if they are as senior as they say they are -- ben sasse -- well, ben sasse told hugh hewitt the other day that this is nothing that is new. he has heard these same things around with white house officials now for two to three times a week. i mean, it's not just reporters saying it. >> you're right about it. >> it's ben sasse saying it. >> the problem is i talked to a good friend of mine who does work for the president, loves the president but says this guy whoever wrote this has made their lives extremely difficult now because they've done this the whole time, the president suspected it, but now he knows between this and the woodward book he knows and it's going to make their job even harder. >> if you do come out and i hear you on that and agree to a certain extent, but the moment that person comes out they're going to destroy that person. >> it shouldn't be one person, it should be many people and then i think -- >> if you're really concerned it should be everybody doing it at the same time. >> boy, that will only launch a whole bunch of recordations there. you brought up ben sasse'

if they are as senior as they say they are -- ben sasse -- ll, ben sasse told hugh hewitt the other dayat this is nothing that is new. he has heard these same things around with white house officials now for two to threewe times a k. i mean, it's not just reporters saying it. >> you're right about it. >> it's ben sasse saying it. >> the problem is i talked to a od friend of mine who does work for the president, loves the president but says this guy whoever wrote th has made their lives extremely difficult now because they've done this the ole time, thepresident suspected it, but now he knows between this and the book he knows and it's going to make their job even harder.om >> if you doout and i hear you on that and agree to a certain extent, but the moment you brought up ben sasse' name, you brought up ben sasse' name, i'moing to let the man speak so, the whole world is talking about ai. big, bold promises like... it'll transform the human race! it's gonna solve unsolvable problems! it'll find life on mars! but here's the thing. you don't live on mars. you build wind turbines. supply ca

if they are as senior as they say they are -- ben sasse -- well, ben sasse told hugh hewitt the otherhat this is nothing that is new. he has heard these same thingsh around w white house officials now f t twoo three times a week. i mean, it not just reporters saying it. >> you're right about it. >> it's ben sasse saying it. >> the problem is ilked to a good friend of mine who does work for the president, loves the president but yys this whoever wrote this has made their lives extremely difficult done thise they've the whole time, the president suspected it, but now he knows between this and the woodward tok he knows and it's going make their job even harder. >> if you do come out and i hear ndyou on thatagree to a certain extent, but the moment you brought up ben sasse' name, you brought up ben sasse' name, i'ms this ia tomato you can track from farm, to pot, to jar, to table. and serve with confidence that it's safe. this is a diamond you can follow from mine to finger, and trust it never fell into the wrong hands. ♪ ♪ this is a shipment transferred two hundred times, transparently t

ben sasse uses the hearings to slam congress. >> the legislature is impotent and weak. >> reporter: he is about to plit the republican party? >> gloves off. >> these are dangerous times. >> as the stakes for the midterm elections get higher. >> we want to impeach him. they say it's your fault because you didn't get out to vote. >> is the president right? mark warner is here live. >>> hello. i'm jake tapper in washington where the state of our union is full of drama. drama in the white house. the president raging over that rogue anonymous senior administration official and drama on capitol hill and democrats swinging at the fences in a desperate bid to knock off trump's second supreme court nominee and drama on the campaign trail with obama's 2018 debut.

that's what ben sass is doing. that's a better standard. >> there are democrats and liberals going after ben sass saying, well, if you really feel this strongly, what are you going to do about it? are you going to hold up the nominee of brett kavanaugh. i'm not quite sure that ben sass sees this as an either/or type of thing. >> linking kavanaugh is something that democrats have tried to do to slow down the brett kavanaugh nomination. that said, i would be shocked if he wasn't asked about this and wasn't asked about the role of the justice department during his confirmation hearing, democrats just added another question to their long roster. as a result of this. show's certainly not making that piece any easier for his supreme court nominee. >> all right. phil mudd, jackie kucinich, john avlon, thank you all very much. >>> so supreme showdown confirmation hearings. >> is diana ross coming? really? >> i wish. one night only. >> she would win. >> no, it's going to be all week. the hearings begin in just a few hours f

here with me is senator ben sasse. thank you for joining us. i want to ask about hurricane florence, because obviously it's on everyone's mind. we're all concerned about people in the path of the storm. president trump saying that the response to hurricane maria in puerto rico, that it was an incredible unsung success. a lot of people upset about that. especially democrats. but also people in puerto rico, since the death toll is estimated to be almost 3,000. you've talked a lot about president trump and his ability to rise to moments like this or not. what do you make of this? >> i didn't see him make those comments. but obviously the congress needs to do a better job of doing oversight of fema across time to see how we respond to these kinds of disasters. and obviously our thoughts are with a lot of the hard working folks in fema and in governors' offices across the coastal states that are worried right now. but i don't think puerto rico was some great success. i think we need to do more oversight to look at how fema can get better over time a

. >> okay, there is senator ben sasse, basically saying, the problem is us. it's congress. >> well, i think a lot of people would agree that congress is not debating the questions of the day. the argument to go on in congress are both partisan in nature, or, punted away from decisions being made by people in congress. and, his assertion is that more and more, we are asking the supreme court nominee to be sort of a quasi-legislative body which it is not designed to be. i think that's at the core of it. if congress would do its job and allow the judicial branch to decide constitutional issues and other things, we would probably all be in a better place. >> before we let you go, what did you think of kavanaugh's overall demeanor ? he did really have to kind of sit there as these legislators sort of let him have it, if you will. and then he gave this opening statement, his remarks. what did you think about what he said? >> it had to be a long day for

ben sass should hold up the confirmation hearing of brett kavanaugh today. i don't see that happening. i don't think ben sass sees that as a reasonable way to address the problems he sees. the question is what could they do about this tweet? if this is so wrong, what could they do? >> they have oversight responsibility. they could hold a hearing about it. i imagine if the democrats do win control of the house, it's exactly this kind of a thing -- there's a lot of talk about impeachment, it's this kind of thing that will start taking place in washington that hasn't which is they no doubt will call for hearings and investigate in terms of their oversight responsibility. >> we just got some of the excerpts of the opening statements that brett kavanaugh will give. this is happening in just 2:15 from now. i'm seeing this for the first time. >> a neutral and impartial arbiter who favors no litigant or policy. i don't decide cases based on personal or policy preferences. i am not a proplaintiff or prodefendant judge. i'm not a proprosecution or prodefense judge. i

senator ben sasse said he heard it from people close to the white house. from july of last year then white house director anthony scaramucci calling in in. >> people inside the administration think it's their job to save america from this president. okay, that is not their job. their job is to inject this president into america. >> how do you explain the fact that there are senior administration officials who think it's your job to protect the country from president trump? >> to the extent that is true, they sheouldn't be there. their job is execute and not blind loyalty but understand there are issues that prevailed and others that failed. in the last election. what i appreciate about president trump, jake, and why i'm there, as opposed to the million other places i can be, is because he is somebody who is always welcomed, accepted, if not expected, dissenting viewpoints and disagreements. he has said it publicly months ago. i like watching them duke it out. he has people who disagree significantliy on abortion and trade and economic policies and he has t

still ahead, we'll talk to ben sass and senator hirono. >> you said nice things about ben sass yesterdayired him. >> he said really nice things you always admired him. can you believe this, willie, his approval rating in nebraska down five points since yesterday. >> stop. come on. >> a snap poll. does mika's kind words make you more or less likely to vote for ben sass? 80% said less likely. >>> plus, an administration where top cabinet officials defy the commander in chief for what they believe is the good of the country. much more on the latest revelations from bob woodward's new bomb shell book. "morning joe" is coming right back. ♪ jimmy's gotten used to his whole room smelling like sweaty odors. yup, he's gone noseblind. he thinks it smells fine, but his mom smells this... luckily for all your hard-to-wash fabrics... ...there's febreze fabric refresher. febreze doesn't just mask, it eliminates odors you've... ...gone noseblind to. and try febreze unstopables for fabric. with up to twice the fresh scent power, you'll want to try it... ...again and again and maybe just one more time. i

bring up senator ben sasse and it ends there. it's a craftedly worded statement from ben sasse and we start business as usual again. >> and president obama was talking directly to republicans asking them to do more. what obama was trying to accomplish. i love barack obama, i voted for barack obama. barack obama offered to raise my children as his own. i listened to him -- like, i get it. barack obama's fundamental flaw to me, tragic flaw, that he always expects us, expects people to be better than we are. he expects the democratic party to be better than this. he expects the republican party to be better than it has shown. donald trump on the other hand, his greatest strength is that he knows exactly how craven and stupid this country is, and pushes it relentlessly. when you look at the two speeches or directives side-by-side, donald trump's directive to his base is very simple. hate. be selfish. don't like people. and his base follows that directive. obama's directive was not love. i mean a lot of people thought it was so soft.

right now, jeff flake and ben sasse are both on the judiciary committee. this is a moment of maximum leverage. they could say they would not vote to sent brett kavanaugh to the floor unless they get a vote on legislation protecting bob mueller. they have leverage. they're choosing not to exercise it, and really to do nothing. almost to act like kind of pundits in the bleachers kind of commenting from afar and denying the actual authority and power they have to try to advance the goals they say they support. >> thank you both. a lot to cover this monday. we appreciate it. >>> ahead for us, a major shakeup at cbs, the ceo les moonves is out. this as six more women come forward accusing him of sexual abuse and misconduct. what does it mean for the network and what will justice look like for these women? >>> also, is senator ted cruz in jeopardy of losing his seat to a democrat in texas? why the lieutenant governor of texas is reportedly asking for president trump's help. >>> and serena williams fines thousands of dollars after this outburst at the u.s. open.

hugh hewitt, i started with a ben sasse bite. i actually want to replay the ben sasse bite because that event only underscores his analysis. take a listen. >> i'm not trying to beat up on the president here, but the truth is, you build a team by building a cause that's bigger than yourself. and right now, so much of what comes out of the white house is just trying to figure out how to divide americans. >> mike drop. >> well, it is proof positive when you get law enforcement to clap against the media, that is not useful. i am confused by this entire day. i began by playing on the radio show -- >> it's not just today. we're all confused. i hear you, man. >> the whole bob woodward, donald trump, kellyanne conway tape. he's in control, he's calm, he's pushing back, he's making points. it's a measured -- it's got nothing to do with the chaos that we have seen for the rest of the day. so whoever wrote this did not advance the cause of reducing chaos. and ben sasse also in that interview pointed out the senate is in chaos. the only thin

who cares, ben sasse -- he can get arrested. no one knows who he is. i agree about that.toning it up? but on the mouth, we don't need to hear you doing your best msnbc pundit and interpretation. don't knee cap the the presidel presidential -- >> laura: no constituency. >> not only do they have no constituency, they are not running for reelection. the same people who elected president trump board and to reelect them in november, and that is fundamentally their problem for them. they need -- this is part of ofe going away party. >> laura: ari -- >> america has to focus on the alternative here, the democrats take control, their policies, and their policies or government takeover of health care, donald trump committed treason, and we should raise our taxes. that is what is driving the entire democratic agenda. do we really want that to be renting the house or senate again? i sure hope not. >> ari it's exactly right. president trump is not on the ballot for november but his policies are. the america first agenda and is make america great again over the last couple of months ar

kennedy: ben sasse.e is an ideologue who has been almost as oppose to the president as jeff flake and bob corker. but he shows there are people out there who would like to leave the party. and there are coalitions to be made in the senate that are beneficial. >> this is the old parents leaving their kid in the store. mommy is going home now, have a good night, republicans, enjoy macy's, mommy is going to go. but the republicans aren't going. so you have to do swog your fat kid. because they are not leaving the store. kennedy: ben sasse is just eating more cake. >> he may not like the style, but the results are there. kennedy: i think that's the interesting disconnect with this presidency. people who can't stand this personality say that's reason enough t to remove him from office. but when you look at the results, they say i don't think hillary would have been able to capitalize on whatever economic upswing obama left for her. thank you so much, guys. great to see you. coming up, more than 72,000 america

♪i need never get old lou: i know never trump senator ben sasse as he regularly considers leaving they. >> why stay republican when's the last time you thought about becoming an independent? i think about it every morning when i wake up. lou: wow, that's a lot of mind space you get into that. but it does seem like i finally found something in common with senator sasse, a vision for its future before going to washington come as fast as president berlin university in nebraska credited with nearly doubling the university body. by the way all the way up to 1400. [laughter] often they will tell you most of the students came from a school that had to close nearby. the school now boasts a graduating of less than half of them. joining us tonight, michael goodwin, pulitzer prize-winning columnist, fox news contributor. great to have you with us. let's start with you. ben sasse, why does a really good stuff of the anxiety of being a democrat he is. >> is very interesting. he ran as a republican but he doesn't want to be a republican. he should at least go back to the people of nebraska and say

. >> i can't wait to hear the endlessly sanctimonious ben sasse and jeff flake, all their talk about kindness and -- is this what they want? is this -- is this the nominee that they think -- >> they had him the first round, right. >> but you -- all these republicans who like dabble in moderation, they always come home to trump. they always wind up voting for trump, and that's what flake is going to do and that's what sasse is going to do, except for the two women who have guts. the rest of them nothing. >> it has to do with what voters think of this. i think a lot of voters who watched that actually are torn. they think she was credible. >> right. >> but that opening statement wasn't -- it was a lot of bluster and anger, but how else wase had supposed to respond to allegations like this if they are not true? what is susan collins and lisa murkowski going to do and jeff flake is questioning what are they going to get from constituents back home? is there going to be hell to pay or if those people feel compelled and they believe his testimony, then they can get off voting for him? >> w

senator ben sasse, republican of nebraska is joining us now from his beautiful home state.thanks so much for joining us. i have to start, yesterday you retweeted somebody who -- you replied you regularly consider switching from the republican peter to becoming an independent as well. why and what's stopping you from doing so? so i'm one of about eight people in the u.s. senate who's never been a politician before and i think i have been saying for the last three years that i consider myself an independent conservative that caucuses with the republicans. but ten years from now, where are we going to be in the future of work, when young people are disrupted out of jobs three times a decade. the war and the cyber community, there's massive stuff happening in america and these parties are really content to do 24-hour news cycles screaming at each other. the main thing that republicans are for is being anti-democrat and the main thing democrats are for the anti-republican. it so i think people should be more worried about where we're going to be in 10 years, i think this legisla

myself a ben sasse republican. >> convenient. >> i think that there really is a battle here for what have to call the soul of the republican party. a lot of us were drawn to the republican party because it was an optimistic vision. character counts, personal responsibility. fiscal responsibility with the debt, strong on russia. and all of those have been turned on its head. i worked for president bush and it's not like we were perfect but in our best moments, i think we aspired to be better than we were. that idea of compassionate conservatism, flawed as it was. >> wasn't it rejected in 2016? why did republican voters reject all of that? is it because president trump pushed racial buttons? >> that's a very complicated torturous question. it's difficult to talk about race in this. i don't think -- >> is it, though? i think a lot of people would argue it's pretty straightforward. >> i think that you can't look at the 2016 election and come to any conclusion other than donald trump won and it was a fairly weak field. i think the danger in it is looking at it and drawing these conclusion

and i appreciate what ben sasse said and i sympathize with it.wart stevens but i too may be an obsessed republican. look, this op-ed -- i'm convinced this op-ed is written for one purpose, to get under the president's skin. because it doesn't have any -- >> well, why if you're making those arguments, though, would you try to get under the president's skin? if you believe this, wouldn't that make it worse? >> first of all, all the analysis we didn't elect advisers to say this, that's true. that's good stuff. we don't. and that person is not going to save the republic by staying anonymous and trying to guide the president, that shouldn't really work. and barack obama alluded to that in his speech. but the fact he mentioned and wept on about john mccain in this article, it was designed to anger the president. and so whoever wrote it clearly wanted to get under the president's skin. there's no other reason for it. and i think ben sasse did say, why would you if you were trying to settle things down and not for the president paranoid, why would you wr

you have corey booker, pamela harris and on the republican side, ben sasse of nebraska, ben flake havenotion. jeff flake is headed back up to new hampshire that they may be looking at a 2020 run for the presidency. no doubt they will have their future politics in mind as well. off of the committee, key members to watch. we have been talking about these three all day: lisa murkowski of alaska, bob corker and suzanne collins of maine, critical votes here. this group of three republican senators, that's the target for today's hearing in terms of swaying the outcome here in any way. and of course don't forget the democrats in those deep red states that voted for neil gorsuch. they're already on the record. voting for supreme court justice that donald trump nominated. we will see if, indeed, they are just joining ranks with the democrats when all is said and done after this hearing or if they also show that they're willing to break from their party on this. all key senators to watch as we go into and out of today's historic wearing, wolf. >> all right. thank you so much. supreme court nomin

to hear corker yesterday and now ben sass, well, you know, i don't know how to process it because we all talk about this all the time. he's obviously nuts. how can you say that in this blase way? you, if you are bob cork error ben sass, the principled members of the republican party, if you've been hearing that fofrt last 18 months, you should have been screaming it from the rooftops and not three days a week splash of courage for the camera. how about have real courage to do something about it every day five days a week, seven days a week if necessary. >> courage or something else. what about the fact that corker did try? he held a hearing on trying to limit a president's nuclear arsenal. corker did sound the alarm. he called the west wing adult day care. he went -- he was the first senator to say that he lacked the fitness to serve as president. i think we have that tape. we'll try to find it. but it fell on deaf ears. >> better than nothing, i think that we can expect more. it goes back to kind of jim's defense of the whistleblower sake it's better we have people in there doing th

and is ben sass now the person who will be willing to speak out against the president in the likes ofke, who we should know are actually leaving at the end of their terms. >> that's the difference. their leaving has given them a little more freedom to be critical of the president. democrats including president obama very recently have been questioning whether republicans in congress will hold president trump to account. as some republicans perhaps are seeing that their own political fortunes are threatened, perhaps we'll see more of that. this criticism is not usual, though. it's not something we've seen a lot of from republicans in congress, because they've been focused more on the tax cuts and other things they feel president trump has done successfully. that said, the popularity issue is a big issue, as is the chaos that we continue to see around the president as sort of manifested in the last week with the op ed in the "new york times" and with bob woodward's book. >> we constantly hear from republicans behind closed doors that it's not worth the headache to take on the president

ben sasse is willing to go further.aid the united states is not some banana republic with a two tiered system of justice, one for the majority party and one for the minority party. these men have been charged with crimes because of evidence, not because of who the president was when the investigations began. the job of the president of the united states is to defend the constitution and protect the impartial administration of justice. so ben sasse does, actually, mention the president there. i have to say when you do the final analysis, john mccain has passed away. he was a rare republican willing to challenge the president. lindsey graham has undergone some sort of spiritual change where he does the opposite now. i mean, really you have a decreasing number of republican voices willing to challenge. >> yeah. so senator sass gave a pretty strong statement there. senator sass does not control what goes on in the senate. then you have someone like speaker ryan who does have a lot of clout on capitol hill, obviously. he con

and i thought of all people, ben sasse today with hugh hewitt, i thought, expressed what i think is the real danger for the gop in november. take a listen. >> i mean, the drama of this op-ed, the drama of the woodward book, the drama of the omarosa tapes, the drama of cohen, the drama of manafort, the drama of just the three-ring circus that is the white house almost every day, i think that it exhausts the american people and i know that the founders would regard anything like this as, you know, really unhelpful. you don't run the country as a soap opera, and these people, most of them who are wanting the drama, shouldn't be anywhere near the presidency. and so most of the fighting that he -- the president uses the word fighting all the time, but most of the fighting is inside his own team. >> he's definitely running. >> the key word -- well, yes. yeah. but it's the exhaustion. like, i think that this is what -- if i were an incumbent republican house member right now, i would be like, i could see somebody -- enough with the drama. just make it stop, right? and i don't know if democrats

>> yes, sally yates and ben sasse have it exactly right.ageous that the president thinks the justice department should only go after, prosecute their political enemies and lay off their allies. i'd like to point something else out too, anderson. you remember jesse jackson jr., corrine brown, michael brown, chaka fattah, all were investigated under the obama administration and convicted. in fact corrine brown was sentenced during the trump administration. nobody suggested it was partisan investigation. these investigations were based on the facts and the evidence. and likewise with chris collins and duncan hunter. they're entitled to the presumption of innocence. let the doj make their case. the president is doing a terrible disservice to the men and women of the justice department, the fbi and especially to jeff sessions and christopher ray. is basically saying these guys are politically motived in their work and i don't believe they are in these cases. >> frankly, there are a few others in the administration who have executed the president

ben sass said this about the especial op-ed. it's what we hear from senior people around the white house, you e know, three times a week. bob corker, the biggest issue is figuring out who would not have written a letter like that. what do you say to them? >> i think it's ironic to have senators trying to criticize the white house because they think it's dysfunctional when we have the most dysfunctional congress and ben sass says that on a reg basis. i don't think any of those gentlemen, i have a high regard for ben sass, but i don't think they know what's going on inside the west wing. both have been critics of president and his policies. it's important to separate those two things. there's a lot of chaos that's accurately described. there's a lot of republicans uncomfortable with the amount of change and sometimes unorthodox positions on issues that donald trump has brought to the city. to convert that into a white house team that isn't functioning on getting that agenda wrong even though they do it better some days, that's mis

ben sasse of nebraska said this is not a banana republican. this is not a two-tier system. we will see how the fallout today continues on this as republicans and democrats return to capitol hill from the labor day weekend. christine and dave. >> jeff zeleny, thank you. >>> new yorker magazine disinvited steve bannon. the editor in chiefvitation aft pulled out of the event. after the bannon participation, jim carrey and judd apatow said they would not take part. > >> in a letter to the staff, he said he will interview bannon if the opportunity presents itself. bannon said he accepted the invitation to face-off against one of the fearless journalists. >>> the head of nbc news and reas ronan farrow speaking out over the harvey weinstein story. hinting they tried to kill the weinstein story. farrow's former producer said there were from the highest levels of nbc to stand down on the scandal. >> black bushed back with the document that describes the story not ready for broadcast. claiming he did not have a witness ready to go on record against weinstein. overnight, farrow tweete

senator ben sasse gave us in that civics lecture that was quite entertaining today.ennedy: you are talk about chevron deference. but that's different than executive supremacy. that's the worry of some kavanaugh critics that he would embolden the presidency too much. >> you are right. that's different. in the context of the president doing certain things. you have to look at national security versus domestic things. and in terms of a president getting indicted or subject to subpoena, absolutely. kavanaugh's thinking on this has evolved. he served under bush and then now lately has been saying maybe clinton was distracted from pursuing osama bin laden. you don't know exactly what the legal issues would be, even if it's bob mueller and his investigation going after trump. kennedy: the big worry with every potential supreme court justice is they offer one ideology and view of the constitution but later they flip. >> he has a paper trail that's very long. he's clearly a textualist or originalist. kennedy: as much as gorsuch? >> he's a little cageyer. i would put him somew

. >> it's interesting, your colleagues in politico have noted some republicans like ben sasse say that the backlash is that it will only make it harder to restrain the president which i find interesting, ben sasse said it's going to foster more paranoia. then you have other republicans like the chair of the house freedom caucus mark meadows who is saying possibly investigate this person -- i suppose using taxpayer dollars and axios is reporting, errol, meadows has said a number of unnamed congressional democrats have been calling his office supportive of. >> that i would love to hear the names of democrats supporting it. i think representative meadows risks going down a familiar rabbit hole. leaks have bedevilled every administration in the modern era. it drove the nixon administration almost insane. the same thing happened to reagan. the same thing happened to clinton. the obama administration very much cracked down and actually prosecuted people around this kind of thing. you can waste a lot of effort, the reality is we have an open political culture. the flip side is whenever admini

. >> reporter: the revelations prompted senator ben sass of nebraska to are new his concerns. >> it's pretty clear that this white house is a reality show soap opera presidency. you'd like the president to worry not about short-term of staffing, but the long-term of vision casting for america. >> ed o'keefe is at the white house. today we also learned that one of the legal cases against the president is proceeding. >> that's right. the president and once a cob tes tant on his show "the ce"eed to written questions for a court. answers are due to the supreme court by 28th. answers are given under oath so any untruthful answers by the president open him up to perjury charges. she sued trump last year after he said that she lied. she has accused him of forcibly groping her and kissing her about a decade ago. the president denies those charges. >> ed, thank you. >>> the dallas police department identified the white officer who fatality shot a black man in his own apartment. officer amber geiger is on administrative leaves a the rangers investigate the thursday night shooting. she was headi

i say to collins, lisa murkowski, and flake and ben sasse, pretend this is a jeb bush nominee. a lot of this has to do with them hating donald trump. >> laura: he is a george w. bush guy. >> i know. it is their hatred of trump. >> laura: george w. bush should give a speech as should anthony kennedy and frankly the chief justice. i think john roberts should come out and say this is an attack on the judiciary. no one is going to be want to be nominated to a federal court in the future. who would? who wants to be nominated? >> who wants to run as a republican? this is why you and i voted for mccain, this is why liberals never trumpers, voted for trump for the judicial nominees, the republicans can hold this off. >> laura: reaction to democrats pulling up all the stops to boost their turn out how to midterms. michelle obama happy to step into the void. >> i'm sick of all the chaos anl the nastiness of the politics. it's exhausting and frankly it's depressing. so i understand wanting to shut it all out. and just go on and just try to live your life. >> i think the screaming proteste

microscope since the moment he was nominated, but one senator on the judiciary committee, senator ben sasse says opponents' hysteria has nothing to do with kavanaugh and everything to do with congress, tweeting this -- "judge kavanaugh doesn't hate women and children. judge kavanaugh doesn't lust after dirty water and stinky air. no, looking at his record, it seems to me that what he actually dislikes are legislators that are too lazy and risk-averse to do our actual jobs." >>> all right, ten minutes after the hour. time for an "early start" on your money. high-level players from facebook and twitter face congress today. they'll respond to accusations of political censorship and lack of security against foreign interference. the senate intelligence committee will grill facebook ceo sheryl sandberg and chief executive of twitter jack dorsey about their efforts to prevent election meddling this fall and accusations of a lack of effort. both platforms have admitted to negligence in allowing russian manipulation on the sites in the 2016 presidential election. in prepared testimony released yest

ben sasse has been out a ton. he was out with chuck on "meet the press."ere is what he said. >> i don't have any desire to beat the president up, but it's clear that this white house is a reality show soap opera presidency. the drama of omarosa, the drama of cohen, manafort and the woodward quotes and the op-eds. what you would like is the president not to worry about the short term of staffing, but the long term vision casting. pull us together as a people. >> senator ben sasse considers leaving the gop every morning, but he's dragged by those who say why don't you? >> he's been saying this for two years. yes, it's making a lot of news and sexy and we like to cover it because republicans thinking of leaving the republican party. this is something that you hear from him and others in the party that are frustrated with the side show happening in the white house. >> what are they doing? the trump folks, who are conservative, who go, okay, what are you going to do? >> there's a lot of frustration and you see the friction that happens over and over again. he g

there was a moment when ben sasse who has been resisting trump for most of the trump presidency, but he in many ways i think today was the republican stand out in this committee. let's watch. >> the reason these hearings don't work is not because of donald trump or anything in the last 20 months. these confirmation hearings haven't worked for 31 years in america. the hysteria around supreme court confirmation hearings is coming from the fact that we have a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the supreme court in american life. judge kavanaugh doesn't hate women and children, judge kavanaugh doesn't lust after dirty water and stinky error. -- air. no, looking at his record it seems to me that what he actually dislikes are legislators that are too lazy and too risk averse to do our actual jobs. >> laura: while presented and well done. i know you've been following this minute-by-minute, i knew it was going to be raucous, but i confess, i actually thought this was -- and i guess i am still naive in certain ways. i thought this was even below where someone like the theatrical book

you have people like ben sasse. >> oh, yes. >> fascinating interview with jake tapper yesterday morning and he was highly critical of the party as a whole -- not just the white house but the party as a whole. let's listen to the senator. >> i'm committed to the party of lincoln and regulagan, as long there's a chance to reform it. this party used to be for some pretty definable stuff. frankly, neither of these parties are for very much more than being anti. >> he also said, alex, and i'm paraphrasing, he wakes up every morning, every morning and thinks about potentially becoming an independent and leaving the republican party. the question that jake asked him out of it is what are you doing about it, right? what is he doing about it? >> that is the question that's very, very tough for a lot of the president's critics in congre congress, for his own party to answer. you do have power as a senator to, you know, exercise your leverage, obstruct an agenda. >> banking, armed services committees. he is powerful. >> folks on the democratic side on the left who have this view that unless you be

ben sasse of nebraska said this is not a banana republican. this is not a two-tier system. one for the majority party and one for the minority party. we will see how the fallout today continues on this as republicans and democrats return to capitol hill from the labor day weekend. christine and dave. >> jeff zeleny, thank you. >>> new yorker magazine disinvited steve bannon. as the headliner of the festival and former chief strategist doesn't like it. the editor in chief rescinded the invitation. this comes after several big name participants claimed they would not join. after the bannon participation, jim carrey and judd apatow said they would not take part. apatow tweeting i will not take part in the event that normalizes hate. >> in a letter to the staff, he said he will interview bannon if the opportunity presents itself. bannon said he accepted the invitation to face-off against one of the fearless journalists. he goes on to say, what i would call a defining moment, he showed he was gutless when confronted by the howling online mob. >>> the head of nbc news and ro rona

republican senator ben sasse, at risk of becoming a banana republic he said.tment of justice should be doing on criminal wrongdoing. >> talk about what this all means going forward. if jeff sessions does, in fact, exit or fegetfired, what the president expects from an incoming attorney general, how could this complicate the semp f search for a successor? >> shows the needle that needs to be thread on this. the president wants the attorney general ho be loyal to him and a lot of people on the hill will defend that department's independence. an attorney general for the nation not the president. it's that key tension between the way the president views his lawyers and the way government lawyers tend to act. i think if attorney general does lose his job, after the midterm election, very difficult to replace him because of those competing viewpoints. >> and not to mention how the outcome is impacted. >> absolutely. >> reading axios a.m. in a bit. to all viewers out there, you can sign up for the newsletter going to signup.axios.com. that does it for us. "morning jo

i think one of the most interesting speeches today was ben sasse, senator ben sasse who basically gave a schoolhouse rock of the three branches of government, and the role of the legislature is supposed to play. article one of the constitution. he's going to be on the show tonight and we're going to ask him about all that. >> greg: nice plug. >> jesse: i believe we have dana perino up and ready. >> dana: hi, guys. >> jesse: i know you have a lot of inside sources over there on capitol hill. what are you hearing? who do you feel won? did the republicans think they had a good day or did the democrats think because they created all this drama, did the democrats feel like they scored big at today's hearing? >> dana: the republicans think they are playing a longer game. the reason we have these hearings is, as bret said, it's part of the process. if you're republican and you're in the trump white house, you're thinking four days of a hearing for a lifetime appointment to the supreme court, not so bad. i think democrats might've thought they got some shots in today but they are kind of ephem