attorney joyce vance who spent 25 years as a federal prosecutor. counselor, you get to go first tonight. let's say you are dr. ford's lawyer. knowing the risk that the republicans may just try to gavel this through and have their vote with or without her testimony, what are your demands of this committee if you're her lawyer? >> it looks like dr. ford's lawyers have successfully reasserted themselves and will establish some good baseline rules here. the problem is that the republicans who run the senate committee control all of the mechanics of this hearing. and it's clear that they're more interested in rushing this through in a slip shod manner than in really exploring the issues. so it will be up to her lawyers to set some ground rules so that this doesn't take on the attitude of a trial where she's being cross-examined. rather, it's an opportunity for her to tell her story in a meaningful fashion without being unduly confronted and unfairly tarnished. and at the same time it needs to happen on her time line. you know, judge kavanagh is up in th

lisa graves, joyce vance, thanks for starting us off tonight. and when we come back, i will explain to you why chuck grassley and mitch mcconnell and donald trump are running scared on the kavanagh nomination. their strategy has not been working. it's been getting worse for brett kavanagh every day. so they changed their strategy in the last couple of days, and this one is in serious trouble because chuck grassley and mcconnell are certainly behaving as if they do not yet have the votes. we'll be right back. ♪ you shouldn't be rushed into booking a hotel. with expedia's add-on advantage, booking a flight unlocks discounts on select hotels until the day you leave for your trip. add-on advantage. only when you book with expedia. start with 100% cleancheese? ingredients. like vermont white cheddar. then... add bacon, bbq chicken, or baja blend. catering and delivery now available. test test test >>> our breaking news at this hour is that chuck grassley has confirmed that chairman the senate judiciary committee, that rachel mitchell, the mayor cope

lisa graves, joyce vance, thanks for starting us off tonight. and when we come back, i will explain to you why chuck grassley and mitch mcconnell and donald trump are running scared on the kavanagh nomination. their strategy has not been working. it's been getting worse for brett kavanagh every day. so they changed their strategy in the last couple of days, and this one is in serious trouble because chuck grassley and mcconnell are certainly behaving as if they do not yet have the votes. we'll be right back. it's kind of like playing your own version of best ball. because here, you can choose any car in the aisle, even if it's a better car class than the one you reserved. so no matter what, you're guaranteed to have a perfect drive. [laughter] (vo) go national. go like a pro. see what i did there? 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

attorney joyce vance who spent 25 years as a federal prosecutor. eugene robinson, pulitzer prize winning columnist for the washington post, and michael steele, former republican committee. mr. chairman, i've yet to talk to you all day. we had this situation today, mr. chairman, where a sex crimes prosecutor from maricopa, arizona, was questioning a sitting federal judge as designated woman to ask the kweds and -- questions and take the heat for the 11 white male republicans on that side of the committee. did that backfire or did that turnout pretty well for them, do you think? >> i think it fell very flat, to be honest with you, brian. in fact, i think the general consensus emerging out of that was at the end where i thought she just kind of punted, to be honest, she was -- she was not the prosecutor. you could almost see in the way she was asking the questions two things going on in her mind. one, i've got to somehow preserve my reputation out of this. and, two, this woman is credible. she is telling the truth and i think that made it much more di

nixon. >> joining us is joyce vance. and nera tandem is with us.o hillary clinton's policy director during the 2008 presidential campaign. it seems as if the probably most immediate question that could easily come up this year in the supreme court if judge brett kavanaugh is on the bench is that question about a subpoena to the president of the united states. i'm not sure we learned anything about that today. >> there are a lot of questions coming out of the mueller investigation that could end up before the supreme court. so the response you really want to hear judge brett kavanaugh give is i've had no conversations with anyone about the mueller investigation. that wasn't his initial response when he spoke with senator harris. he cleaned it up a little bit today. but still that initial response where he stumbled so badly i think opened him up to a will the -- a lot of questions. >> he did admit to discussing it with judges in his courthouse, which i find more peculiar, since that's the courthouse of jurisdiction over these cases involving the spec

back with me joyce vance along with beth fooey. i want to start there counter. lot drew this to what happened with clarence thomas in 1991. what did we learn from the way you will of that transpired. >> it's very different. number one that was of course a republican president. president george bush 43 had nominated clarence thomas. but the senate was controlled by democrats. d it was a different environment. things were much less partisan than they are now. they would give advice and consent. the old fashioned restitution on judiciary nominees including supreme court and were more inclined to give the president the person that he wants. now it's -- the supreme court nominations are every bit as partisan a tool as everything else we're seeing in washington and politics. president trump has just made that environment just so much more political. everything is partisan. everything is seen through the partisan lens which is why we saw the letter from senator grassley and members of the judiciary coming out so quickly calling the allegations into this question, sayin

joining our discussion now jill wine-banks and also joining us joyce vance, a former u.s. attorney for the northern district of alabama and professor at the university of alabama school. both are msnbc contributors. jill, you have a situation, two people in a room in high school talking about what happened in that room one says he tried to rape me, and the other one says nothing like that ever happen. but only one of them wants an fbi investigation. what does that tell us about these two people's approach to finding the truth now? >> it says a lot about it. what it says is one of them knows that the facts will support her and the other one is afraid what the investigation will show. otherwise, both of them would be asking for the investigation, and there were three people in the room not just two. and all three need to testify. although, right now the investigation in front of the senate is a hoax and a sham. it is totally unfair. it is structured with the senators already having said, well, she's mixed up. i don't believe it happened. that's not how we should be going int

joining me now is joyce vance, former u.s. msnbc contributor and john laurel, former federal prosecutor. thanks to both of you for being here. joyce, i was talking to somebody, a lawyer on friday maybe, who said to me that rudy giuliani carrying on about this 60-daytime limit before an election is either 99% wrong or 100% wrong. but those are the only options there. there is not a rule that prevents an actual indictment or an actual report from coming out from the justice department if it is not with the intention of influencing the outcome of an election. >> that's right, there's not a rule in this regard. what there is instead is a prudential policy of restraint that doj imposes on itself to carefully scrutinize actions that are taken within some window leading up to a federal election or a state election too, not necessarily 60 days, but for prosecutors to think about whether the actions that they're taking are necessary at that point in time or whether they might unduly influence the outcome of an election. so, for instance

joyce vance, to mimi's point, which is so important, there is now, speaking of dichotomies, this yawning gap between the brett kavanaugh that he has insisted he is, and put forward in media appearance, and the brett kavanaugh we are seeing and hearing portrayed. >> that's absolutely right. and the answer to closing that gap is his best friend, mark judge, who hasn't been subpoenaed today, who wrote a letter saying that he didn't want to have his life disrupted anymore so he wouldn't present himself for sworn testimony. he will have to testify. it will have to be under oath. and as mimi points out, it's very interesting. does he go ahead and confirm his friend's version of events? or does he finally complete the outreach that dr. ford tried to make with him during this event where she says she locked eyes with him and thought he might help her. you know, will he finally, from across the years, come forth and tell the story and receive some kind of redemption for what he did? >> people have been wherever they can, watching this coverage today on social media, a ton of pictures of commercia

mike schmidt, jeremy bash and joyce vance and phil rucker are still here.alk about rosenstein as a figure at the intersection of the mueller probe and the comey firing. the comey firing, something trump liked and trump used rosenstein's memo with -- as one of the rationales for the firing. obviously the mueller investigation, something the president doesn't like. >> remember back early in may of 2017, trump wanted to fire jim comey as the fbi director and got attorney general sessions but more importantly deputy attorney general rod rosenstein to write these letters. building a case, a rationale to fire comey. but then the president got disenchanted in the next few weeks because he was upset rosenstein turned around and hired mueller as the special counsel and didn't sort of forcefully get out there and defend the president's decision to get rid of comey. and he's been suspicious of rosenstein's loyalty ever since, which is interesting because rosenstein is a political appointee. >> a republican. >> trump's chosen deputy attorney general. he's not some care

attorney joyce vance, jeremy bash, former chief of staff at the cia and pentagon, former cia assistant director frank figlusi and phil rucker. i joked before the show, we also call you guys our honorary co-hosts. mike schmidt, take us through what you and your colleague adam goldman are reporting this afternoon. >> well, we're looking at this eight-day period of time between the firing of comey and the appointment of mueller. and in that time, it's been widely, from the folks we talked to, accepted that rosenstein was really not himself. he was emotionally uneven. he was struggling in the moment to figure out what to do. the president had just gotten rudd rid of comey. it was an extraordinary move. a lot of pressure on rosenstein because he had been part of the firing. he provided the rationale for it. he told people he would be vindicated for his role in this. and he considered a lot of measures. he talked to mccabe about using the 25th amendment as a way of ousting the president. he also spoke openly in meetings about wearing a wire. even when asked in that meeting whether he was jok

daniel goldman is here, joyce vance is here -- jonathan ma leer from the associated press. cynthia, to you first. how many of these punches are landing? how much damage is this? >> well, as we've been talking, particularly with joyce, there is not escape from his refusal to allow an fbi investigation and you have to wonder why. and the only answer i can come up with is he's afraid of what that fbi investigation would reveal. because even though judge has already given a statement, you know, there is the i gave a statement to the republican lawyer for my buddy and we filed it and there is two fbi agents knock, knock, knock on the door having a serious confrontational interview. i think he's afraid of what judge is going to say. i don't see how he overcomes that in terms of his credibility, number one. number two, my other thought is, can you imagine if a woman came to this hearing and had a temper tantrum and streamed and interrupted senators and behaved in the manner in which he has? she'd be taken out of the room in a straight jacket. and instead because he's a buy it's acc

attorney joyce vance now. again, joyce, for folks who might just be joining us, rod rosenstein at the white house, at this hour. pete williams reporting that according to the white house rosenstein is coming to resign. sources close to rosenstein saying he's not going to be resigning. he is not going to be quitting. if they want him out, they will -- pete wants to jump in. go ahead, pete. >> reporter: i can't imagine that robert mueller or any of his staff have any idea what's going on. i've been talking to several senior people at the justice department here in the last half hour or so, and very few of them know anything about this. i'm sure -- i would guess that robert mueller and his team will be among the last to know how this is shaking out. nobody very few people at the justice department were even aware of the fact that rod rosenstein was on his way to the white house. this is coming as a huge shock as word of this circulates throughout the justice department. >> pete, the sources you're talking to there

attorney for the northern district of alabama and an msnbc contributor joyce vance is with us.to have you with us in oxford, joyce. and the political reporter for the "washington post" and msnbc political analyst robert costa is with us. he is moderator of course of washington week on pbs. >> mika, there is this amazing picture from ol' miss. we had such a wonderful time at ol' miss. we want to thank everybody from the chancellor to -- my gosh, everybody that was there. we had an extraordinary time. there is this great picked that we are going to be putting up later of joyce pinning a university of alabama pin on eddie gloud's lapel. is wincing. >> it was a highly emotional moment. >> it was highly emotional moment for him. that's all coming up. >> coming up. >> first, mika, obviously washington is waking up this monday morning in the middle of a political earthquake. >> it absolutely is. the author of a confidential letter accusing supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh of sexual assault more than three decades ago identified herself on sunday. craze teen blasey ford a 51-year-

it's enough to qualify for a conversation with joyce vance, former u.s. attorney. fact, in light of obama's reemergence today, we can remind our audience, joyce's name was among the first five nominations president obama made. joyce is a 25-year veteran as a federal prosecutor. joyce, i want to take things out of order and begin with the last thing we said. it is an interesting time, isn't it, for manafort's lawyers to be talking about a deal now. do you believe it? >> i do believe it. it makes sense to me because manafort has exposure in this second trial. it will also cost him a lot of money to move forward. so if he's going to conclude plea deal with prosecutors, now would be the time. what we don't know from this reporting is, does he just want to plead to the indictment and go home, go to prison, or does he want to plead and cooperate with the mueller investigation? that's the most interesting thing to look for here. >> now, let's talk about papadopoulos. 14 days. i think by anyone's standard is a light sentence. it also comes with a year of supervised release

. >>> our friend joyce vance, former u.s. northern district of the great state of alabama. thank you very much for your time tonight. i have questions for you. >> okay, shoot. >> why would prosecutors describe in charging documents today that sam patton illegal funneled foreign money to the trump inauguration and that he broke the law. by lying to it, obstructing the senate intelligence committee. why would they spell those things out in such detail in the charging documents but then not actually charge him with those things as crimes? >> sure. so this is a standard practice for prosecutors. when you work out a plea deal before the defendant is actually charged, which is what happened here. and so there would have been these three, at least three types of potential charges on the table and prosecutors would have offered mr. patton in exchange for his cooperation this deal. and part of the deal was we'll only charge you with one of these crimes that you committed. we'll give you a pass on the other two. but the rules that pros

he is incredibly popular. >> joyce vance, love having you on. thank you. an 11th hour move aimed at swaying the midterms maybe. why the fbi may be eyeing a document dump that could change the playing field ahead of november. john brennan is here next. er john brennan is here next. begins to change which may cause trouble with recall. - learning from him is great... when i can keep up! - anncr: thankfully, prevagen helps your brain and improves memory. - dad's got all the answers. - anncr: prevagen is now the number-one-selling brain health supplement in drug stores nationwide. - she outsmarts me every single time. - checkmate! you wanna play again? - anncr: prevagen. healthier brain. better life. if your adventure... ...keeps turning into unexpected bathroom trips... ...you may have overactive bladder, or oab. ohhhh...enough already! we need to see a doctor. ask your doctor about myrbetriq® (mirabegron). it treats oab symptoms of urgency, frequency, and leakage. it's the first and only oab treatment in its class. myrbetriq may increase blood pressure. tell

let's bring in msnbc contributor joyce vance, welcome to you.ort pled guilty to criminal conduct between 2006 and 2017, that does include the time that he was part of the president's campaign. what's your take, can he be distinctly distinguished between the trump campaign and what he was doing? >> well, two points, alex. first off, this superseding information, this new charging document makes it clear that the criminal conduct that manafort pleaded guilty to yesterday includes conduct that occurred while he was serving as president trump's campaign manager. and that in and of itself is a bombshell. but what should be even more troublesome to the president is that when a defendant like manafort agrees to cooperate with federal investigators, he doesn't agree to cooperate only on the crimes that he's charged with. he agrees to cooperate and to share with investigators any information he possesses about any crimes that he's aware of. that means that all of manafort's dealings with the president, with people around the president, and with others ar

attorney joyce vance. thank you for this. keep thinking this guy is going, she loves me, she loves me not. one of those things. am i going to go for a pardon or try to sell this guy out and get a lesser sentence? isn't that the choice immediately now facing mr mr. manafort? >> it is but he doesn't really hold all the cards, chris. so i'm wondering if what we're seeing here is manafort taking a page from the president's play book and running a strategy that's a public relations strategy, not a legal strategy. trying to put donald trump on the alert to say if you don't give me a pardon right now, there may be so much pressure on me to cooperate against you that i won't be able to with stand it. maybe that's what this is about. >> this is all about speck lace. my sense is trump has some cards in his hand. next year he can decide when he runs for reelection, pardon my family members, people like paul manafort, who have been true to me. in other words once i've taken care of the family and friends then i'll decide whether to run f

joining me now msnbc legal contributor and legal team joyce vance.nclude not having kavanaugh in the same room at the same time and a guarantee for her safety. so if you were representing ford, how do you balance all these conditions with your client's desire to get her story out there in the public? >> these conditions aren't really much in the way of conditions. guaranteeing the safety of a witness before the senate is simply an expectation and not something she should have to be negotiating for. so the conditions her lawyers have put forward i think have been wrongfully characterized as bargaining chips. they're just the baselines we would expect for anyone appearing in the senate. >> so ford can name four people who attended this high school party where the alleged sexual assault occurred. all four deny knowing about the incident or going to the party. although there is one person who tells "the washington post" she believes ford's story even though she doesn't remember being there. how much of an issue is this going to be for ford? >> i think th

it is enough to qualify for a conversation with joyce vance, former u.s. attorney. s re-emergence today, we can remind the audience, joyce's name was among the first five nominations president obama made. joyce, i want to take things out of order and begin with the last thing we said. it is an interesting time, isn't it, for manafort's lawyers to be talking about a deal now. do you believe it? >> i do believe it. it makes sense to me because manafort has exposure in this second trial. it will also cost him a lot of money to move forward. if he's going to conclude a plea deal with prosecutors, now would be the time. what we don't know from this reporting is, does he just want to plead to the indictment and go home, go to prison, or does he want to plead and cooperate with the mueller investigation? that's the most interesting thing to look for here. >> now, let's talk about papadopoulos. 14 days. i think by anyone's standard is a light sentence. it also comes with a year of supervised release. does that -- can we glean anything from that? does it mean, perhaps, he was

she joins amy and joyce vance, two former feds who are here with us today bearing witness to this hearing. joyce, i thought i would begin with you. talk about what you've witnessed so far today. >> dr. ford was an incredibly credible witness. she had a very honest presentation. one of the issues that people look for when a witness testifies is do they come across as believable? whether it's because of the words they use or the body language. everything here indicates trust worthiness and i suspect the women all across the country feel as though this could be their best friend testifying about something that happened to her. nothing here looked forced. nothing looked made up. every indication was that this was trust worthy testimony. >> amy was saying she might be the most unpackaged witness in the history of televised hearings. >> yes, if you remember back to when we were watching brett kavanaugh testify. he seemed credible answering republicans questions and when he was questioned by, senator harris, he fell apart as a witness. and that contrast between how someone is when they're able t

attorney joyce vance. k the president will do whatever it takes to save his skin and i question, but there is one thing i think she's hsur to do. joyce, i believe he will pardon his kids. he has to. the fact that manafort is now cooperating and knows all about the trump tower relationship and he knows about donald junior being there in that meeting with the russians and knows about jared his son-in-law being there, does this force the story to the end, the end game where trump to protect himself is going to have to pardon his kids? >> it looks like we're rapidly heading towards an end game, chris. manafort is like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for prosecutors. no one really thought that he would end up cooperating with mueller. we still don't know what led that to happen. but one important piece of information was revealed in court when prosecutor andrew weissmann indicated that one of the reasons that they were entering this cooperation agreement was because they had had the opportunity to debr

. >> i mean the pain in her voice is so present, joyce vance, and she is talking about the questioning where arlen specter was asking her, well, basically, what is so wrong with him saying big breasts, and she was saying, no, senator, it is the way he described the women and what they were doing with the big breasts in the pornographic material, and she had to go into explicit detail. >> and these sort of situations are extremely painful for women, and if we have evolved as a society since anita hill went through this, we have to guarantee a better process for dr. ford. it is so important to think about who the players are here. and judge kavanaugh has already been through senate confirmation hearing hearings, and this is a forum that he is comfortable in, and she is not a lawyer, and she has never been in the senate and the idea of rushing her in front of the committee is so unfair, and in fact, it flew in the face of the rule that requires a seven-day grace period in scheduling a senate hearing which pushed us back to monday, but she is entitled to have time to talk to lawyers who ca

former fbi assistant director for counterintelligence, frank figlusi, joyce vance. from "the washington post," white house reporter ashley parker. and with us on set, john heilema heilemann, nbc news, msnbc national affairs analyst and co-host and executive producer of showtime's "the circus" which is back sunday and daniel goldman, district attorney for the southern district of new york. let me start with you, chuck, because we've had a lot of conversations about what manafort might do. you've often warned us that this kind of development could come at any time. but did anything about today's cooperation agreement go further than what we thought we were warned to expect in terms of a plea? >> you know, as cooperation agreements go, it's fairly standard. he's going to answer every question about every one and everything they've done for any federal state or local prosecutor. and that's fairly typical language. what's not surprising is this. and you have a bunch of really smart fbi agents and prosecutors, me excluded on your show today. >> that's not true. >> you kno

i'm joined by joyce vance, district attorney for the northern district of alabama. the logic here, if this were true, and this is the case of today's today's accusation, then someone would have said something. what do you think of that? >> i think that history has completely belied that statement in case after case. and i'm not talking about kavanaugh now. but what we have in the public record is that we know from experience that these things don't often get reported at the time. there are so many reasons why. i mean, to name just an obvious few, shame, fear of not being believed, fear of, you know, of just embarrassment and people thinking that they somehow were responsible for what happened to them. and, you know, that's just out victim blaming, outright victim blaming. and i think that, you know, what we see is that even when they aren't reported right away, and even when you get these initial denials, what happens, even if it's years later in the case of cosby, or harvey weinstein, you know, it turns out these claims are true. so the -- you can't just assume eve

attorney and professor at the university of alabama school of law joyce vance.c contributor. guys, kiavanaugh refused to answer questions from feinstein and leahy on presidential pardons. >> can a sitting president be required to respond to a subpoena? >> so that's a hypothetical question about what would be an elaboration or a difference for u.s. v. nixon's precise holding. i can't give you an answer on that hypothetical question. >> the questions of self-pardons is something i never analyzed. it's a question that i have not written about. it's a question, therefore, that's a hypothetical question that i can't begin to answer as a sitting judge and a nominee of the supreme court. >> the other half of that is the obvious one. does the president have the ability to pardon somebody in exchange for a promise from that person they wouldn't testify against him? >> senator, i am not going to answer hypothetical questions of that sort. >> let's first note how remarkable it is that he is not going to answer questions because they are hypotheticals that could come before

joyce vance, thank you ugene scott thank you as well. still ahead, president trump issues a thank you to the justice department and fbi if things don't go his way and throws more certainty into jeff session's future as attorney general. . f session's future as atto rney general. does this map show the peninsula trail? you won't find that on a map. i'll take you there. take this left. if you listen real hard you can hear the whales. oop. you hear that? (vo) our subaru outback lets us see the world. sometimes in ways we never imagined. [ coughs ] ♪ ♪ [ screams ] ♪ [ laughs ] ♪ whoa, whoa, whoa. your one item would be the name your price tool? it helps people save on car insurance. why wouldn't it save me? why? what would you bring? a boat. huh. >>> thanks for staying with us him we have this just in from the "new york times," they work with the fbi on a secret program to flip russian oligarchs, including none other than a leg darrasproska, from roughly a half dozen of the richest men tied to vladimir putin. if you watch that news, presiden

and joyce vance. and steve schmidt. you know what it is like to be under somebody running the country, what is it when top official according to the times, a senior administrative official saying this guy is reckless. >> well, chris, it is an extraordinary and historic op-ed, the reference john mccain at the end of it. and my first thought was to think of john mccain's story as a prisoner of war in vietnam, and the comfort that the prisoners took, communication with the other prisoners through tap code, through the wall. the first thing i would like to say as someone in the resistance on the outside is thank you. and it is nice to hear from you. but it is not unfortunate. we are in an hour of national emergency in this country. that is evidence by the president's behavior and erratic behavior that we see in public every day. by the account of this op-ed and of course by bob woodward's book, a journalist of the highest standards and reputation who has distinguished himself over a lifetime of meticulous reporting about ho

joyce vance down in texas first. egree is this going to be the focus of this investigation? you saw during the course of these hearings when republican senators were still using rachel mitchell, an outside prosecutor to ask questions she was honing in on that date. getting close to it. i noted when she got there, that's when her service to the committee seemed to end. republicans stopped using her at that point. your sense, joyce, of the importance of that date? >> that did seem to be the cutoff point for rachel mitchell. she sort of got the hook from the committee after she began to focus on judge kavanaugh's calendar. and it seems fair to focus on his calendar, because he has held them out to be reliable. i think what we will ultimately see that reference to ski on july 1st is a reference to bruschis and his love of beer. se brewskis, identifying the participants looking at the likely location, seeing if it's a match with dr. ford's story and be able to drive her to the location if they can identify it and engage in

attorney and msnbc contributor joyce vance and msnbc legal analyst glen kirshner. yce, to you first here with these limitations, it including a pretty tight witness list, there are four thus far and no plans to examine conflicting stories about kavanaugh's, for example, the drinking habits at yale. realistically what do you think will be accomplished in a would he can? >> this clips the fbi's wings in a significant way. it prohibits them from following up as they develop information, which is what the background information process is all about. so it's unlikely that they will be able to do what they typically do in a background information, which is chase down whether there's any sorts of information, whether it's temperament, character, integrity that makes a candidate unsuitable for a job. what they will be able to do is perhaps tease some basic information out. >> so, joyce, your concerns about the constraints, are they all having to do with just time or the fact that they are not necessarily able to chase down every lead? >> you know, the time issue seven days

joining me now to break this down, joyce vance and barbara mcquaid and former u.s. attorneys and with us as well, lynn sweet, chicago sun times washington bureau chief. joyce, i want to start with you. we've been talking about this 60-day rule. it's essentially a guideline. nothing definitively written down. but is it likely to actually impact the elections if bob mueller does issue any indictments over the course of the next 60 days. or should he, do you think, go quiet go, dark for the remainder of the 60 days? >> so the calculus that mueller will have to make for his investigation will be very similar to whatever u.s. attorney makes and in this same situation. you don't want to take any action that might influence a specific investigation. rather a specific election. so one thing that comes into play is the fact that most of the on going investigations that mueller is looking at don't involve candidates who are on the ballot. he'll make a calculus about whether those investigations and any steps he would take unduly influence the investigations. but there is no ba

attorney professor at the university of alabama school of law joyce vance and vice president for the national security program for third way, mika alwang. >> where do you think right now rosenstein sits? are we basically, if you will, on the you're fired wait list at the moment? >> i think deputy attorney general rosenstein has probably been on the you're fired waiting list ever since he appointed bob mueller as the special counsel for the russia investigation. so nothing new there. his fortunes have gone up and down over time. it would certainly be very damaging potentially very dangerous, for the president to fire him because it could possibly have some sort of implication for the obstruction case we're told is being investigated against the president, but i would say that the deputy attorney general's fortunes are pretty much the same that they've been throughout this entire time period. >> and we did hear from the president last night when he was on the campaign trail in missouri, and he did make a statement saying that we have great people in the department of justice. we have g

phil rucker, mike schmidt, joyce vance is back, and about the table, john heilman, and former democratic congresswoman donna edwards. phil rucker, you have the byline on the new story about bob woodward's book. first, did you read the whole book and take us what seems like explosive new reporting about john dowd's concerns about donald trump. >> yeah. so nicolle, yes, i read it in its entirety. it's a pretty complete and i think you hit the nail on the head when you called it a devastating portrait of the presidency and his power, to focus in on the john dowd examples, there's that practice session in january of this year. woodward describes this in a lot of detail, page after page after page, reconstructing the dialogue between trump and john dowd, as they rehearsed questions that trump would face should he sit for an interview with mueller. the whole point in badwawoodwar telling is that trump is not fit to be a witness, that he would commit perjury were he to sit down and answer questions from mueller. there are other scenes involving dowd, and the president, negotiations in march wit

attorney joyce vance who's on set with us. i remember when women who were not the accusers were permitted to testify and people like chuck rosenberg and like yourself talked about that as significant. can you talk about the significance in this case and the significance for women like the one we just heard from who was outside of her statute of limitations but feels some sort of shared justice? >> it's not unusual for multiple victims, some who can't have their cases prosecuted, while others can, to come together to these settings. particularly women who are victims of sexual assault and provides groups of women and sometimes communities to have closure when they can see at least one woman has been taken seriously. prosecutors have moved forward and a jury found those claims sufficient beyond a reasonable doubt to impose guilt. >> none of these crimes are the same. sometimes the public conversation around them is. and i will never forget being on my ill-fated cruise at the "the view" when the cosby accusers were sort of making

she's live on capitol hill where protests are underway and joyce vance former u.s. attorney under the obama administration. kasie let's start with you. what's the the feelifeeling and these protests? >> reporter: this has quited down quite a bit because there were some arrests around the noise that was being made in the hallway. while you are as a member of the public allowed to come in and walk these halls, if you are warned to stop disturbing the peace, they will arrest you. we've got a very quiet crowd. they're inside susan collin's office. this is a public chamber into her office. they are talking to her staffers now. this protest has, although obviously there were some people who were chanting i believe her, this also has featured very personal stories from women who have their own me, too stories and who have said throughout this that they believe dr. christine ford because something like it happened to them. in some cases they're saying i told people and nobody listened to me, and so it's pretty emotional and a little bit of a different -- you know, it's diff

>>> thanks to steve schmidt, joyce vance, phil rucker and the rev al sharpton. i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts right now. hi, chuck. >> hi, nicolle. just another friday, huh? >> nothing much going on. >> actually in trump era, it is just another friday. >> it is. >> happy friday. thank you. >>> well, if it is friday, is the man in charge of the russia investigation about to be fired for cause? >>> good evening. i'm chuck todd in washington. welcome to "mtp daily." we begin tonight with some pretty big breaking news that involves some explosive allegations involving deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, who of course is the man who oversees the russia investigation. this afternoon "the new york times" dropped an extraordinary story that says rosenstein suggested last year that he secretly record president trump by wearing a wire. and according to the "times," rosenstein also discussed lobbying the cabinet to potentially remove the president from office via the 25th amendment, specifically singling out two cabinet secretaries, jeff sessions and then dhs secretary john kelly

joyce vance, chief white house correspondent peter baker on capitol hill and nbc's garrett haake is here, steve schmidt at the table, which is always a special occasion. former democratic congresswoman donna edwards is here and elise jordan, a former aide in the george w. bush white house. she and steve are the host of the podcast "words matter." i'm told the president and his public statements and private conversations is still firmly behind kavanaugh but that if tomorrow goes as badly as the fox news interview did, in his mind, that they may consider other options. what are you hearing? >> i think that's right. the president was a little disappointed in the fox interview. he thought kavanaugh came off too week. he thinks what judge kavanaugh should do is be more like president trump and express anger and unequivocal pushback on these accusers. that's not what judge kavanaugh wants to do nor what he ought to do strategically given the current environment. his goal tomorrow, according to his advisers, is to make sure his denials are as powerful as possible but express some indignation wi

attorney for northern district of alabama and msnbc contributor joyce vance.schmidt. and john heilemann. and also with us, white house correspondent for pbs news hour. good to have you all on board. >> john heilemann, the president's press conference. go. >> all right, john heilemann, thank you. >> what did we see yesterday? >> you know, his classic case where there's not i think anybody on the republican side or democratic side who didn't look at that as a slightly unhinged kind of wild eyed performance artist of a certain kind. you saw my social media lit up saying the president lost his mind. look, it's nothing like we've ever seen any president ever do before. every time he does a preconference, he does them infrequently he performs in this way that's antic and wild eyed, and improvisational. from his own point of view he seems to think that he's accomplishing whatever it is he's setting out the accomplish. he seems to enjoy the forum and it would be good -- i don't know if it's good for political standing but good for america to be in positions where he c

. >> gentlemen have joyce vance here. >> hi, joyce. are you disappointed? surprised to see that. >> i'll be wearing crimson tomorrow. >> outstanding. >> new reporting on a possible plea deal with former trump campaign chairman, paul manafort. abc news cites three sources as saying a tentative deal has been reached with special counsel bob mueller. the network reports it will be announced in court today. reuters citing sources familiar with the matter reports a deal is near. one of the sources say it's close but not quite there yet. nbc news has not confirmed eritrea of those news reports. they can't say whether manafort's cooperation in the mueller probe but what deal would head off manafort's d.c. trial which was set to begin next week. he already has been convicted on eight counts of bank and tax fraud in virginia and, joyce, it seems to me this is an interesting story. the more interesting point is whether or not a plea deal includes his cooperation with bob mueller. >> that's the interesting point that we'll all be looking for when they go into court th