arrested by i.c.e., they have less caretakers. the trump administration had set regulations for the new tent camp but let's be clear, that means fewer protections than where the children were previously housed, places regulated by state child welfare authorities. we wanted you to see that story. we'll have more on it in the days ahead. that does it for us, though. "hardball" starts now. /s >> kavanaugh cover up? threats' play hardball. ♪ ♪ >> good evening. i'm chris mathews in washington. tonight there are new revelations concerning judge kavanaugh's second accuser, deborah ramirez who alleged late last month that the supreme court nominee had once exposed himself to her at a dorm party while they were both at yale. nbc news is now reporting tonight that in the days before ramirez went public with her allegation, quote, the judge and

his team were communicating behind the scenes with friends to refute that claim, according to text messages obtained by nbc news. those texts sent between two of kavanaugh's friends suggested the nominee himself was personally talking with former classmates about ramirez's story in advance of the new yorker that made the article public. julie swetnick is speaking out in an interview with nbc news. michael avenatti released a sworn declaration which alleged in graphic detail that she, quote, witnessed efforts by brett kavanaugh and others to cause girls to become inebriated and disoriented so they could then be gang raped. here's what swetnick said about kavanaugh's alleged behavior and high school parties on nbc nightly news tonight. >> can you describe to me what you saw him do? >> he was very aggressive, very sloppy drunk, very mean drunk. i saw him go up to girls and paw

on them, try to, you know, get a little too handsy, touching them in private parts. i saw him try to shift clothing. >> other people? >> yes -- there are people that know about those parties. >> kavanaugh has vehemently denied swetnick's allegations saying he doesn't even know who she is. and nbc news has not been able to independently corroborate her claims. while avenatti provided the names of four people he said could confirm her account, one is dead, another says he does not remember julie swetnick at all and the others have not responded to nbc news. meanwhile after attempting to limit the fbi's ability to conduct a full background investigation on kavanaugh, the president is backing down and allowing the fbi to do its job. that's good news. the fbi was the first to report that. the the white house has authorized the fbi to expand its

abbreviated investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against judge kavanaugh. as long as the review is finished by the end of the week. they tied the investigators hands. they could speak to, believe it or not, four witnesses. that's all they were allow today talk to. among them was mark judge who was today interviewed by the fbi. heidi przybyla who broke that latest story kavanaugh and ramirez nbc news, and jeff bennett, white house reporter for nbc "nightly news." thank you all. congratulations on breaking this story. i was looking at it and thinking this is tampering with witnesses, going around finding people that were going to be interviewed. judge kavanaugh said he didn't know about this allegation until he read about it in the new yorker. your reporting was it was around before the new yorker trying to kill witnesses basically. >> right. part of my reporting was i went back and looked at his testimony when senator hatch asked him when did you find out about these allegations. he said in the new yorker story. according to these text messages

we obtained between two friends in this tight yale university circle, brett as he's referred to as well as brett's guy and brett's team were very much behind the scenes trying to control the narrative in advance. what were they doing? number one, they were trying to get a photo of debbie ramirez and brett kavanaugh at a wedding ten years later showing them together smiling. secondly, one of the women was being pursued by, quote, brett to go public and refute debbie ramirez. the white house is not responding, chris, but bob bauer, who is someone who has run these types of confirmations before told us it is highly i am prudent for someone in brett kavanaugh's position to be a supreme court nominee and also with the allegations -- >> the democratic lawyer. >> yes. for these allegations being so severe that he would be trying to do anything, that that would be very unwise of him to be trying to do that behind the scenes. the second important thing, chris, i think all of us need to take a look at which is actually lower down in the story is really compelling, is that one

of the former classmates said when she went to that wedding, she noticed something very odd about debbie ramirez, that she was really uncomfortable and she was avoiding brett and his friends at all costs, which was really odd since they were supposed to be friends in a tight circle. >> you can imagine trying to avoid him if that happened ten years before. nbc reports kafrm gnaw and his team try to refute ramirez's claim before it came public. he told the senate judiciary committee he first learned about it in the article in the new yorker. let's watch. >> when did you first hear of miss ramirez's allegations against you? >> in the last -- in the period since then, the new yorker story. >> well, there he is saying something that may have covered his tracks because he didn't want to admit he was out there scurrying around getting people to say nice things about him, refute this story that was coming. he knew ramirez was about to make the allegation about what he did with his private parts in her face, the whole thing. and yet he denied knowing about

it. why would he do that, glenn? >> you know, because he didn't want -- >> under oath. >> he didn't want to be caught sort of knowing something he shouldn't know in advance of that story breaking, but heidi said people have said that it's high highly imprudent for somebody in his situation to reach out and communicate with witnesses. it is beyond that. it is downright reckless. every attorney will tell his client do not communicate with witnesses regardless of whether your intentions are pure. because if you say something to a witness like, remember, i didn't do anything to you. well, how is that going to be perceived? it is always a danger zone. i won't call it witness tampering yet because we'll have to determine if judge kavanaugh had -- was trying to corruptly persuade the witness to change her story, withhold her story, or otherwise -- >> i think he was accused about that with his secretary, being alone in the room with monica

lewinsky. trump lifted the restrictions on the fbi. he claimed he was merely following the wishes the senate. after questioning the president was forced to admit only he has the authority to set the limits of the investigation. >> what i said is let the senate decide whatever they want to do is okay with me. and also the fbi. my white house will do whatever the senators want. i'm open to whatever they want. i'm guided by the senate. i want to make the senate happy because ultimately they're making the judgment. i'm not making the judgment. i've already made my judgment. >> it's up to you to instruct the fbi -- >> it is up to me. i am instructing them as per what i feel the senate wants. >> trump is also questioned about who they should or should not be allow today interview. >> for clarity, will you instruct the white house counsel don mcgahn to give the fbi free rein to interview whomever they feel is necessary?

>> i have so instructed him and i did it again over the weekend. >> just to be clear, should the fbi interview all three of brett kavanaugh's accusers? >> it wouldn't bother me at all. i think the fbi should interview anybody that they want within reason. >> should brett kavanaugh be interviewed by the fbi? >> i think so. i think it's fine if they do. i don't know. that's up to them. >> jeff, sometimes i think interaction with the media is helpful to the republic and i think this is a case where he was prodded to give them full license to do the job which he apparently told them not to do before. >> i have to give -- >> anyone i know that's been talking about this all weekend, is this going to be a real fbi investigation or some cover up operation, some quickie job just to say they got it done, talk to three or four people? apparently is it started off with he told them, just talk to four people. what a joke. >> the white house says they were taking their direction from the senate because the senate said we want to interview all of the current and credible accusers. so in the view of the white

house, julie swetnick was not viewed as being credible. so only dr. ford and deborah ramirez were the two allegations that were -- the fbi was allowed -- >> let's talk common sense. it's a job interview. this is what they kept saying during the interview. all the republicans kept saying, this is not an investigation, this is a job interview. if it's a job interview and you hear the guy is a problem drunk, he's belligerent, mean drunk, wouldn't you want to check it out beyond the two case s? wouldn't you like to expand your vision for people to hang out with him, drinking buddies, like this guy dan ludington? he's already talking. >> that's the whole problem, chris. the republicans are saying there's no corroboration. but let's not talk to the people who could provide corroboration, like christine ber tram who is the woman or kerry ber tram, the woman i talked to today who didn't want to come forward and who has been trying, this is her third attempt to try to get through to the fbi to get the fbi to talk to her to say, look, i have these text messages. i've got this memo.

you need to talk to me. earlier before we came on air saying, they told her to talk to a field office and the field office saying, oh, we're not actually the right people for you to talk to for that. on the one hand the president is saying they're expanding the investigation but are they going to talk to people like kerry ber tram? >> here's a familiar name, another expert in "the new york times" op-ed former director james comey said the fbi is capable of rooting out inconsistencies in kavanaugh's story. quote, this is comey, they will confront people with testimony. and other accounts testing them, testing them in a professional way. agents have better nonsense detectors than partisans because they aren't starting with a conclusion. they also know little lies point too bigger lies. obvious lies by the nominee about the meaning of words in a year book are a flashing signal to dig deeper. glenn, expand. >> unfortunately this is an artificial exercise because if you interview one person as an fbi agent, then that's going to lead you to two or three or four other people you're going to need to interview, not to

mention you're going to need to get text message ands e-mails and information to corroborate what each of these people tell you. in order to cram this down the throats of the american people in one week or less really kind of shows it to be, i hate to say, the rigged set up that it is. >> when you write a book, i read a couple books, one by jack kennedy. he said the reason people read biographies, the simple question, what was he like? we were all want to know what somebody is like. the only answer to that and go to a close friend, somebody closer to him than me. another guy is closer. another guy knew him a different way. that's how you find out what a guy is like, whether he's a drunk or not. >> republic cabs hold up the three-day threshold it took the fbi to investigate the claims made during the anita hill case and say why can't this be done in three days? they really are trying to keep this entire thing relegate today one week because time has never been on the side of this kavanaugh confirmation process. we've already blown through the october 1st deadline for a supreme court. they definitely want to have it

done before the mid terms. public polling shows the longer this keeps going more oppose his nomination than support it. that is what is driving this fast tracking to get him on the court. >> let me ask you about your reporting tonight, heidi. he was -- the judge, judge kavanaugh was calling up people making sure they were about to say the right stuff when this ramirez case broke well ahead of the article. he went, is that jury tampering? what is that? >> i'm not a legal -- >> it seems he's tampering with what people would say spontaneously. >> jury tampering, it all goes back to -- we've heard so much over the last year and a half about corrupt intent. you have to look into the mind of the person who is contacting witnesses and say -- >> it's an attempt to save his butt. >> that would be corrupt if that's the purpose. >> how you read these comments? >> this is but one stream of text messages we've obtained. and the question now is the fbi actually going to contact all of these other individuals who are in this tight knit circle, these

close friends of brett kavanaugh to see what was going on in the run up to this investigation or into this story coming out. and what more there is about kavanaugh's role and trying to control the narrative and what may have also even been inadvertently admit today or leaked in those texts. is the fbi going to look at that. >> i'm curious how things got developed the petition put together by the people, 60 some names -- >> 65 women. >> who does all that orchestration? >> i'd say it happened organically over a period of days. it was not orchestrated by the kavanaugh team, that it was kavanaugh's friends, 65 of whom from high school. i can't recall 65 people i went to high school with, but apparently they have a close knit group. >> i knew guys like that at school. when you want to run for student council, vice-president, some of the guys got together and thought i should run -- no, they didn't. nobody got together. you wanted to run. this guy wanted to protect himself. >> it areppears to be that way. >> 60 republicans, jeff flake

and democratic senator chris coons says kavanaugh should not be confirmed if the fbi finds he lied in his testimony. >> if judge kavanaugh is shown to have lied to the committee, nomination is over? >> oh, yes. i would think so. >> oh, yes. sifrl several of kavanaugh's classmates have stepped forward at the very least kavanaugh misled the committee about his drinking. as one yale said luding ton when he got drunk he was often belligerent and aggressive, according to luding ton's account, quote, i witnessed him respond to a semi hostile remark by throwing his beer in the man's face and starting a fight that ended with one of our mutual friends in jail. however, here's what president trump said when asked about, well, today whether he'll put kavanaugh's nomination forward if he's found to have lied about the drinking. >> there are now concerns that he may have lied or

mischaracterized his drinking while testifying. if they find that he did, do you think that bars him from being your supreme court nominee? >> well, i've -- i watched him. i was surprised at how vocal he was about the fact that he likes beer. this is not a man that said alcohol was -- that he was perfect with respect to alcohol. >> so if he did lie about his drinking, does that mean you'll pull -- >> i don't think he did. >> luding ton, the guy that went to yale with him, last question here, said he drank so much he couldn't possibly remember what he's done. and therefore, he can't credibly deny what he is accused of doing by dr. ford because he wouldn't remember it. >> and in this day and age, with so much outrageous conduct by our high officials, some of them, you know, we're always looking for the next smoking gun. can we prove what he did to dr. ford? can we prove what he did to miss ramirez, what about swetnick when his unsuitability to be supreme court justice is hiding in plain sight, we all watched him during those confirmation

hearings be disrespectful, combative, left wing conspiracy threw the clintons in -- >> every time he's accused of something, didn't you ever do it? he did it to amy klobuchar. >> that's the next wave, thoor going to point to his lack of neutrality and temperament that should disqualify him. >> what goes around comes around. >> well, get even like clarence. this still lies in the hands -- the president said something accurate today. it's up to the senate. that's a fact. in the end of this week, mr. mcconnell pulls a quick one on friday afternoon, we're going to vote the minute we get this report, can't read it fast enough, i think in the end it's going to be up to flake. he and the president is not as close to the president of north korea. thank you, heidi, jeff. the scope of the kavanaugh investigations, republicans are threatening to investigate their own democratic colleagues and

president trump is threatening to accuse the senator who he said has been in compromising situations. look at the way he intimidates people. this is street corner stuff. not surprising. it's only monday. what will the investigation into the parties mean for the mid terms? who stands to win from this whole contested mess? saturday night live was back this weekend and it came back well. and weighed in. >> you put this spring cord now. don't vote. no discussion. you give him a probe and you let him do whatever the hell he wants. >> so, am i angry? you're dam right. but if you think i'm angry now, you just wait till i get on that supreme court because then you're all going to pay. give me a can of water. >> matt damon was spectacular. plus trump has an interesting choice of words out there to describe his relationship with north korean dictator kim jong-un. on the campaign rally over the week, he says he loves the guy. finally we finish tonight with

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in a new quinnipiac poll judge kavanaugh should not be confirmed, 48%. 42% said he should be. when asked who they believe most, 48% said dr. blasey ford. 41% kavanaugh. that's consistent whether they think he should be on or not. we'll be right back. be right ba. to do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. to fight cancer. and never lose sight of the patients we're fighting for. our cancer treatment specialists share the same vision. experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. specialists focused on treating cancer. using advanced technologies. and more precise treatments than before. working as hard as we can- doing all that we can-

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forget that. what no one in the world has done before. all i need access, tools, connections. high-speed connections. is the world ready for me? through internet essentials, comcast has connected more than six-million low-income people to low-cost, high-speed internet at home. i'm trying to do some homework here. so they're ready for anything. i feel badly for all parties. i feel badly for everybody. i feel badly for our country. this is so bad for our country. but i will tell you, i watched those senators on the democrat side and i thought it was a disgrdi disgrace, partially because i know they have. i know them too well. and you know what, they are not angels. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was president trump this morning unloading on senate

judiciary democrats for their handling of brett kavanaugh's nomination, i'd say threatening them. over the weekend trump complained democrats were raising threats about the nomination. for them it was never enough. never will be enough. in reality it was republican senator jeff flake who forced the week long investigation into kavanaugh before holding the confirmation on his nomination. that didn't stop trump from making his vague claim without any evidence about an unnamed democratic senator. >> you know, i tell you what, i happen to know some united states senators, one who is on the other side, who is pretty aggressive. i've seen that person in very bad situations. >> trump also indicated he's open to changing his mind on the kavanaugh pick if the fbi investigation uncovers relevant information on the sexual misconduct of kavanaugh. >> i have a very hope mind. i just think he's an outstanding

person. i think he's been treated horribly. even if you were going to bring up some of the subjects that were brought up, they didn't have to treat him so viciously and so violently as they've treated him. >> we're joined by a drone elrod, director of strategic communication forz hillary for america and republican strategist. what do you think about -- >> this is what he does, he deflects when he doesn't want to talk about something or take the blame for him or his party, he blames democrats. i'm surprised he didn't try to bring president clinton or hillary clinton into this today. so who knows what he's saying. i think it's just -- your typical trump threat that's baseless. >> it's just what judge kavanaugh did a couple times when amy klobuchar from minnesota, rhode island. how about, you how many black outs have you had? this turning the gun around is pretty tough stuff in politics.

>> well, can you imagine how middle america looks at this and thinks washington believes we're the moral authority? on arguing, on sex, on drinking, on everything else. that's why so many heads are exploding. by the way, the quinnipiac poll you mentioned, 49% in that poll did say that they thought judge kavanaugh was part of a political attack against him and so there was some sympathy for him in that as well. >> that could be both the truth and the messenger can be true. you can have dirt on somebody that's real dirt, as i think the democrats believe they've got on kavanaugh, which is true. it's not like they're making stuffer up. different questions. yes, the democrats are happy to have this stuff to use against kavanaugh, but don't tell me the stuff against kavanaugh isn't accurate. it's totally different questions. >> we've moved away -- >> anita hill was real. i don't doubt liberal groups didn't want her to talk. >> they learned one thing. republicans on the judiciary committee have not learned one

thing since 1991 during the testimony -- >> i take it it doesn't bother you that they were caught leaking information that professor ford asked them not to, obviously -- >> we don't know, who is it? >> would you support an investigation of that? >> i think that's ridiculous. again, you've got tom cotton who is the president's basically like, you know top surrogate in the senate. >> do you think there should be an investigation that they happen to forget to tell professor ford that they could have gone to california to do this behind closed doors like she requested? instead they needed to do this -- >> senator feinstein was protecting professor blasey ford's request to keep this private. >> since that didn't happen, shouldn't senator feinstein be the first to call for an investigation to find out how that happened? >> no, there should not be an investigation on this. >> of course not because you're on the other side. >> we need to get to the bottom -- >> first of all, let's stick to this point. lindsey graham and tom cotton said top ranking democrat dianne

feinstein should be investigated over who made christine blasey ford's allegations public. let's watch. >> i'm going to call for an investigation of what happened in this committee, who betrayed dr. ford's trust. we're going to do a wholesale full scale investigation of what i think was a despicable process. >> they have betrayed her. feinstein and her staff are going to face an investigation why they leaked that. all of this could have been done discretely. >> senator feinstein denied leaking dr. ford's letter. president trump and senate republicans are trying to deflect attention from brett kavanaugh's sexual assault allegations by saying my staff or i leaked the letter from dr. ford. they're wrong. let me ask you this. wouldn't it have been better -- your side is suggest that and your side is opposing it. wouldn't it be better if we kept that letter secret and held a private conversation with dr. ford somewhere in california somewhere and kept it all as a back room discussion, and not

had her testify before the american people this week, do you think that would have been a better development? >> i think it would have been better if that is indeed what she asked for. >> why is it better for the country not to hear her words about a guy who may be seated on the supreme court? >> they're using her as a pawn. the timing of the leak is suspicious. the fact -- >> i agree with you. i don't doubt the possibility -- the fact is wasn't it better to know what this woman believed she went through and its relevance to this nomination confirmation? it is an advise and consent question. if i were a senator i would have been glad to have heard her very powerful testimony and not say, well, a couple of staff guys talk to her and she says this. i don't think that would have been as powerful. >> yeah, no, i completely agree. number one, the american people needed to see this and she was willing to go in front of the committee in a very public for matt. i think that was important here. number two, we have to keep in mind here she is not in a criminal trial or trial in front

of a jury. this is simply a testimony in front of a very key committee for the seat on the top court of the land. brett kavanaugh could be on that court on the supreme court for 30, 40 years. there is a lot at stake here. i think the public, the general public deserved to see this. >> do you think she's telling the strugt? >> -- truth? >> i have no reason to think she's telling the truth. she sounded very convincing. i thought he sounded convincing. >> did you? you felt that he wasn't just upset that he had been challenged? >> i think somebody in that position, if they were falsely accused, he reacted the exact way they would. here's the part i don't understand today. so, the democrats, senator coons -- >> when you say -- senator, did you ever black out, what did you drink, what's your favorite booze? >> i thought he was fine until he got to senator klobuchar who i love and thinks is one of the nicest people i've met. and hope she runs for president on the democrats side. i think she'll lose, but -- >> by the way, i don't think you're right. but she was tremendous down in

the texas tribune. she was down there this weekend. >> she was. >> you have the democrats, senator coons say let's just do one week. if we can do this all in a week so president says yes, the senate says yes. now the democrats are saying, oh, my gosh, it's only a week. it was their suggestion. >> it's only four witnesses. they're only saying four witnesses. they revved it up for a vote this friday. you know what he's up to. >> one guy and an uber driver. >> that's the issue, it's a sham investigation. >> what would the scope be? >> allow all the witnesses come forward. >> how long would that take? >> as long as it takes. >> could it take after the 2018 election s? >> possibly, yes, yes. >> thank you. i think adrian, you fell into his trap there. all you want to do is delay this thing. you don't want to delay, do you? >> no, but i think it needs to take the time that needs.

>> adrian and elroy. thank you. will we see a kavanaugh wave? who is it going to help? i have a theory. i think he gets confirmed, the republicans cut their losses. i think if he doesn't get confirmed, they quit hit on both sides. this is "hardball" where the action is. sorry i have to take this. we're good. hi. uh no i need it right now, yeah... my life was narrated for me by others. their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. it had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs. the most inspiring minds. the most compelling stories. download audible. and listen for a change. download audible. i'start at the new carfax.comar. show me minivans with no reported accidents. boom. love it. [struggles] show me the carfax. start your used car search at the all-new carfax.com.

and butch.aura. and tank. and tiny. and this is laura's mobile dog grooming palace. laura can clean up a retriever that rolled in foxtails, but she's not much on "articles of organization." articles of what?

so, she turned to legalzoom. they helped me out. she means we helped with her llc, trademark, and a lot of other legal stuff that's a part of running a business. so laura can get back to the dogs. would you sit still? this is laura's mobile dog grooming palace and this is where life meets legal. democrats are willing to do anything and to hurt anyone to

get their way, like they're doing with judge kavanaugh. >> do you believe he just said that? democrats will do anything to get their way. trump's talking, him, saying he doesn't believe the ends justifies the means. that was president trump moments ago at a rally in tennessee. with over a month now until midterm elections, the debate over judge kavanaugh's nomination is likely to be on voters minds as they head to the ballot box. there is a prediction of a kavanaugh wave. that's the phrase in november. which side? democrats say dr. ford's testimony made it clear the wave of women will march against trump beginning the day after the election. shared stories of abuse in the me too era, empowered female candidates to primary victories this year. that is for sure. that can only build. republicans say they see signs kavanaugh's defiant testimony brought the gop together and fired up apathetic base voters the party needs.

tonight's round, susan pace washington bureau chief. dana mill bank, political columnist -- look, first of all, there is no doubt dr. ford is going to help the democrats because she was the most likeable public event in american politics in i don't know how long. they believed her to be authentic, they didn't think she was political. oddly enough that helps one side because she didn't look to be a politician. and i think the other guy, i guess lyndsay fired up this strange moment of scream for help kind of thing. despite everything he does, i find that i do like lindsey graham. can't quite explain why i do because i've known him a long time and i do like him. i don't think they're equal. there's no comparison to me to how effective she was compared to his desperate cry for help. lindsey's. >> i do think it's helpful for democrats because women who have been on fire for about two years have got more fuel on that fire. >> the primaries. >> i think it's also helpful for

republicans because republicans have seen this enthusiasm gap. this was a reminder to republicans about why they like being in power, the ability to put kavanaugh on the supreme court. i think the defiance that we saw judge kavanaugh show in the hearing will help republicans turnout their vote and that had been a problem. >> you are playing this so down the middle and so straight. you're not giving my answer. let's do it this way. if kavanaugh squeaks through this friday night or saturday night, he gets through with 50 votes, he's the next member, nine member supreme court, the middle guy, 5th most decisive vote in the supreme court for years to come, that helps them, right? >> helps who? >> the republicans. >> you think it helps republicans turnout voters. >> i would say it's the opposite. >> you'd be wrong. >> i'd be wrong whenever i disagree with susan. i think if kavanaugh is confirmed particularly if it's some sort of a friday night scenario before the

investigation is through, i think -- >> withal t all the crap showin. >> it will turn into rage, the backlash like we've never seen to use trump's term. now, if kavanaugh is rejected, well, then i think you do have a lot of the angry lindsey graham types. >> i think if kavanaugh is confirmed it helps the republicans in part because so many conservatives backed trump with the hope he would deliver judges, specifically white evangelicals. if he's able to say i got this guy through like i told you i would, i think he'll win. >> let me talk about winning and losing in this weird world. what started the women's marchs down 5th avenue in new york? anyway, along 5th avenue. i've never seen a reaction like that. my wife, all my female -- all my

relatives were in those marches, alma of them were out there -- all of them, i mean all of them were out there, even the more conservatives were out there against trump. i just say -- there aren't many conservatives in that crowd. don't you think it would be the same -- i think the same, i'm with dana. i think this guy walks in sunday morning people pickup their newspapers, "meet the press," oh, my god, he's in with all the problems of boozing and pushing people around and belligerent drunkenness, this guy walks through? men are running the world again. >> i think it reminds women, especially as we know suburban women who are key in a lot of these, especially some of these competitive house races it's going to remind them how mad they were two years ago and turn them out. >> nobody some get in the way. >> you have to remember we are five weeks from the election. in trump time we could have a dozen calamities between now and then that will have kavanaugh on the back burner. >> finally saturday night live kicked off its season premiere with a skit about kavanaugh's testimony. here we go.

>> let me tell you this. i'm going to start at 11. i'm going to take to a 15 real quick. this is my speech. there are others like it, but this is mine. i wrote it myself last night while screaming into an empty bag of doritos. now, i am usually an optimist. i'm a keg is half full kind of guy. dr. ford has no evidence, none. meanwhile, i've got these. i've got these calendars. these beautiful creepy calendars. >> dana, his friendship for his friends was over the top. his love of all these guys and p.j. and what's his name, mark. he's crying over the calendar events and he shared with them. it's frightening. >> it was a very beautiful

moment on saturday night. look, i think the skit might have gone on a bit too long, but that was just sheer brilliance. >> i thought his acting was great. jeff, the acting? >> he definitely did a great job. i don't think most people before that would have thought of matt damon when they thought of brett kavanaugh. but i think a lot of people -- we've seen these pieces. we have one in the washington post right now, conservative men really identify with his response and their response always, if that came at me, those accusations, i would have been angry and crying as well. >> yeah, i wounder. my feeling is trump's watching it, this guy cries. i don't cry. i fight, but i don't cry. it was too anguished. >> but he would like the anger -- there is something to the notion that this becomes something about drinking beer in high school and college -- >> that's the way he spun it. >> kavanaugh would like it to be not about the sex. >> what about this new guy, chad luding ton who said they drank to the point of not being able to remember what they did that

night? that goes into the problem. he's trying to build a case just like they say about dr. ford, oh, something awful happened to her. they all say this. it was just somebody else. one thing they can say about their guy, you know, he probably did forget it. yeah, it happened, he was awful, he was awful. but he forgot it. >> so -- >> that's what luding ton said tonight. >> i understand that. we have some friends saying yes, he did drink too much. he was a mean drunk. and yet you don't get a corroboration from them of more serious accusations. then it seems to me it doesn't -- >> it fits with the main charge what he did that night. >> it's consistent, it's not determinative. it seems to me you need more than that to stop him from being -- >> he set himself up by this for doing the whole choir boy thing. now you have jeff flake and chris coons saying if he lied about his testimony, that's not necessarily just lying about the

accusations. jeff flake and chris coons are saying so. >> and the conservative voters are being sympathetic to that because they're viewing that as goal post shifting. but they really could be more connected if you have a larger narrative that points to someone who just doesn't know what they could be doing when they're not conscious of where they are. >> they are wonderfully sticking around. up next president trump is boasting about his relationship with north korean dictator kim jong-un. he said, this is strange language. fell in love. you're watching "hardball."

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welcome back to "hardball." joining us west virginia rally on saturday night, president trump boasted about the progress he had made with north korean leader kim jong-un and provided a surprising description of their relationship. >> i was really being tough, and

so was he. we would go back and forth, and then we fell in love. really, he wrote me beautiful letters and they're great letters. we fell in love. >> i'm back with "hardball" round table. we're stunned. i think this is a syra syrano dabergerac. >> if loving him is wrong i don't want to be right. >> you can't beat this thing. >> it's a matter of some geopolitical concern because what happens when vladimir putin says that and they had fallen in love previously and then you've got -- >> this a triangle? >> don't say devil's triangle. >> i just said triangle. i mean, i kept thinking, eugene, love means never having to say you're sorry. what does it mean when he starts blowing up, shooting up those rockets again? >> we have to remember sms someone who has real human rights violations concerns. the u.n. says there is murder

and executions, forced abortion tz. you would think people who are more sympathetic to those issues, trump saying he's falling in love with a dictator. >> trump decides, though. he says 90% of republicans, yeah, i think i'm in love with kim jong-un, too. >> he's not in love with justin trudeau. >> he's not a terribly faithful lover. what have you done for me lately? and just today he decided weak and dishonest justin trudeau is, in fact, a good man who does good things for his people. >> maybe he wrote him a letter. maybe it was a letter. >> usmca, new trade deal sounds better than nafta. >> that's what he said. >> i know. how do we explain this? how can he get away with this stuff? i'm out of words. make it official when you say i'm in love with this guy, i don't know what to say. the round table is sticking with us unless they tell me something different. we're doing t. you're watching "hardball." dball. dball. the scenes to make the impossible...

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her poke -- pocahontas. >> the democrats can't be trusted with your power. they have moved so far left that pocahontas is considered a conservative. that's right, elizabeth warren. she said she's considering a run for the presidency. please, please run. how about that group biden? biden. we call him 1% biden. until obama took him off the trash heap, he couldn't do anything. now he's talking about running. >> that's a little rough. anyway, right back. (roger) being a good father

is important to me so being diagnosed with advanced non-small cell lung cancer made me think of all the things that i wanted to teach my kids. (avo) another tru story with keytruda. (roger) my doctor said i could start on keytruda so i did. with each scan things just got better. (avo) in a clinical study, keytruda offered patients a longer life than chemotherapy. and it could be your first treatment. keytruda is for adults with non-small cell lung cancer that has spread... ...who test positive for pd-l1 and whose tumors do not have an abnormal "egfr" or "alk" gene. it's the immunotherapy with the most fda-approved uses for advanced lung cancer. keytruda can cause your immune system to attack normal organs and tissues in your body and affect how they work. this can happen anytime during or after treatment and may be severe and lead to death. see your doctor right away if you experience new or

worsening cough, chest pain, shortness of breath, diarrhea, severe stomach pain or tenderness, nausea or vomiting, rapid heartbeat, constipation, changes in urine, changes in eyesight, muscle pain or weakness, joint pain, confusion or memory problems, fever, rash, itching or flushing, as this may keep these problems from becoming more serious. these are not all the possible side effects of keytruda. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions including immune system problems, or if you've had an organ transplant or lung, breathing, or liver problems. (roger ) before i'd think of the stuff i might miss. but now with keytruda, we have hope. (avo) living longer is possible. it's tru. keytruda, from merck. ask your doctor about keytruda. we're back with the "hardball" round table. susan tell me something i don't know. >> it's october 1st, the first day of the fiscal year. >> today. >> what we usually do today, what we usually do to celebrate the new fiscal year is to shutdown the government.

we didn't do that this october 1st. don't worry, we're going to shutdown the government on december 7th when the money runs out and when trump demands more funding for the wall. >> okay. >> well, the president said today that kavanaugh couldn't have done anything too bad because he was number one in his class at yale. now, i was at yale a few years after kavanaugh and i can state he was not number one in his class. what he was is accumulate lau--m laud which sounds good. half the class was graduating cum laud. it is possible to devote the entire part of your college career to drinking beer and still graduate cum laud. yes, and i like beer. >> i'll extend you one more. of all the years i've known you, you have done me the favor of never telling me you went to yale. no bragging from you. go ahead. >> a more heavier note, more

than 13,000 kids are being held by the government unaccompanied minors and there is so little room for them that like 1600 of them have been moved to tents in the middle of the night just to have housing for them and to protect them and keep them from running away. they are no longer being sent to school, which was the norm before. and it's just a really rough situation. and it's not looking like the trump administration has any solutions to the problem. >> thank you for keeping up with something that's really human important. nbc spoke with chad luding ton tonight. he was a roommate or classmate of kavanaugh at yale. let's listen to chad. >> begin, like i said before, it was a sense that the truth is being distorted in brett's dissembling. i couldn't sleep. >> thank you susan page. the guy went on and on. you'll read it in the paper. lots more from that guy, luding ton has a story to tell about judge kavanaugh. thank you all tonight. when we return, let me finish tonight with trump watch. you're watching "hardball."

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trump watch monday october 1st, 2018, ask yourself at what stage of the brett kavanaugh nomination process of those supporting him wanted us, the american people, to hear the truth, the full truth and nothing but the truth? actually it's been just the opposite. what has upset them is having dr. ford testify in public. they had hoped to keep her story limited in the back room where

they could do what they wanted with it or nothing at all. they hoped to get kavanaugh confirmed without further investigation. again and again they put down an fbi probe as a waste of time. well then confronted with the need for some sort of probe, they tried to limit it to a fewer than a handful of witnesses. again, it was damage control. not getting out the truth, but limiting how much truth got out. and now tonight we learn one further step at keeping the truth from us. quote, witness tampering is the act of attempting to alter or prevent the testimony of witnesses within criminal or civil proceedings, laws regarding witness tampering also apply to proceedings before the u.s. congress, executive departments and administrative agencies, the congress. nbc news is reporting tonight that brett kavanaugh, a federal judge, actively called on friends to refute the accusation that he exposed himself to a college roommate or classmate. at every stage the goal here has been to keep us from knowing the truth about the man who could spend the rest of his days

sitting in judgment of us, ands th -- and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. president carter's 94th birthday. happy birthday, mr. president. all-in with chris hayes starts right now. /s >> tonight on all in. >> it does no good to have an investigation that just gives us more cover, for example. >> a white house responds to reports of a limited investigation. >> i think the fbi should do what they have to do to get to the answer. >> tonight, what we know about which accusers and which witnesses have been interviewed as the white house says it has authorized an expanded probe into brett kavanaugh. plus, just what constitutes lying to congress? >> if judge kavanaugh is shown to have lied to the committee, nomination is over? >> oh, yes. >> the impact the kavanaugh scandal is already having on the