don mcgahn accomplished a considerable amount for this president. not only did he probably stop president trump from doing god knows what else that was outside of democratic norms and institutions, he got two supreme court justices through, which was pretty much the main reason why don mcgahn stayed around. i've known don mcgahn's wife for a long time, he's been a stalwart in the conservative movement for two decades. so don mcgahn was probably one of the blessings in disguise for trump keeping that chaos in the white house together. the fact that he would dress him down at all while he left, that's part of trump's personality. he does it all the time. he doesn't appreciate the people who try to protect him and protect the office of the presidency. i hope that someone, whoever replaces don mcgahn, is able to contain the president moving into the latter half of this term because that's a really important position. and i want to echo angela's criticism of paul ryan, you're 100% right. he's been one of the biggest disappointments to me as a conservativ

he reports white house counsel don mcgahn grumbled to his friends in late august that his expected exit announced by president trump on twitter without even a warning. don was surprised and a little annoyed but eventually shrugged it off, said a person close to mcgahn. it seems like the last little bump in the road. but then there was a car wreck ahead. that car wreck was the kavanaugh nomination fight. the post goes on to weapon tempers have flared in the fallout over the allegations against kavanaugh. both inside the administration and on capitol hill. where mcgahn's tight grip over the fbi's investigation of ford's claims have sparked sharp questions from both parties about the increased scope and extent to which the white house is limiting the probe. "washington post" national political reporter robert costa joins the conversation now. robert, it's an incredible piece of reporting about someone at the center of so many of these central story lines. our friends at "the new york times" reported it was mcgahn who spent 30 hours interviewing with the special counsel. mcgahn at the cente

he thinks don mcgahn was his private lawyer.t like his private lawyers, he keeps getting rid of them. this is someone who thinks that a bad result is the fault of the people around him, not the underlying conduct. he's the one who fired james comey. he's the one who told lester holt he fired him because of the russia investigation. this is all on him, but he lashes out at the people he holds responsible. >> everybody stick around, hold on, there's a lot more we're following. there's other important news as well, including this. russia announcing plans to test missiles near a major nato military exercise. >>> plus, the growing concern over russia's submarine fleet and very aggressive efforts to modernize it. ndshield fixed. with safelite, you can see exactly when we'll be there. saving you time for what you love most. >> kids: whoa! >> kids vo: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace ♪ your insurance rates skyrocket you could fix it with a pen. how about using that pen to sign up for new insurance instead? for drivers with accident f

he liked what white house counsel don mcgahn did. he was clearly bitter about the fact the mueller investigation the russia probe continues. >> let's not forget, mcgahn had been in with mueller's team courting extensively with him over self days of interviews. the president was sort of surprised when reports surfaced about this, several months ago, he didn't realize the extent of mcgahn's operation, it was also in his mindset as he was having this good-bye conversation and being fixated on mueller. >> gloria sort of underscores how potentially nervous the president is about this whole russia probe. >> sure. >> he has no idea what mueller really has. >> let me emphasize, mcgahn and the president have not been exactly bffs for a very long time. don't forget that there were stories that the president actually asked mcgahn to tell the attorney general jeff sessions to fire the special counsel. and i'm assuming mcgahn did not do that, although he may have met with sessions, i do believe. so this relationship has been really fraught. he kno

don mcgahn is now 9 white house counsel. he's fairly closely aligned, looped in. brett kavanaugh is part of that circle of people as well. they have planned this out very carefully. it's not just the supreme court either, as tim was alluding to, either. this has been mitch mcconnell's agenda for a long time, to get as many judges to feed that pipeline. it's not something that democrats have done, not something that democratic voters have been as focused on frankly. >> that will change. >> there was a lot of talk did erg this battle about it wasn't fair, republicans made the point privately and publicly to try to make brett kavanaugh answer for all of the sins of all of the assailants of these women coming forward saying they had these things happen to him. it may have been true. it was a confirmation fight over him, but you better believe in this debate that's going to go on in the next few weeks running up to the midterm elections, it's going to be a proxy fipgt. this is going to become a real issue animating democrats as well as republicans. >> gloria, we knew a

i feel like he's a favorite of don mcgahns. they have come up through conservative legal circles together and he is also very close to leonard leo who runs a conservative group called the federalist society. i think what is interesting is if the vote doesn't end up going through even though the white house is confident, we will see president trump very quickly turn on republican lawmakers on this including don mcgahn and leonard leo and the senators and distance himself. and i think the way that he'll do that is by calling out that kavanaugh used to work in the bush administration and using that as a bit of a diss or distancing mechanism. of a diss r distancing mechanism a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget. i'm 65 and take medications. what's my price? you can get coverage for $9.95 a month. i just turned 80. what's my price? $9.95 a month for you, too. if you're age 50 to 85, call now about the number one most popular whole life insurance plan available through the colonial pe

i feel like he's a favorite of don mcgahns.hrough conservative legal circles together and he is also very close to leonard leo who runs a conservative group called the federalist society. i think what is interesting is if the vote doesn't end up going through even though the white house is confident, we will see president trump very quickly turn on republican lawmakers on this including don mcgahn and leonard leo and the senators and distance himself. and i think the way that he'll do that is by calling out that kavanaugh used to work in the bush administration and using that as a bit of a diss or distancing mechanism. >> that's interesting. on that front, eli, when we hear ben sass say it shouldn't surprise us that trump attacked dr. ford, is that a senator wanting to have it both ways, wanting us to react with surprise that he's so up front in his criticism of the president, even though he's a consistent and anticipatable yes? >> yes, it is. and he's -- ben sass is sort of the poster child for that behavior. but he's certainl

the white house counsel's office as news broke that don mcgahn is headed for the exit.flood will fill that role while they wait for new pick hap sipiloni to start. typically the person stays on until the person is going to tin. the president and mcgahn had had a contentious relationship. the mcgwyn met with special counsel robert mueller, news that caught the president off guard and mcgahn was tired of the president and the president was tired of mcgahn. cnn's jessica dean joins us. is there any indication that the president will have a better relationship with the new guy sipiloni than he did with don mcgahn. >> i spoke with a lawyer who worked with the special counsel under president trump, and he told me president trump is comfortable with pat sipaloni who has been acting as an adviser to them and the two have already established a rapport. i'm told that this hiring comes down to one thing, that the trump white house gearing up for a partisan battle should the democrats take control of the house. new white house counsel will have his hands full, stepping into the job

." >> nartor: yates would head to the office of the new white house counsel, don mcgahn. >> don mcgahn is a kind of stalwart conservative lawyer. not someone who has a record oft service with department of justice. kt someone who's been schooled in exactly theds of questions. >> narrator: yates and her deputy, mary mccord, told mcgahn nthat michael flynn had b lying. >> i think that, you know, for a person who'd been in office for six days, it was surprising information to learn and just took a little bit of time to process. ti >> what the attorney general was saying to the white house counsel, "you have someoni working inbuilding, in this west wing, who is compromised." >> narrator: they believed the information they gave mcgahn would force the president to act. >> it's clear that yates and mccord believe this is a ver vulnerable situation for the white hous as well as for mr. flynn. and they presume that the white house would fire him. >> narrator: that same day,mc gahn went to see the president. he told him that the highest levels of the justice department believed that flynn had be

. >>> including white house counsel don mcgahn is on his way out and the president is moving forward on mcgahn's placement. >> a polio like illness across the country. they believe it could get worse and what you can do to protect your family and what this is all about. >>> and "saturday night live," listen. you know when you saw this this week that "snl" would have their own take on it. kanye west oval office meeting with president trump. somebody say he was rambling about everything and simultaneous nothing, really. we have the best moments from last night's show ahead. >> trap doors lead to the union a bomb unabomber and the media needs to make my wife look good. of course i have- ever since i started renting from national. because national lets me lose the wait at the counter... ...and choose any car in the aisle. and i don't wait when i return, thanks to drop & go. at national, i can lose the wait...and keep it off. looking good, patrick. i know. (vo) go national. go like a pro. acidic foods can your enamel is very precious. wear away your enamel. your tooth is going to look yel

. >> but the white house isn't saying -- don mcgahn what he asked in terms of the fbi investigation.> they are not saying directly. but if you read between the lines, you know that it was very limited in scope. a, it was supposed to be less than a week. last friday when the president first issued this directive, he said it was limited in scope. so we do know don mcgahn, white house counsel, his top job in this administration is getting the confirmation of judge kavanaugh through. making him a justice. so to get to and then, they definitely wanted to limit it in scope. so the white house did not want either professor ford or judge kavanaugh to be a part this fbi background check. the white house says it is the senate, the senate says it is the white house. the white house orders all of this. at some point we'll find out, but we do know it was very limited. >> the white house is the client. and it seems that while they keep playing no, they decided, no, they decided, it seems that in the end the president is the client, don mcgahn. and if was limited, it was limited -- >> we know it wa

parameters of the fbi investigation. >> white house counsel don mcgahn? >> yes, white house counsel. and i just signed on to a letter with all the democratic members of the committee, and said here is a list of the people you ought to be talking to. >> and are these people, potentialnesses, college classmates and should alcohol, what he did in terms of his drinking and whether or not, as you have suggested, whether or not he lied to the economy about his drinking habits and other aspects of his college years. >> it's not about whether he drank or not. but whether he lied about it. and the picture that is painted is that this is a person who drank a lot. not just in high school but also in college, and that when he drank, he would become very belligerent and aggressive. he said no, i never did any of that and there are plenty of people coming forward, even today saying that when they listened to him testifying before our committee to that effect, it's just so unbelievable that they are coming forward and these are all the people that need to be interviewed

. ♪ >>> rare footage uncovered of lawyer and guitarist don mcgahn.e if we'll see him playing in the washington metropolitan area now that he is no longer white house counsel. he left the job after his most consequential assignment guiding judge kavanaugh through the process. he's charged with helping the president pack the court with conservative judges. the folks he's managed to get through. talking about the long legacy. couldn't pick out all the faces in the picture but an astonishing montage what this administration has been able to do in the first term. >> and look at the supreme court. two justices. that kavanaugh battle, ultimate victory the president is saying will be a campaign issue, but another side to don mcgahn. that's the don mcgahn -- >> three sides. >> well -- two different tunes and the other -- you know, part of the musical composition is the don mcgahn who reportedly spent more than 30 hours speaking with robert mueller. information that the white house has no idea about the scope or the details and i find his legacy so fascinate.

18 days that robert mueller has been looking at when flynn was a national security adviser and don mcgahn who was approached by sally yates and the doj saying that we think that your national security adviser may have lie nod the fbi, and mcgahn of information no the president. and so he was in a key piece to understand who knew what when and he has another shoe to drop as far as what he knows. >> and so the people who are watching this network and paying attention hear rudy giuliani all of the time setting the deadlines and disappeared and nothing happened and what can do you make of the fact that we have not heard from rudy giuliani? >> well, it is a good time for the defense, because it needs more discipline, and it also may mean that the an agreement has been reached or a large part of the agreement has been reached with mueller's office of how he is going to communicate what he is prepared to communicate in briting and also some progress of whether he is going to actually provide any personal or direct testimony. >> thank you so much, and nice to see you in person and julia, always n

we know that don mcgahn is on the hill, white house counsel don mcgahn. know what he's doing there? >> he's likely talking to senators trying to get a state of play and trying to figure out if there's anything the white house can do to push this over the line. as i said, the president really wants to be personally involved as much as he can be in swaying these final votes for brett kavanaugh and trying to pull this over the line, so in some ways that's what don mcgahn is doing. i should say president trump sensed early on that brett kavanaugh's nomination could be a rallying cry for republicans across the country. in a lot of ways he's right. there's a new poll out that showed the enthusiasm cap between republicans and democrats if the midterm elections has almost all but evaporated. over 80% of republicans and 80% of democrats said they thought these midterm elections were very important. i think about that interview that morgan radford did with that voter that's saying some of the things that president trump is saying. she's echoing the president's lang

the client in this case is don mcgahn at the white house, the white house councisel.duct and the main sponsors of the nomination. so therefore you have an inherent kind of conflict built into this process. i think that conflict is going to be played out and teased out over the days to come. >> everybody knew, frank, that was the case from the very beginning. everybody knew that was going to be the case, because it's the white house that orders it up. right now we have a lot of complaints coming in that this is only a week, which of course i think is laughable. everybody was saying, let's just get a week. so democrats get a week and everybody's rubbing their hands together saying this is not enough, this is a sham. others are suggesting the scope be expanded. i don't know how far you expand the scope when you only have a week to investigate. those were the parameters agreed to. and it seems to me if you just take the dr. ford incident that she alleges happens and you take the five witnesses that were there and then you take the yale incident and try to get the five, si

what got me upset in the hearing was judge kavanaugh turned to don mcgahn. if you are truly innocent, asked to expand this investigation, what are you hiding? this is not the soviet union, this is america. that is what got me going. i think the accusation was made by dr. ford, and i listened. she was heard i think she was , treated respectfully, because everybody deserves that. i say, what do i have? i don't have a location, the corroborating witnesses go the other way, and everything else in the record i know about brett kavanaugh is he is not bill cosby and he is not harvey weinstein. this is about power, it's not about sex, and if you are a serial rapist and you drug people in high school, you don't get over it. this is about power. every woman in the workplace who has been supervised by brett kavanaugh has nothing but good things to say. it doesn't add up to me. the third accusation is complete garbage that he was a gang rapist. jeffrey: stay on dr. ford for a second. i am curious about this. you are a former prosecutor. you understand in any of these si

this comes after don mcgahn's departure yesterday. flood certains as special counsel to the president. we'll be right back. across cars, trucks and suvs-three years in a row. phew. third time's the charm... your insurance rates skyrocket you could fix it with a pen. how about using that pen to sign up for new insurance instead? for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ i'm still giving it my best even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin, i'm up for that. eliquis. eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. eliquis is fda-approved and has both. so what's next? seeing these guys. don't stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as s

don mcgahn is the architect of this. he is also white house counsel. as of a couple of weeks ago, there have not been a decision made on exactly how to replace don mcgahn. he made clear he was likely to leave after kavanaugh. the president did a you can't quit. i fire you and put out a statement he would be leaving. i don't know if that means he will leave right now or after the midterms. there have been discussions about the possibility of some kind of a co-white house counsel where you would have someone serve along with emmitt flood. you could have all kinds of -- if the house flips they're going to be facing a flurry of subpoenas and whoever is in that seat will be vital. >> very last question quickly, the investigation and who wrote the anonymous op-ed? >> i'm not part that have investigation but they made a big display insisting there was not an investigation even though there certainly were cursory, at least, looks into it when it happened. i think that was done frankly mirror so to tell the president they were doing it. and would like to have t

and yeah, there's not a lot of love lost at this point between president trump and don mcgahn.te farewell meeting yesterday before he decided to leave the white house, but mcgahn is someone who has threatened to quit on a number of occasions. he and the president have had a rocky relationship, but he felt like he was accomplishing a lot in his job at the white house in shepherding two supreme court nominees to be justices as well as remaking the court system by naming judges to these lower courts. i think he wanted to stick it out as long as he could, but both sides acknowledged now was the time to move on. >> as long as he could became shorter. >> just in for us, new details about the fight of the future home of the fbi and what role the president played in it, including a secret meeting in the oval office about the renovation projects of the fbi. lauren fox is in washington right now. she's joining me now with more details on this. remind viewers what this is all about. and also, these new details of what you're learning now. >> that's right. new documents show that president

>> i don't think don mcgahn would do that but i've not talked to him about it.ity me make cle let me make clear we're not trying to interfere. it's the president saying go ahead. it's the republican senators, senator flake and others who said please go forward with this fbi investigation. >> if you parse every word there from kellyanne conway with my colleague jake tapper, you can see she leaves a little wiggle room there, room for gray in her answer about this. but given the questions here, michael, about limitations, do you see this as an investigation that can really bear anything new? >> if the investigators have free reign to follow the leads, then they could perhaps come to some determination about what ford said and what kavanaugh said. if they are circumscribe, they can only speak to known witnesses and that's it, then this is not really an investigation. it's the appearance of an investigation with no real authority to proceed. in these background investigations, always the last question the investigator asks the witness is who else should i speak to th

you've been hearing it, that the president's final meeting with his then white house counsel, don mcgahnhat great. the president basically blaming mcgahn for the creation of the robert mueller special investigation. what's your analysis? >> let's just say, i don't find it really surprising. they haven't been bffs for quite some time, barely talk to each other, i've been told by one source. and don't forget their history here. remember, trump wanted mcgahn to go to sessions, to urge him to unrecuse himself from the russia investigation. and that didn't go so well. and then he wanted to -- mueller fired. and he went into mcgahn and said, you know, i want mueller fired, figure out how to do it. and mcgahn said i'm not going to do that. and apparently threatened to quit over it. so -- and don't also forget that he's testified at great length before the special counsel. donald trump really doesn't know what he said before the special counsel. and so they've had this precarious relationship, because he is a key witness in the mueller investigation. and he works in the white house. so i'm not s

reports tonight trump had a never disclosed blow out with don mcgahn blaming him for the entire mueller probe. mcgahn is at the center because trump once asked him to fire mueller, which mueller told him about in more than 30 hours of questioning. cnn reporting the trump grouft about the cloud, the investigation is casting over his presidency with trump fixated on mueller. meanwhile roger stone hiring a new lawyer who arranged a lie detector test to basically try to corroborate roger stone's statements about wikileaks, which comes amidst new reports this week that mueller has obtained any evidence on stone. those 2016 conference calls where stone touts his access to julian assange and talks of future information dumps. >> in the background of this entire race going forward, the fact that julian assange, who say anything you want about him, he's not a fool, is going to continue to drop information on the american voters that are going to roil this race. he's made that very clear. >> so that part is in public view. the audio obviously leaked. behind the scenes there is also a sealed effor

. >> yamiche, new white house counsel is in now, don mcgahn's out. what do we know about the replacement, and what do we know about some of the challenges that she faces? >> well, the channels that that person faces really are whether or not president trump can heed that person's advice. don mcgahn was seen as someone who at least he told some friends according to the new york times that he stopped the president from firing robert mueller. what you saw in don mcgahn was someone who was loyal to the president but also acting as a barrier when it came to him acting on his gut feelings and his feeling as though this whole thing was hoax and he needed to get personally involved in the mueller investigation. this new person is going to have to decide how strong they want to be with president trump and if they're going to start to insist that president trump back down or if the president's going to be, as he said in a couple interviews, that he's going to start to try to get involved. he says i've been holding back from the mueller investigation, but maybe

does he have to call don mcgahn and say i need clarity. at the end of this, we know the president attacked the fbi repeatedly and they have been reluctantly in the middle of the dram a. you do not want to come out of this with more questions about the fbi. how do you get clarity on what you are supposed to do right now? >> i think one problem with this, we all watch a lot of tv and think this is a full-blown fbi investigation. i don't think it's happening like that. they have a certain number of people. i don't get the sense that they are going to move far beyond that party and then the yale incident. i think they are working within the parameters. the big problem is the way this came together. there was thrown together very quickly. there was no real arrangement made about who was in and who was out and how to do it. they gavelled that vote through as quick as they could. this is what we are stuck with today. i will continue to say the people who can tomorrow the scope of this investigation are those people. they can object and say this w

don mcgahn is officially out as white house counsel and his replacement is emmet flood, now flood wasg as white house lawyer for the mueller investigation. he was also as we mentioned counsel to bill clinton during some of the tensest times this that administration, impeachment and may have to deal with his predecessor's testimony. "the new york times" reporting mcgahn cooperated extensively with mueller sitting for three interviews up to 30 hours dishing on the comey firing, donald trump's anger at jeff sessions and his attempts to fire mueller which could be an issue. flood said it could pull him away from one of the main reasons, to represent another president in an expected impeachment proceeding. his job is to focus squarely on the office of the presidency. we turn to an expert and friend of "the beat," joyce lance and msnbc legal analyst. joyce, speaking lawyer to lawyer, a lot of regular people would say, okay, they're moving around the lawyers. who cares. but actually walk us through why these are such distinct roles and why you think it might matter. >> it looks like they're

appreciation to scalia, the wife of the late great antonin scalia and also to our white house counsel don mcgahn. thank you, don. [applause] >> we are thrilled to be joined this evening by justice anthony kennedy. justice kennedy, america owes you a profound debt of gratitude for a lifetime of noble service to our nation and i want to thank you very much. [applause] >> very special and treasured guests tonight are justice kavanaugh's amazing wife ashley. thank you, ashley. [cheers and applause] >> and their two beautiful daughters, margaret and liza. [cheers and applause] >> and we are also joined by justice kavanaugh's mom and dad, martha and ed. thank you. [applause] >> i would like to begin tonight's proceeding differently than perhaps any other event of such magnitude. on behalf of our nation, i want to apologize to brett and the entire kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure. those who stepped forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation, not a campaign of political and personal destruction, based on lies and deception. wha

on president trump in the white house once again to release in writing what white house counsel don mcgahn has instructed the fbi to pursue. until then, we have to take president trump's off-the-cuff comments with perhaps grains of salt. we have to be shown that that what he said is actually being implemented. now let me read you a few quotes. the supreme court must never, never be viewed as a partisan institution. that's judge kavanaugh. his 2006 confirmation hearings. here's one more from a speech judge kavanaugh gave in 2015. most obviously, a judge cannot be a political partisan. i think most americans would agree with that. i certainly do. a lodestar if our consideration of judicial confirmations should be whether a nominee is independent and within the ideological mainstream. the judge kavanaugh we saw last thursday did not meet the standard laid out in his past statements. his prepared statement to the committee, prepared -- if you will, malice aforethought -- accused sitting u.s. senators of a phony smear campaign lambasted, quote, left-wing opposition groups and portrayed the rece

although she admitted she did not know whether white house counsel don mcgahn had told the fbi specifically who they could or could not interview or which questions could be asked. dave and christine. >> boris, thank you. a yale classmate claims brett kavanaugh is not telling the truth about his drinking habits in college. chad ludington says the judge was a frequent and heavy drinker and mischaracterizes his conduct at yale in the senate testimony. ludington said he often drank with kavanaugh. he made small contributions to democrat candidates. >> jeff flake telling "60 minutes" that kavanaugh's nomination is done if he lied to the committee. flake backed kavanaugh in the committee vote, but said he would not vote for him on the senate floor without an fbi investigation. >> what are you doing, sir? >> the decision to bring the process to a halt followed that confrontation with the two women in the capitol hill elevator. the senator claiming the decision of not running for re-election allowed him to act. >> could you have done this if you were running for re-election? >> not a chance. >> no

our ranking member, senator feinstein, wrote to white house counsel don mcgahn and f.b.i. director christopher wray the day after the investigation began to require a copy of the written directive sent by the white house to the f.b.i. she got no response. the following day many other members of the committee also wrote to mr. mcgahn and director wray about the supplemental investigation. in addition to repeating the ranking member's request for an explanation of the scope of the investigation, we also asked that it be comprehensive. we wanted all serious allegations against the nominee to be investigated. and of course we would expect in a comprehensive investigation that all appropriate witnesses be questioned. we asked that the f.b.i. perform all logical steps related to these allegations, including of course interviewing other individuals who might have relevant information and gathering evidence related to the truthfulness of statements made in relation to these allegations. we got no response. just yesterday i joined a letter with many of my committee colleagues askin

maureen scalia, the wife of the late great antonin scalia, and also to our white house counsel don mcgahn, thank you, don. we are thrilled to be joined this evening by justice anthony kennedy. justice kennedy, america owes you a profound debt of gratitude for a lifetime of noble service to our nation. and i want to thank you very much. very special and treasured guests tonight are justice kavanaugh's amazing wife ashley. thank you, ashley. and their two beautiful daughters, margaret and liza. and we are also joined by justice kavanaugh's mom and dad, martha and ed. thank you. i would like to begin tonight's proceeding differently than perhaps any other event of such magnitude. on behalf of our nation, i want to apologize to brett and the entire kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure. those who step forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation. not a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception. what happened to the kavanaugh family violates every notion of fairness, decency and due process.

we know don mcgahn is very involved in this. he could say deal with other than senators and say this is really what we want. don't the instructions always come from the white house to the fbi? >> remember a couple of things. this is mcgahn's legacy and getting this guy confirmed. he has no interest if a broad investigation that may torpedo this nomination. this is why dianne feinstein said give us the written order that defines the terms was investigation. until we see that, we don't know whether this investigation is real or show. >> doesn't he need to please people like jeff flake? >> if he's happy with what comes in, he will vote. he premisesed that and said if he's not happy, he might not. >> i think they presume to be quite honest in talking to people this morning. they presumed that they have got flake's vote, actually in the end. i don't know if they are right about that. that's one of the reasons mitch mcconnell was willing to go along with this because he said i'm going to get flake as a result and maybe susan collins a

. >> two sources tell cnn the lead advocate for kavanaugh, white house counsel don mcgahn is working with senate republicans to make the view as narrow as possible. >> it's limited in spoke. not meant to be a fishing expedition. >> senator dianne feinstein requesting a copy of the white house's directive laying out the parameters of the investigation. >> to limit the fbi as to the scope and who they are going to question, that really -- i wanted to use the word farce, but that's not the kind of investigation that all of us are expecting the fbi to conduct. >> president trump pushing back charging that nothing will ever be enough for democrats. >> the white house counsel allowed the senate to dictate what the terms look like and what the scope of the investigation is. >> you can't interview this morning or look at this time period is, and only these people from this side of the street from when they were growing up. i mean, come on. >> reporter: a key point of last week's hearing is not part of the probe. >> you are asking about blackouts, but i don't know, have you? >> reporter: in d

cnn as learned that president trump blamed his former white house counsel, don mcgahn

maureen scalia, the wife of the late great antonin scalia, and also to our white house counsel don mcgahn. thank you, don. thank you. we are thrilled to be joined this evening by justice anthony kennedy. justice kennedy, america owes you a profound debt of gratitude for a lifetime of noble service to our nation, and i want to thank you very much. thank you. very special and treasured guests tonight are justice kavanaugh's amazing wife ashley. thank you, ashley. and their two beautiful daughters, margaret and liza. thank you. and we are also joined by justice kavanaugh's mom and dad, martha and ed. thank you. i would like to begin tonight's proceeding differently than perhaps any other event of such magnitude. on behalf of our nation, i want to apologize to brett and the entire kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure. those who step forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation, not a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception. what happened to the kavanaugh family violates every notion of fa

just this week don mcgahn left his job.ad althe white house is on its second chief of staff, s thirdl security adviser, and its fifth communications director. the person with me most note worthy and shortest stint in th west w one of those five, anthony scaramucci, who led the white house media shop for 11 days. he's out with a new book about is time in president trump's orbit, particularly before he became president. "trump, the blue car esident". welcome to "meet the press". >> happy sunday. >> the timing of your book coming out comes as we got reports of a screaming match between a former boss of yours, jo kelly, current chief of staff, the national security adviser john bol ton ovton over issue immigration. according to our sources, over comments the national security adviser made to the secretary of homeland security. john kelly apparently walked out furious. there wasumors of potential resignations. how pham wfamiliar was that sce you? >> was there anyro nity? >> probable some profanity. >> really, it's not that famili to me. my incident was on a phone line with a report where

that's because don mcgahn is playing the long game.yes, will there be an asterisk next to his name? absolutely. will people believe his opinions aren't just in time, absolutely. will it matter? absolutely not: whether or not you think his opinion is legitimate, it is still going to be the opinion of a supreme court justice cement ing a goal that the republican party has been pursuing since the '80s with intense focus to create a very conservative supreme court. if the democrats don't like it, then they need to get out and start winning some elections. this idea of the blue wave and women are going to come out and the polls, et cetera, et cetera, it actually surprises me that democrats believe that this is a done deal. it's almost like they don't remember 2016 when all the polgz said hillary clinton was going to win and there was going to be a wave of women supporting her. we saw a wave of women support trump and a silent majority. if you are a republican today, you might not like trump, but he just delivered for you. you have two left-

job, everything in the administration goes through white house counsel. >> the last hurrah for don mcgahndy for immigration to come back to the political frame. two competitive house races in iowa and a third in omaha, nebraska. mollie tibbetts who was killed in iowa is a favorite talk ck point of the president. he's been talking about democrats, calling them the party of crime. they've got no answer to that right now. a lot of immigration down the stretch. >> candidates are filing third quarter fund raising reports now. a few filed this week, most are due next week. the one i'll keep my eye on, beto o'rourke. ted cruz filed $12 million this year. o'rourke's could be twice that. >> we expect to have a big night with him by the way before the election down there in texas. do you think he's going to win? >> texas is texas. it's a tough race. if he's got a vote polling operation, he's got a shot. >> curious, hottest race in the country. >> very unlikely to win. 5% chance. >> what's the margin of error? >> within four. >> so you guys think he runs for president? >> even if he loses by a coupl

nbc news obtained a letter send sunday from diane feinstein to don mcgahn and chris wray asking for aive that expand the scope of this probe involving brett kavanagh. >>> we're also learning more about what happened behind the scenes to force that fbi investigation. in fact, early friday senator jeff flake announced that he would vote to advance brett kavanaugh's nomination from the judiciary committee, but then two things happened. a, he was cornered in an elevator by two assault survivors who demanded he explain his support of kavanaugh. and b, hours later there was the moment during friday's committee meeting when flake's friend and committee member chris coons implored his colleagues to let the fbi investigate. >> when you were making that compromise proposal, you were lobbying your friend, senator flake. >> yes. >> you didn't expect to change the minds of other republicans, you were trying to change one mind? >> i was principally concerned about helping my friend listen to his doubts and his conscious. >> reporter: after he floated his compromise, republican jeff flake stood up a

key senators, several political or top aides in the white house and including white house counsel don mcgahn advised him to come out and come out swinging during that testimony. so that is why we're seeing him apologize now. but you've got to remember, don, when he came out, he said, i wrote this myself last night and yesterday afternoon. so clearly he spent a lot of time on that opening statement where he said this is a political hit job and revenge for working on ken starr's team during the clinton presidency. that's something he wrote himself and he put a lot of thought into before he came forward and testified. but in the white house's view and in most of his pusupporters view, they stand by him and his behavior last week. they believe he is defending himself against the nature of the allegations made against him. don that is certainly not the way his critics see it. that is not the way democrats see it. but the question and the only thing that really matters here tonight is how susan collins, lisa murkowski, jeff flake and those other key votes see this apology and if they think it's ge

don mcgahn left, and we know he left on bad terms with the president, reporting that may or may not have come from him, a line of defense stopping the president from doing that. there is this gathering dread, anticipation of the day after the election when mueller's no longer in this sort of window, who moves what and how? >> yeah, that's right. if you look at where he's going with the investigation, it's clear that some pieces of it are winding up, you know, mike flynn is going to be sentenced in december. a couple of prosecutors have gone back to their home offices. there are very clearly other issues to drop. roger stone seems significant, and whether there will be other americans charged on the conspiracy or collusion side of this equation. so when you look at what happens after the election, i think with -- you know, with the white house counsel don mcgahn leaving, he was not a white house counsel who could push back against investigations, he was a cooperating witness, he spent 30 hours talking to the counsel. the president has a team around him who can both kind of push back again

she spoke to white house counsel, don mcgahn and discussed that desire to see the fbi work, as it would on any case with free reign on who they need to talk to to run down the allegations. like wise, senator susan collins said in an interview in portland, maine, she wants to see all these allegations investigated to their fullest extent. to mcconnell's time line, he has a bunch of senators saying it is not enough. they want it to be a broad, fulso fulsome investigation of the clai claims brought here. >> i expect more developments over there in the next hour. stay close to a camera for us. >>> new this morning, nbc news obtained text messages that shows how kavanaugh was trying to counter the claims of ramirez. before it became public, kavanaugh and his team were communicating behind the scenes with friends in days leading up to the article. one says i am in receipt of text messages of debbie ramirez and mine that raise questions related to the allegations. i have not drown conclusions what the texts mean or may not mean. i believe they merit investigation by the fbi and the senate. her

don mcgahn is still inside the white house. so this was going to be a rollout. but as often happens unscripted in this trump presidency, this was done in an associated press interview yesterday. >> really quiet before the storm. that's going to be very lively right after the mid terms. thanks very much for that excellent reporting, evan perez. we're going to stay on top of breaking news. i want to turn to another major story unfolding today. as turkish investigators in hazmat suits searched the saudi counsel general's residence for evidence of the likely murder of a u.s.-based journalist. and as sources connect a top saudi intelligence figure directly to this case, president trump is soft-pedaling the saudi role. let's go to jeff zeleny. what's the latest over there, jeff? >> reporter: wolf, even with the growing and grisly evidence of saudi arabia's suspected involvement, the president is taking a wait and see approach. not waiting for u.s. intelligence, but waiting for saudi arabia to conduct an investigation of itself. the president was talking more about the