bret stephens is a columnist with "the new york times." robert costa is a national political reporter with "the washington post," and betsy woodruff broke that story for the "badaily beast." what do you have on this guy, whitaker? it seems like he's been auditioning is a pretty good work for it, auditioning for the role of trump protector in the role of acting attorney general. >> that's certainly the view within the justice department. one important piece of context to bear in mind, as whitaker has now risen to and taken power within doj, is that he and rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who was heading, supervising the mueller probe until whitaker took sessions' old job, don't really get along according to a host of officials in the doj that my colleague and i spoke with yesterday in the hours after whitaker took that position. rosenstein and whitaker are not on the same page on a variety of issues, in terms of their personalities, our understanding is that they just don't mesh, and having those two people running this departmen

conservative columnist bret stephens wrote, democrats should be walking away with the midterms.ot is because they have consistently underestimated the president's political gifts while missing the deeper threat his presidency represents. do you agree? >> one of the reasons we're not walking away is because redistricting has created gerrymandering that has favored republicans over democrats which is why all of these governors races are so important for redistricting in 2020. i also do believe, though, that in 2016, we missed the angst of people who felt like trade, et cetera, was not being addressed by the democrats. so i think in that sense, that is true. but boy, help save us in this nation if the deep thread that he is mining is a thread that is about hatred or a thread that is about fear, because that's not the america that democrats want to build. >> i think people are rejecting, and the reason i think that the republicans are doing as well as they are is people are rejecting this idea that because the president brings up immigration, or because he brings up other issues, th

. >> you saw people like bret stephens who hates this president who tweeted out that, you know, he isful for the president with the brett kavanaugh thing. brian columnist for the "new york times." >> united different factions of the republican party that came together in support of brett kavanaugh and republicans who brought him through over the finish line. ainsley: if you look at history, whoever is in power in the presidency, the republicans, democrats usually do well in the mid terms and visa versa. in the past clinton and president obama. president bush. and all of them were reelected what are your predictions for 2020? tom, start with you. >> i think despite the fact that republicans lost some governorships in some key swing states, they lost wisconsin and michigan. they did pick up ohio and florida. so, look, i think trump is in good position for 2020. obviously it depends on hot nominee is, who he is running against. but, by and large, i think trump is in good shape. the fact that there are democrats in control of one piece of congress gives him something to run against. i thi