good night from washington a second woman comes forward to accuse supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh of sexual misconduct the new allegation and the response from kavanaugh, the white house and the senate judiciary committee. plus, kavanaugh's first accuser agrees to testify thursday in open hearings. we're going to tell you what evidence he will reportedly introduce to defend himself. and the deputy attorney general denies that explosive report that he discussed a plan to remove the president from office the big question now is how long will rod rosenstein last ♪

good morning, everyone i'm ayman mohyeldin. supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh issued a stern denial last night to a second allegation of sexual misconduct, this time as a college student the new yorker magazine reports that senate democrats are investigating a climb from debra ramirez, who says kavanaugh pulled down his pants and exposed himself to her during their freshman year at yale law school three sources familiar with the accusation told nbc about ramirez's claim. ramirez is the same age as kavanaugh and they both graduated from the university in 1987 she referred nbc to her lawyer, who did not respond to requests for comment. in her initial conversations with the new yorker she was reluctant to characterize

kavanaugh's role with certainty. she said she felt confident enough in her recollections to say she remembers kavanaugh had exposed himself at a drunken dormitory party, thrust his penis in her face and caused her to touch it without her consent as she pushed him away she's calling for the fbi to investigate. the white house distributed kavanaugh's response, saying, this alleged event from 35 years ago did not happen this is a smear, plain and simple we will hear from one of the reporters behind this story coming up a little bit later on "morning joe." the republican leadership of the senate judiciary committee said it was not aware of the new allegation against kavanaugh until the publication of the new yorker report. a spokesperson for chuck grassley said she nor her representative have contacted

their office the new yorker report claims that besides the democrats, senior republican staffers learned of the allegation last week and in conversations with the new yorker expressed concern about the impact on the nominatio nomination the committee also says it has reached out to attorney michael avenatti who tweeted, i represent a woman with credible information against judge kavanaugh and mark judge we will be demanding that judge and others be subpoenaed to testify. avenatti clarifieclarified, my i not debra ramirez. the woman who accused judge brett kavanaugh of sexual assaulting her when they were in high school has reached a deal to publicly give her side of the story to lawmakers a lawyer for christine blasey

ford says her client has agreed to appear before the committee on thursday. that decision comes after her legal team and the committee were able to reach an agreement on the terms of ford's appearance democratic and republican sources familiar with the agreement tell nbc news that ford's lawyers and committee staff agreed to the following. the hearing will be open to the public ford will testify first, followed by judge kavanaugh. democratic senators will ask questions at the hearing and mark judge, who ford claimed interrupted the assault, will not be subpoenaed to testify some aspects of the hearing remain unresolved at this hour one of the major sticking points was who on the republican side would get to question ford committee members wanted to keep the option of using an outside female lawyer or staff member on the table. republicans are hoping to avoid the optics of their 11 all-male members of the committee

questioning ford joining me is daniel litman from politico what are we now learning about the terms of thursday's hearings are we expecting to see things go smoothly? are we going to see this appear to be a contentious senate judiciary committee hearing? >> i think they're trying to avoid this woman getting basically attacked by the 11 republican members of the committee, because they have a problem with women voters that, if this is the outcome of the hearing, then it is very hard for them to make the case to women in the november midterms that they're looking out for their interests. but i think there will be some fireworks when kavanaugh comes to defend himself, because a lot of democrats will be asking about his drinking, about his partying in high school and college. you have the second allegation,

so he may try to decline to answer some of the questions about his sex life, for example, because he doesn't want to get into that and that just hurts his case for confirmation. >> you brought up the issue of the second allegation. it's really interesting to see how this is going to play out over the course of the four days if you include michael avenatti and his tweets as well could we see the second accuser participate in thursday's hearing along with ford or at least hear some kind of testimony during this week are we likely to see that in of itself play out in coming days and weeks? >> democrats are calling for republicans to stop this confirmation in its tracks but i don't think it's possible to work out the terms of the second woman testifying on thursday but you might see a second hearing later on maybe next week but i think the real take-away

is that if christine blasey ford is seen as credible by the public and by even one or two members on the republican side that's all you need to stop this confirmation i would expect in the next couple days after that thursday hearing the drum beat is going to be is kavanaugh going to withdraw, is trump going to push him out and have a new nominee before the midterms. >> so what is the sentiment that you are getting from the white house in the face of this second accuser coming out against their nominee and according to michael avenatti, even a possible third one? are they doubling down on kavanaugh? are you starting to see any cracks in the confidence behind the supreme court nominee and the gop and the white house's side >> they're defiant, saying this man has a good reputation that he spent his lifetime building but they're going to deny that he's going to withdraw until the moment he might do so. so it feels like this is another

case where they feel like they have a hot potato that they have to get rid of, because these accusations just keep coming supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh plans to hand over calendars from the summer of 1982 to the senate judiciary committee to dispute the claims of christine blasey ford, this according to someone working for his confirmation the "new york times" reports that kavanaugh's team plans to argue that the calendars provide no corroboration for ford's account of a small gathering at the white house where he allegedly assaulted her. however, kavanaugh's team acknowledges that the calendars do not disprove the allegations. the "washington post" reports that kavanaugh has called republicans on the judiciary committee and other key allies, urging them to publicly support him and determining what questions he could face in the

upcoming hearing in one key call, he reportedly told senator orrin hatch that ford had the wrong guy in mind, telling hatch he did not attend the party like the one she described. kavanaugh and his al highs have privately discussed a defense that would raise doubt that is the attacker was him rather than trying to dispute that the allegations actually happened. coming up, should rod rosenstein be fired after a report that he secretly suggested recording the president and trying to remove him from office? lindsey graham spoke on that. >> what do you expect me to do you can't bring it in the criminal court 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 - [announcer] the typical vacuum head can struggle with large debris and stuck-on dust, so shark invented duoclean, replacing the front wall with a rotating soft brush. while deep cleaning carpets, two brush rolls pick up large particles with ease, make quick work of stuck-on dust, giving hard floors a polished look, and fearlessly devour piles. shark duoclean technology, designed to do more on carpets and floors, available in corded

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threats of new subpoenas and a second special counsel, that is how some congressional republicans are reacting to a "new york times" report that deputy attorney general rod rosenstein discussed wearing a wire to secretly record conversations with president trump and even discussed invoking the 25th amendment to oust him this led to senator lindsey graham to renew his calls for a special prosecutor to look into the russia probe. >> it's a bureaucratic coup against president trump being discovered here. before the election, the people in question tried to taint the election, tip it to clinton's favor. after the election, they're trying to undermine the president. i don't know what rosenstein did, but i know what mccabe or

page and strzok did. they tried to destroy this president. rosenstein is doing this country a great disservice by not appointing a special counsel to look at all of this. >> the times report is partly based off of memos written by fbi officials including then deputy director andrew mccabe, who declined to comment but denied being a source. >> we have been very, very concerned about the lack of production of some documents we've gotten a lot of documents, access to more than a million documents from the department of justice, but some key, key documents, including the so-called mccabe memos, which could very directly bear upon this question of what was rod rosenstein doing in that meeting. if they're not produced by tomorrow or tuesday this week, we are going to issue a subpoena to the justice department that expands upon the subpoena we issued earlier this year.

>> deputy attorney general rod rosenstein denied the story saying i never pursued or authorized recording the president and any suggestion that i have is absolutely false. the "new york times" reports per four people who have talked to trump in the last two days, his attention has been far more focused on whether kavanaugh gets through and even on the stormy daniels book. and the "wall street journal" reports that president trump's then attorney john dowd suggested they help fund the defense of former top campaign aides indicted in the mueller probe, citing people familiar with the matter, dowd told associated of the president that he wanted to direct money from the legal defense fund set up for the white house and their officials and campaign aides to the lawyers for paul manafort and rick gates at the time, the pair had pleaded not guilty to charges of

tax, bank and lobbying violations in the fall of 2017 the idea was rebuffed by ethics advisors in the white house. dowd wrote that manafort and gates needed funds immediately and that he planned to donate $25,000 to manafort's legal defense fund the next day. the next day, manafort agreed to plead guilty and cooperate dowd says he never tried to divert funds and only inquired whether it was possible to include manafort among staff members that needed help the "new york times" reported that dowd raised the prospect of pardons for michael flynn and paul manafort. ct macfarland has revised her initial statement. she previously served as advisor to michael flynn and was a close ally of his. back in the summer of 2017, she

told investigators that she never talked with flynn regarding his meeting with sergei kiy kislyak. when she spoke with flynn in late december of 2016, a general statement made to her that things are going okay could have been a reference to sanctions. the post reported that for a while investigators viewed her statements as inconsistent, putting her in potential legal peril regarding possibly lying to the fbi however, according to people familiar with the probe, macfarland and her legal team convinced the fbi that she was not intentionally misleading but had spoken from memory the special counsel now appears satisfied with macfarland's refused account. according to flynn's guilty

plea, before he spoke to kislyak, he spoke to macfarland about sanctions. let's get a check of our forecast with bill karins. how quickly is it going to get cold >> this weekend we clicked into fall and now it's cooled off dramatically especially in new england along the i-95 corridor. it was a cloudy weekend. the clouds continue around philadelphia back here to the west, we have a lot of rain this morning in tennessee and kentucky this is the same storm system that soaked dallas with over eight inches of rain this weekend. today's flash flood threat is in areas of tennessee the red or maroon color is a moderate risk along the kentucky area and southern ohio we could see enough rain to give us some problems

we have 7 million people under flash flood watches today from tennessee, through kentucky and areas of west virginia the rainfall totals, the blue is one inch of rain that's a good soaking rain and then that's today. then tonight it pushes into pennsylvania tomorrow it moves all through portions of new england and the northeast. about 1-2 inches pretty much widespread, a soaking rain on tuesday. airports will probably have some delays with it just a soaking rain for the most part during the day. dallas today a slight chance of a shower, but a lot better than the heavy rain over the weekend. chicago, pretty nice day for you today at 75. there will be some strong thunderstorms in the forecast for you tomorrow in chicago. everyone in the west is dry and looking rather pleasant. as we go into the forecast of the rest of the week, we're actually looking pretty good li louis did mention fall many areas over the next three

months are expecting temperatures to be at or above average. we'll see how that plays out this fall, but warmth is the trend over cool. >> i'll take it. still ahead, tiger woods completes his comeback >> the tap-in for tiger. we thought we'd never see it i don't believe he thought either >> how the legendary golfer roared back from injury and scandal, next. if you have psoriasis, ... little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not a cream. it's a pill that treats moderate to severe plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable. don't use if you're allergic to otezla . it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting.

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>> grant to the 10, to the five, touchdown! >> defense blocked! and the rams get their points anyway >> stafford deep touchdown! marvin jones >> double coverage it's intercepted intended for dorsett >> nice to end on a brady pick there. that was some of the exciting action from across the gridiron yesterday. however much of the talk in the sports world today is reserved for golf because tiger woods won the 2018 tour championship yesterday, shooting 11 under par. it's tiger's first victory in more than five years since the

2013 bridgestone invitational. congrats are also in order for justin rose, who came in fourth yesterday. but that was enough to secure the fedex cup and the $10 million prize there. let's talk about tiger for a second four back surgeries, scandal no one thought he could come back he kind of looked like his old days back in 2000. he led the whole tournament. just a brilliant performance by him. >> there were some incredible pictures of the crowd chasing him on the final links and then you could see this huge crush of the fans that were cheering him on all trying to take a picture of him. >> he looks pretty emotional there, holding back tears. >> i could imagine congratulations him. still ahead, a new sexual assault accusation against supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. meanwhile, his first accuser is now set to testify thursday.

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♪ welcome back, everyone i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside louis bergdorf brett kavanaugh issued a stern denial to a second allegation of sexual misconduct, this time as a college student

the new yorker reports that senate democrats are now investigating a claim from debra ramirez who says kavanaugh pulled down his pants and exposed himself to her during their freshman year at yale. ramirez, 53, is the same age as kavanaugh and they both graduated from the university in 1987 she referred nbc to her lawyer who did not respond to requests for comment. the white house, though, distributed kavanaugh's response saying, quote, this alleged event from 35 years ago did not happen the people who knew me then know this did not happen and have said so. this is a smear, plain and simple we will hear from one of the reporters behind the story coming up a little bit later on "morning joe." as members of the senate judiciary committee were busy hammering out details to lock down christine blasey ford's testimony, the president took to

twitter, tweeting, i have no doubt that if the attack was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local law enforcement by either her or her loving parents. i ask that she bring those files forward so we can learn date, time and place a number of people encouraged the president to keep a low profile during the fight to save kavanaugh's confirmation the president said he made the decision to fire off the tweet because the kavanaugh fight was becoming a political issue that could affect the midterms. the post says that mitch mcconnell called the president on friday to tell him that the tweets were not actually helpful and could cause new problems, including the fate of several critical undecided votes in confirming kavanaugh susan collins of maine seen as one of those critical votes slammed the president for his

tweet. >> i was appalled by the president's tweet. first of all, we know that allegations of sexual assault -- i'm not saying that's what happened in this case, but 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. >> senator majority leader mitch mcconnell addressed the allegations made against brett kavanaugh during his remarks on friday take a listen. >> president trump has nominated a stunningly successful individual you've watched the fight you've watched the tactics

but here's what i want to tell you. in the very near future, judge kavanaugh will be on the united states supreme court so, my friends, keep the faith don't get rattled by all of this we're going to plow right through it and do our job. >> and democratic senator doug jones criticized mcconnell's comments, tweeting the next day, i'm a former u.s. attorney if a judge or juror made a public statement that their mind was made up before all testimony was in, the trial would be prejudiced and i'd move for mistrial and have the judge removed. is this the message we want to send to victims of sexual assault? jones went onto add, the last time i read the constitution, it said our role was to advise, not plow right through the confirmation process if you believe that, any hearing this week is simply perfunctory.

>> joining us is politico's daniel litman. those comments from trump, mcconnell raising a lot of eyebrows are they likely to do more harm than good among republican voters, both in the midterms in general, but also among some of those senators that are still on the fence like a susan collins or lisa murkowski? >> i think those comments are clearly meant to give some support to the republican base, you know, to make them feel like not all is lost. but in terms of attracted moderate voters or helping out a swing state senators on the republican side, these do not help, because it makes it look like they don't believe the accuser even though they have not heard from her in a public hearing, and it kind of makes one feel like it's back to 1991 and anita hill where we're not

going to even listen to this person and that she should not be heard, and if she is, we should still confirm him no matter what she says that raises a lot of questions among people who want the supreme court not to be just a partisan institution, but to have independent voices. >> obviously there's been some criticism among some that this is just purely for theatrics, that republicans and congress are hearing these testimonies purely for the sake of saying, look, we did our job, but in reality they're still going to confirm kavanaugh. when you look at some of the swing senators, could they possibly not vote for kavanaugh based on the way the politics and the way the hearings shape up over the next few days? or do you think their minds are made up or set and they're trying to go along with the optics of this right now >> i think there are a number of republican senators that feel that the number of allegations

against kavanaugh make it much harder for them to vote for him. if he was blemish-free, as trump had said, then it would be an easy vote. he's known them for a while. he's been confirmed by the senate before. but it makes it so much easier for a few republicans to say, no, let's get a woman -- republicans say why didn't we put her in the first place and avoid all of this controversy. >> it will be interesting to see how it all played out this week. after spending the weekend at his golf club in new jersey, president trump is here in new york city for this week's united nations general assembly he tweeted that he had dinner with japanese prime minister shinzo abe at trump tower where the two discussed mid tear an e trade. trump added, quote, we have done

much to help japan we'd like to see more of a reciprocal relationship. it will all work out on wednesday trump will chair a security council session on nonproliferation regarding iran, north korea and syria. prior to departing for new york, the president tweeted a short video. >> i'm going to be at the united nations in new york. i've always said the united nations has tremendous potential, but it has not lived up to that potential it's always been surprising to me that more things aren't resolved, because you have all of these countries getting together in one location, but it doesn't seem to get there. i think it will. we're going to make a speech we're going to have many meetings a lot of good things can happen. thank you. >> heading overseas, gunman attacked a military parade in iran on saturday, killing at least 25 and wounding more than

60 tehran says that western countries and the u.s. are responsible. yesterday iran summoned diplomats from great britain, the netherlands and others for harboring terrorist groups it comes just days before the u.n. general assembly and also, as president trump's personal lawyer rudy giuliani is once again calling for regime change in tehran. giuliani said that u.s. sanctions are causing economic chaos inside iran and that that could lead to, quote, a successful revolution, adding quote, i don't know when we're going to overthrow them. it could be a few days, months, a couple of years, but it is going to happen. u.n. ambassador nikki haley was asked if that is the official position of the white house. >> there is no love for iran here in the united states and there's no love for the united states in iran

both sides are going to go back and forth. the united states is not looking to do regime change in iran. we're not looking to do regime change anywhere. what we are looking to do is protect americans, protect our allies and make sure that we do everything we can to stop it new polling shows democrats holding a lead over republicans with just weeks until the midterms we're going to break down the latest numbers. plus, one republican congressman is firing back at a new attack on his reelection bid from his own family. why his siblings say they're voting for his opponent. ♪

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siblings are featured urging arizo arizonaresidents to vote their brother out of office. he responded in a series of tweets on saturday saying in part, quote, my siblings, who choose to film ads against me are all liberal democrats who hate president trump he added, you can't pick your family to the six angry democrat gosars, see you at mom and dad's house. let's get a check of weather now from nbc meteorologist bill karins. >> we're heading into fall it's very typical. you get period of wet weather, then a nice day or two, then another cold front with more wet weather. we had eight inches of rain in the dallas area. now that rain threat is moving up into areas of tennessee and

kentucky surge of moisture coming offth gulf, slow-moving storm, so the focus is to the north from nashville to louisville to cincinnati to cleveland. rainfall totals will slide into areas of the northeast the rainfall forecast over the next two days from kentucky into ohio, about two inches bep prepared on tuesday it's going to be a soaking rain from new york city northwards all through new england. the heaviest rain for the ride home will be from ohio to cleveland. we take this overnight and race it up through the northeast as we wake up to your 8:00 a.m. morning commute. steady to heavy rain from new york city to albany to hartford to syracuse to scranton. during the day we push this right through new england. so tuesday evening the worst of the wet weather will be here from hartford to boston.

it's very typical of fall. it's good for the grass. afternoon activities could be a little difficult. still ahead, the u.s. and china further escalate their ongoing trade war as new tariffs take effect. - [announcer] the typical vacuum head can struggle with large debris and stuck-on dust, so shark invented duoclean, replacing the front wall with a rotating soft brush. while deep cleaning carpets, two brush rolls pick up large particles with ease, make quick work of stuck-on dust, giving hard floors a polished look, and fearlessly devour piles. shark duoclean technology, designed to do more on carpets and floors, available in corded and cord-free vacuums, and only available from shark.

six weeks until this year's midterms, and democrats hold a 12-point lead.

52% of voters say they prefer democrats to be in control of congress, up two points since last month 40% said they want republicans to maintain control. that is down two points. meanwhile a fox news poll finds democrats with a seven-point advantage among likely voters. democrats also maintain an edge among female voters with 58% preferring a democrat controlled congress as a result of the november elections according to the "wall street journal" poll, 47% of men prefer the gop to premain remain in po. interest in the upcoming november election is still lagging among young voters, independents and non-white voters as for republicans, trouble may lie in the 6 in 10 voters who say they would like to see a significant change in the direction president trump has led the country. on friday night, trump rallied voters in missouri to get out

the vote and vote in november. >> a poll came out they said everybody's going out in 2020 because they want to vote for you they want to vote for the president, but they're not maybe coming out in 2018 get out in 2018, because you're voting for me in 2018. >> fema administrator brock long will be able to keep his job after it was found he misused government vehicles and staff. krcorrective actions are being taken and long will have to repay the cost of vehicles and government staff driving him 400 miles from fema headquarters to north carolina. the latest round of tariffs targeting u.s. and chinese goods went into effect this morning as stakes rise in the escalating trade war between the world's two largest economies.

what's the latest? i know china's accusing the u.s. of trade bullyism. >> yeah. that's the word that came out from the chinese state media overnight. talked about trade bullyism they said that they would rejoin talks so long as those talks were based on mutual respect the u.s. tariffs 10% targeting $200 billion worth of chinese goods including furniture and appliances the chinese response targets 5,207 u.s. products worth about $60 billion. that's everything from cocoa powder to liquefied natural gas. another big story we've been following in the uk, the independent board members of sky, the paid tv broadcaster across europe have recommended to shareholders they accept the $39 billion offer from comcast, that's our shared parent company, in order to take over the running of sky remember, 39% held by fox, backed by disney, they were the

other side of the auction that took place this week and they did not offer as much money as comcast, but because they have the 39% stake there is an uphill battle for comcast to persuade more than 50% of shareholders to accept this offer. >> you seem like the type of guy that would drive a porsche, it's the first german car maker to abandon diesel engines what more can you tell us about this one >> i don't drive a porsche, i do drive a diesel vehicle and you go back a decade and the uk at least we were being encouraged to drive diesel, now governments in the uk and germany backing away from that and discouraging diesel driving porsche wanting to focus on the pet roll engine. there is also talk of a vessel in a new electric vehicle from porsche. their parent company volkswagen had to bay a billion euros of

fines in germany a big question mark about the future of diesel in europe. >> i've always pegged willem more of a tesla guy. >> well beyond my budget as well. >> bill marks live from london, thanks so much. >> coming up axis mike allen has a look at one big thing. coming up on "morning joe" more on the allegations against brett kavanaugh. the judge faces claims of sexual misconduct during his college years as well. one of the authors behind "the new yorker" magazine piece on those claims will break down her reporting. plus democratic members of the senate judiciary committee richard blumenthal will weigh in on the new allegations and what they mean for kavanaugh's confirmation "morning joe" moments away it was here.

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so you don't die waiting. upmc does more living-donor liver transplants than any other center in the nation. find out more and get out of line today. welcome back joining us now from washington, d.c. with a look at axios and the co-founder of axios mike allen. good to have you with us

what is the one big thing this monday morning >> it's officially autumn as well as being officially a new week the axios one big thing, the gop's plan to fight foggy memories so we're told that allies of brett kavanaugh plan to rely on the defense that foggy memories are affecting both of these new accusations. in each case republicans think that they have a silver bullet first, with the high school accusation that we've been talking about for a week now, three other people who were said to be at this party have no recollection of it second, the new allegation from college years from what brett kavanaugh was a freshman at yale, the white house and others working for brett kavanaugh's confirmation plan to rely on a report in the "new york times," they say that they went after this story, that they consistently tried to find people to corroborate it and could not. >> so let me ask you about the

new allegations that surfaced last night in terms of what you guys are hearing about over at axios about how the white house plans its confirmation of judge kavanaugh. what are you hearing about their next steps >> the white house plans to fight this aggressively. originally brett kavanaugh had been planning to wait for the hearing, that showdown 10:00 a.m. thursday in the senate office building at the senate judiciary hearing room, but now he's not going to stick to written statements but we're told that he's going to increasingly go on the offensive. we saw a sign of this this weekend with that report by "the new york times" that calendars from that summer by brett kavanaugh that he's going to make available to the senate judiciary committee don't show any party like this and do show some other parties and social activities and we're told that there may be other cases of that this week, that he's not going to just wait for the hearing,

but instead be more proactive. >>en to the capitol hill side we heard mitch mcconnell sound defiant speaking over the weekend saying that are judge kavanaugh will get confirmed even if they have to plow this through. is the gop as ironclad as mitch mcconnell is making it sound or are we beginning to see some cracks among some senators given these new allegations that are surfacing? >> that's a great question, a great topic and everyone is trying to read the tea leaves. i can tell you this for sure, mitch mcconnell believes that he has 50 votes, i think that he thinks that if they lose senator jeff flake of arizona, which is the vote they're most worried about, interestingly enough, even more than susan collins of maine or lisa murkowski of alaska, but if he loses jeff flake i think that he thinks that he can get senator joe manchin of west virginia, that gets you to 50, mike pence breaks the tie we were having a conversation about this in the green room,

there is so much that could go wrong for kavanaugh and this hearing. so unpredictable it may be that you have a credible witness, democrats now we know that they're going to go after kavanaugh on his high school activities and nobody really wants to answer questions about those. lots of places for them to go wrong. the "washington post" reporting over the weekend that he was a little defensive when he was asked some of those questions in his prep session. >> unpredictable one way of describing it. we will be reading axios a.m. in just a minute. you, too, can sign up for that newsletter that does it for us on this monday morning, i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside louis burgdorf "morning joe" starts right now in the very near future judge kavanaugh will be on the united states supreme court. so, my friends, keep the faith, don't get rattled by all of this we're going to plow right through it and do our job.

>> well, last week according to "the new yorker" senior republican staffers learned of a second sexual assault, misconduct allegation against brett kavanaugh. on friday mitch mcconnell pledged to, quote, plow right through. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is monday, september 24th and with us we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle, associate editor of commentary magazine and msnbc contributor noah roth man, former treasury official and "morning joe" economic analyst steve rattner and nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of kasie d.c. on msnbc kasie hunt is with us as the supreme court story unfolds this week it's important to keep tabs on a number of other big developments we will speak with "the new york times" reporter who broke the news that deputy attorney general rod rosenstein talked abou