this suoay,irmation fallout. brett kavanaugh wins a seat on the court in the closest vote since 1881. >> the ais are 50, nays are 48. >> i stand before you today on the heels of a tremendous victory, for our nation, our people. >> this, after angry testimony. >> this whole two week effort has been a lculated and orchestrated political hit. >> angry debate. >> this is th most unethical sham sce i've bee in politics. >> anger at the fbiin stigation. >> if that's an investigation, a bleepn. investigat >> angry protesters and a senate

speech that sealed the deal. >> i will vote tofi con judge kavanaugh. >> what effect will this nasty battle have on th urt, the senate and the november elections? joining me this morning, republican sator, lamar alexander of tennessee and from delaware. the me too founder, and actor and activist, melissa m, whose tweet started it. kasie hunt andca the ame enterprise stut and nbc news presidential historian, mhael beechloss. welcome to sunday, it's "meet the prs." >> from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television hisry, this is

"meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning. in the end a closely divided country elected a closely divided senate which too a closely divided vote that has left the country, you guessed it, closely divided. brett kavanaugh was confirmed b the senate, ay50-48 yeste after the closest vote since stanley matthews, you remember him, confirmed in1891. it pitted republicans against democrats, men against women,ac sed against the accuser and trump loyalis againstrump detractors. though the fight is over, the bittermentos likely endure and so are the questions we're left with. will kavanaugh's confirmation create a bigger than expected blue wave from democrats or republicans generating a republican come back. will the supreme court be permanently damaged by the way brett kavanaugh made it across

the finish line and his behavior last week will he find himself the target of future investigations if democrats win ba control of congress. it was for president trump. the supreme court, brett kavanaugh, christine blasey ford, ultimately confidenc the integrity of our political process. >> on this vote, the ayes are 48.nays are >> the closest supreme court confirmation vote in 137 years ends a bitter fight over kavanaugsomination. >> they have ecouraged mob rule. >> that's an investigation is a bull -- investigation. >> why don't we document water and see if he floats. >> he's speaking about left wing conspiracies. >> ultimately it was decided by self proclaiming accecentrists.

>> i will vote to con foirm judge kavanaugh. >> i do not believe it will be at this time. >> do you think there is a place for him? >> i'm just a good old westns virgin >> likely to deepen. at a rally in kansas last night, president trump declared victory. >> radical democrats launched a disgraceful campaign too disrupt roy.y demolish and de brett kavanaugh is a man of great character and intellect.'s like a perfect person. for mr. trump, the kavanaug vote has presented an opening to launch a new battle in the culture war weeks before mid-terms. >> it's a very scary time for young men in america. >> and riculed dr. ford.

>> how did you get home? i don't remember. >> are you 100% certain for named the wrong person? >> i'm 100%. no doubt. >> we thought it w bad back in 1991. it's even worse today, the poli hcal climate and women are treated. >> even amid the me too clnkate, you thi it's worse now than back then? >> i can only go by what we've seen the past month. >> the next will be decided at the ballot box. some democrats are already promising investigations of kavanaugh if they are in control. >> if he is on the supreme court ond the senate hasn't investigated thee will have to. >> republican and senate states mr. trump won are running ads to sustain thi base energy the kavanaugh might produced. >> >> the liberal smear, they are doing it again, what we hate most about washihiton. >> meanw in the house where many toss-up races are in suburban districts a number of

democratic candidates are talking about gend and some making the issue of sexual assault part of their campaigns. >> i lascky i was able to fight my way out of it. but i'm alsoix feet tall. i was walking with my keys between my fingers. >> joining me now is republican senator lamar alexand of tennessee. welcome back to "meet the press." >> good to see you. >> let me start by playing something dr. ford said at her testimony about her basic initial fear about coming orward and get you to react to it. >> i was calculating daily the risk benefit for me of comingrw d and wondering whether i uld just be jumping in front of a train headed to where it was head yway. >> that feeling she was essentially now being mowed down by a frght train. >> i can't put myself in her shoes. i can imane anyone who believes they were a victim of sexual assault first has that to

live with and second, the difficulty of comg before a public audience, particularly one that large must be terrifying, as she said, i believe that. >> did you believe her? >> i thought she was credible. >> what does that mean to you? >> what that meant was if listening to her was all had to do, i would have said, she's -- she seems to believe what she believes. that's not all i had to do. for example, this week, i went down for a weekd to rhe fbi reports. i read six fbi reports between 1993 and 2018. 150 people interviewed about judge kavanaugh, in everya the interviewee was asked do you know of any instance of alcohol abuse, the answer in every case was no. there was no evidence by any off these people behavior that had anything to do with sexual impropriety, so you have to

that.er and you also have to consider the fact that the only person who remembers the alleged incident that dr. ford describes is dr. ford. e other four said, under penalty of perjury, that it either didn' happen they didn't remember it. so you have to be fair about it, in a very difficult case. you ha t to considet as well as her testimony. >> what do you think ended up happening. why do youink she remembered it this way? >> i don't know the answer. >> she sa10 she was 100% it was brett kavanaugh. >> i'mre svery sexual assault case usually is he said she said, except in this case it was he said she said they they were the witnesses she said were there all said it either didn't happen or they didn't remember it, one of wh is one of her best friends. >> i want to play for you something one of your colleague, senator murkowski ended up

voting no. here's what she said about this ation. >> i believe he is a good man, it just may be that in,my vi he's not the right man for the court at this time. i also think that we're at a ace where we need to be thinking again about the credibility and integrity of our institutions. >> this is the larger concern a wondering about now and she also in her floor speech talked aboutuehe i of public confidence the concern sheas justi kavanaugh does not have public confidence. >> it would be hard to have public confidence if you go through an inquisition like he did, arranged by the democrats. if you go down and read six fbi investigations of him over 25 years, and see not just the bad things that were not said about him but the remarkably good things that were said about him,

you would be very glad he would be on the supreme court and it would be fundamentally unfair to allow people to make accusations against someone and by simply doing that, destroy their reputation and their opportunity to ser in public life. >> in the teath of this when judge kavanaugh was defending himself. he himself apparently admits he went over the line in some of the things he said. it was interesting to hear retired justice john paul stevens react to that. i want to playunhat for you and get you to react here he is. >> he has demonstrated a potential bias involving enough potential litigants before the court that he would not be able to perform full responsibilities. i think thers merit in that criticism. >> it's clear to me judge kavanaugh was concerned enough about this he wrote the op-ed. is that enough?

or does he need to do more? >> i think that'senough. someone said to me, my answer to that is, if you had a group of people deliberately trying to destroy your reputation with accusations you know aren't true and every rumor about you is the most awful kind of accusation, you're not going to sit there calmly and take that. you will defend yourself against people deliberately trying to damage and de you. that's what he did. i think the fact he did that is the reason he'sn the court. i think if he had sat there and taken it the people would vhave bey suspicious. go back to those fbi investigations. >> you say heas in box, that if he didn't deny outrageous -- >> all the people interviewed over 25 years said his demeanor was excellent. the american baridssociation is demeanor is excellent. if he's under assault, he fights back. >> talk to me about the united states senate. you did something seven years ago, you said, i will resign

from myeadership post because you said, you can't be in eadership and work across the aisle, on one hand obvious and on one hand a bit disconcerting, when you admitted that reality. have things gotten better in the last 10 yea or things gotten worse in the united states senate? >>re worse. look at the senate like a split screenle sion. on one screen you would have seen kavanaugh trump tweets et cetera. on the other, half democrats, half senators passing landmark opioid legislation that affects millions of people. you would have seen recordin fufor biomedical research, science, technology, super computing the biggest increase in military in 15 years. you'd have seen a bill for flying making airplanes sar all in the past three weeks. the senate is doing a pretty good job ints problem solving capacity. >> but the one place it has a problem is judicial nominations. let me ask you this.

democrats, chuck schumer and kick durbin said if demrorats get co of the senate they would consider restoring theli ster. you were somebody who didn't want to see it go away in the first place. oif its back, will you support keeping it for judicial nominamions. >> wait te. we have never had a requirement -- the practice has always been thatudicial nominations were approved by 51 votes. there's never been a supreme court juste who had to get 60 votes with the exception of abe fortus. even santa clara reince thomas was 52-48. chuck schumer was the one ugede ge bush insisted george votes nominees get 60 >> obviously, it's one of these sides -- >> there never has been -- >> you want to see it restored, the 60 vote threshold to end debate which would force more consensus nominees. >> no, not for nominations. we never had onthat. ederal judges in the history

of the united states senate, no deral judge has been denied their seat by a 60 vote requirement, they've all been majority votes. i know becauseneitch mcc wanted to do it once and i stopped him by getting enough republicans to do it. >> what ishe consequence of a judiciary made up of judges confirmed 51-49. >> if you consider the united stes of america is a success, that's the right way to do it. ever since we had the united states senate with thomas never son judgesov have been ap with 51 votes. clarence thomas was 52-48. you could have required 60 votes but no one ever did. >> thank you for coming out and appreciate your views. good to see you. joining me fromgtwilm, from the other side perspective, good to see you. >> thank you. good to see you.

>> justice kavanaugh is on the supreme court. it's an election year, tsu ommittee process was fleeing. he lied underibath. cr allegations of sexual misconduct. why did democrats lose all of those arguments? >> fran y, ilt like this process was unfair from the very outset. the way we were prevented from seeing literally millions of pages of judge kavanaugh's record from his service in the bush administration to the way he process went forward in the confirmationhearing, to some of how it unfolded last wek. i'm focused looking forward how it is we can heal the senate after this bitter and divisive and partisan week or how we work to restore some of the legitimacy of the supreme court now that we have aed se justice confirmed by justice 50 votes without allegations against him having really been cleared. >> it seems as if you wmoe working as a go between

to the undecided embers, particularly obviously with jeff flake. were you trying to convince him to vote no? >> look, goi intothis, i knew jeff is a conservative. he wants a conservativeupreme court. i knew that would likely be the outcome. i think there are good reasons icehave doubts about now ju kavanaugh's candor to the committee and fitness to serve given his very partisan screen in the last hearing in front of theudiciary committee last friday. i wasn't trying to persuade senator flake orothers not to vote their conscience and not to reflect eir states and values in electing a conservative judge, i was tryelg to him focus what legitimate questions there were about this particular conservative judge. >> let me getre youronse to senator collins floor speech in her yes vote. >> i have been alarmed and disturbed, however, by some who

have suggested that unless judge kavanah's nomination is rejected, the senate is somehow condoning sexual assault. nothing could be further from the truth. >> dou agree with her or do you think a different message was sent? >> look, i respect senator collins, she's a great colleague. we see this a little thfferently. ik the fbi investigation senator flake and i worked hard together to make sure phappened tht week did not go far enough. in only ainterviewing,cording to press reports, 10 witnesses who came forward, and not interviewing dozens of corroborating witnessesdwho trto get in touch with the fbi who dr. ford offered to the fbi, i don't think thisio investigwent far enough and i don't think the members of the ctemittee and seho had to make a final decision yesterday, had all the facts in front of them. in that regard i don't think we did enough. chuck, i d think one of the big

things that came out of this hearing was that thousands of survivors assault who had kept to themselves for years or decades very painful experiences, did come forward, and there are things we can and should do on a bipartisan basis to respect and hear and act on, the oceans of pain that exist in our country from long buried otragic experienc assault to try and change our culture and try and change our country. >> doou believe that the initial presumptn in a situation like this is to believe the victim at all times? >> i think it's important that we change our country's culture to one where we believe victims of sexual assault who come forward. .hat wasn't the case for most of my li most victims of sexual assault didn't come forward becae they thought they would be shamed or ridiculed, and ultimately disbelieved. i think one of the biggest tragedieof this pasteek was to watch the president of the united states publicly mocking

and ridiculing dr. f his initial response which was to say that her testimony was credible ancoelling was where he should have stopped. but to instea turn it into a campaign rally or event where he was mocking her i think really brought this entire conversation down and really was a low mark esin his pridency. >> but you went a little further than others have said,any backing now justice kavanaugh said he ought to be treated as if he's innocent until proven guilty. you disagreed. you said, no, the burden is on him to disproveg the aions against him. there are a lot of people that hear that going, whoa, wait a minute. >> right. >> i'm guilty until proven innocentak >> let me s to that, chuck, if i can. hearing. confirmation no one is entitled to a seat on the supreme court. it's not a criminal trial, it's more like a job hearing, more like a job interview. the president has a whole series of credentialed and qualified conservative jges from among

whom he could choose to put someone forward to the senate of the united states for confirmation. if there are credible allegations against this particular nominee, and if this particular nominee, in his confirmation process conducts himself in aay ther are real questions about candor, partisanship, fitness, i think it's appropriate for the committee, the senate to say, perhaps a different nominee is the right one. if you're considering someone to be president of a university, cef sa compana university and h a sunday show, it wouldmake sense to take steps back to investigate them and see if you can resolve them. that why i was happy senator last took a tough step week and asked for an fbi investigation. >> let me get your comment about earlier this week when he believed things chand in this whole kavanaugh debate. take a listen. >> i think this process changed

dramatically when mr. avenatti entered the picture. i think a lot of people, including my democratic colleagues felt like then at that pointote hadn into the foothills of preposterous. >> he wasreferring to lawyer michael avenatti, w is thinking about running for president, who ended up representing somebody whos allegations have not been seen as credible as the other two allegations. do you agree with his political assessment there, that the avenatti's entrance into this sideshow sort of diluted everything? >> i certainly like senator kennedy's turn of phrase, theot lls of the preposterous is going to end upei a memorable phrase. i do think he is correct there was widespread response, certainly on the republican side these were not credible allegations. i tried to focus my questioning of judge kavaugh on things

directly related first to his judicial philosophy, his extreme views on presidential power and liberty and ways i think he will overturn justice kennedy's most recent decisions and focus on fitness and candor. i think what was important about the last two weeks was trying to find a bipartisan focus on facts. the larger question, how do we move forward?e how do heal the divisions in the senate. >> i take it if you're talking that way, the house democrats talking about reinvestigating kavanaughhe if get control of the house, possibly looking at impeachment. what do you think of those pledges coming from some house democrats? >>in i that's premature. we are frankly just less than a month away from an election,o folks eel very strongly one way or the other about the issues in front of ouus, get out and vote and participate. there's only ever been oth justic's been impeached. i think talking about it at this

pointsn't necessarily healing us and moving us forward. the senate's role in our politics is not to just reflect the country but help heal and lead the country and that's the course we should be on. >> senator coons, democrat from delaware, thanks for coming on. >> thankwhou. >> we come back, is there any way to heal these wounds from this ♪ ignition sequence starts. 10... 9... guidance is internal. 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... ♪ who transition out of the u.s. formilitary every year...ers ...one of the toughest parts is the search for a job

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welcome back. panelists here, nbc news, presidential historian and author of "presidents of war." and fromhe enterprise stu and dc.e hunt host of caseykaise and much relieved from the miami

hurricanes. one goodob thingct our friends left and right, they do agree on one thing, a broken senate. here are republicans talk about this process. a sad charade. embarrassment to the senate. horoibless, lisa murkowski. almostbo rocom. it bottom and started to big. process hasen bad. failure of this body. a sham process. chuck schume one of the most sordid processes. there's some unity in the united states senate. >> a unity in that it's all a mess. i've been coveringgr cs 10 year and struggling to remember a point that feels lower than this one. i think vere arery real questions among the people most committed and senator coons you just talked to i would put in that category and republicans in that category as well. people have real doubts about what the role of the senate is

going to be going forward. there's a lot of people you can atame for your line of questioning about judicial nominees is one of them. it started with democrats in harry reid when he took away the filibuster for circuit cour judges and got lower when mitch mcconnell did it for the supreme court nominations. i wish i could say it won't get lower. >> if you look bac to ruth ginsberg received over 90 votes and another unanimous and it's like we moved the bar how we confirm consent. and we have to figure out how we're going to redefine it and live within thoses. paramet lastly, i was for a swing vote, for somebody to replace anthony kennedy, who would be like anthony kennedy. there iso potential candidates for that. i don't know that advice and

consent would allow you as a senator to try to enforce that kind of thing. it's complicated. >> danny, i think theof day a swing justice are gone, right? it will be which erarty has the senate and presidency will probably put thei side. >> at the outset, that's absolutely true. we saw with john paul stevens, there's a lot ofrowth in office among justices. >> i think the federalist society is trying to bring an end tothat. >> we've just been talking about the fact chief justice roberts is one people view a lot as a potential swing vote. these are people of great intelligence, great integrity, great legal depth. the notion they are incapable for politicaleasons of looking at evidence, looking at the constitution and drawing proper conclusion is wrong. this process, apart from anything el, has demeaned the court, not by putting justice

kavanaug bon it b discussing the court as if it is a play thing of national mipolitics. >>ael, bring that historical perspective to that. it's not the first time we had this with these fights with the court. i do think now there is thispe eption, oh, those robes are red and blue, they're not black anymore. >> it has gottereally ugly. i was looking back at clarence thomas,1991 not an exact parallel and allegations against him were actuallyan milder those against now justice kavanaugh. that was a time that there was huge animosity toward clarence thomas and there was a discuson actually at the time, that perhaps the court is getting political and this is -- sometimes history really does rhyme. the thing i really missed sterday was 1991, the kay that clarence thomas wasnfmed, george h.w. bush, president of the united states said, this has been ugly, this i really a time for healing, i'm going to try. clarence thomas came out on the front step of his house and said

the same thing. there shouldn't be anger, i thinks there should be an age of healing. >> let me put up something amy walter wrote, my friend at the cook political report. this battle isn't unique to the trump era. simply the latest in a never ending war by bothes so justice their partisan behavior. voters aren't maki distinctions on policy or procedure or hypocrisy either, they rally behind their team and ray for war in the future. essentially the body left and right has actually embraced the trump style of politi. >> i think that's absolutely true. you saw that when you saw lisa murkowski go to the floor after she voted no and there dys noardly in the chamber watching her and nobody to applaud her. she was te one who took the stand and said we need to be viewing this differently. ere aren't many republicans who are doing that anymore. even those giving lip service to

civility, ben sasse, jeff flake, first of all, what will theyal ac do? will they run against the president? seconds of all, will there be any voters constituency behind that. i'm not convpeced. le have embraced this president from top to bottom. i think thena deeply per nature of the opposition to this, i just -- i truly wonder if the republicans party realizes how this is going to r term, over the lon with the way that women have felt about this. there were people i talked to day in and day out who really felt a though this was the highest levels of our institution doing actly what they have been fighting against, they came forward and told their stories and the insti to them, you don't matter. >> listen, dysfunction had begun before dheald trump got to white house and the congress. it's reached new levels. the appeal t people's lower instincts by both bases have caused thingsike violence in

the streets, demonstrations on both sides that go beyond the pale. there's a recent book that came out about america from1830 to 1860, "a field of blood," how that led to a civil war in america. i'm not sure we're not leading to a cold civil war and i'm not too sure tduring themp era things won't get worse. we as a nation need toth figure out. >> i'm here to promote his book. a book justd sho up yesterday at my house. ordered that book because i want to read it. >> i agree. i understand there was a lot of unhappiness about the vote. the notion that one person or one spokesman speaks for all women or all women were appalled by this. i can tell you i was appalled by this because the notion somebody can bring down somebody's ca ter ir word alone is the kind of license in our society i think is hugely dangerous. for mothers who have young son, can look at them going to school and anybody can bring them down. what kind of precedent are we

setting? what kind of agency are we denying women? what kind of action are we taking against people who are survivors of sexual assault and who have been hurt byhis because someone who wasn't really credible stood up anddi 't have the corroborating evidence from the people she suggested she had it from. >> i think the perception from some of these women that -- chris coons made the point about the job interview. many women as ty grow up they're sent a message, you bet dear it cleaner and better than that guy. if you're the one wh scre up you will pay the price. there was the sense that judge kavanaugh in h life neve had to face that kind of consequence. >> i will pause it here and weer will get ano discussion on the "me too" movement on the other side of the break. the woman comcast business built the nation's largest gig-speed network. then went beyond. beyond chasing down network problems. to knowing when and where there's an issue. beyond network complexity. to a zero-touch, one-box world.

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lcome back. it was the tweet heard around the world. one year ago the "new york times" ron its page story about movie producer harvey instein'ssexual assaults. one of the people reading about it was the actorlyssa milano. if you've been sexually assaulted, write back me too to this sweet. she had kick started the quote #"me too" movement. and started by the actress. lano was easily seen on tv sitting behind kavanaugh. joining me now fromut rn california is alyssa milano and from new york,tarana burke. welcome to both of you. thanks for coming on.

>> thanks for having us. >> tarana, let me start with you and play the quote from ford where she talked about coming out and simplytepping in front of a train already headed to its destinatio what are th repercussions of that? >> i mean, the repercussions are -- will remain to be seen. i think her stepping out was somethg that we needed to have happen in this movement. it's been largely focused on hollywood and on individual bad actors. i think her coming forward really s the stage for survivors to have a different han we'vehis movement seen over the last year. >> alyssa, milahe journalist, sally quinn, wrote in herea memoir last about an attempted rape by now deceased senator, john tower, when she was a ctulegent in the '60s. when he was nominated to be the defense secretary in 1989, s was asked about it and she declined to talk about it with

the f. reporter at ne new yorker asked her about let me play and let me show you what susan wllte. i sally quinn, ne night before christine blasey onord's testto ask her what she thought about her own experience all niece later. she said, i could have beenan a hill she pointed out but i didn't wan i didn't want to ruin my life. nothing has changed since anita hill. t a damn thing. is she right. i think a lot haschanged and a lot hasn't changed. yesterday, we may have lost a political battle but i do think we ainng the cultural battle. often, i don't fight for the win, i'mo fighting that generations don't have to deal with the abuses of power we've had to deal with. in a respect, think she is right, but i do think there is a lot going on. i thi this cultural shift that we're feeling, this collectivet pain te're feeling from survivors coming forward is

going to be able to betr slated into a collective power. to say that we're not going to be silence any longer. >> taranaan burke, s collins said she was really angry at the leaker about this story, it forced dr. ford into the public square and w maybe shesn't ready or maybe it wasn't handle right. do you think the united states senate, in particular, senator feinstein, didn't handle this correctly from the outset and made d m forde vulnerable than necessary? >> i wouldn't say she didn't hand r itht. she followed the leadership of the survivor. people shouldn't have to be o forc of -- to tell their story. if she asked for privacy, i understand why senator feinstein decided to respect that privacy. i think this is really indicative how we don't understand in this country the life cycle of a survivor, and whatt takes to actually mount rward, courage to come particularly in a situation like this. i think it was handle fine. i wish that after it was

revealed and after it was leaked it was handle better. >>alyssa milano, i want to get you to respond to whatmi wrote in "the atlantic this week. the problem with #believesurvivors. even as we must treat accusers with seriousness and dignity we must hearut the accused fairly and respectfully and recognize the potential lifetime consequences. and if the e ise search for truth, it is justice for religion. >> that's not what it means. what does that mean? >> i'm sorry. when we say believe rvivors, it's not believe them without investigation, believe them without interrogation, we have set a precedent in this country of not believing -- thinkingwo n in particular are lying when they come forward with these allegation, when people come forward with these allegation. the mantra about believe surv ors, can we startth the

premise people do not often lie about the pain andrauma of the pain of sexual violence. if we start with that premise and believe it's t true,n you can have an investigation and interrogation of the facts and that kind of thing. this is not to say believe people blanket and don't investigate and don't do anything else bsides believe them. >> i also think -- i also think that right now, w are defining what due process looks lke in this type of situation because we've never really defined it before because women haven't come forward. we do need to have duess pro what does it mean to have a fair investigation in these processes so we can move forward, so we canhangehe cultural and f cietal systemic institutionizationxual abuse and assault. >> alyssa let me get you to react to something brett stephens wrote. i would rather be accused of murder than sexual assault.

one can think of excuses for killing a man, none for assaulting a woman. but if that's true, falsely accusing a person of sexual assault is near as despicable as sexual assault itself because it inflicts harms that can last a lifetime. >> these numbers are so low, as far as false accusations and women coming rward, they're from 2-8%. that's not taking into account 70-80% of sexual assault is actually not reported at all. so what we're looking at is very very small numbers. also, there's no gray area with murder, like, you don't like maybe -- you ow, commit murder or maybe not. there is veryli distincts drawn. we're trying to do is define what those lines arean so we move forward in a way that is not hurtful and not more in suppor people that abuse their power than those that are being

>> all right. i will leave it there for now. tarana burke and alyssa milano, thank you both for coming on. alyssa milano, i know you had to get up extra early on the west coast, so thank you. coast, so thank you. >> you're worth ron! soh really? going on at schwab. thank you clients? well jd power did just rank them highest in investor satisfaction with full service brokerage firms...again. and online equity trades are only $4.95... i mean you can't have low cost and be full service. it's impossible. it's like having your cake and eating it too. ask your broker if they offer award-winning full service and low costs. how am i going to explain this? if you don't like their answer, ask again at schwab. schwab, a modern approach to wealth management. not long ago, ronda started here. and then, more jobs began to appear. these techs in a lab. this builder in a hardhat... ...the welders and electricians

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with citi, we see a bright future for our farmers and their families. ♪ welcome back. data download time. the rats hope to take back house this november. if they do,hey have to overcome the advantage republicans have created for themselves through the process of gerrymandering, redrawing district lines to have ad wntage. a coups to do it. they can pack voters in a smaller number of districts or by fracturing them into many districts to weaken their collective power in any one district. how does this play itself out? take the 2016 congresselnal tions. of the votes cast byajor party

candidates. republicans held less than a one point edge. 50.4% to 49.5. but republicans walked away 241 seats. that is a large seat advantage despite a less than one point edge in the house popular vote. here's how this dynamic unfded in thetate of pennsylvania in 2016. republicans had 54%ra of o congressional popular vote and ended up with 13 of 18 seats. and democrats captured the majority of seats but due to gerrymandering -- republicans captured -- but too many. statewide, 51-49 over republican yet because of errymandering, publicans were still able to capture the same number of seats, 13, toex bet, in the state.

earlier this year, this map was thrown out byhe state supreme court. with a new map, there are seven seats ranked as competitive including four actually leaning towards democrats right now. those four flip, the pennsylvania delegation becomes ilre evenly split something the popular house vote likely night. on election when democrats are in power, of course, they do the exact same thing. ofok at the state maryland and how they did that. after the republicans 2010un i election, they held the reins of many state capitals around the country and how they we to draw the line and how should keep an eye on statehouse governorships in november and will redraw the lines tee years fr now in 2021. back with the end game ath kavanaugh effect on the mid-terms. coming up, "e me,"

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"e game," brought to you by boeing, continuing our mission to connect, protect, explore and inspire. >> back now with "end game," the real obsession in washington, what kind of effect does kavanaugh have and where we mit see it. four races to show you examples before kavanaugh and after. first, missouri, before the kavanaugh allegations and hearings, the race was td. after, the race is tied. let's look at montana. before, tester with about a two point lead the most recent poll since, tester with a four point lead. no real change there. let me go to darker red states. tennessee, fill bredesen ha a lead before the hearings and now marsha blackburth republican

five, a big swing ere. north dakota, before kavanaugh hearings began, after, now double digits, 12 point race. is this how your party sees it,i whatever you of it, this has fired up the base? >> here's how we see i. see it as having secure dissent of majority in november 8 for all the reasons you ve stated. pretty much done, democrats won't win thesenate? >> they will win a couple seats and five or more competitive seats, i don't see it happening. in the house, 23 seats republicans hold hillary clinton won, i think that wi help democrats. i'd say a toss-up, i think the majority is likely to be democrat now, leaning democrat, in spite of the things you stated regarding pennsylvania, which is very fascinating. >> kasie, is that the view on the hill, basically this is

helping republseans in the te and only making it's easier for democrats in the house? >> that's theer ng conventional wisdom in a place like tennessee, i've spoken to both senators from tennesst abis briefly, there's a sense it helped marsha blackburn there. one thing for democrats to take away from this asel mitch mcconnell called the protesters a mob and he said the mob wasdo able to what i couldn't do by myself, which is get republicans energized and invested. what was a clear win for democrats on enthusiasm is now definitely something of a p. toss in the house, you could be looking at instead of 23, 24, 25 seatajority for democrats, you could be looking at much higher numbers that could have pretty significant implications. >> danny, we were talking about something se earlier in the break, i want to bring in here, how the president has tranormed not just his party but this entire town. everybody now conducts politi in his image, fight fight fight,

deny deny deny, take it to your opponent, whatever it takes. >> yeah. i don't think this is a word but theulgarization of something hat was pretty vulgar to start with in american politics. it's really unbelievable. dold trump has not bee isolated by his style or his manner or his antipathy towards so much of the political landscape, rather, he has st -- he's taken them along with him. to theu irony, to come back to the mid-terms for a second, the irony is i think people even almost two years into donald trump's presidency, don't understand what helps donald trump. this kavanaugh uff, the reaction to it -- >> helps him. >> m. helps >> he was the big winner here. michael, i wansi to tron to your book. you said, how do we transition to your bookha the presiden to do two things, appoint supreme court justices and go war.

your book, as a front pagestory you get a scoop in the "new york times," that's pretty darned good, sounds like you did interesting historical digging. this is about a nuclear ge response, neral westmoreland, as if to add to his legacy, apparently wanted to bring nukes to the vietnam war. >> and lbj who obviously made so many terrible mistakes in vietnam, he tells w moreland, i don't want nuclear weapons in south vietnam, this could be the ends of the war, get them out of here aoc theents came out the last couple of years. >> if the president brought you in to brief him on his book and said i want you to read it and what could he learn fromit, what do you hope he could learn from it? >> number one, the saga of what it's like to be a warpresident,

the marriages of these presidents, emotional breakdowns, where they live. more important, what i would like to say to him, remember know president should start a war for political reasons. president trump's case, he would send out tweets in 2011, warning americans, watch out, president obama is going to start a war to win the next election. not a great idea for a president to connect those two tidngs. >> "prts of war," michael, congrats. before we go, i want to remind everyone today we're kicking off the second annual "meet the press" film fest. tickets are sold out in washington b youan see most films online. or you can check out nbc news on demand if you cut the cord here, it's on your cable boxou if haven't cut the cord, apple tv, fire tv or roku. that's it for today. see you next week

new ek, new storm. tropical storm michael is aining strength and should be hurricane in a day as it spreads toward the florida panhandle. this is one of the biggest lives of life -- loss o that we've seen in a long, long time. >> a tragic ene. 20 people killed in a limo crash. how did it happen? who was involved? the ntsb is investigating this morning. today brett kavanaugh begins his roughly $255,000 a year job as the tion's newest supreme court justice, but not withoutr contro singing legend tina turner's revealing health crisis and the man who gave her a life-saving kidney. nd> new details just coming out surrounding a w