mcgahn and mcconnell kept emphasizing, any one on the short list could be confirmed. both of them would support the short list. >> senator mcconnell has just begun making remarks. we'll dip in if he starts to talk about brett kavanaugh and this decision. as we look ahead to the fight on capitol hill, where does this go? i asked mark short when i was in the east room last night, the legislative director for the white house, are you confident you can get collins and murkowski on board with kavanaugh? he said, well, we want a lot of senators on board. we hope that includes collins and murkowski. it wasn't a vote of confidence. >> if you're mark short right now, vice president pence, while the president is aboard, you have to focus on the moderate republicans. before you even start trying to poach a red state democrat to pull them over the line, you have to have the republicans. the question now, is anyone in the republican party, beyond moderates, here with questions? that's what everyone has to watch in the white house. are all the republicans actually there right now?

has had some conversations with close allies and advisers, including white house counsel donn don mcgahn this weekend over this process. but they would not answer questions when it comes to updating the status of those one or two interviews president trump told reporters on friday he was hoping to get done this weekend. we don't know if he's had conversations with these potential nominees. one of the issues that will likely come up during this nomination process is abortion, specifically because key republican votes like that of susan collins may come down to a nominee' position on roe versus wade. collins told jake tapper during that meeting with president trump last week, she asked him to pick a nominee that respected precedent. she says it's part of the reason she supported the confirmation of justice neil gorsuch because the two of them had a conversation in which he expressed his respect for legal precedent. now, other lawmakers, like senator tammy duckworth of illinois, are suggesting lawmakers should be more skeptical this time around. listen to tammy duckworth. >> i would say to

the white house is doing a temporarin stopp reshuffle to get ready, the white house counsel done mcgahnngea tdiak shaw taking a leave of absence to focus on the msage and in support of the pick. >>> har to believe the summit was ls than three weeks ago but reports surfaced there's intelligence showing north korea is movg forward with their you -- well, they really can't say anything >> we aren't going to confirm or denyntelligence reports. what ielou is we're continuing to make orprogress, amba kim had a meeting just yesterday with members of the north korean pan oel dioegn ned will be headed to north korea later and we'll continue thoseon convers. >> sanders evaded a questn about whether or not president trump still trustsim jong un, meanwhile it'st not jus north korea the president is dealing with he's also in tks with canada a just about every other country. yeerday canada made its own imposing ther t offfsicarials xsteales to straw berrybe fs a verl w trade toy od --urur fea and ourfarmers. i think t besoon, thathe t wbel positive, and if we don't it ill so be ut prede m behill abou

the white house counsel saw it, don mcgahn. he said, this is not a good idea. we need to come up with a cleaner reason for this. the president's letter was rambling. it went on and on. and they did also mention russia, the russia investigation. so mcgahn brings in sessions and rosenstein. rosenstein offers to write this memo. the memo is ultimately the main argument the white house uses to explain the comey firing. they stand on the white house lawn the night of the firing, and they read from the letter and explain to people that comey had to go because he was too harsh on hillary clinton. >> if you're robert mueller and his associates and you now realize or you've realized now for months perhaps that rosenstein felt he was used and he didn't feel i was being accurate and at all honest about the reasons for the firing, what would that tell you about obstruction of justice? >> well, mueller has known this probably for a year. this is nothing that -- >> but the public didn't know it. >> the public did not know it. this is the thing. this is a very important perio

entry designed to be an point for people living be black belt going into mcgahn right to visit the state capital. so, the significance of the connection of the bridge is that many people would come to the capital to secure political favor or make a political speech or seek political capital to improve planting conditions for the black belt or white planters attempt to restrict and control black labor more strictly. the bridge was very much a modern marvel for this part of alabama. he replaced an older when structure and in its stead came this magical piece of steel. mid-20toped a type of h century engineering. it is simply a series of steady beams but it very much connoted a sense of modernity for people coming across the bridge to montgomery or to selma. the bridge was named for edmund pettus almost immediately and there was little surprise about that. inhad been a major figure political history up until his death. alabama, he was born to a rural cotton family in a county up north. he went to a small college in tennessee and return very quickly to study law and became a successful lawye

do they have the kind of view of the constitution that the president and don mcgahn like. now, the second part of it is, and i'm not sure how they get this done in time, is what the fbi does in terms of a background investigation. they have a bit of a head start here, though, because they're all appeals court judges so they have been through this at least once, so it's not like they have to start from scratch, but this still is compressing the time frame pretty dramatically. remember that the white house is going to try very hard to misdirect us a little bit because remember how the president unveiled the choice of neil gorsuch at a primetime appearance and we weren't exactly sure who it was until about half an hour or so beforehand when he was introducing neil gorsuch to the senators? so i'm sure the white house will wanting the same kind of drama this time. >> geoff, one of the white house reshuffling staff to get the right pick, do we know what that means? >> it just means they have assigned a core group of people to focus on this specific task. the president and his te

. >> there is some suspicion that mcgahn is trying to hard wire this.ever, kavanaugh has been top of the list. the president had been leaning toward kavanaugh. second choice was amy coney barrett and a thirty was judge kethledge who was seen as a compromise choice. i think this president will change his mind 800 times before we get to a decision. kavanaugh was george w. bush's staff secretary which on its face for trump who has issues with the bush family, that will raise questions or suspicions. whether that is a disqualifier, we don't know but there is pushback from some pro-life activists about kavanaugh. they concerned he's insufficiently committed to certain issues and certain things you will face on this court. the president got a call yesterday from senator tom cotton who has been a key outside adviser to the president throughout his term. and while he did not say that he would vote against kavanaugh, he suggested there were other picks that might be better and not based on the politics but just based on judicial aspects of. >> it watch this spac

with white house lawyer don mcgahn pushed back it's been out sourced. >> hive been a member of the society since law school, still am, so frankly it seems like it's been in sourced. >> reporter: since day one mac began has largely led the selection process for nom he's in that move that could reshape the federal judiciaryry under trump. one said don 's show with tonight a supreme finale. of the president's preparations included a walk through of the announcement. if republicans stick together the president's pick should be confirmed. otherwise they should turn to red key state who were invited but who have chosen not to attend. >> thank you. nobody better to turn to then veteran pete williams covered the court closely for so many years now. layout the stakes here with tonight's decision. >> lester, it was dramatic last year when had the president unveiled kneel gorsuch, but tonight much higher. because last year they brought a conservative filling after the death of supreme court. even if a democrat is elected president in two years, the court's older justices likely to retire are the libe

don mcgahn refused to carry out that order to fire mueller. in fact, he threatened to resign according to sources. at that point president trump backed off of his decision to try to fire mueller. now he's obviously frustrated again, tweeting out some of his most direct attacks on the special counsel. the backdrop of that of course is this bombshell reporting. sources close to michael cohen, the president's former attorney, saying he is prepared to testify to the special counsel that president trump approved that june 2016 meeting between his son donald trump jr., other members of his campaign, and russian nationals, promising dirt on hillary clinton. it also comes on the heels of the release of that secret recording made by michael cohen of a conversation that he had with president trump. rudy giuliani, the president's relatively new attorney, talked about those recordings this weekend, suggesting that they had been tampered with or doctored. listen to this. >> he abruptly ended that recording as soon as the president said the word "check." we

yes, the federalist society and white house counsel don mcgahn came up with the list. yes, it worked with judge gorsuch. even how justice kennedy got on the court in 1987, after robert bjork, after ginsburg go through their whole episodes. they're trying to formalize this to keep the president focused on a list of four to five people in the last week and to let him be at the golf club, work with a few aid enes, not make too many calls. >> the bjork and clarence thomas nominations were the least successful in execution. bjork the worst, of course, example in how it all played out. thank you so much. thanks to all of you so much for kicking us off today. >>> coming up -- gangster's paradise. secretary of state mike pompeo responding directly to north korea as the regime blasts the u.s. for using gangster-like diplomacy during high-level talks this weekend. >>> leon panetta is joining me next here on "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us. , we walk. carrying flowers that signify why we want to end alzheimer's disease. but what if, one day, there was a white flower for a

i think it came down to donald mcgahn, white house counsel. think he and others really are tapped into kavanaugh and he is the republican establishment pick. he is a kennedy clerk, just like gorsuch. the problem for senator mcconnell was there is such an extensive paper trail. it's not just that we don't know much about him, as greg said, but there is so much to be found out because i think somebody said he is a little bit like forrest gump. wherever you look, a big issue, there he was. he was in the camstar investigation into president clinton. he was in the bush white house and midst so many controversies. there he is on the d.c. circuit for many years. when he was nominated for the d.c. circuit, i think in '03, there is a 3-year delay in terms of confirmation because people wanted to know more about them. some people said he was a political guy who became a judge. i don't know. i don't want to be unfair to him. you have liberals making the case for him as thoroughly qualified and deserving of the appointment. the difference is, and i think

shepherd the eventual nominee through the senate, interesting because collins is saying that don mcgahn is telling her that because of our concerns, the administration is expanding at last be on the original 25 names of potential court picks that the president talked about. the administration has to be careful not to stray too far from that list of 25 conservative names, if they go to moderate, they run the risk of exciting evangelical conservatives who love the originalist. sarah sanders would not answer whether the podium wants to see roe v. wade overturned. the president himself suggested the list is getting smaller, not bigger. watch. >> i think the president should not feel bound by that list, and instead, should seek out recommendations to ensure that he gets the best possible person. >> i'll be beating with two or three more and we'll make a decision on the united states supreme court, the new justice that will be made over the next few days, and will be announcing it on monday, and i look forward to that. i think the person that is chosen will be outstanding. >> given the possib

kavanaugh to say you are my choice to be the nominee for that supreme court and then called donald mcgahn and the vice president. today he called justice kennedy who was traveling in austria and informed him that he was picking kavanaugh to replace him. the other candidates who were on the list got calls as well, saying maybe next time. shannon, we found out why there were so much conflicting information out there. it's because the speed of this nomination process and the late decision. the white house prepared four background packages on all of the candidates, so they asked the candidates for all the background. they even asked what guests they would like to have at the nominating ceremony. so when those requests went out, inquiries were made, how would you like to come to the white house and people took that as a cue that their candidate might be the one to be the nominee. we should also tell you president trump and donald mcgahn telephoned every member of the senate judiciary committee during this process to ask them their thoughts. everybody took the call of everyone senator, californ

help me understand how he came up with this list with don mcgahn and the role of mike pence.nse of the advice. >> he started with a lice of 25 names put together by the federal society and the heritage foundation which are solid conservative groups really concerned with the judicial process. from there he's relied on a core group of people, leonard leo, the head of the federal society, don mcgahn and the white house council and pence has been in the core of the serious nominees and going through the factors we just discussed. there is also a lot of pressure coming from judicial conservatives pro-life organizations trying to push nominees they think will have the best chance of overruling roe v. wade which is critical to their agenda and the most important thing in the world to them really. >> how much does judicial lineage matter. you look at this list, a former scalia clerk and two kennedy clerks. you follow this day in and day out. you're watching what happens at the supreme court and you know who clerks for whom. how much does that trickle down from one generation to the n

mcgahn. in the first meeting, mr. whether or not the investigation was criminal or whether or not it was a counter intelligence investigation. >> so he referenced the fact that -- >> i declined to answer that. i also testified that in the follow-up meeting the next day, he wanted to know whether if they took any action, whether that would negatively impact the investigation because they didn't want to negatively impact anything that was going on in the investigation. so he and i talked back and forth in both meetings about impact on investigation. >> and if the president in that context, having been advised presumably by his white house counsel that there was an investigation concerning the national security adviser, if the president then went to the director of the fbi and said ease up on mike flynn who he knows is the subject of an investigation, how much legal wiggle room is there as to whether or not that was an effort to obstruct that investigation? >> i'm not going to get into a legal definition of obstruction.

that's very different from the president's selection team, led by don mcgahn. so they're sorting through the long records of documents. these are all federal appeals court judges, they have issued a lot, with the exception of amy coney barrett, who has served on the bench for less than a year. they have all issued a lot of opinions. so there is a lot of information to mine there. as you mentioned, the president has had these personal conversations, so too has the vice president. so at this point, again, it's really up to the president to make his decision this weekend. >> geoff, let's turn to thine russian investigation. rudy guiliani was on three shows talking about the investigation, about his tack moving forward as the leader of the president's legal team. what stood out to you from the conversations that he had this morning as he looks ahead to the prospect for, limited as they may, a interview between the president and robert mueller? >> apart from guiliani laying down that marker now, setting conditions by which the president would sit voluntarily for an

socty helped come up with the president's list of 25 possible justices with white house lawyer don mcgahn who pushed back on criticism the process has been outsourced. >> i've been a member of the federalist et sosince law school, still am. so frankly, it seems like it's insourced. >> reporter: since de, cgahn has largely led the selection process for nominees in a move that could reshape the federal juciary under donald trump. one whiteouse official called the process don's show but in the end it's the president's with me tonight, a sup finale. a white house official says part of the preparation is a walkthrough of the announcement. if republicans stick together, the president's pick should be confirmed no wiroblem otherwise the focu turn to four key red state democrats who were invited to the white house tonight but en not to attend, lester. >> hallie jackson, at the wte house, thank you. >>> nobody better to turn to than our veteran justice correspondent pete wiiams. pete, you covered the court closely for so many years now. lay out the stakes with tonight's decision. >> lester, it was

. >> and he's got white house counsel don mcgahn, federalist society in the president's ear saying this is for history, you're playing for your legacy here. you've got to have someone who has an extensive judicial writing record. look at the writing, they're telling the president. that's the only way to really prove someone's conservatism. you don't want to be seen as someone who picked a judge who then sort of evolved in the supreme court over the years. >> are they afraid of a judge suter or frankfurter, someone going left to right -- or -- in their case right to left. >> that's why it was start from the beginning by mcgahn and leonard leo. >> so the senator was right, this was all approved by the higher authorities. >> yeah. i think this was a reaction to roberts and to suter. they don't want any wild cards. >> meaning moderates. >> yeah. they don't want anybody who's going to surprise them. so they just outsourced the selection to a bunch of political operatives who can make sure that anybody he picks is going to go down the line and be essentially in the same place that clarence th

what happens is mcgahn brings in sessions and rosenstein who were already interested in getting rid of comey, and they used sessions and rosenstein as the rationale for the comey firing, as the explanation for it. and people find it funny because donald trump is essentially saying jim comey was too mean to hillary clinton. >> and, frank figliuzzi, there is some extraordinary irony in the layers of rod rosenstein being peeled back the day after such brutal attacks from members of his own party. rosenstein, a lifelong republican under blistering attacks from republicans in the house judiciary committee. when it turns out he wasn't ever comfortable being the fall guy for the president's decision to fire jim comey. >> yeah, so yesterday was quite a disgrace to watch and most americans should just be very troubled by the blatant personal attacks on both the fbi director chris wray, appointed by president trump, and the deputy attorney general rosenstein, a republican, brought in with trump. and yet what we're seeing, nicolle, is essentially a slow-motion train collision about to occur betwe

don mcgahn, the white house counsel. raj shah, a spokesman. they're starting to already assemble the coming political war over this confirmation. and you have don mcgahn reaching out to people like senator mike lee on capitol hill who's another possible wild card pick. but really when you look at kavanaugh, coney barrett, those federal judges are the kind of people the white house believes could both excite the base because of their judicial positions but also be able to sail through relatively easy. but as i was reporting today, steve, senator rand paul of kentucky has expressed concerns to his associates privately and his advisers that kavanaugh may not win his support. he hasn't taken a public position. but because of kavanaugh's writings on the affordable care act, these kinds of issues are already coming up beyond just the issue with senator collins. >> senator mitch mcconnell, meanwhile, the republican leader in the senate, he is calling for a vote on trump's yet unnamed pick by this fall. last week politico reported the senate's number

. >> reporter: press secretary : sarah sanders also announced white house counsel don mcgahn will once again oversee the selection and confirmation process. and principal deputy secretary raj shah will leave his role to oversee communications and strategy for the president's supreme court nominee. the white house is gearing up for a fight in the senate where there is that slim gop majority. the big decision from the president is expected to be made this week. his supreme court nominee announcement monday. maggie and kendis. >> a lot of people will be paying attention to that. kenneth motor in washington, d.c., thank you. >>> a new ruling could deliver, in the meantime, a major blow to president trump's immigration crackdown. a federal judge in washington has ordered the government to immediately release or grant hearings to more than 1,000 asylum seekers who have been jailed for as long as two years. the judge said i.c.e. must be held accountable for its own policy, which requires a court hearing within seven days for those applying for asylum. >>> president trump's former personal att

a federal appeals court judge favored by white house counsel don mcgahn.skepticism for the votes on healthcare and sties to the bush white house. >> thank you for the privilege of working here. and nominating many e to the court. >> judge amy coney barrett is the other. the first woman put on the supreme court by a republican president since 1981 if elected. >> she faces a tough confirmation battle from democrats who say catholic faith pays too big a role in the view of the law. >> you have a long history of believing that your religious believes should revail. the dogma lives loudly within you. >> head of the u.s. and the america program. the royal institute of international affairs. at the university of london. we have a lot to cover. let's start with reports that president trump in august raised the possibility of the u.s. invading venezuela. one of his senior officials says he was just thinking out loud. but this has been venezuela and other south american nations on edge. what are the possible ramifications of a u.s. president talking about an invasio

the president spoke over the phone to don mcgahn and expected to interview one or two candidates forhe seelt this weekend. democrats worn warn it could put abortion rights and affirmative action at risk. one day after justice kennedy announced his retirement, the president hosted a group of senators whose votes likely will decide whether his nominee is confirmed. three are democrats facing tough re-election battles in red states that trump won in 2016. and two are republican women, lisa murkowski and susan collins, they have voted against the president's agenda in the past. and republican senator susan collins of maine is joining me now. senator collins, thanks so much for joining us. i want to start ontd white house meeting you have with president trump on thursday night about the supreme court vacancy. it's no secret you could be a, if not the deciding vote on the nomination, what did president trump tell you to try to get your vote? >> well, the president wreel l really was soliciting my views on the type of nominee i was looking for. i emphasized i wanted a nominee that would res

don mcgahn who was also part of the campaign, a member of the federalist society. is this all about appeasing the votes, drumming up voters for 2020 for the midterms. i feel silly asking this, or was it about representing the entire country? >> even if you look at it from appeasing the base, that's a tricky road to navigate, because the public itself is so divided. you had barrett who appeals to the far right of the party. hardiman is a similar establishment candidate. i think at the end of the day, he's going to put that aside and he's going to listen probably to what-mile-per-hour mitch mcconn him. and also what his sister is telling him. she's i would bet on just the track record alone, kavanagh is probably a more appealing decision for him. >> on the campaign trail as well, the president has said repeatedly that he wants to overturn roe v. wade, and even conservatives, it's on the agenda, but it's not top of the agenda. but we are hearing that from lawmakers for years, they want republicans to roll back or repeal roe v. wade, that's what everyone's talking abou

president trump has spoken to a couple of close advisers and allies including the white house counsel don mcgahn over the white house process, and we have yet to get the confirmation if he has spoken to any of the nominees and the white house is not answering the questions on that despite that president trump said that he would try to conduct one or two interviews this weekend. we know that he has said that he would not ask directly of the nominees if they support r"roe versus wade", and that controversial supreme court decision on abortion, but because there are so many key lawmakers that are falling on the fence on this issue, and notably susan collins of maine, and lisa murkowski of alaska, it is going to be coming up in the nomination process. some key votes will depend upon whether whether roe v. wade should stand. jake tapper interviewed susan collins on "state of the union" with him. and she said that whatever nominee he picks, it has to be somebody who respects legal precedence, and she said that part of the reason that she could support justice neil gorsuch is because he said in the con

he made calls to his white house counsel don mcgahn who is here at the resort.iles away, protesters were protesting amid cries. the agency that is enforcing trump's very unpopular policy of separating families at the border. massachusetts democratic senator elizabeth warren was among the national democratic figures who are joining those calls to make sweeping changes to i.c.e. take a listen. >> the president's deeply immoral actions have made it obvious, we need to rebuild our immigration system from top-to-bottom, starting by replacing i.c.e. with something that reflects our morality and -- >> reporter: now president trump responded on twitter by defending i.c.e. and saying he would resist any of these changes to that immigration enforcement agency. president trump then accused any democrats who oppose the immigration priorities being weak on border security and weak on crime. >> sarah westwood, we appreciate it and good to see you this morning. thank you. >>> democrats are definitely at a crossroads on a number of political fronts here. there are growing calls

white house counsel don mcgahn will take the lead.ire t nd of this month. >> thousands of people who work in d.c. are getting a pay raise. minimum wage for districtrk s increased from 12.50 an houro $13.25 an hour, and the minimum wage for tipped workers goes up 56 certainties from $3.33 to 3.89 anag hour. the hike is a step toward mayor muriel labowser's to increase d.c.'s minimum wage to $15 an hour by the year 2020. >>> orgetown cupcake creates and celebrates a milestone. it's been makin us fat now for ten years, pele. >> we've loved every minute of it. >> we go behind >>> whengeorgetown cupcake first opened up its doors a lot of people thought, on. come it's just going to be a fad. what are we third grade? not going to be eating cupcakes? well, step years later the linee are still out door, and the company has expanded to six stores and the line is out thet door those stores. the two sisters behi the business say the relationship with the cupcakes. >> reporter: like every success story this business started with a dream. >> our gr

month time frame to produce the records in march, we spent a letter to the president, care of don mcgahn, saying don't make the fbi go through this process, declassify the entirety of the applications, you can make specific redactions for very specific sources and methods to protect lives but give the public the full context. he has not done that. and instead he has a piece for his narrative. >> what's the danger or perhaps benefit of the release of this application, unredacted or otherwise? do you have concerns about other applications forthcoming as a result of how this one is being handled? >> i take a very different approach to this. i think it's unfortunate potentially dangerous we have gone down this path of releasing fisa documents but also delving into the work of this court. look, when the president and the justice department made the decision to release those earlier memos regarding this investigation, we talked about the fact that they were necessarily politicizing intelligence for their own purposes. the fisa court and the process is a process that throughout the past, you kn

don mcgahn started to make phone calls and brought up see key senators to the white house on thursdayng. you'll see a lot of attention paid on swing senators and a lot of coordination with leadership. coordination with the deep pocketed outside groups that can provide the air cover for red state democrats to support whomever trump picks up. it will be quite the battle. >> in an odd way, working off his existing list, right? the names have been out there. that allows the white house if there are things that anybody wants to whisper about anybody's past or anybody's record, it's been out there as opposed to naming a pick and having to deal with that on the fly. >> the president -- one of the main reasons why the republicans who didn't like him during the 2016 election that they voted for him because he had this list of judges that a lot of republicans said they could support. i do think it's interesting that we're going to see republicans potentially have to talk about social issues they have tried to bury for a long time. republicans like to talk about economics and abortion has sort o

president is back home after spending the weekend at bedminster conferring with white house counsel don mcgahna handful of names are floating around from the president's list of 25. democrats are pushing to postpone the confirmation until after the midterms. >> my colleagues on both sides of the aisle know that this vote could be one of the key votes of their entire career. if they vote for somebody who is going to change precedent, it could be a career-ending move. >> you don't need a degree in applied physics to understand the forces that democrats are up against. so for the white house, it's striking the right balance. convince republicans to hang together and change the court for decades to come. >> i think it's going to go very quickly. i think we're going to have a lot of support. i think we're going to have support from democrats. frankly, i think -- if it's the right person. i'm going to pick the right person. i'm going to pick somebody that's outstanding and everybody >> i'd like to welcome in my outstanding panel, two of the best reporters in the country on the supreme court legal af

don mcgahn, the white house counsel, is heading up this effort behind the scenes. leonard leo, working independently of but is a member of the federalist society which is a conservative leaning group of highly respected lawyers. is heavily involved as well. was involved in the past in crafting that list of 25 names the president used to his advantage during the campaign to try to demonstrate the way he was thinking about a court selection. but you know what is critical here. it is the pushback, the potential for some real challenges from some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. certainly those republicans, namely moderates. the women, lisa murkowski of alaska and susan collins with collins indicating that this issue of abortion is going to be one she will be focusing on heavily. they were here with the president last week as well as some democrats from republican from red states. heidi heitkamp one of them from north dakota. i was travel with the president when he was in north dakota last week talking about how control of the senate will be a critical issue going

has had conversations with close allies and advisers this week, including white house counsel don mcgahn, over this nomination process. notably, the president told reporters on friday he would try to interview one or two potential nominees this weekend. we've asked the white house about it but have yet to get a response. we have to point out that one of the key issues that is going to be brought up again and again in this confirmation process is abortion, partly because key republicans like senator susan collins of maine may determine their vote during confirmation on whether the nominee supports roe versus wade. she told jake tapper that in a meeting with president trump last week, she asked the president to focus on a nominee that respected legal precedent. she says it's part of the reason she supported the confirmation of justice neil gorsuch. she is not alone. other lawmakers are sort of echoing that idea. here's senator lindsey graham on "meet the press" this morning. >> i'm pro life. the job of a judge is to call -- decide cases before the court, but one of the concepts that means

the weekend that president trump spoke to key allies and advisers including white house counsel don mcgahn in broad strokes about the confirmation process. the white house would not confirm that the president actually spoke to those one or two potential nominees that he told reporters he might talk to on friday when he arrived here in new jersey. one of the topics we know the president will not be discussing with these potential nominees is their stance on abortion. the president saying he would not ask these candidates about their stance on roe versus wade. though it is something we know that lawmakers are going to be looking for including senator susan collins of maine. listen to what she told jake tapper sunday on "state of the union." >> i would not support a nominee who demonstrated hostility to roe v. wade because that would mean to me that their judicial philosophy did not include a respect for established decisions, established law. and i believe that that is some very important fundamental tenet of our judicial system, which as chief justice roberts says helps to promote stability

it is sort of, you can't really overstate mcgahn's role in this.oing back to the red state democrats, i think, the one thing i would say about them is their role -- the goal has been to try to thread the needle. saying we may be voting against donald trump and voting with the leadership and voting with democrats on a number of things, but we let him have his nominee. in a lot of instances. this is just another example. what higher profile nominee is there than the supreme court? that is really what heightens the tension even more. they have had to try to have the seventh -- the strategy where they have had to be ok with these nominees and now closer to the election and we have ever been, they are going to be put on the spot. steve: there are a couple of things from politicos playbook. you can get these at the playbook which arrives every morning. the ages of the supreme court justices. ginsburg is 85. breyer is 79. thomas is 70. alito is 68. sotomayor is 64. roberts is 63. kagan is 58. gorsuch is 50. and of the possible nominees, kavanaugh is 53. h

white house counsel don mcgahn who believes kavanaugh should be the guy. it's hard to know who is going to win out on this one. on a lot of fronts, cavanaugh does fill some of the criteria the president wants. he's relatively young. has a long, legal writing -- history there. and he's pretty conservative. maybe not as conservative as certain trumpers want him to be. >> to borrow michael's term. tom cotton thinks he's been squished. rand paul says he worked with george w. bush on executive power and stonewalling congress in his view. >> if you lose those two, that's the end for kavanaugh. who knows whether they would actually vote against kavanaugh when push came to shove, but if he did -- >> and i think that's why it's a very wise strategy that jeff zeleny laid out that the white house is about to go through that they're going to essentially prepare for the possibility of three different justices so the president who has been known to change his mind at the last minute can do so so if mitch mcconnell is getting these phone calls and realizes the person he

president trump has actually been speaking to advisers and allies, including white house counsel don mcgahn, about the process in broad strokes. you mentioned the lawmakers that are speaking out. one of the key issues that we will hear about again and again throughout this confirmation process is the issue of abortion, notably because the margin for error for republicans is razor-thin. they're going to need every single vote to get a nominee confirmed, and there are some republicans that are essentially pro-choice, or they lean pro-choice before. one of them, senator susan collins, of maine, was on "state of the union" this morning with jake tapper, saying essentially if a nominee were to come up that did not support for roe v. wade, she would not lend her vote to that candidate. listen to more from her now. >> i would not support a nominee who demonstrated hostility to roe v. wade because that would mean to me that their judicial philosophy did not include a respect for established decisions, established law. and i believe that that is a very important, fundamental tenet of our judicial sy

but you do have him as reportedly a favorite of white house council don mcgahn.nd on the flip side of that, you have senator majority leader mitch mcconnell, who was so key in the gorsuch appointment, saying hardiman or kethledge would be a safer pick for the president in terms of getting him confirmed. what's your read? >> the president hardly goes with the safe move on almost any issue. it wouldn't surprise me if he went with brett. he's a solid conservative candidate. this idea that brett is not conservative enough, totally false. he's right within the mainstream, as of all four of these candidates. i don't agree with steve that they would move the court substantial to the right. discussing the court in a right-to-left dynamic is really inaccurate. when you think about what the judges do and how they think about these issues, it's whether they follow the law or if they -- >> but it's different -- but when you look atjamiel, and you roe v. wade and you look at what the president himself said to cbs in 2016, that judges will be pro-life, that's a quote from the

president had expressed frustration with the special counsel, told his own white house counsel don mcgahn to fire robert mueller, in part because of a dispute that he claims robert mueller had with one of his golf clubs, the one in virginia where he says mueller failed to pay legal fees. now, a source, a spokesperson for the special counsel, told the "washington post" at the time that the president's description of that dispute was inaccurate. we should also point out that there was plenty to fact check in these tweets but for the sake of brevity we will just signal that the department of justice itself, ethics attorneys for the department of justice, have looked into questions of conflict of interest for robert mueller and a spokesperson earlier this year declared that robert mueller's involvement in this case is appropriate. of course the backdrop is what you mentioned, ana. not only the revelations coming from sources close to michael cohen, that he's ready to testify about that trump tower meeting but these recordings that now rudy giuliani is questioning the veracity of. ana? >> all

they did tell us that he had phone conversations with a white house counsel don mcgahn about the search process. the president the told reporters the formal search process begins tomorrow back at the white house. but he left open the door that he might have some potential job candidates for the high court come to bedminster. that could happen this weekend and we wouldn't know about it just yet. or perhaps he has plans to be back before the decision is finally made and the announcement is public. so it would stand to reason that the president has narrowed his list, that conversations not only with the white house counsel but other officials they described to us in preparing the president for how he will go about this. so the plan is rolling out for how he will choose and then ultimately unveil a nominee for the high court. but we don't yet know if any comings and goings here have included jurists. the president has been using his time with family here at his bedminster home on the new jersey property that also has one of his branded golf courses. he appears to be reacting to some of the

he is reportedly the favorite of white house counsel don mcgahn who is running this selection process. then there's amy coney barrett. she's the youngest, 46 years old. she clerked for justice scalia as well. but she's only been an appeals court for eight months. she was appointeded by president trump. much of the criticism against her involves her past comments which seem to question the legal precedent of controversial cases like roe v. wade. now in 2003, texas law review, in a 2003 texas law review article, she wrote that the public's response reflected public rejection of the idea that legal precedent, quote, can declare a permanent victor in a divisive constitutional struggle. to talk more about these front-runners and their potential on the court, joining me now is jeff rosen, the ceo and president of the national constitution center. he's also a law professor at george washington university law school and elliott williams, principal at republic policy firm the raven group, previously served as deputy assistant attorney general for legislative affairs at the department of justic

so at this point don mcgahn wants a no-mus, no-fuss confirmation that brought about the swift confirmationsuch. we'll see how it plays out with the big reveal on monday at 9:00 eastern. >> and geoff bennett with that great round up of the four we believe to be in consideration. thank you for sticking around for that at the white house. >>> let's bring in justin walker, former law clerk for kennedy and kavanaugh and assistant law professor at the university of louisville and still with me kimberly and kevin. and the interesting thing about you my friend, is you are a law clerk for kennedy and one in contention right now. what can you tell us about brett kavanaugh? >> well, thanks so much for having me. i could tell you that brett kavanaugh has two things that i think are going to be specially appealing to president trump. the first is his record and the second is his character. his record on the court is 12 # years long and written 300 opinions and on 11 separate instances he's staked out a bold and conservative written opinion that the supreme court thought was so important and controversi

mike pence, the vice president has been talking to them as well, and he has had assistance from don mcgahn, the white house counsel as well. who do he want in this job? how important is personal rapport as this president looks for somebody like a supreme court justice? >> i think you hit the button because oddly personal rapport is one of the biggest factors and i say oddly because trump should be looking at the policy positions or the legal rulings of all of these candidates because that's how it will play out in the supreme court. in that context, somebody like kethledge who has been a big proponent of executive authority, you would presume he would be attractive to the president, but trump considers him quote/unquote boring and he has fallen to the bottom of the list. hardiman is somebody mcconnell has been pushing hard, and marian trump barry got her original position on the court through roy cohn's advocacy when he worked for trump as a lawyer. he is susceptible by lobbying individuals and he is susceptible to the personality around him. he has to navigate the split in the republican

an attack of don mcgahn people of faith. >> this is a strawman argument, with all due respect. >> it'sompletely intellectual dishonest. no one is talking about her religious faith. >> the dogma living deeply within her? >> what the issue here is, in the context, what you guys want to avoid, is this notion about, she has said on more than one occasion that she suspects whether roe was rightly decided and if it was not right they decided, it should be repealed. the question -- >> shannon: gentlemen, i want to give andy a final chance. wrap us up, andy. >> why can't it be true that roe is wrongly decided that it doesn't necessarily have to be overturned? particularly after casey, which opens up a lot of area to regulate abortion without directly confronting whether roe was correctly decided or not. >> fair point. except that's not what she said. she said if wrongly decided -- >> shannon: gentlemen, we got to leave it there. there will be an arm wrestling match right after this, during the commercial. until then, thank you, all three of you. great to have you. come back soon. our other top

who are pretty reliably out there on the short list and are folks that the white house counsel don mcgahnand interview and the president possibly interview as well. >> let me just cut to the heart of this. there is the whole question, obviously he wants someone who is conservative. that's the definition of what he's looking for and the defense of his list, but when it comes to roe versus wade, today in a press briefing sarah sanders le fused to answer if roe v. wade is settled law. does the president of the united states consider it to be settled law? >> i've never talked to him about it. he's never asked me about abortion or roe v. wade. when the list was being put together, no candidate was talked to, no question was ever asked of them. he's never asked the question of any supreme court candidate during the interviews. i don't know whether he thinks roe v. wade is settled law. i think that what any very good candidate for the supreme court would believe and say is that it's a major precedent of the court and one has to struggle with precedents and figure out whether or not you keep them

. >> and kavanagh is mcgahn's pick. >> they want this to go really well in this primetime setting monday night before he goes off -- >> the guy who can be impeached for lying. he swings and misses, how he landed with a thud last night. . . i was just finishing a ride. i felt this awful pain in my chest. i had a pe blood clot in my lung. i was scared. i had a dvt blood clot. having one really puts you in danger of having another. my doctor and i chose xarelto®. xarelto®. to help keep me protected. xarelto® is a latest-generation blood thinner that's... proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt or pe blood clots from happening again. in clinical studies, almost 98% of patients on xarelto® did not experience another dvt or pe. xarelto® works differently. warfarin interferes with at least 6 of your body's natural blood-clotting factors. xarelto® is selective, targeting just one critical factor. don't stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor, as this may increase risk of blood clots. while taking, you may bruise more easily, or take longer for bleeding to stop. xarelto® can cause

on the plus side, he's a favorite of white house counsel don mcgahn. he also has tied to george w. bush which could be problematic for trump reporters. one other issue with kavanaugh, he's got 12 years worth of decisions that senators will want to go through, potentially delayi ining confirmation. hardiman may have an easier time getting confirmed. mcconnell reportedly spoke to president trump in recent days. president also picked hardiman for the supreme court, but ended up going with neil gorsuch instead. he also has the support of president trump's sister, judge marianne trump barry, who served with him in philadelphia. neither barrett nor kethledge seemed to increase their chances after they met with the president. as we said before, mr. trump has not publicly ruled out anyone. one other issue with barrett, her views on abortion could draw opposition from pro-choice republican senators susan collin and lisa murkowski. remember, if all democrats oppose the nominee and john mccain cannot vote, either one of those two women could sink the nomination. that said, several republicans

why do you think the white house, people like don mcgahn and john kelly and kellyanne conway's husbandinent in respe respected legal circles. why do they stay with a full-on war being waged against rod rosenstein? >> nick's read is exactly right. this is a political document. these are allies of the president who are trying to ally themselves with him. >> whatever the document is to charlie's point, 40% of the country believe it to be true. >> sure. it is yet -- also, it is the latest distraction. it's uranium one. it's the pakistani i.t. guy, hillary clinton's server. it's just another method to muddy the waters, to throw something out there to confuse the public to give them something to bat on, a news cycle or two and move on. to your question about resignations, we just don't see that in this white house. at this point there's been perhaps one resignation out of principal when gary cohn over tariffs. he stayed during charlottesville. >> it would have taken a higher job. >> who would still come back for chief of staff, but this is something we've seen time and again people have made

kavanaugh is at the top of his list or near the top of his list encouraged by white house counsel don mcgahn and then kethledge and judge coney barrett. >> what is it about kavanaugh that puts him at the top of the list? >> what puts him at the top of the list his judicial record and support from a lot of people inside the white house and outside of the white house who see him as the kind of pick who would follow in the judge gorsuch model on the supreme court which holding the president up and we've reported this at the post is his connection to george w. bush. judge kavanaugh worked as an adviser in the bush 43 white house. >> and caitlin, the objectships, let's take a kavanaugh then. the objections from conservatives, how deeply held is that view on the right and how much influence could that ultimately have here? >> the objections now that are being voiced publicly and privately are because there isn't the pick yet, right, so this idea of trying to sway the president's opinion through that. what's also interesting to consider is the way in which gorsuch hangs over all of this. as the pre