and i'm watching jonathan swan as well. if you look back to the anita hill example, there was a lot of pressure, joe biden was among them, a critical player there. in this case you have jeff flake, but when we get to the bigger question the two key players and susan collins and lisa murkowski. >> i mean, we always do focus on susan collins and lisa murkowski because they are genuine swing votes. but, you know, flake popped up out of nowhere. i wouldn't be surprised if you see, you know, what does bob corker say about this, someone who doesn't have their political fate tied to this president? >> but kasie, i really want to talk about the fact this woman has come forward and everything she's sacrificing and the sabotaging of her career as a result. it's interesting to see in this day and time if she's able to come forward with that penalty. anita hill really had to navigate and basically sabotage her own career and come forward with what is considered truthful evidence. >> senator king, great to see you. thanks for being here

jonathan swan with axio, "new york times" lisa lair and reporter for yahoo! news, john ward.hank you all for being here tonight. emma, i'd like to start with you since this really pulled this story, an amazing scoop and great work by your team. this clearly was an incredibly difficult decision for christine ford. can you walk us through how this story first came to your attention, "the washington post" got a tip and then, you know, how this process played out for christine ford. >> sure. so she first reached out to us early july when brett kavanaugh had made his way to the top of the short list but was not yet named. a few days later, president trump announced him and she spent much of the summer trying to decide what she was going to do. she felt like she had -- as she put it to me, a civic responsibility to come forward and yet she was terrified of what that would mean for her and her family. so she thought about it all summer long. she retained a lawyer. she took a polygraph test to prepare, you know, her lawyer anticipating she'd be accused of being a liar should she come

jonathan swan, for axios and careen jean pierre for moveon.org. some news breaking before we came on the air. tell us what it means. >> we are learning that chairman chuck grassley putting out a statement saying they will, in fact, request the administration instruct the fbi to conduct this investigation. and john cornyn told my colleagues here on capitol hill that they will proceed with this. and what that tells you is that the leverage that we've been talking about all morning and all day that flake has, he decided to use and he's gotten backup from senator murkowski and we're still waiting on susan collins. this means there's going to be another week for information gathering, as well as for the country to kind of react and digest what we saw unfold yesterday if that istoric and contentuo c contentious hearing. first, flake himself and the institution of the senate, this is an example of something that hardly happens up here anymore. this was built on a personal relationship, personal trust between jeff flake and chris coons who is a democrat.

anyway, joining me now is ashley parker, jonathan swan and brett stevens. that is close to home where we are getting tonight. jonathan, it seems to be that the president's behavior is far more frightening than somebody writing op-eds. this president is talking treason. he is saying that the times should turn over the author, his identity or her identity to government. like they committed some treasonous crime. what is trump talking about, government taking into captivity. >> this op-ed has touched a nerner nerve. and the nerve is trump is already paranoid about the government he overseas. last year obsessed there being leakers inside the white house. he said to our sources, there are snakes everywhere there are two issues, trump suspects people who work in his white house and broadly than that, across the administration, he sees this vast sea, this deep state, he believes it does exist. and he can't fathom the idea of a career official. yes, political appointee, suspect. if you worked over-obama, how could you possibly work for me. that is his mindset. trump

. >>> still to come, jonathan swan has a look at this morning's one big thing.e," republicans push ahead to confirm brett kavanaugh. >> the morning after the gripping testimony by the judge and dr. christine blahsy ford, they're now set to vote on kavanaugh's supreme court nomination. >> "morning joe" will have the latest on capitol hill including senator sheldon whitehouse including his reaction to yesterday's hearing. including his reaction to yesterday's hearing. oh! oh! ♪ ozempic®! ♪ (vo) people with type 2 diabetes are excited about the potential of once-weekly ozempic®. in a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than seven and maintained it. oh! under seven? (vo) and you may lose weight. in the same one-year study, adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. oh! up to 12 pounds? (vo) a two-year study showed that ozempic® does not increase the risk of major cardiovascular events like heart attack, stroke, or death. oh! no increased risk? ♪ ozempic®! ♪ ozempic® should not be the first medicine for treating

jonathan swan himself, axios reporter, and an author and political reporter. let me start with jonathan. do you expect trump in his usual fashion to strike out against the sources in this book including porter, and attack him personally? >> it's very possible. this week -- so, trump hasn't read the book. the white house got a pdf version of the book last tuesday night. and aides have been reading through the book and feeding to trump what they're reading. and one of the things that really struck them was that gary cohn and rob porter play starring roles in the book. the book opens with gary cohn taking a piece of paper of the korean trade deal off trump's desk so trump can't sign the termination. rob porter is seemingly on almost every page. so, the white house is furious at them and trump is furious at them privately. >> he'll go after rob porter personally? >> he talked about it privately. >> do you expect him to do it publicly? >> i wouldn't rule it out. >> i want to go to annie. what's the mood in the white house? here's a president accused of not just bei

jonathan swan is an outstanding reporter so no criticism of him.itself it says he resigned verbally does that mean he offered to resign in anticipation that he would be fired because it doesn't say that he has resigned it says he expected to be fire bud he hasn't been fwooired so we're in an unclear situation and remember, carl, the reason why president trump has been complaining about jeff sessions, he's been complaining for months about, complaining about robert mueller but he has not fired those people why? because it would produce a political firestorm. we are before a midterm election where republicans as our nbc news "wall street journal" poll showed yesterday are on track for getting wiped out. losing the house, perhaps even losing the senate. the senate is more in doubt because key contests are taking place in red states. if the president moves to replace rod rosenstein, if he is forcing this resignation there are going to be consequences to that politically in an already-bad political environment. potential constitutional crisis. remember,

jonathan swan has taken heat for things he reported.8 minutes ago that attorney general sessions has drafted a statement which congratulates attorney general rod rosenstein and james attorney general sessions as chief of staff for the department of justice and puts the solitter general in charge of the mueller's investigation as mueller's boss. >> martha: we will see if that's in effect. judge, thanks for being here. quick break and we'll be right back. very foundation of your typical bank. capital one is anything but typical. that's why we designed capital one cafes. you can get savings and checking accounts with no fees or minimums. and one of america's best savings rates. to top it off, you can open one from anywhere in 5 minutes. this isn't a typical bank. this is banking reimagined. what's in your wallet? if you're waiting patiently for a liver transplant, it could cost you your life. it's time to get out of line with upmc. at upmc, living-donor transplants put you first. so you don't die waiting. upmc does more living-donor liver

jonathan swan has been great and a lot of things so i don't think undercut him as a reporter here hasquite clear that chief of staff john kelly is quite fond of him, seems like that's his leak. i actually thought that rosenstein would go in there and talk to him and remain in the job. that it would be a clearing of the air because i think the president has been instructed enough times that firing jeff sessions or rod rosenstein is incredibly bad for midterm process and in november, there will be a full reevaluation. >> melissa: that could exactly be why we saw that leaked to "the new york times" at the president knows it would be unwise to fire him ahead of the midterms and there are those against the president who are leaking to "the new york times" and trying to goad him into doing it the same way. >> kennedy: speaking of leaks, if you have four different stories circulating within the white house and you see them in four different places, you can then see who was a source for which publication and this may be a way not only of creating chaos and taking kavanaugh out of line but als

jonathan swan and tamara keith npr white house correspondent. this plea deal for manafort and the extent of his cooperation surprise you? >> no. he was facing the rest of his life in jail. in my experience as a prosecutor when someone is facing significant time in jail, their willingness to stay firm becomes much less so. i think we don't know the significance this will be ultimately, jon. only bob mueller does. i said right from the beginning, one of the things that made mueller a serious and dangerous prosecutor is he has not let his operation leak. we don't know what -- is paul il manafort cooperating as other lobbyists from the possibly. is he cooperating against people in the trump campaign? it could be both or either. bob mueller won't let us know. >> he pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the united states of america. it has broad implications. i'm no lawyer. that's why i'm sitting next to you. paul manafort said he would not flip. he's flipped. he's cooperating. if he fails to cooperate and give the prosecutor what he wants, we know the

on monday, we heard reports, very credible journalists, jonathan swan, others, it was definite, he wouldr fired already or resignation had been accepted? >> if i'm not mistaken, interesting that you say that, david, i'm pretty sure i saw at least one article that basically said that he had either resigned or been fired. my head was exploding, to me that didn't make a lot of sense. the reason i say that is him leaving the post of deputy ag in light of the fact that he is the titular head of the russia probe it is a whole different discussion. you can put to the side some other issues, isn't he a witness to the comey firing? isn't he himself conflicted and he shouldn't be involved? that is just not, that is not just from the right sound points. those are serious points, okay? but putting that to the side the president knows full well politically that the left is just thirsting beyond to have him take some action against rod rosenstein because of the way it sets up in posture of the mueller probe. that is the case. david: that may well be what stopped either his firing or his resignation be

whoever it was that wrote this op-ed signed their name to it, or if the people who whispered to jonathan swan at axios would give their name. we're not sure whether that might result in congress springing to rackaction. we're not sure if that would hurt donald trump's approval rating and make him weaker in a primary. i think these folks have an obligation to do it. either the president is so dangerous, so amorale, the words they used he cannot serve as president and you need to speak up or he's not that amorale and dangerous and you're trying to make yourself feel better. >> i get your point. i had this dream last night that this person would leave in protest because the president would out him. the fbi might refuse to investigate him, but get devin nunes to investigate him. they leak classified -- yet this person might end up an msnbc contributor. who knows. but this person would end up being another sort of drop in the bucket of criticism. but then i thought, maybe not. maybe criticism from within will be the thing that breaks through to his base. what do you think? >> see, i don't agree wi

jonathan swan, thank you very, very much. >>> still ahead, dr.ge kavanaugh weren't the only ones grilled during yesterday's hearing. senator diane feinstein was asked some tough questions. "morning joe" will be right back. stions "morning joe" will be right back ♪ not long ago, ronda started here. and then, more jobs began to appear. these techs in a lab. this builder in a hardhat... ...the welders and electricians who do all of that. the diner staffed up 'cause they all needed lunch. teachers... doctors... jobs grew a bunch. what started with one job spread all around. because each job in energy creates many more in this town. energy lives here. with my bladder leakage, the products i've tried just didn't fit right. they were very saggy. it's getting in the way of our camping trips. but with new sizes, depend fit-flex is made for me. introducing more sizes for better comfort. new depend fit-flex underwear is guaranteed to be your best fit. you always get the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed? let's say it in a really low voice. carl? lowest

. >> eamon, i couldn't help but think of the axios report out sunday from jonathan swan saying the administration secret major administration wide broadside against china which is both going to be restore cal and substantive. it will be administration wide led by national security, treasury, commerce and defense is this what that is do we know anything else about that strategy? >> well, it's hard to say whether this is part of a broader strategy or not or whether this is a one off accusation there have been hints of this over the past 48 hours in washington but this is the biggest platform which the president has asserted anything like this so we will talk to the white house and get more guidance on what they're claiming is this just to do with tariff retaliation or are they talking about something more specific and detailed we have to get more information from the white house before we can be sure where this fits in the broader piece. >> eamon thanks. eamon javers the markets not rattled too much by this rhetoric dow is hanging on to a moderate gain after the president's comments at the security

. >>> still ahead on "morning joe" is jonathan swan was noting on twitter, a big blow to breitbart's plan to the upper west side. cancels steve ban's appearance and from the magazine's own staff why it may be the best thing steve bannon could have hoped for. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. >> oh, yeah. making my dreams a reality takes more than just investment advice. from insurance to savings to retirement, it takes someone with experience and knowledge who can help me build a complete plan. brian, my certified financial planner™ professional, is committed to working in my best interest. i call it my "comfortable future plan," and it's all possible with a cfp® professional. find your certified financial planner™ professional at letsmakeaplan.org. how much more does congress need to see? donald trump has now been implicated in two felony crimes, and he's all but confessed to them on fox news. no one is above the law, so we have to make sure this president doesn't use pardons to cover up crimes. if you agree that a president should not be allowed to pardon himself