiciary committee on the republican side -- mind you, there has never been a woman who has served among the republicans on the senate judiciary committee. that's how kind of old school this is. they are clearly so worried that they don't know how to treat her appropriately in this hearing that they want to basically

outsource that function to an outside counsel and she's saying no. senators, it is your job to do this. that is what you do. there is no precedent for having outside counsel on a senate judiciary counsel like this. it is their job to assess whether he is fit to serve on the highest court. and remember, she is not on trial. they have one duty, which is to assess his fitness. and that is what they're asking for. so, look, she has a good legal team. but -- and she is thoroughly prepared to testify next week. and next week is going to be a real tell because women are watching. they are watching whether they're republican or democratic. and they are, frankly, angry about how she is being bullied and relentlessly attacked. not only by the president, by senate republicans, but by others and so next week is going to be a really, really important moment for this country. >> absolutely. you have written a lot about the republican party and its origins and its emergence over time. this is a party that claims to be against affirmative action, that made the decision to have

only men on its judicial committee in the senate. no one made them have the judiciary committee be all men. now they are attempting to shoe horn an outside woman to do the questioning for them while presumably they sit silently and watch. this comes amid republicans can do the math. this has historic opposition. as of september 30, 8% oppose. 34% support. that's a huge drop of almost a 10 point drop from august. if you look specifically on women, 42% oppose brett kavanaugh's nomination, 28% support and even ivanka trump according to "vanity fair" is suggesting that if donald trump antagonizes women voters it could increase the chances republicans lose both sides of congress. so one source telling "vanity fair" to bail on brett kavanaugh. >> i think that republicans are trying to do two things at the

same time that they can't do at the same time. on the one hand, they are trying to show their base, particularly evangelicals who have spoken up, white evangelicals that they will fight like hell for brett kavanaugh. at the same time, they know they have this problem among women, and a lot of those women are swing voters, not simply democratic women who are overwhelmingly against brett kavanaugh already. and so it is not surprising they are bringing in an outside counsel. i have to say i have long thought a lot of senate hearings would be better with outside counsels rather than senators grand standing. but in this case, it has a clear political purpose, which is to get those men off the hook. i think there are a couple of things about the requests or demands of dr. blasey ford and her lawyers that show that they're tough and smart and two of them were utterly fair and the republicans should not have denied them. one was the fbi investigation.

no, the fbi probably could not have come to a conclusion about what happened, but they could put a lot of facts on the table so that this does not become a fact free zone. secondly, it is absurd that mark judge is not called to testify under oath. right now he's put out a statement supporting judge brett kavanaugh. but there is no way he's being asked to defend that statement under oath. and i think they're entitled to that testimony. if i could make one quick point. i agreed with their initial strategy of let judge brett kavanaugh go first and she go second to rebut. but in the end this could work out quite differently, depending entirely on how judge brett kavanaugh performs. there is a great story in "the washington post" today showing that he is very antsy about a lot of personal questions that were thrown at him in the practice sessions in the white house. you know democrats are going to

throw a lot of tough questions at him. and so much depends on the sort of sense that four key senators have, republicans, collins, murkowski, blake and corker, and the public has when brett kavanaugh finishes his testimony. >> indeed. and this is a man who was very tough in terms of the questions that he wanted to hear asked about bill clinton regarding monica lewinski. he didn't mind them being blunt and embarrassing. according to a washington post piece presented yesterday, he became frustrated when it came to issues of his private life. he declined to answer some questions altogether saying they were too personal. he complained about the

questions focussed on his family. pretty interesting that he believed that bill clinton should have to answer very personal questions but he doesn't want anyone delving into his past drinking or personal life. >> is it an enjoyable thing to ask a potential supreme court justice the question of, so if your daughter comes home after a high school party and says, dad, some guy jumped on me and tried to rip off my clothes and then he tried to rip off my bathing soo suit and then he covered my mouth, dad, what should i do? but if you are going to be on there for life, yeah, you have to answer these questions. we're sorry they make you uncomfortable. a lot of women right now in the country and in the world are uncomfortable. on the other hand, i think, joy, about the fact that as we're hearing young boys talking about when they were sexually assaulted as little boys and teenagers by members of the

priesthood and we trust them. we believe them. we don't say, well, was it this. was it that? yet, when women are saying, i remember now. i remember now. there is an element of distrust. for me, it is a horrible moment in our country. but a historic moment because we are not being quiet. i believe this. this is a question that's not partisan. this is women. and allowing ourselves -- and this is the hard part, right -- to actually name it for what it is. for years i was like, it wasn't a rape. is that what happened? no, not really. then it's like, no, no, no. we have to own it. this is a moment where our country will never be the same as a result of this. and that is the horrible silver lining to this thunderstorm. >> absolutely. we're going to talk about this more in the next break. i approach you coming forward and telling your story.

so i'm going to keep my whole panel. they will be back. stay with us. we will have more about christine blasey ford's upcoming testimony just after the break. your hair is so soft! did you use head and shoulders two in one? i did mom. wanna try it? yes. it intensely moisturizes your hair and scalp and keeps you flake free. manolo? look at my soft hair. i should be in the shot now too. try head and shoulders two in one.

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judge brett kavanaugh is a man of integrity, with impeccable values. on the district of columbia

court of appeals he wrote more than 300 opinions that reflect a strong record of support for limited government, religious liberty and our second amendment. he's a conservative that interpret the constitution as written. >> talk wils will continue toda attorneys for professor christine blasey ford iron out conditions for her testimony on thursday. the white house has fired back, calling the tentative agreement a, quote, delay tactic, also issues this statement saying in part we appear in close tore a fair hearing. but one thing has remained consistent. brett kavanaugh remains ready, willing and eager to testify. joining us now is the president of the center for american progress. an unbroken line of conservative and republican men saying it is brett kavanaugh that is the victim here and the biggest priorities are, priority number

one, protect him and defend him and get him on the court as expeditiously as possible before more time passes and more bad news comes out. lindsey graham with on fox news this morning with this defense of brett kavanaugh and this extraordinary statement about dr. ford. take a listen. >> all i would tell my colleagues. i know you hate trump. i am going to look at this from a prism of being reasonable and fair to judge brett kavanaugh. everything i know about judge brett kavanaugh goes against this allegation. i want to listen to dr. ford. i feel sorry for her. i think she's being used here. >> so the prism is reasonable and fair to judge brett kavanaugh and he feels sorry for christine blasey ford. your thoughts? >> over the last week or so, i think what's been fascinating about this situation is how much it exposes, frankly, the massageny of republicans, the fact that lindsey graham who

will sit in judgment of dr. ford and judge brett kavanaugh is saying days before he's heard a word from her that he is basically dismissing this because this process is really not about fairness or getting at the facts or determining what judge brett kavanaugh did to a helpless, hopeless teenager 30 years ago. it is about getting this guy on the court. and i think the fact that mitch mcconnell before he heard dr. ford said that he was going to make sure that judge brett kavanaugh was on the court, the fact that republicans are basically saying this is a political issue and they're worried about losing their base tells the american people this isn't about putting the most qualified person on the supreme court for a lifetime appointment. this is about the political needs of the republican party and unfortunately dr. ford and her truth are in their way and they are going to go right through her. that is something we should all be ashamed of. >> mictch mcconnell said they

will plow forward. i asked my producers to print out for me this washington post article from august 20th. i referred to it a bit in the last segment. brett kavanaugh who didn't like past questions about his past sexual life being brought up, back in 1998, a memo proposed a series of tough explicit questions for bill clinton to answer about his affair, shedding new light on the supreme court nominee's moralistic outlook. brett kavanaugh, as associate counsel in the office of independent counsel kenneth w. star wrote in the memo that he was strongly opposed to giving clinton any break and suggested ten questions, including: if monica lewinsky says you

inserted a cigar into her vagina while you were in the oval office, would she will lying? this gentleman wanted personal, deeply personal questions asked of the president of the united states with regard to his affair with her. but apparently is chafing at the idea of deeply personal questions asked of him when he's seeking a lifetime seek on the supreme court. your thoughts? >> it really makes you believe in karma, doesn't it? be careful what you ask for. look, he has no basis for resisting these questions. it would be utterly hypocritical of him given his role in pushing for some of the most, you know, sexually explicit questions back in the clinton investigation. but i think more importantly right now, we've got a situation where he is -- he's up for a lifetime appointment on the

supreme court. and his fitness is very much in question. and i will just tell you that, you know, before blasey ford's story came out, many of us who had been in the room during the hearing day in and day out had real misgivings about whether he was lying, whether he was misleading the committee. he has no credibility going into this. his credibility was really shot. he has misled the american public about his role in controversial judicial. he opened his announcement saying no other president has talked to so many people before deciding on a supreme court nominee. we knew that was patently ridiculous. he's had a real problem with lying under oath about access to stolen e-mails in 2002 and his role in torture memos and the like. so he's got a real credibility issue going into this. but, look, it is fair game.

there is -- dr. blasey ford has made substantiated allegations. she has gone through a lie detector test, asked for an fbi investigation. she's saying bring more witnesses in. she's asking for more skroocrut. republicans have just been trying to ram through this nominati nomination. now they have to stop and address what is a very serious question which is disturbing to not only women across america but also men. we have become a little more aware in the me too era and it would be unacceptable for him to sit on the highest court with these allegations hanging over him. >> this is a gentleman who believed very firmly when he was working for ken star that ken star has an obligation. his article has led to questions about what would happen if as a supreme court justice he were asked to rule on whether trump

must comply with a subpoena from mueller on whether the president has a right to fire the special counsel. we also have an issue on the table on whether or not the white house is willing to stand behind him. they're staying with him. is it unfair to say that maybe the reason the white house is so interested in him specifically is his view on presidential power? >> no, i don't think it is unfair at all. his view is pretty out there. and as a lot of people have noted, this new confrontation that has, you know, been created by dr. blasey ford coming forward has led him to spend all the more time in the white house. he will be more linked to the trump white house than ever after this. so i think it is -- i think one of the main reasons to oppose him even before these

allegations came forward was the fear that he would not be able to be independent and he refused to say he refused himself on trump matters. and i just want to go back very briefly. those clips you showed were very revealing. the lindsey graham clip and what happened to the occasionally independent minded lindsey graham. that was the phoniest sympathy trying to deny her agency, saying she is just a pawn of the democrats. no. she is someone who voluntarily came forward knowing the kind of grief -- and i'm being gentle about it -- she would take for doing so. and the mike pence clip goes to the hypocrisy of this whole process. republicans are trying to say to their moderates, this isn't about ideology. this is about a competent jurist. but there is mike pence right there saying, no, no, no.

this is about ideology. we can count on his vote. that's what's wrong with this whole process. and i think you are going to see democrats pressing on the veracity issue as vernita suggested, not only about these charges, but they are going to revisit some of the things he said during the hearings they think were untrue. >> suzanne collins is also there having to be the responder. here she is responding to donald trump questioning the legitimacy of dr. ford's allegation. >> we know that allegations of sexual assault are one of the most unreported crimes that exist. so i thought that the president's tweet was completely inappropriate and wrong. >> maria, the president of the united states getting personally involved trying to discredit dr. ford before she even gets to testify.

>> i think if you are looking at a republican senator saying he's completely wrong, that says a lot if it is coming from a republican woman. again, i'm focussing -- i'm thinking of so many things. but it's the independence. i mean, at this point, if because they tried to push through, ram through, force through all very interesting words to be using in this moment when we're talking about v violence and sexual assault. if they push this through and this is the thing that makes independent women come out and it makes some woman turn away from the republican party, if this is the thing that costs the senate and the house for this president, that will forever be on this supreme court justice if he gets named. >> absolutely. go on. >> i just want to say, a really critical point here is that lindsey graham is happy to go on

fox news but he's unwilling to ask questions directly of dr. blasey ford. i'm sorry. that is cowardice through and through. he has a job. his job is to ask questions. he should not be hiding behind a woman lawyer. if he wants to ask pointed questions, they should come from him. he needs to own that. >> thank you very much. and there is so much more a.m. joy coming up after the break.

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just look at what is now being exposed in our department of justice and the fbi. look at what's going on. we have great people. these are people i really believe. you take a poll. i got to be at 95%. but you got some real bad ones. you have seen what's happened at the fbi. they're all gone. they're all gone. but there is a lingering stench, and we're going to get rid of that, too. >> the fate of donald trump's deputy attorney general still hangs in the balance after a con tro verbnew york times report.

rosenstein called the story absolutely false and justice department officials tell nbc that his comment about wearing a wire may have been sarcastic. it's kalated this week when trump told the hill, quote, i don't have an attorney general. joining me now elliot williams. thank you all for being here. you have now a sort of conspiracy theory wrapped in a conspiracy theory. trump's allies trying to decide whether he should go ahead and fire rosenstein or whether the rosenstein story in "the new york times" was actually a conspiracy to make donald trump fire him. here is a third possibility to the conspiracy theory, which is according to the former judge,

is it possible rod rosenstein leaked the story to "the new york times" himself to force donald trump to fire him. this is strange, but does it make sense to you that an assistant attorney general would leak negative stories about himself, wanting to essentially baker act the president to induce himself to be fired. >> it makes no sense whatsoever. when you think about it, when you believe in the existence of a deep state that exists for the purpose of undermining the president and all he stands for, then, yes, you are going to believe crack pot conspiracy theories about someone trying to engineer his own firing. rod rosenstein has been at the justice department for his entire career. why would he, frankly as one of the adults in the room right now, try to be engineering his own firing. more over, when you think about it, the president already talks a great deal about firing the attorney general, about firing the deputy attorney general. why would anybody speak to

decapitate the justice department in that way? with all this talk about firing the deputy attorney general and the attorney general, part of me wants to grow an afro out because it feels like 1973 all over again. ultimately, you ended up what could only be described as a constitutional and executive branch crisis. >> i endorse growing that afro. >> it will take a while. >> take your time. whenever that is ready, we will be ready to bring you back on a.m. joy. donald trump is at war full stop with the justice department because of his fears clearly on what's happening with the mueller probe. but saying that he does not have an attorney general means he doesn't understand what the attorney general does for a living because the united states has an attorney general, like it or not. here is trump on jeff sessions on wednesday after the report about him saying he has no attorney general.

>> i'm disappointed in the attorney general for numerous reasons. but we have an attorney general. i'm disappointed in the attorney general for many reasons, and you understand that. >> are you going to fire him? are you going to fire jeff sessions? >> we are looking at lots of different things. i have a great cabinet. we have the greatest economy ever in the history of our country. so we're very happy with the way things are running generally speaking. >> frank, he added to that statement in an interview with the hill, i'm so sad over jeff sessions because he came to me. he was the first senator that endorsed me and he wanted to be attorney general and i didn't see it. then you went through the nominating process and he did very poorly. i mean, he was mixed up and confused and people that worked with him for, you know, a long time in the senate were not nice to him. but he was giving very confusing answers. a, then why did you appoint him attorney general? and, b, this hostility forward the attorney general, is this a

background noise or is it actually dangerous in some way? frank? >> no, we're in a danger zone here because we still see the extension of the mob family mentality, that the consolier is supposed to be loyal to the capo. that's how he views his attorney general. of course the attorney general works for us. of course he is the chief law enforcement officer of the united states. where's the danger here? look, we are clearly headed toward a firing of the attorney general and likely rosenstein soon after the november midterms and that is the danger zone for the special counsel. i have to tell you, when the news broke of the deputy attorney general's statement, i put myself in the shoes of the mueller team listening to this, and i would imagine everything in his office stopped dead as they wondered if this was the day, if this was the weekend where the president would fire the deputy attorney general, put

someone in to remove mueller. i have to tell you, they must looked like an embassy about to be undertaken. that day is going to come. >> yeah. you think that if, to stay with you for a moment, frank, let's say he did it. let's say the day after the mid determine elections republicans don't do well. donald trump fires both rosenstein and sessions. what then happens in your view? do you think the mueller team shreds documents or they issue a report? >> right. so the embassy analogy fails here because of course what we are talking about is a legal team that i believe has prepared itself very well in a prosecutorial parachute where they start sending wrapped in ribbons packages to various u.s. attorneys offices and i think that's well underway. you have got to understand. that's a crap shoot when that

happens. we need something that protects mueller and lets him finish the job. and that should be the first thing a new congress works on this legislation to protect this special counsel. >> legislation that the republicans right now are refusing to move if that legislation actually exists. >> cbs news reports that jeff sessions actually tried to resign and that he attempted to resign the day that mueller was named special counsel, but this is what happened. take a listen. >> robert mueller who had been interviewed the day before by the president as a possible new fbi director is named special counsel. and jeff sessions submits his resignation, his real live written resignation to the president. and then leaves the white house. and reince priebus, the chief of staff, finds out about it and starts looking for jeff sessions. he finds jeff sessions inside his suv and implores him to come back inside so they could have a

consideration. >> what do you make of that? >> right. i think that he knew that the president would obviously be very unhappy with the fact that he had recused himself, of course, and then the special counsel being appointed to investigate the president and his campaign. so essentially jeff sessions had lost all control over the ensuing investigation. so i think that he was making a calculation there that the friction between him and the president was just too much for him to endure. of course, reince priebus was an institutionalist, an establishment figure there to encourage sessions to say because i think he saw the political peril that would come if he did end up resigning. there would be questions about whether he resigned perhaps because he had a conflict of interest in the mueller investigation, because there was a potential danger there. of course he ended up staying. now i think what we're seeing is the president is actually trying to push him to resign so that he doesn't have to go ahead and fire him and endure that kind of political firestorm, especially

before the midterms. i don't think that jeff sessions is in any kind of danger before the midterms. i don't think the president would go so far as to blow up the republican party in that way. it would just create mass panic. and the same kind of goes for rosenstein. i don't think that he would make any moves, especially now because republicans are salivating on the thought of getting rosenstein before congress to testify under oath about and kind of make a public spectacle about whether or not he actually did try to, you know, rally supporters for the 25th amendment to, you know, wire the president, to record him. so i think republicans now are really eager to get him before them to tell them what he actually did and of course they have already said they are going to subpoena the mcgabe memos. this is something he's not going to fire sessions or rosenstein because this is a big opportunity for congress.

>> absolutely. i would think at the moment they become fired they become witnesses. thank you all very much sglrchl. republicans failed attempt to swift vote christine blasey ford. and our a.m. joy tend to watch zeros in on the city of florida

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. within months of being sworn to serve as your senator, ted cruz was not in texas, he was in iowa. he visited every single one of the 99 counties of iowa. he went to new hampshire, south carolina, he went to the republican presidential primary states instead of being here. he shut down your government for 16 days in 2013 because too many people were getting too much health care in the united states of america. >> well, things are pretty heated between beto o'rourke and ted cruz. the two sparred over big issues like immigration and gun reform painting two very different visions for the future of texas. with multiple polls showing tight races. the status of texas as a perennial red state is up in the air.

joining us is curt. they've moved texas into tossup territory. if you listen to the quinnipiac poll, cruz is up 9. if you look at the reuters poll ted cruz is down 2. are democrats over confident here? or are republicans right to be worried? >> republicans are right to be worried. here in washington people are thinking about an emergency plan to help save ted cruz. they know they're in big trouble. they know this is a state that is turning a lot more purple than you might realize. you have metropolitan areas like texas. this isn't the same texas that existed during the george w. bush tenure. this is a much more growing and diverse metropolis. you're seeing that play out now. not only that, the message all politics is local. ted cruz has been running for

president the last two or three years and that hasn't gone unnoticed. where do his priorities lie? making this a local race is a powerful tactic and that's working. >> i watched the debate. it was something special. this was the tactic that ted cruz returned to over and over again in that debate to try to paint beoo o'rourke. take a listen. >> i think you are absolutely sincere, like bernie, that you believe in expanding government and higher taxes and i commend you for fighting what you believe in. as you noted, we disagree on the outcome but you're fighting for the principles you believe in and i respect that. >> true to form. >> true to form. this was a low keyway of saying you're a socialist. >> backhanded compliment. ted cruz showed a lot. this was at the end of the debate where they were asked to say something nice about something. cruz instead of taking the high

road -- beto went first. was very complimentary. ted goes second to do a backhanded glib compliment. this is why people say ted cruz is the most dislikable senate. personality issue. >> likeable is helpful. what a lot of people don't know about you is you're in the country music game. willie nelson coming out to stump for beto who's a former rocker himself. a lot of willie nelson fans mad. what do you make of this? >> it will absolutely help beto. willie is a personality all to himself, someone above politics, above partisanship. he is a beloved figure and i was at his show last week watching him and his son lucas perform. willie is 85 years old. he's accomplished more than anyone can imagine. he could give a rip about anybody not listening to his records about this. he's been a long standing supporter of liberal candidates and causes.

>> willie's already got his money. i don't think that he's worried about people being mad at him. do people like willie nelson more than ted cruz? >> i bet you're going to see some polling coming out on that of willie nelson's approval rating. >> more "a.m. joy" after the break. need a change of scenery?

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chairman grassley has led a very transparent process thus far. as soon as he heard about the allegations sunday he moved to

set up these background calls so he can start this investigation. the committee and the senate has a constitutional duty to look at the nominees that the president nominates and to see whether or not they're qualified and fit. we would really like to give dr. ford the opportunity to share the allegations further with the committee and judge kavanaugh an opportunity to clear his name. >> the communications advisor who's been helping the senate judiciary committee respond has resigned amid questions about his past that would prove awkward for next week's hearing. garrett ventry was fired from a previous political job partly because of a sexual harassment allegation against him. the allegation stems from his time working as a social media officer working with john bell in 2017. in a statement to nbc news a judiciary committee spokesman

says while ventry strongly denies allegations of wrongdoing, he decided to resign to prevent distractions. he worked for a prominent public affairs firm crc. according to politico, crc guided conservative legal activist ed whelan, who won with all of those detailed architectural drawings suggesting that cavanaugh's accuser, dr. christine blasey ford and he has apologize the. joining me is tiffany cross and managing editor of the beat d.c. e.j. dye own, jennifer rubin and curt bardella. i'll start with you here at the

table, tiffany. this gentleman who resigned tweeted on thursday responding to jake tapper on the wayland theory trying to clear up whether or not the judiciary committee knew about this wheland conspiracy theory. they had no knowledge or involvement. wheland tweeted and said i made an apology. i take full responsibility for that mistake. i realize it does not undo the mistake. i wronged the person identified and owe him and his family my deepest apologies and of course do not deserve to have him accept my apologies. where this came from in the first place is still hanging out there in your view. is that a closed story? >> i don't know if it's a closed story, but i think the news that we've had in the past 48 hours

given the tweet, the apology, the staffer that's had to resign and all of these could be investigated by the fbi. it took three days to do this in 1991 with anita hill if republicans weren't stalling. if the senate is not even investigating their own staff, like we can't trust them to investigate a situation involving dr. ford. so with the whelan tweet, i don't know that it's a closed story. i hope people are paying attention to it. >> jennifer rubin, one of the big things that adds to this this year is that dr. ford herself according to the washington post on sunday she noticed that even before her name had become public whelan appeared to be -- the same gentleman who did the conspiracy theory appeared to be seeking information about her. that morning per the post ford alerted an associate by e-mail that whelan had looked at her linked-in page. so before her name was out there

people were trying to dig na her past. it is odd. >> it is odd. did that information come from the white house? probably because just before mr. whelan sent out on his investigative journey he had his comrades at the white house had spoken to the washington post and it had been revealed. your guest is right, this could be investigated. and this in and of itself should be disqualifying judge kavanaugh had any knowledge about t knew about t condoned it. he essentially is willing to smear -- mr. whelan is essentially willing to smear an innocent man tagging him with absolutely no evidence as a means of defending judge kavanaugh. that is reprehensible.

mr. whelan is a lawyer. he should be reported to the bar. he should suffer political and certainly professional consequences. so this is absolutely reprehensible. it does deserve to be investigated. when kavanaugh comes before the judicial committee next week he has to be questioned about it. but i want to make a point, even if he is confirmed, the failure to investigate now will stay as a cloud over the supreme court. what if the maryland police after he's confirmed finds something? what if the fbi or the democrats who are going to take over the house find kavanaugh did know about this, we then have a complete mess. potential impeachment hearings potential impeachment of a supreme court justice. they cannot risk putting someone on the supreme court who is a ticking time bomb. this is the republican's furious rush to judgment, but it's going to leave a permanent stain. judge kavanaugh, soon to be

justice kavanaugh if you believe the republicans, is going to have the prospect of being revealed or having a lie exposed after he is on the supreme court. this is completely intolerable. >> e.j., i think that is the point, right? i'm not an attorney so there is no statute of limitations as per my understanding in maryland if dr. ford wanted to pursue it. i mean, she in theory could continue to pursue it even if he was put on the court. what kind of a spectacle would that be, you would have a sitting supreme court justice having this remaining open. >> right. it could be a complete catastrophe for the country. could i put something that jenn said in bold faced italics? i'm a print guy. that she underscored that this story being put around by a completely innocent guy is really exactly what the kavanaugh defenders are accusing his critics of doing to him.

they're saying this is a false charge and they're willing to make a false charge against someone else completely unfounded as part of this defense. i think what you're going see in the hearings is democrat questioning kavanaugh hard about the interlocking campaigns in his favor. what did he know about all of this? did he pull the any of this in circulation and ed whelan ran with it? i think it's something we've got to know. >> it is a question, kurt. the time line on it is sort of interesting, right? it did seem that, you know, orrin hatch was like watch out for whelan's tweets. you had this idea saying it's mistaken identity. orrin hatch saying she's mistaken and then all of a sudden this thing comes out and then you have garrett ventry let go, nbc's reporting on this, this is nbc exclusive reporting

on it. sources exclusive with it says garrett ventry was let go after parts of his resume were felt to be embellished and he faced accusations of a female staff person in the north carolina staff. this was described to nbc news as extremely swift to an office with little overall turnover. it seems there was first an attempt to kind of crowd around the idea of mistaken identity and that's going to be the answer to save kavanaugh and then purge it out. are republicans making it worse with the things that they themselves are doing? >> when i worked at the oversight committee, joy, we were fond of the saying, it's not the crime, it's the coverup that gets them. we're seeing that play out right now. i have to believe if democrats retake congress or at least the house, there will be an investigation into this. there will be subpoenas for all documents, information related to crc, washington, the white

house. another next us between the white house and the crc is kehl an conway's polling firm was sold to crc. there are a lot of interlocking things here. it's hard to believe there wasn't a working knowledge between all of them putting out these things ahead of time. the fact that there was a search before her name was even public, there was already opposition research basically being conducted on her tells you there was an effort, a coordinated and deliberate effort to cover this up. it tells you there's a lot more going on here than we even realize and at some point that will be investigated. >> tiffany, mitch mcconnell is trying to sound confident. this is all just a delay to the inevitable. would they be doing all of this if they had the votes? >> exactly. the latest developments buck the narrative of what they've been trying to put out about judge kavanaugh. he was a jesus christ white boy. >> coaches girls baseball.

>> -- basketball. >> exactly. exactly. we saw a clip he belonged to in college, the fraternity and some of the models that they have that perpetuates a rape culture and we saw it with mark judge's allegation in his book. i mean, you know, they're calling him a witness but he's more of an accomplice if you believe dr. ford's story. all of these things don't add up. i think you are seeing mitch mcconnell get nervous. i think they are going to jam this through before mid terms. what they have to worry about is when the other shoe drops. >> right. >> you have the risk of confirming this guy on the supreme court. >> yeah. >> and what if you have to impeach a supreme court justice? these are unprecedented times that we're in. >> the impeachment process works exactly the way as it would for a president. i think it's happened once in american history. jennifer rubin you wrote in the

washington post when this extraordinary why i didn't report hashtag went viral at least 200,000 posts at least as of i believe the first day it was up. you said that these and the women's stories that we read all share common features. someone usually male uses his power, physical, spiritual, executive uses his power to make them feel small. "the cycle" is reinforced and the message is conveyed. victims pay a terrible price for stepping forward. the difference here is that dr. ford holds a lot of the cards that she actually has not just victim hood but her testimony is powerful. she could tell her story whenever she wanted to. she could book a primetime interview and still tell her story. >> exactly. this is why chuck grassley had to keep making and unmaking these deadlines. >> he doesn't have the votes right now. senator flake, senator collins, senator murkowski have said, no,

we want to hear from her. we're not ready to vote. that's three votes there. there are probably more. so she was able to essentially call his bluff and say, listen, i'm not coming on monday. i'm going to take my time. i'll prepare properly. she'll drive to get to d.c. she is coming on thursday and she won that face-off precisely because she does have nower. at any moment she can go before the cameras and you know what, at any moment she can bring other people who would be confirming witnesses in terms of the alcohol culture, the drug culture out in front of the cameras, too, make those people available. so any witness that wants to cooperate with her that is not being called, they could come out, they could tell their story and the senators or whoever they get to ask the questions and they're going to height behind that person's skirts won't have an opportunity to ask questions of those people. so she has a lot of power and that's the message that should go out to women. you do have power. you have the power of the truth. you have the power of your voice. and that's why i think this is

such a -- not only a political but a culturally significant moment. >> you know, kurt, it's interesting because back in the days when you were in the breitbart world, there is a strategy you would use to try to discredit the women and reinforce your base. cnn taking heat doing a focus group of women voters. the team play it as vo and not play it back. it featured a group of women in south florida who are 100% backing kavanaugh that the "huffington post" reports that gina solsa and another woman, one is a congressional candidate who ran for office, one hosted a $1,000 a plate fund-raiser for ted cruz. they're not average women. obviously if you go down and you're trying to find a focus group, the local party will push people to you in media. we don't know how that focus group was put together. it finds that the defenders are insiders. where are the ordinary women who are saying this is perfectly normal? >> this was a well choreographed bit of propaganda.

these are how these things work. you have operatives and organizations and political entities that try to steer the media to the surrogates essentially to help get their get their story out. it's a panel. it's they're shedding anything any real context. i think that's a preview of what dr. ford is going to experience in front of the senate. if you look at the transcript of anita hill and thomas hearings, the questions that were directed at ms. hill from these all male, predominantly white republican senators were geared at changing the content, questioning her judgment. at one point hill was -- this was really happening. getting the same type of treatment.

it's very much a rigged panel against her. >> to say nothing about the president of the united states. e.j., jennifer will join us later. thank you very much. coming up, michelle obama is back. we'll see why next. ♪ 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.

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the truth is, when we stay home, things stay the same or they get worse, but when we all vote, we get new ideas and new energy. we get leaders who share our values and listen to our voices. that's how we change america. >> the obamas are back in the national political stage. former first lady michelle obama is kicking off her new initiative, when we all vote, to promote voter registration and participation. there's a rally in las vegas today headlined by the former first lady herself. joining me is valerie jarrett board chair of when we all vote and senior advisor to president barack obama. good to see you. >> good morning, joy. >> very excited to see the first lady. i know her book tour is selling out. tell us a little bit about this

initiative. what is the purpose of it? what's this event going to look like today? >> sure. welcome and i'm glad to be here from las vegas. a couple of weeks ago the first lady launched when we all vote with a group of couple of co-chairs. she wants to change our culture around voting. it's a 501c3 not for profit with an intent to get everyone to appreciate our responsibility, our individual and collective responsibility to participate in our democracy. her view is really very simple. our vote gives us a voice and our voice is our power. why would we cede that power to anybody else? today is an exciting opportunity to use her platform to engage people not just in las vegas but around the country. >> can you give us a preview who's going to be there today? >> we're going to have -- well, it's an over sold crowd. we have thousands of people who wanted to attend and we can accommodate. we have local high school and

volunteers. it's people on the ground out there helping register people to vote. >> and one of the things that the first lady has done that your organization has done that she's partnered with black organizations to make sure that african-americans are so directly spoken to. nearly 20 black organizations including nine predominantly black from interpret knit tis and sororities, black girls vote, naacp, alpha phi alpha. why was it important to involve those organizations directly? >> we want to include everybody. particularly communities that have not felt they had a voice. we want everyone to register. the point of this being non-partisan is to say our country will be better than if everyone participates. it's fundamental responsibility as citizenship. >> it's non-partisan. of course, michelle obama is with the first lady, president

ba look obama. a lot of people are saying why make it nonpartisan when it's pretty clear that the obama's point of view is trumpism is dangerous, it's not the direction the country should go in. why not make it a direct appeal and say we need to vote in one particular direction that is not the current one? >> it's a very good question and i think her feebling very stro g strongly is we have a big, diverse country and it will be better when everyone participates. it's to say we should all care who elects us. if we don't care and we cede our power to special interest groups then they're not going to look out for our best groups. this is a cultural issue. culture is not about being partisan. she wants to use her platform to echo this voice about civic responsibility and engagement and for people who want to get involved, they can text we all vote at 97779 and it will help

you find a way to vote in your own district. i think it's important to say let's put away some of this rhetoric and let's figure out what we have in common and let's make sure that all voices participate and let's get educated to understand the issues that affect every american's life. that's her message and she's so excited to be here. she'll be in miami on the 28th of this month. book ending this week of action of voter registration. >> the first lady is always welcome to come to "am joy" as well. that was a pitch while i have you in front of me. we can talk about the book. early voting in the modern era is it isn't just on tuesday in november when we all know that election day officially is november 6th, early voting has already started in some states. absenteeism and early balloting started in wyoming, south dakota, minnesota, vermont, new jersey. you've worked in politics in illinois and chicago, which is a very tough, very political city.

is it harder to get people to vote over a long stretch or does this encourage nonconsistent voters to go to the polls? >> the point is to make it as easy as possible, joy, for people to vote. folks work. they can't take off of work oftentimes on election day, particularly when it falls on a tuesday. this gives people flexibility to vote at their convenience. so i'm very opposed to states that are making it harder for people to vote trying to suppress the vote. we believe everyone should have the opportunity to vote at their convenience, early and -- not often, early before leading up to election day and so we're proposing that all around the country we try to encourage citizens to add their voice to this insistence on early voting. >> we're going to show the 34 states including the district of columbia where you can vote early. it is, as you said, very convenient for people who need to vote on a saturday. it's important for people to

participate. it is important thing to do. valerie jarrett, it's always good to talk to you. you said after vegas it will be miami next? >> miami on the 28th. we're holding over 2,000 rallies across the country this week. that shows you the level of enthusiasm and engagement on this issue. the first lady will be in miami but all across the country, go on one on one and vote.com. volunteer, get involved and most of all vote. >> valerie jarrett, always good to see you. have fun out there in las vegas. tell the first lady hello from the "am joy" family. >> we'll do. >> you can catch a live stream of michelle obama's facebook page on facebook.com when we all vote. tune in. you can see the first lady. lindsey graham is making the rounds on the sunday show supporting his new bff, donald trump. we'll have more on that after the break.

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donald trump and his supporters like to say that they're only against illegal immigration while at the same time making it harder for those trying to come here legally. on saturday the trump administration proposed a rule change that would deny green cards and visas to immigrants who are either already here in the country documented or seeking to enter if they've ever

fallen on hard times and utilized government services like medicaid, food stamps or housing vouchers. it's only the latest of several policy changes that reflect hostility to immigration among the people and inside the administration themselves like steven miller. their apparent belief that the immigrants are a drain on the welfare system happens to be untrue. undocumented immigrants can't even receive government aid. according to the conservative cato institute, first and second generation immigrants consume 33% fewer welfare benefits than native born people who have been here three generations or more. more "am joy" after the break. take this left. if you listen real hard you can hear the whales.

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what do you expect me to do? you can't bring it in a criminal court. you would never sue civilly. you couldn't even get a warrant. what am i supposed to do, go ahead and ruin this guy's life based on an accusation? i don't know when it happened, i don't know where it happened and everybody named in regard to being there said it didn't happen. i'm just being honest. unless there's something more, no, i'm not going to ruin judge kavanaugh's life over this. >> to be correct, people who were named said they didn't remember or recall, not that it didn't happen. senator lindsey graham is standing firm for brett

kavanau kavanaugh. joining me, tiffany kroft and marina inohosa, e.j.dionne and jennifer rubin. i'm going to start at the table. lindsey graham is a strange case to me in a lot of ways, tiffany, because he was the ride or die best friend of john mccain who has become the reid or die best friend of donald trump. they have to protect the reputation of kavanaugh first. >> which is so ridiculous. with that kvapil is the victim commentary. listen, when thousands of people in pennsylvania came out and said that they were abused by the catholic church, nobody said, why didn't you say anything? we don't want to hear your comments. why is it acceptable to impugn this woman's character as a 17-year-old --

>> 15. >> 15 which sounds ridiculous. he should be embarrassed. i think he's somewhat of a masochist. donald trump has been so incredibly disrespectful of him. i wonder what does he get by following this guy and riding his coattails particularly in the face of this me too era. i'm embarrassed for him. >> he's a jag officer in the military. he sort of understands the legal process at least in the military sense. he's weighing in, including the conduct of the way the hearing should be. this is lindsey graham saying bring in outside counsel, that has to be a woman apparently, to question dr. ford. take a listen. >> we have 11 politicians who haven't done a trial in about 20 years. i thought it would be really smart to have somebody come in who knows what the hell they're doing, to ask the questions, to be respectful. i don't know what dr. ford expected us to do with an anonymous letter. if she wanted to stay anonymous, those who betrayed her need to

apologize. she will be treated respectfully and she will be challenged. >> maria, this is not a trial, this is a hearing. those same 11 republican men had no problem doing the rest of the hearing. this is an additional hearing. >> i'm just having a moment because i hadn't heard that. this is senator graham saying we need to get someone in here who knows what the hell they're doing? to ask the questions. >> his colleagues apparently do not. >> so he's just basically said my senatorial colleagues don't know what the hell they're doing, don't know how to question a woman so what -- and then -- and then, of course, he's saying, but i really feel for you. i'm really sorry this happened to you. i'm sorry, senator, as somebody who lived through this, i really do not feel any sense of care, affection, or interest or empathy and if you were trying to do that, i would say it sounds like you don't know what the heck you're doing because that's not a loving tone for women who are survivors.

>> and, e.j., these united states senators were elected to do the advise and consent function under the constitution. it doesn't matter if they haven't been in trials. not all senators aren't lawyers let alone former prosecutors. it's not required that they know how to conduct a trial, it's required they know how to talk. they were elected. it seems extraordinary that they would give up their constitut n constitutional duty to a womn attorney so long as she's a woman. >> the suggestion was senators on his side don't know what the heck they're doing. that was remarkable. look, i think there have been precedents like on the watergate hearings where you have an outside counsel. as i said earlier, i'm not against that in general principle. i think there are times when senators really do look like they don't know what the heck they're doing, but the republicans have a very particular problem here. they have not one woman in their

ranks to ask questions here. they are going to have to get someone from the outside because of that, and the core problem here is the lack of diversity within that republican side of the judiciary committee. and by the way, the other implication here and what lindsey graham said the earlier clip, there is no right to be on the supreme court. >> right. >> you know, this is not a trial about whether we're determining whether judge kavanaugh goes to jail, this is whether he has the privilege of a lifetime appointment on the supreme court and we have to keep those two things separate because they are very different. >> yeah, absolutely. well, apparently the republicans believes he has a right to be on the supreme court. you know who does know what to do with a trial is carmella harris, former prosecutor. what they're -- >> i thought you were going to say jennifer. >> but i mean the reality is on

the other side of the aisle, we talk about the 11 white gentleman who will be on the republican side. sitting across on the other side are people lake mazy and carmella harris and cory booker. they know how to cross examine someone. >> that's right. it will be sort of amazing to see a republican-led, republican entirely in competition judiciary committee hiding behind a woman where in contrast the democrats are using their own people because they're fully capable, they know what the heck is going on. so the contrast in competency alone is telling. listen, what graham said is reprehensible, but at least he's being honest. these republicans do not care if they put someone on the supreme court who, in fact, did what dr. ford asserts. that's why they don't really care. that's why they don't believe her. that's why they're coming up

with all these crack pot theories. they are going to vote for him anyway. and think about that, they're willing to put on the supreme court someone who very well may be -- essentially a sexual predator. well, i guess they put one in the white house so why not on the supreme court, right? >> yeah. >> but i think there's something that's very fundamental here. >> i think that is the point. even if they think he did it, they don't care. it doesn't matter to them. let me play you another bite of lindsey graham. it's extraordinary to hear him -- lindsey graham, 2.0. here he is talking about dr. ford's request and the things she's asked for for testifying. take a listen. this was also on fox. >> she made ten conditions, request for ten, we gave six. we're not going to let her determine how many people we call. we're going to call dr. ford, then mr. kavanaugh is the way you would do it in any other situation and we will hire our own lawyers and that's it. if they can't accept that, that

means they don't want to testify. judge kavanaugh is ready to go monday, thursday. >> take it or leave it. first off he sounds like he's judge kavanaugh's lawyer. then take it or leave it. >> he has a team leading him. bill schein is on his team. so to say that you want to get yourself prepared within a week to come before this body and testify is ridiculous and unheard of. it's crazy that we're having the same -- like she has less due process i think than anita hill was afforded almost 30 years ago. >> exactly. >> it's ridiculous they're making that assertion. here come all the false equivalencies. what about the -- the what about ism. i agree with your point about carmella harris. when carmella harris did question kavanaugh, the headline was she was attacking him.

she dared ask him questions and give him some accountability. underlying was this black woman is attacking this poor helpless white guy, which obviously we see now he's far from that. >> and senator mazy horano is called the angry agent. men need to step back and think before they speak on things like sexual assault. maria, you have this idea, and i think jennifer states it pretty clearly, that these guys are going to -- this is pretty clear that they're going to do it. the question then always comes back to the women. the senate -- the women in the republican caucus, which seems a little bit unfair to men because it's sort of presuming that men cannot also have some sort of objective and sensitivity. it is falling back again on the republican women to make a decision, at least two of them. is that a fair way to look at it or should we be asking the men the same thing if they would go for this? >> absolutely. that's why what's happening here is so uncomfortable, but men and women are having to look at this

and, again, it's not just the women but it would be very sad if we are depending only on the women to have to do this. >> right. >> guys are -- they're fathers of young women. i want to know what the conversations are in the households of these senators who have daughters or granddaughters and what they're saying. those are the conversations that i want to know, and i'm also fascinated by the fact that everybody is like, we're going to ruin judge kavanaugh's life. >> right. >> no, he's not going to get on the supreme court. sorry, his life is not ruined. >> he has the federal judgeship. >> so his life is not ruined, he just won't be on the supreme court. >> yeah. >> period. >> can we play another lyndsey graham. this is lindsey graham opining about the possibilities of coming forward as a victim of sexual abuse. >> for every woman that comes forward regarding an allegation like this, god only knows how many never come forward. also know that sometimes people are accused of things they

didn't do. i would advise the president to let us handle this. >> okay. so, jennifer rubin, obviously the tail end of that is that lindsey graham recognizes the optics problem radiates outside of that committee. donald trump, 19 accusers. he supported roy moore who was basically banned from the mall because of allegations that he preyed on young girls. the optics are bad all the way around, but lindsey graham says god only knows how many may never come ford, but he knows people are sometimes accused of things they didn't do. that's the line. this will mean no man will ever be able to be appointed because they'll all be accused. >> the imbalance is tremendous. it's estimated as many as 80% of women who are attacked never report it. the incidence of false accusations is minute. it's in the low single digits and there's a raft of studies out there so it will equate the two as wrong. you know what, if lindsey graham says he doesn't know when this happened, he doesn't know who is there, why isn't he authorizing

the fbi to go find him some answers? why isn't he including witnesses like mark judge? he's very incurious. on one hand they claim ignorance, not enough to go on, on the other hand they won't investigate it. >> because they've got to have the court. >> that's exactly correct. either one or the other. if you want the truth, you try to find it. >> yeah, absolutely. fabulous panel. thank you all very much. coming up at the top of the hour, congressman adam schiff weighs in on the battle. up next, georgia on my mind. our series ten to one to watch is next. te teacher. te teacher. don't assume the substitute teacher has nothing to offer... same goes for a neighborhood. don't forget that friendships last longer than any broadway run. mr. president. (laughing) don't settle for your first draft. or your 10th draft. ♪ ♪ you get to create the room where it happens. ♪ ♪ just don't think you have to do it alone. ♪ ♪ the powerful backing of american express.

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the people of georgia should hear the truth. instead of stacey abrams dancing around the truth. stacey, did not pay her taxes. she had the money. she made over a million dollars the last five years. three, stacey chose to loan $50,000 to her campaign instead of paying her $54,000 tax bill. did not pay for taxes and wants to raise hours, stacey is wrong for georgia. >> that campaign proves anything that republicans in georgia are nervous of stacey abrams and her

candidacy. abrams is the first black governor in georgia's history. this race should be a cake walk for republicans in that state. brian kemp's view could cause him the next november. >> joining me now to discuss of the great city of columbia, georgia. >> great to see you. >> are republicans nervous of stacey abrams or democrats are overly confident? >> joy, what's important to remember is 46% of our active registered voters are non-white in georgia. that's important because brian

kemp spent millions of dollars explaining to us that he's racially and ethically challenged. we keep on talking about turn out. hillary clinton had 1.8 million votes in the 2016 presidential general election. >> stacey abrams can find those people inspire and encourage them to come out in november then she will be the next or a fraction there of. she will smoke brian kemp on november 6th. >> when you talk about the racial challenges, you have videos of white nationalists yelling at stacey abrams in an event. we'll talk more about that. the event was mentioned in a piece by jason johnson, yelling at a black veteran. there has been some racial ze incidents that permeated this race.

>> the government tries hard to make this a racial issue. they have derogatory, bigoted commercials they came out with. i would say if they fell a little flat. you don't see those plains anymore. it reinforces those narratives that brian kemp started. >> is donald trump helping or hurting kemp? >> hurting. 49% of women say that trump's endorsement makes it less likely to vote for you. >> that's the road way that people would look at a race like this that abrams is inspiring black voters and brian kemp is counting on white voters. >> that's why some of these commercials are not resonating and that's why you are pulling back. a little bit you no know

brighter character, perhaps because he had some problems hang over from the primary. >> i wonder if the kavanaugh nomination is resonating into the state of georgia in terms of this race. >> interesting. whatever they are trying to get, ci stacey does not stick. she did not vote on a sex offender law. she was not there to vote. it fell flat because these are the folks that voted for donald trump and he has all the assault allegations. and of course now the kavanaugh thing as you well know, he's been accused by someone who's 15 at the time below the age of consent and maryland at that time and still. it brings hollow that these folks are really concerned of that particular non vote. so really didn't stick and it is a wakening women, particularly white women. everybody in the 80s and 90s and these women in the 40s and 50s

either themselves or had a friend that had an incident like this. this rings very true and familiar. >> you are also an attorney, what do you make of the demands that are being put on christine blasey ford to testify? >> people will confusing this with some sort of legal proceedings. this is a test of his character. that's why they asked him those forms about his brouackground. that's why the fbi goes and check on thos on those kinds of. they went back to look for who lives next door to me. will you lie when you are embarrassed or lie when you are ashamed. that's what this is all about. so conditions are absolutely appropriate. this is not threatening the man of his freedom. it seems that whether he may have a lifetime appointment on the highest court of the land. >> thank you talking about all

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