. >> nbc's kristin welker has more from washington.or >> rr: president trump is standing by judge brett kavanaugh. >> judge kavanaugh is one of the fist peoplhat i've ever known. >> kavanaugh faces an allegation oflly assaulting a teenaged girl more than three decades ago at a high school party. he denies the accusation and according to the white house n.ys he was never at the party in quest >> he's an outstanding intellect, outstanding judge, respected by everybody. never had even a little blemish on his record >> reporter: the accuser, 51-year-old christine blasey ford says a stumbling kavanaugh was drunk when he pinned her to a bid aed and groped me. her lawyer on "today" says ford is willing to testify publicly. >> does she consider this an attempted rape? >> she does.sh clearly considers this an attempted rape. >> reporter: kavanaugh says hs also willing to testify, adding this is a completely false allegation. i have never done anything like the accuser describes to her or anyone. i had no idea who was making this accus until yesterday >> i think this woman, whoever she is, is mix

kristin welker has the latest. >> reporter: after first fighting criminal charges, paul manafort is nowperating with special counsel robert mueller. the plea agreement says manafort must cooperate with the government in any and all matters. >> tough day for mr. manafort, but he accepted responsibility and he wanted to make sure his family was able to remain safe. >> reporter: in court, mr. manafort told the judge i plead guilty. the charges conspiracy against the united states and conspiracy to obstruct justice. in a statement from the press secretary, sarah sanders says it had absolutely nothing to do with the president or his victorious 2016 presidential campaign. it is totally unrelated. court documents show manafort's financial crimes stretch from 20006 to 2016. he pushed false stories. in one example he floated stories about anti-semitic ties to his opponent. >> if anyone were to know whether or not donald trump was involved in any way with russian interference in the 2016 election, one would have to think his campaign manager would be the one to know that. >> reporter: mueller wil

joining me now, kristin welkers, political analyst phil rucker. white house bureau chief at the "the washington post." >>> and john meechle presidential historian and the author of "the soul of america." we've gotten you out of tennessee. it's great to have you here. >> i should have my passport stamped. >>> we're about to see the biggest contrast you can a imagine, the president last night in montana, on his way to north dakota, and then of course barack obama in illinois, where he launched it all -- well, not that far from springfield, illinois, at least. what do we expect to hear from president obama? >> this is going to be a remarkable split screen, andrea, one that democrats and republicans have been anticipating, some of them dreaming about. what will we hear from former president obama? we're told no one is going to come away from his speech thinking that he held his punching. this is going to be a sharp, pointed speech about the state of democracy. he is going to be calling on democrats to get into the fray. i spoke with one of his adviser

here's nbc's kristin welker. >> reporter: bob woodward's explosive new book has not even hit store shelvesut overnight president trump lashing out at the veteran watergate journalist. mr. trump tweeting the top officials have refuted key facts. their quotes were made up frauds. a con on the public and accused woodward of being an operative. notice timing? the president's allies taking aim overnight. >> the people who have the greatest standard for honesty are standing up and saying, this book is not true. >> reporter: the book called "fear" portray it is presidency in the midst of a nervous breakdown. in an excerpt of a tweet of independents out of south korea. james mattis reportedly warning the president that the u.s. remains in the region, quote, in order to prevent world war iii. in another instance, woodward says president trump told mattis he wanted to assassinate syrian president al bashar after a 2017 chemical attack on his own people. mattis tells aides we are not going to do that. we are going to be much more measured. among the book's other explosive claims, woodward describes a

kristin welker asked the president about that specific plea deal. >> no, i'm not., because if he's honest -- and he is -- i think he's going to tell -- as long as he tells the truth, it's 100%. paul manafort was with me for a short period of time. he did a good job. i was, you know, very happy with the job he did. i will tell you this. uh, i believe that he will tell the truth. and if he tells the truth, no problem. >> a 9/11 memorial is evidently helping inspire president trump's border wall. america's commander in chief told the hill tv in that interview, quote, so we are building the wall. i could build it. you know what i do best is build. i could build the whole thing in a year, but there was a picture of something great. they built this gorgeous wall where the plane went down in pennsylvania, shanksville, and tlifi was there. what they did was incredible. it's beautiful. they have a series of walls. it's like perfect. we are pushing very hard. we've gotten approved in the house but the senate can't get it approved. he also reportedly told spain's foreign mini

kristin welker has more. >> reporter: another remarkable moment to tell you about.sident trump said we'll see when asked if he plans to fire his embattled deputy attorney general rod rosenstein but he added he would prefer not to remove rosenstein and said he may delay their meeting to focus on the kavanaugh hearing. the drama started when the "new york times" said rosenstein started discussing invoking the 25th amendment to remove the president from office. rosenstein has called that report inaccurate. the deputy attorney general oversees the russia investigation. >>> during his speech at the u.n. on tuesday, president trump bragged about the accomplishments of his administration proclaiming them to be the best in american history, which we know drew laughter from the audience. he later said it was meant to be a joke. yesterday the president claimed that everyone was laughing together and that the media just wasn't in on it. >> that's fake news. it was covered that way. okay. and i said this and i was in front of a large group of highly professional people, most of

kristin welker has the details. >> reporter: president trump is standing by judge brett kavanaugh. >>of the finest people that i've ever known. >> reporter: kavanaugh faces an allegation of sexual assaulting a teenage girl more than three decades ago at a high school party. he denies the accusation and according to the white house says he was never at the party in question. >> he's an outstanding intellect, an outstanding judge, respected by everybody. never had even a little blemish on his record. >> the accuser 51-year-old christine blasey ford, a professor in california, tells the "washington post" a 17-year-old kavanaugh was stumbling drunk at a house party in the '80s when he allegedly pinned her to a bed and groped her. i thought he might inadvertently kill me, she told the post. her lawyer said ford is willing to testify mickly. >> does she consider this an attempted rape? >> she does. >> kavanaugh says he's also willing to testify, adding this is a completely false allegation. i have never done anything like what the accuser describes to her or to anyone because this never hap

we know from our white house correspondents kristin welker and others that they want him to be more aggressive, as clarence thomas was in coming out so strongly and turning the narrative around in terms of public opinion that key weekend. it's difficult for him to do that because of the overall context and the record here. and there's a lot of record that he drank excessively. if he had not said definitively in his previous testimony i don't remember this. it didn't happen. >> daniel goldman joins us in a studio in new york. daniel, i'm going to read you something from steve schmidt. every gop campaign strategies and hill staffer wishes they had the button to open the trap door under rachel mitchell's chair. what a total and complete political disaster for republicans. your reaction? >> i think that's right. and i think one thing to also consider that isn't being discussed that much today is we're not just talking about a supreme court nomination. brett kavanaugh currently sits on the d.c. circuit court of appeals. there are issues as to whether he may continue to sit there, if he ultimately t

kristin welker sta you. t the white house. >>> an important update.edy. to that means you will pay $30 each way for the first checked bag, and $40 for theon bag. the increase covers flights within the u.s. and north ama and the caribbean. united and jetblue already announced higher baggage bag fees are so infuriating. i kno are we going to have to pay for gas next? how about a pallate cleanse british mom lin faced a challeng her 8-year-old daug lucy is deaf. lindy worried the excitement of the message mightet lost in >> oh, she got the message loud and clear. mom saidas lucy been asking for a little brother or sister for more than a year, and it is happening. you outdid yourself. n?t is going >> this baby dropped my desk. hello. wh >> we are confused and interest by the robot has comeio to studa. playl pets, life-saving devices.a firsthand look at how are changing our world. > first, the remarkable story of what helped free a man falsely imprisoned for 27 years. he is wh us for an exclusive . how do you top mac & cheese? start with 100% clean ingredie

nbc's white house correspondent kristin welker has the latest on this story. go mornin good g you to. that's right. deputy attorney genel rod rosenste job may be hanging in the balance after a chainic mo on monday. ed conflicting about whether he wastaying in his job or leaving. appointed robert mur and oversees the investig so the stakes are monument. morning, will he stay will he go? that's the qstion looming over deputy attorney gel rod ro who had a cordial handshe with chief of staff john kel after a tense mornin initially t word rosens w heading to t white e to resign, according to some close to the president, but other administration ofs tell nbc newsd r quit and would have to be fired. rosenstein met wh kell extended phonenv coer with p trump. thet. announcemen thursd meeting with mr. trump. job seemingly safe for now. >> we will be meeting at the white e andwill be determg what is going on. we want to have transparency, openness and i look forward to meeting with rod athat time. >> the drama started with that bombshell report in "the new that se discus

kristin k kristen welker joins me from the white house.huck grassley talking about a letter with 65 signatories, women who knew brett kavanaugh when he was a high school student when this was alleged to have occurred. we are seeing here sort of a fight by proxy, testaments to this person's character. what's your read on what happens next? are we hearing anything from the white house at this point? >> the only thing we're hearing from the white house is they're pointing us back to that initial statement by brett kavanaugh. here it is. i categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. i did not do this back in high school or at any time. now, of course, we're all watching our twitter feeds very closely to see if the president is going to tweet about this. i would frankly be surprised if he doesn't. because of course that is how he communicates. we know that his strategy for dealing with these types of controversies, these types of issues is to dig in. to fight back that much harder. i would be surprised if we didn't see that tactic fro

nbc white house correspondent kristen welker has the very latest for us. kristin, good morning. >> good morning to you. the white house is facing an escalating crisis. lawmakers had invited judge brett kavanaugh and christine blasey-ford to testify on capitol hill this monday. but now ford is demanding the fbi investigate her allegation first. president trump speaking out moments ago reaffirming his commitment to judge kavanaugh and calling on blasey-ford to testify saying if she doesn't show, that would be unfortunate. this morning, christine blasey-ford calling her own shots. the woman accusing judge brett kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were teenagers now saying she won't testify on capitol hill until the fbi investigates. her attorneys writing a letter to the judiciary committee that reads in part, an fbi investigation of the incident should be the first step in addressing her allegations. >> any talk of a hearing on monday, frankly, is premature because she just came forward with these allegations 48 hours ago. >> the letter s revealing ford says she ha