♪ this morning we are just hours away from what could be historic testimony from supreme court nominee brett kavanagh and a woman who has accused him of sexual misconduct. plus president trump weighs in on the kavanaugh allegations and much more. and deputy attorney general rod rosenstein may get a pass from the president today. their scheduled meeting that some feared could lead to his ouster may now reportedly be delayed. ♪ good morning. it is thursday, september 27th. i'm ayman mohyeldin.

anonymous claims in the kavanaugh saga were flying last night with the release of three accusations received since sunday by senators, along with two men who claimed each that he, not brett kavanagh, had the encounter with dr. christine blasey ford. republican committee chairman chuck grassley provided this timeline around 9:30 last night. the first mention was on this past monday, quote, committee staff have first interview with a man who believes that he, not judge kavanagh, had the encounter with dr. ford in 1982. he submitted a written statement earlier in the day. on tuesday, they conducted a second interview where he described his recollection of their interaction in some detail. yesterday the committee staff received a more in depth written statement from the man. yesterday the committee

investigative staff spoke with another man who believes he, not judge kavanagh, had the encounter with dr. ford. it is not known how these claims will feature in today's hearing but the committee says it had questioned cavanaugh about the claims, all of which he categorically denied. >> beginning at 10:00 a.m. eastern republican chairman chuck grassley and democratic ranking member diane feinstein will give opening statements. dr. ford will be sworn in and give an opening statement. attorney rachel mitchell will ask questions. each senator will be a lotted five minutes for their questions. following that judge kavanagh will be sworn in and questioned. a third woman who has accused brett kavanagh of sexual misconduct at parties more than 30 years ago is being

identified. jul julie swetnick says she saw kavanaugh drink at parties and be overly aggressive with girls. this conduct inclouded fondling and grabbing girls without their consent. she also witnessed judge and kavanaugh to cause girls to become inebriated. she goes on to allege she was a victim of a train rape at a party where kavanaugh and judge were both present. kavanaugh denies the allegations. investigators say they reached out to swetnick's lawyer, michael avenatti seeking more information. investigators said it was the sixth time they had reached out to avenatti since his original tweet about the claims sunday night.

60 men and women who attended georgetown prep who knew brett kavanagh signed a letter to refute the allegations, writing he had never met her. >> is your client 100% confident he's never met ms. swetnick? >> he doesn't know her. she's never met her. we've had people already calling our office saying they don't know her. >> the senate judiciary committee is inquiring about a possible new sexual misconduct complaint against judge kavanagh. according to a transcript of a phone call released by the committee on wednesday, this anonymous complaint alleges that kavanaugh physically assaulted a woman with who he socialized in the washington, d.c. area in 1998 while he was inebriated. when they left the bar under the

influence of alcohol they were all shocked when brett kavanagh shoved her friend up against the wall aggressively and sexually. republican investigators asked kavanaugh about the new complaint during a call on tuesday. when asked about the allegation, kavanaugh denied the claim, telling staff, quote, we are dealing with an anonymous letter. it's ridiculous. no, i've never done anything like that. >> joining us onset danny cevall cevallos. this hearing is not a trial, but what are you personally looking for to come out of this? >> we should be looking for the maens means of questioning the accuser and judge kavanagh. they have a lawyer rachel mitchell who's going to be asking questions. what will be her mission?

will it be the traditional prosecutor, which is prosecuting a sex crimes case? or is she going to be conducting it like a search for the truth? by that i mean asking open ended questions and not having a particular mission. when lawyers ask a witness questions on the stand, they always have a mission. it's either to build that witness up or tear that witness down. rarely are they asking questions just to find out the truth. they've already developed their view of the truth before that witness takes the stand. >> also what many are going to be watching is the testimony itself beyond the words, the ghe ghe demeanor and the tone. >> all of us evaluate credibility using our own personal standards. we're all essentially credibility detector machines naturally.

when we look at people, we make decisions about whether or not they're telling the truth based on their responses and emotions. none of us are particularly good at testifying in situations like this. police officers testify every day. they're ever good. but lawyers and judges even are not particularly good at weathering accusations, cross examination and just tough questioning in general. >> even the statements that came out, ford flat outsi said i am terrified. >> is it an advantage or disadvantage to have a single person lead the charge with the questions to try to get to the truth? is it better and more efficient to field questions from several people who can chip away at various stories? >> i think it's better to have one questioner if you want to ask the best questions because you're going to have continuity. it takes a long time to develop

testimony. on direct examination questions can last into the minutes. but even on cross examination when questions are yes or no, even then to get to where you want to get to, it takes a while to build up the foundation. five minutes is going to be a real challenge to get to any substantive information. >> it seems like in this case kavanaugh's answers are better kept short if he's going to get so many questions so quickly. >> that's the safe thing to do. it will be interesting to see if he gets emotional and decide to add to his answers which is a real risk for any witness. during his news conference yesterday, president trump claimed that women are more angry over the kavanaugh accusations than men. take a listen. >> i'll tell you this. the people that have complained to me about it the most, about what's happening, are women. women are very angry.

you know, i got 52% with women. everyone said this couldn't happen, 52%. women are so angry. and i frankly think that they like what the republicans are doing, but i think they would have liked to have seen it go a lot faster. but let her have her day in court. let somebody else have a day in court. i mean, i have men that don't like it, but i have women that are incensed at what's going on. i've always said women are smarter than men. i've said that a lot and i mean it. but women are incensed at what's going on. >> in that sound bite, the president claimed he got 52% of the women's vote in 2016, but according to the exit polling, he got 52% of the white women's votes and 41% of women's votes in total. in that news conference, the

president was also asked about women who accused him of sexual misconduct. the president claimed that some of his accusers were paid to make up stories. >> how have your personal experiences being accused -- >> i've been accused. false accusations. excuse me. i've been accused. i've been accused by i believe it was four women. you can check with sean hannity and fox because they covered it very strongly. excuse me. i was accused by four or five women who got paid to make up stories about me. we caught them and the mainstream media refused to put it on television. they refused to even write about it. >> you didn't let me ask the question. >> you've been asking a question for ten minutes. please sit down. go ahead. >> how did those impact your opinions on the allegations?

>> it does impact my opinion because i've had a lot of false charges made against me. i'm a very famous person. >> more than a dozen women have accused him of sexual misconduct in the past. the guardian reports there are 20 accusers. trump denies them all. while some have alleged the women were paid to come forward, those allegations have never been proven. >> we bring in a reporter from the "washington post" eugene scott. the president came back and mentioned accusations about himself. how will that impact republicans at the polls come november and the midterms? >> that could very much impact republicans, because many republicans are looking at these allegations, quite frankly, and are feeling attacked and are a

bit defensive toward their party and the vision trump has put forward that they want to see continue to move forward. it is worth noting that large percentages of conservative women quite frankly do not approve of going forward with the kavanaugh hearing and would like to hear more from these accusers and the allegations they bring to the table before they make their decision. >> so let me ask you about the newest sexual misconduct allegations against brett kavanagh. how are they likely to impact today's hearing and how it will play out? we know the other women will not be called forward to testify the same way dr. ford will be, but can their allegations still loom large over this hearing? >> they certainly will loom large, but we should not expect there to be significant questioning of kavanaugh, because they are so recent. some senate staff have not gone through the details of the

allegations. there's some investigation and researching still taking place. but they will be asking him questions that they feel like can paint a larger idea and vision of who kavanaugh was in high school and college and how that could affect his character today and how he views issues he could be dressing if he makes his way to the court. >> what weight if any does it have these other claims of these two men who claim they were with dr. ford and not kavanaugh? >> i think there are people who have questions for individuals such as mark judge that they hope would be able to corroborate kavanaugh or provide more information about this environment that the judge grew up in and behaved in ways that some people found problematic. that will lead people to figure out if he is the best person to sit on the bench. but they cannot ask him questions or at least get answers from him that they

really would be depending on other individuals to provide context for. >> we're going to talk to you again in just a little bit. still ahead, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein may get overshadowed by the kavanaugh hearing today. but we're going to the white house for the latest. plus, the president accuses china of interfeering in the upcoming midterm elections. beijing hits back.

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his embattled deputy attorney general rod rosenstein but he added he would prefer not to remove rosenstein and said he may delay their meeting to focus on the kavanaugh hearing. the drama started when the "new york times" said rosenstein started discussing invoking the 25th amendment to remove the president from office. rosenstein has called that report inaccurate. the deputy attorney general oversees the russia investigation. during his speech at the u.n. on tuesday, president trump bragged about the accomplishments of his administration proclaiming them to be the best in american history, which we know drew laughter from the audience. he later said it was meant to be a joke. yesterday the president claimed that everyone was laughing together and that the media just wasn't in on it. >> that's fake news. it was covered that way. okay. and i said this and i was in

front of a large group of highly professional people, most of whom are from either other countries or the united nations. people that aren't big into clapping, applauding, smiling. and i heard a little rustle. our country is now stronger than ever before. it's true. i heard a little rustle and i said it's true. i heard smiles. they weren't laughing at me. they were laughing with me. we had fun. that was not laughing at me. so the fake news said people laughed at president trump. they didn't laugh at me. people had a good time with me. we were doing it together. we had a good time. they respect what i've done. the united states is respected again. >> and the president has accused the chinese government of interfering in america's upcoming midterm election. it comes amid the president's

tariff and trade war with beijing. the commander in chief says that the trade situation is the reason for beijing's alleged actions. >> in less than two years, my administration has accomplished almost more than any administration in the history of our country. america's -- so true. didn't expect that reaction, but that's okay. >> president trump did tweet what he claims is evidence of china interfering. th the paper's executive editor responded saying, quote, it's not surprising the china daily wanted to place ads in the

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degrom turns in the 1000th strikeout of his career. the mets go onto win 3-0. still ahead, what we can expect from kavanaugh accuser christine blasey ford today as she prepares to go in front of the judiciary committee later this morning. plus, president trump gets questioned about the benefit of the doubt he's given people like roy moore and roger ailes. (man) managing my type 2 diabetes wasn't my top priority. until i held her. i found my tresiba® reason. now i'm doing more to lower my a1c. i take tresiba® once a day. tresiba® controls blood sugar for 24 hours for powerful a1c reduction. (woman) we'd been counting down to his retirement. it was our tresiba® reason. he needs insulin to control his high blood sugar

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♪ welcome back. it is the bottom of the hour. let's get started with the top stories. >> it's been confirmed that the senate judiciary committee is probing a fourth allegation of misconduct by brett kavanagh, this one sent to a republican senator in an anonymous letter. kasie hunt has the details. >> reporter: good morning to you. overnight nbc news learning that the senate judiciary committee is looking into another anonymous allegation of physical assault against brett kavanaugh. he tells the committee that he denies it. the committee learned of it in a letter from a woman who says her own daughter witnessed an incident where judge kavanagh, drunk at the time in 1998

slammed a woman into a wall at a bar in washington, d.c. this is why the mood on capitol hill could be changing. there are some republicans privately saying that while the public pushes full speed ahead, they're a little bit worried that things might be moving too quickly. my sources are telling me if there's another allegation that seems more credible, that it is possible that more republicans might voice doubts about judge kavanagh. that would be especially true if there's a perception after today's hearing that he isn't telling the truth. ahead of her testimony today, attorneys for dr. christine blasey ford have released the results of a polygraph test she took before her allegations against brett kavanagh became public. the test was administered last month. according to her attorneys, the results indicated that ford is telling the truth. dr. ford has also released the

opening remarks of her testimony before her appearance. she tells the committee she had one beer that night while kicko kavanaugh and his friend mark judge were visibly drunk. quote, i was pushed out of the bed and brett got on top of me. i yelled hoping someone downstairs might hear me and tried to get away from him but his weight was heavy. he tried to take off my choetlo. i believed he was going to rape me. i tried to yell for help. brett put his hand over my mouth to try to stop me from screaming. this is what terrified nme the most. i thought he was accidentally going to kill me. dr. ford is also expected to tell republicans on the

committee that while she understands they hired a professional prosecutor, she hoped to engage with them during the hearing. >> republicans have chosen arizona prosecutor rachel wilson to do the questioning. do the democrats run the risk of being unfocused if they very many five minutes to ask questions and each one goes in a different direction? or should they try to have a unified strategy in the way they question both dr. ford and judge kavanagh? >> one strategy would be to consolidate all their time and give their questions to an experienced prosecutor with some experience in either court or depositions which would also be a good skill set. i have to tell you that five minutes is no time when it comes to questioning anybody under oath, because getting to the

truth, building up a witness or chopping down a witness's credibility, questions take time. you have to build foundation. if you're cross examining someone, you ask establishing questions to shut off escape hatches until you get to the mission. with cross examination or direct examination, the lawyer always has a mission, either to destroy the witness or build that witness up and get facts into evidence. rarely is it the case that the questioning is simply to find out the truth. really where prosecutor dos that is earlier in the process where they're meeting with victims and trying to find out for themselves this is a case that they can prove beyond a reasonable doubt. >> when that questioning happens, how much is there a need to strike the tone of being

tough but also empathetic? >> again, that goes back to the mission of the questioner. if it's a cross-examination, it's always designed so that the attorney is essentially testifying and the witness is validating and the end result is to make the witness admit something they don't want to admit. if the prosecutor stays on mission, which is to develop the truth, i think people hike like looking at the structure of each question. every word counts, timing counts. in courts and trials we don't normally have a stopwatch going on the questioning. the other thing to consider too is this is not a courtroom. it's a free for all. people are interrupting, they're making statements. even it's not a courtroom.

>> what are you going to be looking for today? >> chaos. there are going to be senators interrupting and jumping in. if they see a moment they need to put their mark on because they think it's going in the wrong direction, they will do that. this is not a courtroom. in the senate there are no rules and people can get up and say whatever they want if they feel they need to in that moment. >> i think that five-minute limitation is one of the things people are saying this is why this is not a very thorough process and is more about the mechanics of having a hearing and not substantively about what happened. ahead of today's hearing, president trump once again stood behind his supreme court nominee, questioning the women who have brought accusations of assault and misconduct against kavanaugh? >> you have daughters. can you understand why a victim of sexual assault would not

report it at the time? don't you understand it? >> by the way, i only say this. 36 years, no charge, no nothing. >> but that happens often. >> people are going to have to make a decision. 36 years, there's no charge. all of a sudden the hearings are over and the rumors start coming out and then you have this other con artist avenatti come out with another beauty today. as far as the other women are concerned, i'm going to see what happens tomorrow. i'm going to be watching. believe it or not, i'm going to see what's said. it's possible they will be convincing. >> about the benefit of the doubt you have given to people like roy moore, roger ailes, bill o'reilly, brett kavanaugh, they're all men. why is that? >> it's not a benefit of the doubt. i've known them for a long time, a lot of these people. a lot of people.

some i've been disappointed with. i have been disappointed with some. others i -- you know, there are charges that are pretty weak. but i've known people for a long time. i never saw them do anything wrong. and there are some that probably i agree there are some i've been watching for a long time in a couple of cases they weren't republicans. in a lot of cases they were not. they were exactly the opposite. but i've been watching them for a long time and i knew for a long time these were not good people and they were never brought up. >> one country president trump did not meet with during the united nations was canada. >> did you reject a one on one meeting with the canadian prime minister justin trudeau? >> i did. >> why? >> because his tariffs are too high and he doesn't seem to want to move and i've told him forget about it. >> a representative for justin trudeau says, quote, no meeting was requested.

we don't have any comment beyond that. >> joining us from washington, eugene scott. how would you compare president trump's performance at this year's u.n. general assembly, especially when it comes to historical differences with past administrations? >> it doesn't appear that the president was able to make the progress that he was hoping he would and that he promised voters he would. in terms of negotiation experiences and opportunities, we see that meetings were not taking place, that people especially in the heart land were opening to improve their economic situations. as far as national security issues and a sense of knowledge and certainty and safety related to north korea, we don't appear to be much further than we have been in the past. so the president who promised and campaigned on a level of change and superiority has yet

to deliver in ways that i think many voters will be thinking of when they move to the polls in november. >> let me ask you about capitol hill today and the kavanaugh hearing. zbie what should we be watching out for as members of the public as the media? what do you expect to see? are we going to see that same kind of heated exchange in moments with kamala harris and brett kavanagh? what are you expecting to happen? >> i definitely think people should be paying attention to lawmakers and particularly those who could be considering presidential runs in 2020, because how they perform in terms of the situation thiympat sensitivity will be the topic of repeated conversation moving forward. we're already talking about how joe biden handled the anita hill situation in 1991. so this hearing will be about

these individual cases, but it will be about what americans are expecting in their future leaders when it comes to the issues that the me too movement have centered since the 2016 election. >> quickly, let me ask you this. how much of the decision hinges on what is said today in testimony and outside of the hearings when it comes to the other accusations, the other men who say they had the encounter with dr. ford? >> i think it depend on which party you're a part of. republican hamlawmakers are goi to push forward regardless of what has happened today, what could happen tomorrow and what other cases come forward. we'll see what democrats will do to try to slow that down. still ahead, more on president trump's news conference, including his swipe at former president obama and

the outcry over his supreme court pick.

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otezla. show more of you. welcome back, everyone. president trump continued his defense of supreme court nominee brett kavanagh yesterday with a swipe at former president obama. watch this. >> 145 judges i will be picking by the end of a fairly short period of time, because president obama wasn't big on picking judges. when i got there, i said, how is this possible? i have 145 including court of appeals judges. they just didn't do it. you know why? they got tired. they got complacent. something happened. >> so that something that you heard there by president trump, well, that something was senator mitch mcconnell. according to politico after becoming majority leader in 2015, mcconnell effectively expanded a little known rule

that prohibits the appointment by two years. it blocked hundreds of picks. and merrick garland was actually denied a hearing, a move mcconnell called a career highlight back in 2016. >> one of my proudest moments a was when i looked barack obama in the eye and i said, mr. president, you will not fill this supreme court vacancy. let's switch gears and get a check on your weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. more rain for the east coast this morning. >> it's ridiculous. it's so soggy. now we have a flood watch that includes about 27 million people. the cold front that went through, the thunderstorms last night and through areas of the northeast and new england, that has cleared the coast there. so the high pressure has biltui in. you get a decent day today, much

cooler. but the front has built up through the southeast. ho you can already see it popping up and developing in tennessee and areas along the mississippi flif river. the flash flood watch extends through the appalachians through philadelphia. this rain will go through new york city, but it may not be heavy enough to cause additional flooding. but it is possible even new york goes under that flash flood watch later. how much rain are we talking about? here's the spine of the appalachians. the blue is one inch of rain, the red is two inches of rain. if we get one to two inches of rain in the mountains of the appalachia appalachians, it won't take much to get flash flooding out of this. that includes the d.c. area. here's the timing on this mess. we start at 8:00 p.m.

the -- 8:00 a.m. there's the rain from memphis to nashville up through areas of west virginia. during the day we take it northward. heavier rains back through the appalachians. as we wake up tomorrow morning, a soaking heavy rain right over new york city to hartford to albany and areas of new england through boston as we go throughout friday. there is some nice weather out there. areas like chicago, st. louis and oklahoma city are good. just too much rain. we haven't had a september like this in a long time on the east coast. very cloudy, warm and wet. >> if it's not raining, it's disgustingly humid. global markets under pressure this morning after jerome powell and the federal reserve raise rates for the third time this year. and a live report on whether rate hikes may be on the way.

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welcome back. let's turn to business. the central bank raised interest rates for the third time this year. cnbc's karen cho joins us live with more. he said it's a particularly bright moment for the u.s. economy. they raiseded rates by a quarter of a percent. how is this going to impact markets and are we going to have

another rate hike coming down the pike in december? >> there is another rate hike coming, in fact, one more in december. three more next year, as well. the market was pretty much on board that that would be how the interest rate scenario would play out. the range is now 2% to 2.25%. the market had been set up for a fairley hawkish comment or statement from the fed. the removal of that accommodative the comment or language around how to describe monetary policy means we're now moving toward neutral. so monetary policy will no longer effectively stimulate the economy. that's where we stand when we start to move along this normalization process away from the extraordinary stimulus the u.s. economy has had since the financial crisis. president trump again weighed in saying he was not happy about

the rate increases. this is fairley unorthodox. >> what are analysts saying. are they saying this is going to have a negative impact on the economy over time or is the economy going to stay strong and continue to perform like it's been performing? >> everyone is so upbeat. the u.s. has been going it alone even though you've seen patches around the global economy, some of the concerns around the trade disputes playing out. 2019 may be different. there may be a problem for the fed in terms of carrying through with some of these hikes because of a natural slowdown with the tax reform benefits starting to come off a little bit, lewis. coming up, axios has a look at this morning's one big thing and coming up on "morning joe," brett kavanaugh is set to face his accuser, the allegation against the supreme court nominee as new accusations

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joining us now, jim vandehein. >> i think you guys wanted to talk about that spending bill that's going to get sent to the president's desk. >> of course. >> of course it's the kavanaugh hearing. it will be one of the most astonishing hearings potentially of our lifetime. you have kavanaugh going before the committee. in the next couple of days, he's either going to get put on the court and affect our lives for the next 30, 40 years, or he's going to go down in flames and be that predator judge accused

of doing creepy things in high school or college. we don't know what the outcome is. the number of accusations are piling up. but not a single republican has broken rank yet. >> let me ask you about the president for a moment. yesterday, he stood by brett kavanaugh where he had this one exchange where he said i could, i could, talking about possibly changing his mind depending on today's performance. do you genuinely believe the president could change his support based on today or is his mind made up? >> one thing we've learned, trump can do anything that he wants to do when he wants to do it and surprise us. listen, the view inside the white house is they want to get him confirmed, that crump really wants him to fight hard, doesn't think he's been aggressive enough. but what could turn is he feels like he could have this hearing, and if he feels that cavanaugh is not aggressive, is not

convincing, if he comes off looking wobbly, he has been been impressed. i went back last night and i watched that fox news interview with kavanaugh taking questions. he was very robotic. if he comes off as robotic and just keeps saying the same thing over and over and doesn't seem convincing, we might have a very different story line tomorrow morning. >> and if there's one thing the president likes, he likes a good tv performer. >> a good fighter, as well. what are you hearing as far as republicans? you say they're not wavering as of yet. what are they telling axios about this mood? and how much of that testimony hinges on what will come out of it? >> if the white house side of

things, they're nervous, but they feel like they can still get this through, i can on the senate, you have to watch susan collins, lisa march cowsky, marco rubio who have not committed certainly if it gets to the senate floor for a full vote. and if anybody feels that the accuser seems very sincere and trustworthy and more believable than kavanaugh, then he's done. it won't take that much to turn things. and trump, while he wants to support him and he wants to be a fighter, go back and watch that press conference last night. he talked less about kavanaugh than about him. he should fight because i've been wrongly accused and it happens all the time. this is often more about trump than it is about kavanaugh. and he will, if if he feels like he needs to toss him overboard and he'll go with someone equally if not more conservative. high stakes. extremely high stakes. everybody has that time carved

out of their day sitting aside for the watching there. see you in a bit on "morning joe." >> that does it for us on this thursday morning. "morning joe" starts right you now. >> always like to finish with a good one. elton john said when you hit that last tune and it's good, don't go back. >> george, when you hit that high note, you say good-bye and walk off. >> why don't we smooth ahead down to nothing, smooth a pumpkin under his arm and change the name to ichabod crane. all right. that's it for me. good day, everybody. >> my god. well, what do you say after that? >> well, i -- you know, so -- >> that was a long press conference.