joining us from washington is nbc news correspondent leigh ann caldwell and our panel is here.ker, i want to start with you because i've always wondered. this president is somebody who takes loyalty seriously. and a lot of the aides and forgive me, you may remember the term they've applied to the "access hollywood" period of time, but they remember who was with them and who was against them. >> a real litmus test moment. >> there are some people now where he's swallowed his pride and he's gone out to support people like dean heller who abandoned him in that moment. how much convincing did it take to get the president to that point? >> the president is going out to campaign with them because they want him here and they've been suplicants while he's been president. dean heller has been saying flattering things publicly and privately to trump to sort of win his favor to make amends. i was with them two or three months ago when trump was in las vegas for his first campaign appearance with dean heller. it was really rather awkward. they both see a mutual beneficial relationship here

with me on set, capitol hill reporter leigh ann caldwell, jeremy peters who has been here. the co-founder of the federalist society, president of the club for growth and former republican congressman david mcintosh and co-founder and managing editor of the beat d.c., tiffany cross. thank you all for being here. leigh anne, we've been -- i can't believe we're about to start another week of this. it feels like the last one had barely ended. but i want to focus in on what we saw between flake and coons and how this saul unfolding. it is so rare that we get a chance to see something come of the personal relationships built across the aisle in the senate. used to be something that happened with -- pretty regularly on really big issues. >> that's right. i heard you say that on friday on air. that was so poignant that it was these deep personal relationships. but also, you know, senator flake was confronted by these protesters which had an impact on him. what was really bothering senator flake was the lack of decorum, the complete breakdown of the senate. this was one of the most

and joining us now is nbc news political reporter leigh ann caldwell, one of the recorders on this brand-new story. leigh ann, thank you so much for join us. >> thank you, joy. >> how early do the text messages go back? do they go back to july? >> sure, joy. so what we've seen we have not seen all of the text messages. we've only seen the text messages that were outlined in this memo that kerry bercham wants to submit to the fbi. and this is again one more instance of someone who wants to talk to the fbi but hasn't been able to. she is part of a group of friends who went to yale undergrad with kavanaugh and ramirez. they're in the same group of people, and she says that she has reached out to the fbi three times an has not heard back. now that the fbi says that they're going to expand this investigation, she's more hopeful that they will reach out, but as of a couple of hours ago, they have not yet. so what she wants to do, she wants to present up to 51 text messages that she has had -- that she has between her and her friend karen yersavich. so karen and kerry, they both went to yale with k

well, leigh ann caldwell, great reporting. really celebrate you tonight. thank you. joining us is ken dilanian, intelligence and national security reporter for the nbc news investigative unit, which has really been leading the way on the reporting on the scope of the fbi investigation and the restrictions the white house put on it. ken, great to talk to you tonight. >> good to be here, joy. >> we now have this new reporting from nbc news that brett kavanaugh or brett and others around him may have been trying to reach out to try to get people to maybe buck up his side of the story or become sort of character witnesses in advance of the story that "the new yorker" was going to put out about ms. ramirez. do we know whether the fbi has now actually contacted those would-be witnesses or do we have any reporting on why it seems to be so difficult for witnesses who want to be in touch to actually get through to the fbi? >> we have nothing to suggest yet that the fbi has contacted those witnesses, but today's announcement, or today's reporting that the white house is going