i have gloria borger and kaitlan collins. it's like, seriously? >> if i recall, merritt garland was waiting around for 400 days and then never did get either a hearing or a vote. and so it is pretty rich to hear mcconnell say, you know, this is the schedule and we are going to stick to it. the other point he is making that is absolutely accurate is that this is politics. and this is payback former rit g garland, as you point out, and democrats believing that they believe dr. ford and they want her to be heard and now she is willing to be heard. and they want it to be done in a different way with an fbi investigation, et cetera, et cetera. but, you know, both sides here are playing hard ball, brooke.

gloria borger, he's still the deputy attorney general. >> yes. >> rod rosenstein. but give us a little bit of this dramatic back and forth today. >> well, it was chaotic. and i think some of the best reporting has come from laura jarrett and kaitlan collins from the justice department and white house, look, perhaps rosenstein got a little out over his skis on this. on friday after the "new york times" story appeared, he expected to be fired by the president. i mean, wouldn't you? okay. and then there were -- the president was not happy, but there were lots of conservatives saying no, no, no, no. this is not the time to fire rod rosenstein. you should not be doing this now. and we reported here on friday that there were republicans saying to him, you don't want to mix up the kavanaugh story with, you know, with the rosenstein story. just hold your fire. and you also have the mueller investigation. this isn't going to help anything. rosenstein thought he was going to be fired, perhaps he drafted -- perhaps he drafted

back with judge nancy gertner, dachd gergen and gloria borger as well. gloria, i understand you have some new information. >> yes. manu raju also has some new information and i do as well. that professor ford really doesn't want to be questioned by outside counsel. we were talking about that earlier. and she would like senators to question her instead. she doesn't want it to turn into some kind of trial where she's being questioned by an attorney like that. and that she does not want to testify in the same room as judge kavanaugh. she doesn't want to be in the same room with him at the same time. and that -- and manu is also reporting that she wants the committee to subpoena mark judge and these other alleged witnesses. and so those are just some new details we're both learning this evening. >> judge, what do you make of that? >> well, i mean, i think that the -- candidly, with all due respect to the senators, they're not as good questioners as a lawyer would be even though -- the senators who are lawyers are not as good questions as someone who's a litig

cnn special correspondent, cnn political analyst eliana johnson, and our chief political analyst gloria borgert all this, but the reaction, it sounds like almost a volcano erupts inside the white house. >> that would be the president, i think, would be the volcano. the reporting from people like jeff zeleny covering the white house is that it seems that the president is getting these incoming denials that people are putting in front of him so he can do his own internal leak investigation about who might have betrayed him. he sees this, obviously, as an ultimate betrayal, an act of extreme disloyalty. while he play may be blaming "tw york times" for printing it, and he's free to do that, he clearly wants to get to the bottom of this. as we know, even paranoids have enemies. this president clearly has one who believes that he is a national security risk to his own administration. >> on that point, i want you to listen to congressman adam schiff, the ranking member of the house intelligence committee. he's deeply concerned about how the president will react to all of this. the woodward book and n

gloria borger is back with us and also cnn contributor john dean, former nixon white house counsel isus as well. so, gloria, welcome back. john dean, always a pleasure, sir. but, gloria to you first, this 30,000-foot-view of, friday "the new york times" piece comes out. monday rod rosenstein shows up at the white house, has this meeting with the chief of staff, john kelly. fast forward to thursday. he has this meeting with the president. once the president's finished with the unga. what are the different directions this thing could go? >> i don't think rod rosenstein is going to be around for much longer. i mean, it's -- >> you don't? >> it seems to me -- >> no. it seems he wants to resign. a lot of people are telling the president, who doesn't like rod rosenstein. as you know, we've been talking about this for months, for lots of reasons, because rosenstein appointed jm, reason number one. so, he doesn't like rod rosenstein but he also knows firing him could cause him problems. republicans have said to him, look, this is going to get in the way of the kavanaugh confirmation. democrat

>> especially if he gets fired. >> our thanks to gloria borger.the nightmares reporting through -- "the new york times" reporting throughout the morning. >>> and to texas, a state that loves the fall, loves tailgating, and loves coy wire from what i hear. he's experiencing it all in austin for us. >> reporter: yes, i'm loving austin. it's a quirky, charming place. and it's big-time football down here. texas longhorns, they knocked usc out of the top 25 last week. and they have number 17,tcu, this week. also i went toe to toe with their 1,700-mascot, coming up. for a nasty cold, take new dayquil severe with vicks vapocool. whoa and vaporize it with an intense rush of vicks vapors. ahhhhh. new dayquil severe with vicks vapocool. the daytime, coughing, stuffy head, vaporize your cold medicine. introducing vicks vapocool drops, to vaporize your sore throat. breathe freely fast with vicks sinex. sniff my congestion's gone. i can breathe again. i can breathe again. sniff. ohh. vicks sinex, breathe on. all the tools you need for every step of the way. ma

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gloria borger it makes the point he's ready to fully cooperate since the moment he says i first heardave categorically and unequivocally denied it. and he's ready to appear on monday. >> he's ready to appear on monday. he also says that he was interviewed by the committee on september 17th, on monday the 17th, i presume that's by the republicans on the committee. i doubt the democrats participated in that, and that he twice requested committee hearings for the following day. so, you know, now we have professor ford saying that she is willing to come and testify, although she would prefer an investigation first, but she didn't demand it today. she said she can't do it monday. so it seems to me that they're not going to have a hearing with just brett kavanaugh there alone. so i think what we're moving towards is some kind of jump starting some kind of negotiation here where maybe they will end up with some kind of a hearing next week at some point. i don't think it's going to be on monday. but kavanaugh clearly is eager, by putting out this statement, after professor ford, to say i'm re

i think we saw that today. >> gloria borger, david axelrod, dana bash, thank you so much.bsorb all that took place over the last few days, culminating today at the funeral service at the national cathedral. coming up, more of the emotional and fiery tribute from his daughter, meghan mccain. right there. there you are, mom! that's you? that's you? that does kinda look like our family. what are you wearing? ancestry now has over 300,000 yearbooks from all across the country. start searching for your family, free, at ancestry.com. if you have moderate to thsevere rheumatoid arthritis, month after month, the clock is ticking on irreversible joint damage. ongoing pain and stiffness are signs of joint erosion. humira can help stop the clock. prescribed for 15 years, humira targets and blocks a source of inflammation that contributes to joint pain and irreversible damage. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, s

. >>> joining us, gloria borger, john dean and carl bernstein as well. i don't know if surreal is the word we're in this situation where you have all these senior officials coming forward and making statements to the president and then being read closely by the white house. >> it's a little kind of dare leaderish. the stunning notion to me, it's not just senior administration officials, it is the vice president of the united states, saying, i didn't say that the president is a national security risk. it is people who are running the intelligence community who felt the need, the director of the fbi, who felt the need go out there and say, i didn't say that the president was a national security risk. i mean, there is something so surreal, is the word about this, that this notion as these statements come in, somehow they're being delivered, hand-delivered to the president who is reading them, that's good, okay, fine, i know pence didn't do it. let's go to the next one. the question is i would ask is, why believe any of them. i think jim acosta pointed that

gloria borger, laura coates, greg nunsiatti and douglas brinkley.elcome to all of you. >> welcome to washington. >> yes. you know, it was a very emotional day. i happened to be -- i started watching it at home. then i went to the airport to come here, listened to it on the plane. when i lost connection, i was furious. i was lucky that when we landed it picked up from where we left off. i was glued. i could not take my eyes off it. and for gloria, just for many survivors of sexual assault it was a difficult thing to watch today but important and healing. and what did the country see today? what happened? >> i think the country saw two very emotional people. i think the country -- her testimony was completely credible and believable. and when she was asked what was most indelible to her, that was what struck me. when she said it was the laughter. it was the laughter when she was being assaulted by these two men. and you know, that -- i'll never forget her saying that. and when that half of the day was over, people thought kavanaugh was -- that was it.

and gloria borger, i want to bring you into this conversation.rom the lawyer, "i would like to set up a call with you later today to discuss the conditions under which dr. christine blasey ford would be prepared to testify next week. she's been receiving death threats, which have been reported to the fbi, she's been forced out of her home, her family is forced out of the home." it says this, gloria, "she wishes to testify, provided that we can agree on terms that are fair and which ensure her safety." again, this is what manu is alluding to. they're saying monday is a no-go. they feel like that date is arbitrary. dr. ford wants to let you know that she appreciates the various options that mr. grassley has put forth. she would still like a full investigation prior to her testimony. how do you read that? >> look, what they're trying to do is get this jump-started all over again. i think that they realize that once her name was out there, that something had to happen. and letting this just hang out there wasn't doing the democrats any good, either.

. >> gloria borger, you watched as all of us did, your thoughts?s, you know, words came out of other people's mouths. and i think that's the way he wanted it. and i never heard -- maybe you guys have, but there was applause at this funeral. at the moment that meghan mccain said the america of john mccain has no need to be made great again because it is great. there was applause from the gathered here, who were mourning john mccain, but this kind of spontaneous outburst was because that is a line that -- that john mccain would have uttered. and so when people spoke about thinking about things greater than yourself, how many times have we heard that from john mccain. it was -- it was as if these people were just including two former presidents, by the way, who talked about john mccain's temper, who talked about tangling with him. who told stories about mccain going to bush before his last debate saying, oh, just relax. when we know, in fact, i've talked to mccain about this myself, how nervous he got before his own presidential debates and how crazy

cnn legal analyst and gloria borger. i want to talk about this with you because of your experience with these investigations. you get a plea from a man who said he would not plea. admits to everything. he is only charged with two crimes, but admits to everything. if you want to understand it, here it is. now he is cooperating. is he in if they were in cahoots, is this the cast of characters involved? >> we are getting an update. the judge explained what this cooperation agreement is going to be. interviews and briefings he will give, they will be interviewing him again. he met with the special counsel and turning over documents. testifying in other proceedings. he waived the right to have his lawyers. bottom line, this is a huge deal. paul manafort is a major, major cooperator in this investigation. he will independently without lawyers meet with the prosecutors that told us he is no longer facing any potential prosecution. what effect will it have on his other case? does he get out of jail? what we have from the court a

let me bring in right now cnn's chief political analyst gloria borger. ortant to remember the long road and evolution in the relationship, if you will, between president trump and deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. >> yeah, and you know, it hasn't been an easy relationship. first of all, he didn't think a special counsel ought to be appointed. of course, rod rosenstein, who was appointed by jeff sessions, another person he has no love for, appointed the special counsel. and then there's a sense inside the white house, particularly by the president, that rod rosenstein has let the special counsel run amuck. we know that house republicans want to call him on the hill and redact memos that he has fought about redacting. and one thing to keep in mind here, which i don't think we have mentioned this morning, kate, is that the president was insensed with rosenstein after the raid of his lawyer's office, michael cohen, because he knows mueller couldn't do something like that without getting rosenstein's approval. so once he knew that rosenstein approved rai

joining us are gloria borger and cnn commentator and the host of se cup unfiltered that airs saturdays here on cnn. let me start with you, gloria. is it likely they said the earlier deadline for a monday hearing. they said a wednesday hearing, they want her to testify first and they don't want the senators to ask the questions. they wanted outside counsel to ask questions. >> they are trying to get to yes here which is a good development. the fact that it may be on wednesday instead of thursday is not a big deal. i think the real question is the format here. the big question for professor ford as well as judge kavanaugh. professor ford's team, i was told last night really wants the senators to be asking the questions for her. she doesn't want to be cross examined by a professional. she wants the senators who are going to vote to be the ones interrogating her and asking questions. she also by the way does not want a limit on her opening statement. she wants to be able to tell her entire story the way she wants to tell it. maybe they will get to yes. i think it's in all of their interes

we have our cnn legal analyst, laura coates along with our chief political analyst, gloria borger. getting complicated. how is it looking? >> very complicated because internally grassley is trying to get a private phone call and he can't even do that. dianne feinstein refuses to participate in this. the committee has to work out what it wants to do. kavanaugh has said he denies it. he will testify in any forum about it. she has her story and she will testify and has taken a polygraph test. i think the question now is of timing as you heard jeff say. i don't believe there is any way this vote happens on thursday at this point. very, very unlikely. what does the president himself have to say about this? everybody has gone out of their way, every republican. you heard kellyanne conway say look, you have to take this woman's charges seriously. do not be dismissive of this. this would be the worst thing in the world any republican could do and you have brett kavanaugh saying this never occurred. grassley has to figure out how to get his committee on the same page and try to figure out h

i have with me gloria borger and jennifer rogers, a former federal prosecutor and, ladies, thanks for being with me. we've all read her sworn affidavit. just to underscore the serious nature of these allegations, we know submitting a statement to congress that is knowingly false can be criminally prosecuted. so if she is lying, she could be prosecuted. yes? >> yes, absolutely. it's basically the same as being under oath at this point for her. so -- >> ergo, these are extremely serious allegations. >> not only that, she is a government employee. it would have taken about five minutes for chuck grassley or her colleagues to start calling around and find out about this woman. she's got a lot to lose. she's going to be an open book for them. she has a lot to lose if she's not telling the truth. >> here is how president trump described the allegations in the last hour. >> i think it's ridiculous. it's a con game they're playing. the democrats are playing this game that's a disgrace to the country and i think you're going to see it in the mid terms. it's just a con game. he's a high-quality

the former department of justice prosecutor and cnn legal analyst laura coats and dana bash and gloria borgerrosenstein's fate is up in the air. >> i don't think this is a marriage that can be saved. you have a band-aid until the president gets back from new york city with all of his meetings with the foreign leaders at the united nations general assembly. they had an extended conversation. the president has no love for rosenstein. he should resign rather than being fired, but i don't think there is any way to save this relationship at this particular point. i think they are just putting it off until the president is back in town and rosenstein will continue doing his job for three or four more days. >> how do you see it? >> i have been speaking to sources in the republican party who are engaged in this with the white house who say very opposite things which i think speaks to why we are where we are with this massive confusion. one source i spoke to said it would be a very big mistake for the president to fire rod rosenstein. they had conversations with the white house to thatffect. had no i

. >> gloria borger is here. and also we have a assistant professor of public policy harvard. ladies, good to see both of you. gloria, let's begin with you. now the gloves are off. >> former presidents don't like do this to current presidents. particularly as directly as barack obama just did. but i think at a certain point with the midterm elections coming up and he knows how he can galvanize the democratic vote, he did it. this was not know drama obama. this was just the opposite. this is somebody talking about the president who treats the department of justice like it is his own general counsel at the trump administration. and also krilts sizcriticized t anonymous op-ed saying this isn't the way things are supposed to work. don't call this person a hero because this person is trying to protect you from president trump. you have to think about president trump. and what he is trying to do. a lot of people will say and it may be true that listening to obama galvanizes the republican base. and i think that would always occur. but i think if obama continues do this and raises the

let's get some more from our correspondent and our expert gloria borger.ig of a win is this for robert mueller? >> this is a huge win. i think this is what he was working towards. it was very clear manafort didn't want to go to jail for the rest of his life, and he cut a deal that if he cooperates in the way that they expect, and they expect he will testify fully, completely and truthfully before any and all grand juries about everything, okay? this is not limited. this is about everything. that he could get a lesser sentence. i think he made a decision that they wanted him to make, so i think it really could turn out to be a game changer depending on what he knows. and, of course, they're going to ask about the trump tower meeting, they're going to ask him about his business, they'll ask about his affiliations in the trump campaign. this could prove to be quite a gold mine for them despite the fact that sarah sanders is out there saying this has absolutely nothing to do with donald trump. >> remember, he's 69, almost 70 years old. he doesn't want to spend

so let's start there with our cnn political analyst gloria borger nger in washington. he duckoubled down and touts wh happened in puerto rico as incredible success. where is he getting this from? >> reporter: i don't know, it's a curve he's grading himself on, i'll tell you that. i think his response has always beenen in answer to a question about what lessons have you learned from the mistakes that were made in puerto rico? and, of course, this president is incapable of admitting, to making any mistakes, anywhere. so instead of saying that, he is blaming it on the electrical grid. the fact that there were two hurricanes, the fact that the government in puerto rico, the mayor was incompetent, he believes, et cetera, et cetera. it's not surprising, honestly coming from donald trump, but given the number of fatalities, it's stunning he would keep repeating it. >> so out of touch. we have numbers. we have been talking the last 24 hours about the dramatic drop in the president's approval rating. on the flip side, we have numbers on bob mueller and special counsel, how his

so i have gloria borger and elie honig, analyst jennifer rogers. i want to begin shimon.eans. >> this is the guy by all accounts that the special counsel wanted to cooperate from the beginning, right around the time gates was cooperating. they wanted paul manafort. they finally got it. took some time. what this essentially means, he has to do everything the special counsel and department of justice wants him to do. it is clear that he has information that they wanted. they met with him according to documents just filed on september 11. special counsel met with him, spoke with him in a proffer meeting where he has to tell them about crimes he committed, crimes that others committed, and it was after then about two days later they entered into the plea agreement. this is a game changer for sure in the investigation, in this story and how things go from here. really everything that we've known all along in this case is that they really wanted paul manafort to cooperate. the other thing here, brooke, this is what a lot of defendants want in these type of cases, paul manafort

. >> we have standing by cnn chief political analyst gloria borger, and jeffrey toobin, shimon prokupecz, let's start with you. this cooperation deal on any and all matters. >> yeah. and what could that possibly be, right? that's what everyone is questioning and asking sort of. what other information, what information could paul manafort possibly be providing. this is a big get for the special counsel. this is someone that they wanted to cooperate from the beginning. certainly when bob mueller came in and took over this investigation, his team, andrew weissman, one of the lead prosecutors, stood up and announced paul manafort is now cooperating, this is something they wanted for quite some time. something seemed to change, perhaps because paul manafort spent all of this time in jail and the prospect of facing the rest of his life in jail now perhaps led him to cooperate. what's significant here also is that the government has agreed that based on his cooperation, if it is a successful cooperation and he does everything that he's supposed to do, they're going to write a letter to the judg

. >> gloria borger, i'm seeing this note about john cornyn. this potential outside investigation? >> well, you know, the latest development is that it's going to be no longer than a week. right now they're meeting with mitch mcconnell, as you know, to find out the process for this. and mark judge's lawyer just announced that he is going to -- he is going to talk to the fbi on this background investigation. what they'll find out, i don't know. phil mudd you know more about that. >> we'll be talking about that. >> exactly. now mcconnell's going to come out with a statement, and he'll talk about procedure. so who knows if he still decides to go with a motion to proceed tomorrow. he could still do that if he wanted to. >> sounds like -- let me just jump in. john cornyn says there will still be a motion to proceed on the vote in the senate tomorrow with an agreement for a supplemental background check no longer than one week. sound likes they'll have that procedural vote tomorrow, with the understanding they'll hit pause, have this outside investig

joining us, cnn analyst gloria borger. i know you've heard about rod rosenstein's job security tonight. ? >> you wouldn't bet on it, but, again, for almost a year we've been talking about rod rosenstein's job security. the president tweeted about him. he stopped lately. he seems to be focused more on jeff sessions. i know he's very important in the mueller investigation. don't forget, he's the special counsel's boss. if the special counsel says, you know, i want to subpoena the president, he's got go to rod rosenstein to get permission to do that. i think the president's attorneys believe they have a decent relationship with rod rosenstein. i'm sure they would rather he not be fired and create this kind of crisis, particularly right now at the same time as you're going through the kavanaugh hearings and the question about what happens with judge kavanaugh, but nobody can predict what donald trump is going to do. he's going read this story, and he's going to have to decide whether, a, he believes "the new york times," which

gloria borger is here. and anne millgrim is here. james, when we spoke last week, you called rosenstein very fatalistic, that he's the guy that would ride this out. why would he be offering to resign then? >> the biggest question. there's a lot of uncertainty here, let's start with that, what's clear is nothing's clear, in terms of rod, you know, he may be offering a fuse length. i'm offering my resignation, i'm going to leave at the beginning of the year. i'm real curious, if that's what he's doing, if he's offering a resignation, is he whetting it to the completion of the probe, or is he picking some date meaning i'm out of here. that's assuming he's offering a resignation, as opposed to facing firing. i think a lot of this has to wait until thursday to have any certainty as to what he's saying. >> that was some of the reporting, there was a conversation with john kelly about a resignation, timing was a condition, and kelly and the white house did not accept it, that was some of the reporting, that gets to exactly what you're think

joining us, cnn analyst gloria borger. david gergen, carl bernstein. what have you heard about rod rosenstein's job security tonight? >> you wouldn't bet on it, but, again, for almost a year we've been talking about rod rosenstein's job security. the president has tweeted about him. he stopped lately. he seems to be focused more on jeff sessions. i know rosenstein is very important in the mueller investigation. don't forget, he's the special counsel's boss. if the special counsel says, you know, i want to subpoena the president, he's got go to rod rosenstein to get permission to do that. i think the president's attorneys believe they have a decent relationship with rod rosenstein. i'm sure they would rather he not be fired and create this kind of crisis, particularly right now at the same time as you're going through the kavanaugh hearings and the question about what happens with judge kavanaugh, but nobody can predict what donald trump is going to do. he's going read this story, and he's going to have to decide whether, "a," he believes "the new york

get some perspective from our legal analyst, carry car der row and our chief political analyst gloria borger, first there was christine blasey ford, then there was deborah ramirez and now there's julie swetnick, not one woman, not two women, but three women have come forward now with really awful accusations against the supreme court nominee. >> and the white house is denying this as being somewhere in the twilight zone, and republican senators like oren hatch are kind of dismissing this as out of hand. and i think that the question that has to be raised now, is can you have a hearing where this isn't a part of the hearing? that this isn't, you know, you have protfessor ford and we understand that but now you have these other allegations. and the question is whether this is going to be regarded as completely incomplete. and we know that senator grassley has said, you know, he wanted a vote in committee, as early as friday. that -- this seems to me to be as these charges come in, at least give these women a chance to testify and they want to testify, and then go have a vote. but it seems quit

and gloria borger, the president nonstop in recent weeks and months, going after mueller, but his argumentsfalling flat. >> well, his arguments are following flat -- number one, maybe people are getting sick of it. but number two, you've seen convictions. you've seen paul manafort getting convicted. you've seen his former attorney, michael cohen, cut a deal with prosecutors. and plead guilty. so, you know, and you've seen 22 russians, is it? indicted. >> take a look on the screen. you can see all those trump associates who are -- >> exactly, exactly. >> legal jeopardy. >> exactly. so the american public is looking at this, and they're saying, wait a minute. wait a minute. there's something here if mueller is getting all of these convictions, and they're taking a look at it and saying, well, wait a minute. also, by the way, and i believe it's our poll, that more than 70% of voters believe that the president ought to actually speak to mueller. and testify before mueller in one form or another. and, you know, his attorneys, of course, do not want him to speak verbally to mueller. they would li

let's dig deeper with our specialists and analyst, gloria borger. looks like 10:00 a.m.rning both will appear under oath in open session. >> right, must-see tv i think. the question i have really is how is it going to be done? ron clane, who as you know used to work for joe biden and was an attorney working for him during the hill hearings, anita hill hearings tweeted something today i thought was interesting. he said both democrats and republicans should want professional, outside counsel to question kavanaugh and ford in a public hearing, not senators. make this a search for the truth, not a political platform for senators of either party. so i'm kind of -- i think it is a great idea, number one. he's been through it and he knows what happened at the anita hill hearings. i'm kind of wondering how the process is going to go because the last thing you want to do is turn this into the kind of a circus where sides are making political points against each other when, in fact, you need to investigate a very serious allegation about somebody who could be confirmed for a lifet

defeat for mccain, a defeat he took with grace and reflected on in a 2014 interview with cnn's gloria borgerorter: the 2008 republican presidential nominee should have been on top of the world. >> i could do the job. i was prepared to be commander in chief. >> reporter: but john mccain was running against history. >> i'm running for president of the united states of america. >> reporter: barack obama had a clear shot at becoming america's first black president. >> the 200,000-plus crowd confirmed his rock star status. >> change has come to america. >> i was picked up by some north vietnamese. >> reporter: so you're a bona fide war hero, a former prisoner of war. >> mccain has leadership stuff. tell me a greater patriot than john mccain. >> reporter: but now you're facing a losing battle. what do you do? >> i got an idea. we can do something a little different and it would give us a shot. so what do you want? he's a gambler. he's a pilot, all right? they're always going to take the shot. >> reporter: take the shot. the perfect title for the story of john mccain's run for the white house. chap

who served numerous presidents dating back to the nixon administration and our chief analyst, gloria borger. david gergen, i'm not sure where to begin on this. what stands out to you? >> i think we ought to talk about the credibility issue. we go way back and it's true on a number of his books there have been questions and people refuted and said i never said that and so forth, but the look at the series of books, he has enormous credibility coming out of these. every book he has written to the best of my recollection has been proven in his essence. there were details he may have gotten wrong or mistold to him. his credibility is extremely high stretching back to watergate. far be it from an operative, asked bill clinton what he thought. i think i can hear carl laughing. he went after clinton and exploded about the stuff in there. a lot of people thought in his book about george w was sympathetic. i think the whole thing is we should not be questioning his credibility. we should be questioning what's in the book. what's in the book is a portrait of a guy who once again in a serious way we v

perspective from gloria borger, paul begala, max boot.ou can't blame the president from wanting to know who would have said these things. whether you agree with what they said or not, if you were the president, you would want to know what the people around you were thinking. and if people were taking stuff off your desk you would want to know who was doing it. >> he does. and we also know he is a micromanager. but we also know what is going on here is nothing less than what woodward calls in his book an administrative coup d'etat. taking papers off the president's desk. what is that all about? why didn't the president know things were missing from his desk is another option. but also in this op-ed that we're talking about, this notion that this author wrote that early on in the administration there were whispers among cabinet officials about invoking the 25th amendment which would effectively, it's difficult to do, but which would effectively remove the president. so even paranoids have enemies. and so this president knows he's got a lot

gloria borger and dana bash are joining our panel now.ash, what are you hearing from your republican sources about the reaction to kavanaugh's testimony? it's such a rorschach test on social media. >> really is. >> liberals who loved professor ford and conservatives who found many holes in her testimony and the reverse is happening now. conservatives who say they love to see him fighting back. he's an innocent man and liberals in many cases mocking him. >> which is exactly what i'm hearing and kind of what you would expect in a situation where it is his story versus her story without a lot of actual facts to help back it up which is the whole point that the democrats are making, that it would be nice to have an investigation. it was interesting to hear kavanaugh in answer to dianne feinstein sure, bring it on. let's get the facts, but with regard to kind of the dynamics and the zeitgeist right now among republicans, those who were thinking that this is done this morning after hearing from professor ford are feeling a little bit better abo

what a bombshell story, gloria borger.k the president will see this as grounds to go ahead and fire rod rosenstein? >> what do you think? yes, i do. he doesn't love rod rosenstein. he hasn't tweeted about him a lot lately. he's focused more on jeff sessions. but i talked to one source today who is familiar with how the president feels about rod rosenstein and says, look, first of all, in any other administration, if somebody in the justice department -- forget the wearing the wire thing, because that could have been a joke or not a joke. but if there is someone seriously discussing the 25th amendment about the president of the united states, maybe he ought not to be working for him. and that in any other administration, you might resign, or maybe the attorney general would fire rod rosenstein. maybe he would be the one to do that. the complication, of course, is the russia investigation right now is out there. it's not done. and bob mueller reports to rod rosenstein. so rod rosenstein is a very important person to the pres

. >> let me bring in cnn's chief political analyst, gloria borger.on says, this is a huge moment in changing the narrative, in changing the di m dynamic of this entire story. regarding robert mueller's investigation into possible collusion and obstruction of justice. that leads up to the president. >> right. well, we don't know, and i think shimon was saying this, and jeff. we don't really know at this point what cooperation will mean in this particular case. and i just got off the phone with a source who is familiar with the manafort case and is a pro-trump source. and you know, this source says that all along, manafort's attorneys had been telling the president's lawyers that he had nothing to say about donald trump. and we just saw that sarah sanders just tweeted right -- >> she just put out a statement. this had absolutely nothing to do with the president or his victorious 2016 presidential campaign. it is totally unrelated. >> right. so that's their story, and they're sticking to it. and we should also note, as caitlin palance has reported in al

served numerous presidents dating back to the nixon administration, and our chief political analyst gloria borger. david gergen, i'm not even sure where to begin on this. what stands out the you? >> first of all, i think we ought to talk about the credibility issue. i've known and worked with bob woodru woodrow for 40 years. you look at the series of books, he has enormous credibility coming out of this series of books. every single book he has written to the best of my recollection has been proven in its essence. yes, there were some details he may have gotten wrong or something may have been mistold to him, but his credibility is extremely high, stretching all the way back to watergate. and far being from a democratic operative, just ask bill clinton what he thought about his book about the clinton administration. you know, i think i can hear carl laughing. he went after -- clinton just exploded about a lot of the stuff that was in there. a lot of people thought that his book about george w. was very favorable, very sympathetic. so i think this whole thing we should not be questioning bob woodw

gloria borger, let's start with you. >> well, let's start where the hearing ended with judge kavanaugh saying he is 100%, 100% certain this never happened. think back to this morning with professor ford. she said it was 100%, same phrase, that it did happen with judge kavanaugh. so, you know, the republicans on this committee decided to kind of abandon their hired outside counsel, rachel mitchell, do what the democrats did this morning and hug kavanaugh, which most of them did. flake was vague and just said we're all imperfect and there's going to be as much doubt as certainty, you know, and that was it. and republicans -- most republicans expressed sorrow for him. some did not talk about their sorrow for what she has gone through, but i think you saw kind of the mirror image here of the democrats in the morning hugging her and the republicans in the evening hugging him. and there's going to be a conference tonight so that republicans can explain to their colleagues, the judiciary committee republicans can explain how their process was not flawed, how they did an investigation, but bey

here with me is cnn's political analyst, gloria borger. your thoughts right now. >> my thoughts are as i look at that lean of people, what's remarkable to me it's bipartisan. there are democrats and republicans in that line, all of whom respected and admired and fought with senator john mccain. it is clear to me his hand is on everything. if you can speak from the grave, that's john mccain today. what i'm so interested to hear, in addition, of course, to the eulogies by the two former presidents who defeated him, i want to hear the stories about john mccain and how he fought with his colleagues. if he lost the battle, he went onto the next battle. these are the stories that i think the american people will be interested in hearing about this hero. just like the capitol which is saved foosh sele saved for the americans. the thing is having a memorial at the cathedral. it is a special place and a day. >> it is. >> i want to send it back to wolf in the studio. >> dana, we will have extensive live coverage of all of these important events. jam

there's a lot to dissect with our legal and political experts and gloria borger, the person, writes thisthings. many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. i would know, i am one of them. this is perhaps unprecedented. >> well, and it sounds a lot like what was in bob woodward's book. and you know, woodward spoke about an administrative cue day detat, and that's effectively what this is. not only does the author talk about the president's immorality, and how this president is not really a conservative, and also praises somebody like john mccain in this, which i thought was kind of interesting, but also confirms the whispers that we were hearing early on this administration about members of the cabinet talking about invoking the 25th amendment early on to find a way to tell the american public, you know, this person should not be president, but decided not to proceed with it, because these people did not want to create a constitutional so as bad as a lot of the reporting was, in read

. >> gloria borger, what do you think of the president's news conference? >> well, if i'm a republican sitting in the senate right now i would not be pleased. i think chuck grassley has tried to kind of be fair in his own way, reaching out to professor ford originally, trying to talk to the other accusers. then the president comes on today and says, i don't believe them, they're fake. why do i think they're fake? because i've been there it myself. he turned the story to himself. he said it has happened to me. he talked about the woman on an airplane and then said, does it affect me? absolutely. so then he -- you know, he turned it into a story about himself, and then he also used the word "women." he said, we ought to give the women a chance to -- i want to hear from the women. and so deborah ramirez's attorney tweeted, well, the president indicated that the committee should hear from the women, but we haven't heard from the committee, nor have we had an fbi investigation. their staff lawyers won't talk to us. so you have the president of the united states