tom lee, the guardian's anoushka asta na, tom lee, the guardian's anoushka astana, and the bbc‘s laura collinst. one viewer thought it was a heavyweight panel. others were scathing about complaints that this was a stunt, with bernadette tweeting. to discuss all that, i'm joined by rob burleigh, the bbc‘s editor of live political programmes. was it a stu nt? political programmes. was it a stunt? i started to think, who would we like our first show. amber rudd had not done much media since she home office. i started to think you would be a good labour counterpart andi would be a good labour counterpart and i thought emily thornberry, who is one of the rising stars of the labour party. the point was reached where i looked at the panel we had andi where i looked at the panel we had and i thought, that's a great panel. and we discussed the fact that it was an all woman panel. i said, am a co mforta ble was an all woman panel. i said, am a comfortable and we were. it was the best panel we could hope. it wasn't a stunt, it was a genuine process by whereby it clearly ended up with, and we included lau

and i think some of the best reporting has come from laura jarrett and kaitlan collins from the justice department and white house, look, perhaps rosenstein got a little out over his skis on this. on friday after the "new york times" story appeared, he expected to be fired by the president. i mean, wouldn't you? okay. and then there were -- the president was not happy, but there were lots of conservatives saying no, no, no, no. this is not the time to fire rod rosenstein. you should not be doing this now. and we reported here on friday that there were republicans saying to him, you don't want to mix up the kavanaugh story with, you know, with the rosenstein story. just hold your fire. and you also have the mueller investigation. this isn't going to help anything. rosenstein thought he was going to be fired, perhaps he drafted -- perhaps he drafted

laura: the democrats win. they take the senate, take the house. >> huge blue wave. why fight for them if they want to fight for us? i say to collins, lisa murkowski, and flake and ben sasse, pretend this is a jeb bush nominee. a lot of this has to do with them hating donald trump. >> laura: he is a george w. bush guy. >> i know. it is their hatred of trump. >> laura: george w. bush should give a speech as should anthony kennedy and frankly the chief justice. i think john roberts should come out and say this is an attack on the judiciary. no one is going to be want to be nominated to a federal court in the future. who would? who wants to be nominated? >> who wants to run as a republican? this is why you and i voted for mccain, this is why liberals never trumpers, voted for trump for the judicial nominees, the republicans can hold this off. >> laura: reaction to democrats pulling up all the stops to boost their turn out how to midterms. michelle obama happy to step into the void. >> i'm sick of all the chaos anl the nastiness of the politics. it's exhausting and frankly it's depressing. so i understand wanting to shut it all out. an

moments ago, -- we'll get it on the other side, collins, lisa murkowski, others, may be drawn through -- >> the other women, jeff flake, ben sasse. >> lauraill wait until thursday to make their decision. collins wants ramirez to be heard. we will hold you over. more on this, more with ann coulter, including michelle obama's new get out the vote drive. don't go away. (woman) learned to play an instrument. learned a second language. applied to college. applied for a loan. started a business. started a blog. shared a picture. shared a moment. turn your wish list into a checklist. learn more. do more. share more. at home, with internet essentials. >> laura: back with me now, ann coulter. ann, if kavanaugh goes down, what happens to the republicans in the u.s. and its? >> at the huge blue wave, there is no wall. >> laura: the democrats would mike brey take the senate, take the house. >> huge blue wave. why fight for them if they want to fight for us? i say to collins, lisa murkowsk murkowski, and flake and ben sasse, pretend this is a jeb bush nominee. a lot of this has to do with them hating donald trump >> laura: he is a george w. bush guy.

think that rosenstein story threw a lot of problems into that. >> okay, kaitlan collins, we appreciate the reporting. laurareaking the news along with kaitlan collins. shimon, the analysis, shan, the breaking news. >> are we watching a saturday night massacre in slow motion here? i'm jim sciutto. thanks for watching us today. at this hour with kate bolduan starts right now. >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> hello, everyone. i'm kate bolduan. we're going to continue with the breaking news, really an amazing development this morning on the fate of deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, the man who appointed robert mueller, who kick started the special counsel's russia investigation. a source tells cnn that rosenstein has submitted his resignation. this comes after a bombshell report in "the new york times" friday, reporting that rosenstein discussed secretly recording conversations with president trump and also discussed invoking the 25th amendment to remove trump from office last year in the

. >> joining me right now, cnn justice reporter laura jarrett and kaitlan collins. we're back together. do we have any more clarity today? we're hearing white house officials are cautioning against presuming that rosenstein will be fired. what do you have? >> that's not because the dynamic between president trump and the deputy attorney general have changed at all but we know when they sit down on thursday, president trump does not like one-on-one conflict. he's not good at confronting people he's got problems with, he's not good at firing people. instead, usually giving that task to somebody else. that's exactly what we could see on thursday and what white house officials are cautioning against. this is the president's nature, we know how he is, we know he doesn't like to fire people one-on-one, but of course, they aren't ruling out that he could be fired either. as you heard from sarah sanders this morning, she was asked, does the president want to keep rod rosenstein? does she want to fire him? and she couldn't say either way. she said they're going to sit down o

. >> laura: even moderate republicans like susan collins are subject to abuse. collins' office has been slammed by calls to vote against supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. >> attacked for women's beliefs, vote no on kavanaugh, don't be a [bleep], also. >> if you vote for him, you are setting up -- woman, standing there letting trump and his appointees steal from americans, steal the right to choose what women do with their bodies, you stood by. i didn't know, i'm so naive. [bleep] you. >> laura: like the destructive an ticks of antifa, count on the justice to justify aggression. this is msnbc contributor alsindor. >> when you listen to these, it is obviously abuse and the language is abhorrent, you feel they are talking about life and death issues. >> laura: now it is important to focus on the word, "but," it is abhorrent, but life and death issues. in other words, as if to say the abuse coming from the left is almost justified. reading between the lines, as they like to say. that certainly was james joseph hodgekinson thought when he tried to assassinate st

>> laura: even moderate republicans, like susan collins, are subject to abuse. collins' office on capitol hill has been slammed by called to vote against a supreme court brett kavanaugh. >> if you care at all about women's stories, vote no on kavanaugh. don't be a dumb [bleep]. >> if you vote for him, you are setting us backwards. backwards, woman. letting trump and his appointees steel health care from millions of americans. steal the right to choose what equipment do with their bodies, and you stood by them, "oh, i didn't know, i am so naive." [bleep] you! [bleep] you! >> laura: like the destructive antics of antifa with a rioting this moment baltimore, you can always count on the left to justify aggression. this is msnbc contributor. >> when you listen to those, having been on the campaign trail, at the passion of people, the obviously abusive, the language that is being used as a portent. but you also feel that they are talking about life-and-death issues. >> laura: it's important to focus on the word "blood" that she used. "it's a poor and part" issues. as

laura: who do you see as the key ompublican senators in this? is it the moderate or someone else? reid: susan collins and lisa murkowski will always be as swing a vote as democrats could possiblyope for, although republicans think they are in the kanaugh camp. the one person i'm watching his -- is jeff flake, senator from arizona, memb of the judiciary committee, no fan of president trump, and someone who says he wants to hear from dr. ford before any vote goes forward. he has gone as far as saying that he would vote a the proceeding on the nomination without some kind of hearing. we will see if that s if dr. ford decides not to testify. atbehe moment, jeff flake ma the crucial swing vote. laura: the midterm elections in just 50 days are hanging over this. what does this do to republican prospects, especially with college-educated suburban women who polling suggest are disaffected with the partand disaffected with the party and president? reid: remember the year of the woman back in 1992, when senators like patty muonay of washindianne feinstein of california, and several others actually got elected.

laura. if you have anything within the hour, the associated press, cnn's manu raju and kate lynn col collins. he has gone to the white house to say i resign or say fire me? >> it's pretty safe to say he is not going to walk out of that meeting and have the job he has now. they are there hash things out and what they say going forward. they had a conversation last week where rod rosenstein offered to resign. what happened over the weekend, president trump was much more focussed on the drama with brett kavanaugh than the bombshell story about the wire and the 25th amendment. this has been a discussion about john kelly and where they are going forward. they are coming out of the white house. we will see what happens coming forward. the president during that interview which was pretaped saturday or sunday with geraldo rivera said he wouldn't answer if rod rosenstein would be fired. he called it a sad situation and recommended to him by the attorney general, jeff sessions. >> this relationship at times and he has been harshly critical because robert mueller exists as the special counsel. let's go

collins. we've heard what you've heard. let's go to the white house. before we do that -- laura, thank you. before today's development, regarding rod rosenstein, president trump in a pretaped interview would not flat out say if he would fire rosenstein in response to that bock shell "new york times" piece. >> i don't want to comment on it until i get all the facts. i haven't gotten all the facts. but certainly it's being looked at in terms of what took place, if anything took place. he was hired by jeff sessions. i was not involved in that process because they go out and get their own deputies and the people that work in the department. >> so, that was the president. here's kaitlan in washington, d.c., with the white house. we heard laura tell the story of justice. you've been hearing from your people at the white house. what's the deal? >> we're getting a lot of different stories. laura laid it out perfectly but the white house's version is rod rosenstein during a conversation with john kelly on friday, when kelly, one of those few people still at the white house, president trump was trave

collin are innocent of the changes brought against them. every member of the duke lacrosse team is innocent. you have all been told some fantastic lies. >> laura: well, the media seized on the story, spinning the tripper's credible accusation into a tale of white privilege, massagy and pure evil. a media swarm and rush to judgment follows. the duke lacrosse coach that stood by his team in the face of these false accusations was fired for it and the young men ereputations were dragged through the mud. and we learned later that the men were not near the accused for the assault to have happened. all three men were eventually cleared of the charges. north carolina's then attorney general roy cooper said the men had been victims of a tragic rush to accuse and the failure to verify serious allegations. the crusading durham district attorney, mike fong that cooked evidence and raced to prosecute was disbarred and convicted for contempt because of his actions. there's a cautionary tale as we weigh and determine the credibility of allegations against judge kavanaugh. at least the duke lacrosse case was contemporary when it comes to the timing with witn

collin kaepernick?" he's exactly right. police have to do their jobs. colin kaepernick, whether he likes it or not, he started a trend -- and, laura, i don't know what the statistics are, but i'll tell you, the overwhelming number of americans believe in the flag, believe in the anthem, believe in standing for iter and believe in the military and believe in the police. >> you can take a knee in protest but also stand up for believing in america -- >> take a knee in protest for the people that was killed in chicago. >> again, i'll say, you can focus on why this even started, the fact that african-american -- black f and brown people -- >> don't go into the wrong statistics. >> laura: guys. you can say these people aren't pro american. look, my father served -- >> laura:, guys, one at a time. guys, i think, again -- yeah, i -- >> you can argue this as much as yourg want, randy moss wore a te to get inducted into the nfl hall of fame. it had 12 black people's names on it that expanded over a decade. >> laura: guys, we have to move on. we have to move on we have another topic i want to hit on while i have both of you here. last night's cnn's don lemon took

collins and murkowski. i think there is a question of how they viewed the testimony. i would disagree with laura righteous indignation, and if we are accused of something that we don't believe we did, we would be angry, but i think a lot of people, especially speaking about the midterms, bill, independent women who are already think the republican party, they watched yesterday, i think it, and saw a man who was angry. he had rage. he cut off female senators, he was dismissive of the process. ramming through that confirmation bill. >> bill: you saw a man who was fighting for his life and fighting for his family. i saw a man who walked in yesterday with his wife and son listen, if you're going to burn down my house, i'm going to burn down yours as well. it was pointed, and many have suggested that supreme court nominees do not get political. his commentary was clearly directed at democrats for what he has gone through for the last several weeks. >> we went into that hearing saying he's going to have to push back, and then when he did, everybody said is that too much? where's the line? so which way