>> all right, john meacham, and thank you all for being on this monday morning. >>> coming up republicans celebrate their supreme court victory with beers and bubbly for brett. plus senate majority leader mitch mcconnell claims the senate is not broken while appearing to change his standards for confirming justices. robert costa joins us with his latest reporting. "morning joe" is back in just a moment. " is back jinust a moment you're headed down the highway when the guy in front slams on his brakes out of nowhere.

presidential historian, msnbc contributor john meacham, professor at vanderbilt university. moments from now we're going to cover it closely when susan collins takes the floor of the united states senate to announce her decision. chris, it will come in the form of a speech. she may not say it off the top. why do you think it is happening this way, what do you think she will do? >> i don't know why she's stretched it out like this. she voted for cloture. looks like the republicans will add two seats to the supreme court, and probably have an opportunity next two years to do it again. looks like the senate will hold. they're in very strong position to really give the shape of the supreme court for years and decades to come. that's the big trump victory. >> chris, your surprise will come if susan collins says she will not support brett kavanaugh. >> that would be calamitous for every republican. that would mean joe manchin is in play. i don't think he wants to be the decisive vote for confirmation as a democrat. it is one thing to be an outlier, but to be the one that puts him

also with us tonight, pulitzer prize-winning author and historian john meacham. it's been weekend since his last book came out. his latest solo effort is called "the soul of america." so john, as i hold this cooperative effort in my hand, people are going to see this cover, just that inflammatory word, and say why this topic and why now? >> it is a topic du jour, as you know, and i think peter will agree that jeff ingeal at smu caused some broken arms in making us do this. i also want to tell everyone that peter baker is in fact the teacher's pet. he filed his about six minutes after the assignment came out and it really kind of made the rest of us look really bad. it's unquestioned that impeachment has become much more of a political subject since nixon. we went a long time, really, andrew johnson all the way through until the 1970s without talking about it much. watergate changed that. it was used as a political weapon in the 1990s. my contribution here, which of course is the oldest, was that andrew johnson, who escaped only by a vote of being convicted, really

we also have john meacham. john, we don't often see two presidents from what parties on the campaign trail in the same place within two days of each other, but that's happening in nevada. how much do you see the midterms as a contrast here between the two presidents and their differing kplphilosophies? how much is a referendum on this? >> it's a huge referendum. you have competing narratives of what america is and can be. and president obama remains popular. president trump among his supporters is amazingly popular. one of the things you find when you talk to republicans around the country is if you want to know why republican senators and republican governors and republican members of the house aren't commenting on tweet by tweet by tweet, it's because they have a remarkable internal numbers showing not just 80% of republicans supporting the president but strongly supporting the president. numbers that they haven't seen before. so what i think we're going to see here is two competing stories. president trump ha

senator mcconnell: i just finished reaching john meacham's latest book, which is a trip through american history and some of the most challenging times we've had, and this is nowhere near as challenging as some of the experiences we had in the past throughout our history. the senate and the country will get past this. we always do. the geniuses who put together this constitution knew what they were doing, and we have had plenty of low points in our history. i think this is nowhere near the lowest points we have experienced. the mccarthy era, the rise of the klan in the 1920's after woodrow wilson premiered the birth of the nation in the white house, we've always had low points and we get past them. reporter: democrats are now saying senator collins is a top priority for them. senator mcconnell: she's my top priority, too. reporter: someone said under the merrick garland standards, he would not consider a supreme court nominee once the 2020 race has begun. would you agree? senator mcconnell: let's talk about 2016. i'm glad you brought it up your . you would have to go back to 1888, 1888,

joining us now is john meacham, presidential historian and an msnbc contributor. d just like to get your reaction of what we've been through since saturday through tonight. >> well, we're in one of the darker periods of a dark era, unquestionably. my own view is that to some extent we need to put the presidency in a kind of cultural time-out, if we possibly can, to the extent to which we can. the president has no interest of moral leadership. we are in an era where the climate is so toxic and so sulfurous that i worry as do you, as do so many people that we are at the beginning of something and not the end of something. and so i think -- and i think explanations like that somehow or another this is about anti-relijiosity it is about anti-american, it's about anti-semitism, it's about hate. but to suggest that somehow or another there's hostility to religion in the public square and that's leading to these acts of violence seems to be a beneath comment really. >> i want to listen to what some of donald trump had to say on saturday after -- after the massacre at the

and i agree with john meacham. we don't know how judge kavanaugh would be. i see him as a mainstream judge. he hasn't heard a single case. he hasn't written a single opinion. the legislatimacy of the court not in question in my mind. i can't imagine a scenario where one judge is going to make the legitimacy of the court unless you want to make the legitimacy of the court hinge upon things you don't agree with. the republicans are in the majority in the senate and the president is a republican. they get to choose their judge. the democrats are upset about it. the way they've conducted this hearing, i think is going to backfire. >> john meacham, before i let you get out of here, without a doubt one person bigger than brett kavanaugh, taylor swift. in the word over the past 48 hours that the music star has decided to wade into politics. she's endorsing two democrats there in your state in tennessee. one running for the senate. one running for the house. both democrats. what are people in the volunteer state saying about taylor swift? >> well, i think the striki

john meacham and peggy noonan join the conversation. be right back. ♪ at last, ♪ my love has come along, applebee's new neighborhood pastas. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. discover.o. applebee's new neighborhood pastas. i like your card, but i'm absolutely not paying an annual fee. discover has no annual fees. really? yeah. we just don't believe in them. oh nice. you would not believe how long i've been rehearsing that. no annual fee on any card. only from discover. you've i like working.areer. what if my retirement plan is i don't want to retire? then let's not create a retirement plan. let's create a plan for what's next. i like that. get a plan that's right for you. td ameritrade. ♪ makeup now optional. new aveeno® maxglow™ infusion drops with kiwi to lock moisture. and soy to even skin tone. unleash dewy, glowing skin from within. new aveeno® maxglow™. . >>> i think i've been toned down. i could tone it up because as you know the media has been extremely unfair to me and to the republican party. >>> wow. just before a m

it's hard to follow john meacham and judy woodruff, but we have a great team here. one of the great things about this team, everyone on this panel has been a scholar and everyone also has run important historic institutions. and i want to get at that in the conversation, so i'm going to start -- all good research starts with questions. but also framing. museums, framing presentations also starts with questions. so, i'm curious what questions animates your work and how do you think about the hard challenges of including voices, who to include, how do include them, in that mix, what are the questions that keep you up at night? >> that makes it sound like we're terribly worried about it. what keeps me up at night is really the excitement of what we do. and i think i'm going to speak with a little prejudice, but this is going to be the best panel of the entire conference because though we are all historians, we are all futurists. we are talking about using the past to move forward into the future. when you sort of threw that out there and i was thinking about it, i thou

john meacham, thank you. >> it will be a best certainly. he's the beyonce of the literary world.ches turns to gold. >> before we go to break i want to put out a few thank us. i had an action-packed weekend. >> talk about on saturday, the kids are still talking about it. >> friday, saturday and sunday we were busy talking about the message of the book "know your value." all day saturday with women, 500 women from the mortgage bankers association from across the country. we spent the day playing out all the tips and strategies that are laid out in the book. that's marsha davies. this is our second time part nearing and it was an fly ball day. we met some incredible women who are really stepping up and owning their voice and boy do we need to do that now more than ever. on sunday it was in the black. we talked about, i pertaining to african-american women. it was a raw and honest conversation and we talked about our shared challenges and there's much more on this issue on our website at knowyourvalue.com. thank you to marsha and linda. still ahead some of the countries in the news r

one of my favorite guests is going to join us, presidential historian, john meacham. ohn mea. comes the rain. [ horn honking ] [ engine revving ] what's that, girl? [ engine revving ] flo needs help?! [ engine revving ] take me to her! ♪ coming, flo! why aren't we taking roads?! flo. [ horn honking ] -oh. you made it. do you have change for a dollar? -this was the emergency? [ engine revving ] yes, i was busy! -24-hour roadside assistance. from america's number-one motorcycle insurer. -you know, i think you're my best friend. you don't have to say i'm your best friend. that's okay. >>> as the speeches continue there in washington, d.c., again, right now senator -- i believe it's senator cornyn. do we have a live shot? no, dick durbin's now speaking, senator from illinois speaking on the floor presumably against the confirmation of brett kavanaugh. we are going to see likely just about every u.s. senator do this over the next several hours, make floor speeches. i want to bring in presidential historian and msnbc contributor john meacham whose latest book goes right to the heart

joining us now, somebody who knows a lot about the history of gutter level political campaigns, john meachamcal historian. did we make history in the animosity, not just partisan divides, but gender divides in this country over the nomination fight of judge brett kavanaugh? >> i think we reached historic levels of exacerbation of those levels absolutely. one of the things that i find so interesting about senator collins' speech is she was voting to confirm a vision of brett kavanaugh that had far more inspect common with susan collins than it does with judge kavanaugh. if you take the first part of her speech, she was casting him as a centrist, not as a conservative, which flies in the face of the political calculus at the moment. if he was such a centrist, why is the right so determined to have this particular man on the court. and so the real brett kavanaugh, one of the questions going forward, because make no mistake, 40 years of american jurisprudence just got a shape today, 40 years. one of the things that's going to be fascinating is, is brett kavanaugh the kavanaugh who showed up -- i

still with us we have historian and author of "the soul of america" john meacham.ton university eddie glaude, jr., washington anchor the katty kay and joining the conversation white house reporter for the associated press jonathan lemire and white house correspondent for pbs news hour yamiche al sent do remember. >> jonathan lemire, our worrying led to a red sox victory last night, both of us texting each other throughout the game knowing how doomed the sox were but somehow they managed to squeak by. >> we can't get swept in the world series, that was our only goal here. the bit hit was the nunez homer. i said why are they pinch-hitting with him, the words were barely coming out of my mouth and the ball goes over the fence. yes, goodwin, good start, sale was okay, but kim ber makes me nervous as i'm sure he does you. >> willie, it all makes jonathan and i nervous. i'm just happy, i'm really happy that we won one game. i mean, that's something -- that's something that we can always -- do you know what, they can never take that away from us. >> first of all, i root f

our presidential historian, john meacham, his latest book "the battle for our angels."ing your life contemporaneous coverage, when collins stopped, you said on the air that you thought she moved this nominee to the senator. she made him a modern on the sfl fly. the first section of the speech, she walks through issues and she turned kavanaugh into a susan collins, republicans of roe v. wade and gay rights. almost she talked herself into the candidate that she wanted to vote for. the energy of behind the appointment was that he's a strong judicial conservative. he's not a judicial moderate. this nomination was the tuition because it is a swing vote that's judicial strategy that's really boring of the mid 1950s when republicans realize that they have not gotten what they really wanted from the eisenhower appointment. the cry for decade is not to be fooled again and nixon did from 68 to 74. he appointed four justice and only one of whom turned out to be conservative as the right had hoped. then you got to george bush who appointed david sutter and it was another example wh

our presidential historian, john meacham, his latest book "the soul of america, the battle for our bettere sure was a battle today. i was watching your live contemporaneous coverage when collins stopped. you said on the air that you thought she moved this nominee to the center. she kind of made him a moderate on the fly. explain. >>> if you look at the opening section of the speech, she walks through issues and she turned judge kavanagh into a susan collins republican, about roe v wade, about gay rights, a whole host of issues, almost as though she were talking herself into the candidate she wanted to vote for. the irony here, the tension is he is a strong judicial conservative, he's not a judicial moderate. in many ways, this nomination was the fruition of a strategy that's really from the 1950s when republicans realize that they have not gotten what they really wanted from the eisenhower appointment. the cry for decade is not to be fooled again and nixon did from 68 to 74. he appointed four justices, only one of whom turned out to be as conservative as the right had hoped. then you cut

joining me is historian john meacham and was with me a week ago. jeff flake then asked for this delay for further fbi investigation. john, i just want to play some sound that we got from senator murkowski a little earlier. >> i have been wrestling with whether or not this was about the qualifications of a good man or is this bigger than the nominee. and i believe we are dealing with issues right now that are bigger than a nominee. and how we ensure that our institutions, not only the legislative branch, but our judicial branch, continue to be respected. this is what i've been wrestling with. >> john, senator murkowski has articulated a concern that other people have here that is not necessarily tied to whether or not you believe that brett kavanaugh was involved in sexual assault. might not even be about his temperament now or a partisanship displayed. it is about what it does to the supreme court, what it does to the process of nominating a supreme court justice. strikes me that her commentary could be used by others as cover to vote no on kavanaug

>> well, i just finished reading john meacham's latest book which is a trip through american historyallenging periods, this is noey near as challenging as some of the experiences we've had in the past throughout our history. the senate and the country will get past this. we always do. the geniuses that mutt this constitution together knew what they were doing, and i think this is nowhere near the lowest points we have experienced. the mccarthy era, the rise of the klan in the '20s after wood row wilson premiered "birth of a nation" in the white house. we've had some other low points. we always get past them. >> you mentioned senator collins, democrats are saying she is now their top target. >> she's my top priority, too. >> reporter: senator lindsey graham had an interesting statement the other day, citing the merrick garland standard, he himself would not consider a supreme court nominee once the 2020 presidential primaries have begun, will you take the same frame? >> let's talk about that. you would have to go back to 1888, 1888 to find the last time a senate controlled by a differ

>> well, i just finish reading john meacham's latest book which is kind of a trip through american historyf the more challenging periods we've had. this is nowhere near as challenging as some of the experiences we've had in the past throughout our history. the senate and the country will get past this. we always do. the geniuses who put together this constitution knew what they were doing and we've had plenty of low points in our history and i think this is nowhere near the lowest points we've experienced. the mccarthy era, the rise of the klan in the '20s after woodrow wilson premiered birth of a nation in the white house. we've had some other low points. we always get past them. >> you mentioned senator collins, democrats are now saying that she is their top target for 2020. what can you say about the level of -- >> not top priority. >> senator lindsey graham had an interesting thing the other day when he cited the merrick garland standard, he did not consider a supreme court nominee once the 2020 presidential primaries have begun. >> let's talk about 2016. i'm glad you brought it up. yo

john meacham has written one book about that in terms of our history. i don't know why democrats are getting kicked around so much. they seem decidedly on message and the right one. >> i agree. i think what you just showed was the future of the democratic party and andrew gillum and stacey abrams, beto o'rourke, who are really inspiring people to show up to the polls. and the key, of course, for democrats is going to be get your turnout. you know, make sure your voters show up to vote. we've already seen some indications that, you know, voting is going to be on par to a presidential election. and this is a time where democrats need to just be focused on the goal. and never mind all this national conversation, but a real positive message going into these next two weeks, and turning voters out and i think that you're going to see not just the house flip, but i think a lot of these senate races, in fact, are going to be closer than we've seen. >> tim, one of the greatest mythologies of the trump era is the size and power of his base. they were not big enou

so when jefferson comes home to beloved monticello, john meacham likes to say the roads were open but of course it's always jefferson declining that he can't be at monticello, but he finally does go home in 1809 and never leaves. he almost immediately calls his daughter to come and live, for her to be the hostess of the plantation and run it and manage it and bring her family there. i think it's obviously partly because he wants a woman in that role, and he can obviously have his concubine doing that. but i think it's also because he wants to protect her and have her and her children at monticello . >> she does make a couple of appearances during the presidency, so this is martha jefferson randolph, and she is officially his hostess but she's not there a lot, dolly madison is on the other side of town, but there are moments where she does show up, and i think the work of cynthia koerner, it's directly when the stuff about dusty sally comes out in the press. koerner calls this domestic performance, possibly by the president very white, very respectable daughter coming and making hersel

following this panel, judy woodruff the managing editor of the cbs news hour presidential historian john meacham. the relationship between the president and the press is a crucial one for all of us. when you look at all of the events that the president has where he speaks, looking from president reagan through trump, a third at least of the occasions where he speaks are ones where the president is answering questions from reporters. and so, it is an important relationship for us, simply because of what information we get from them. and from the sessions we have. the relationship is a fraught one, leah roston, who was waiting about rock -- washington correspondence from the roosevelt administration talks about the nature of the relationship, and the way in which it's a contest over information, the newspaperman motivated by the ancient values of journalism are interested in precisely that type of news which the official, the president, is least eager to reveal. in the final analysis, the press conference reduced itself to a contest, and officials adept at straddling. so the ferreting out straddli

this has been, as john meacham said a 60 year battle.finally won last week, of it not? >> i think that's right. i also think that this is part of why you are seeing so much of the republican party begin to look a little more like donald trump. let's imagine an alternative universe where one of the 16 republicans won that primary and you have a more conventional republican president in the white house. let's play out what would have happened with the kavanaugh hearings. do you think the odds under a different republican president would have been greater, for instance, leadership would have said let's pull this nominee, let's try for someone else. but the trump methodology is apologize for nothing, norms don't matter, wins matter that's what brought us to this moment with this conservative majority on the supreme court. so i think you got a lot of republicans who are going well i'm worried about norms getting thrown out but i do really love these wins that i think that's what -- it's those wins that has enabled donald trump to say well it

and historian, author of "the soul of america" john meacham.at the "washington post." we really appreciate you all being on this morning along with joe, willie and me. joe, there is so much going on especially with some of these polls showing a little bit of movement. >> a little bit of movement in some polls, a lot of movement in other polls. you have really one of the heroes of the tea party in trouble in virginia. you have a guy who has been known as one of trump's favorite congressmen being abandoned. why don't we just start with the most accurate poll in the 2016 campaign, the poll that actually showed donald trump doing better throughout the entire 2006 team campaign, caused a lot of consternation. this poll ended up having it right. the headline coming out of the poll, it is a political earthquake. >> six days, less than a week to go until election day. you are talking about the times tracking poll showing a massive lead for democrats in the final full week of october. 57% of likely voters favoring or leaning towards the democrats, 40% t

john cox, governor. ♪ >> michael avenatti is a beast. >> that's true. he's a beast. >> he keeps popping donald trump and all of his folks in the mouth. jon meachampublic. >> he really is a master of the media cycle. for the last couple of weeks i've been saying enough, i've seen you everywhere, what you have left say? i was wrong. if you have a lot to say. if the democrats learn something for you. >> he has a bigger calling here. being a lawyer is minimal compared to what he's doing. he's out there saving the country. >> tucker: the savior of the republic. you know what the creepy porn player really is? is a rorschach block. what you see when you look at him tells you a lot about you. in the past month it has gotten a lot tougher to be the creepy porn lawyer. first he failed to defame brett kavanaugh after accusing him of serial gang rape. it then he was exposed for failing to pay his taxes. failing on all sides, they have decided to seek refuge in audacity. he's gearing up for presidential run. politico reports he's artie assembled a team of democratic advisors, jack quinn, quite a famous democratic advisor here in washington to help them raise