back with us, tim o'brien and john heilemann.secretary of defense getting basically a assassinate, kill any way you want to assad and maybe that means go to war, kill all of them, what does that mean? does that mean an invasion? who knows what it means because the secretary basically ignored it according to woodward. >> i think there are two separate questions there. one question is what did trump mean by it? and the answer is i'm sure trump had no idea what he meant by it and it was the typical trump gibberish coming out of his mouth. sought defense secretary did what we have all been hoping and praying people in these positions have been doing. woodward apparently describes it in someplace here in the book because it's been quoted in "washington post" and other places as an administrative coup d'etat. that puts a negative spin on it. others would say guardrails for humanity. guardrails of the safety of the planet. is that some of these people like jim mattis are in this job precisely to do this very thing, which is to stop the

>> i love tim o'brien. that story is wonderful.ooked at the administration, really knows a lot about donald trump, and has written about him. there is a visual component to his story. you go to the website, click on different members of the team. >> i love the story about larry page. where is larry? it is very much in the news. he has been here for five minutes and delivers a story that everyone needs to read to understand what is going on in washington and silicon valley. more bloomberg television starts right now. ♪ comcast business built the nation's largest gig-speed network. then went beyond. beyond chasing down network problems. to knowing when and where there's an issue. beyond network complexity. to a zero-touch, one-box world. optimizing performance and budget. beyond having questions. to getting answers. "activecore, how's my network?" "all sites are green." all of which helps you do more than your customers thought possible. comcast business. beyond fast. ♪ nejra: life after lehman and we take a look at the financial lan

tim o'brien, his biographer shows he has done the opposite.ason: facebook and twitter executives were in washington promising more transparency. google founder larry page has all but disappeared. carol: as we mark 10 years since the start of the last financial crisis, ray dalio has plenty to say. jason: it is a bit of a buzz kill, especially for investors who have been in equity markets. carol: taylor riggs, what a ride. taylor: come into my terminal. this is just one of the basic market stories i love. i am going back to 1924. we have a regression line. already up on the s&p 500. and caroline jason, it's really interesting heading into the fourth quarter already revising up their price target. goalseady met those earlier in the year. jason: with so much behind us in this bull market already. this sets the chart up nicely for the cover story in "bloomberg businessweek." "the most boring bull market ever." carol: even a boom can feel kind of blah. chris: i think it is probably safe to say we are looking at the boring quality of the stock market

and tim o'brien, it's very clear, i mean, anyone who knows how to read these books can tell that rob porter is a direct source, speaking directly to bob woodward as is gary cohn. these statements they've issued today are things that have happened with woodward books before and bob woodward has said in the past that sometimes people will actually tell him. sorry, but i'm coming out today and i'm going to say something negative about the book, even though, of course, i did give you all this interview material. >> the most famous -- this has happened before -- mark felt, who was deep throat for both bob woodward and carl bernstein. mark felt spent 30 years after that book came out denying that he was the source for the book because everyone in washington needs to insulate themselves from the fallout of a bob woodward book. there is a good chance that a number of the people in the white house who have stepped up and have said, this is an inaccurate account, or i never said what i said, are simply covering themselves because they're aware that they're with a president who is going to be v

tim o'brien, his biographer, shows he has done quite the opposite.ook and twitter executives were there last week, promising more transparency. google founder larry

tim o'brien's been through it. geoff bennett, what are we expecting to see from the white house? is this a lot of bluster or are these things happening behind the scenes? >> you know what's remarkable about listening to that? the president just the last hour on air force one said, yeah, i think we should change and strengthen our libel laws. it's fairly remarkable, those two things taken side by side. i would just say we have seen the president really crib messaging from lawmakers. so we heard what senator graham said in the halls of the capitol. expect the president to say something similar. i make that point because it was a couple of days ago, yesterday in fact, where we heard rand paul say this is an issue of national security. it's national security. if this person that wrote this op-ed shared with reporters intelligence secrets, this is a dangerous thing. just today the president said it's national security. it's national security. when pressed for details, he didn't offer them. >> and in terms of national security, what in that op-ed specifically was a problem for national

tim o'brien, his biographer, shows he has done quite the opposite. and facebook and twitter executives were there last week, promising more transparency. google founder larry tate was not. he disappeared not just from the nation's capital, but from silicon valley as well. >> and years since the start of the last -- and 10 year since the start of the last financial crisis. where the next one may come from. >> it's a buzz kill, especially for investors who have been enjoying a record bull run. a run, one of the most beloved run ups in history. come to my terminal, this is a really good basic story that i love. sincep 500 going back 1924. this is the longest in history. we are already up on the s&p 500, almost at the 2900 level. intoy interesting heading the fourth quarter, you have a lot of analysts revising up their price target. we have already met those goals so far earlier on in the year. look forward to potentially but so much behind it in this bull market. this sets the chart up nicely for this cover story in bloomberg businessweek, the most bori

we're joined by tim o'brien, the bloomberg opinion executive editor. what do you make of this?st time we have ever seen something like this. reporter: there are two categories of commentary. some people have said it is a coup. i think that is extreme. others have said it is normal. it happens a bloomberg. we ignore our managers. this is very unusual. it is not just about internal white house staff, circumventing things they do not believe in. they are publicizing the fact that they believe the president is incompetent and trying to find ways of getting around that behavior. romaine: there is always internal strife in any white house, any government. to publicize it like that almost seems like they are saying there is no other outlet to address grievances within a normal process. reporter: there has been presidents for this, during watergate, henry kissinger held back certain processes from nixon because they had lost faith, going back to woodrow wilson in 1919,'s wife essentially took over the white house after he had a stroke and that was not made public. what is different her

history could tim o'brien is a bloomberg opinion columnists.avid investmentan capital president. he is looking for investment opportunities. an update on where puerto rico stands today compared to a year ago. certainly in san juan, it is much better than it was when i was down here a year ago. lights are working. banks are open. businesses are operating again. tourism has come back a little bit. but when you get outside of san juan, there are still problems with roadways and still a lot of ,owns with devastating housing and the electricity grid here did not get fully restored until about a month ago. on the other hand, for our bloomberg viewers, the government has made some the last month and restructuring or attempting to restructure about $74 billion in debt it owes to investors. that is likely to involve a haircut on different portions of that debt in varying ranges. the country is putting that debt agreement to the courts in october, and we will see where that lands. some of the big investors and a hedget is bob post, fund that has been inv

tim o'brien, his biographer shows he has done the opposite.ok and twitter executives were in washington promising more transparency. google founder larry page has all but disappeared

tim o'brien, his biographer, shows he has done quite the opposite.n washington facebook and twitter executives , were there last week, promising more transparency. google founder larry tate was

and tim o'brien, bloomberg opinion and someone would knows an awful lot about president trump and his tactics. okay, tim, to you first, what do you make of the way president trump has reacted to the op-ed? >> this is his worst nightmare. it's the whole media enterprise turning against him. he's a 72-year-old man. working very hard to keep himself front and center in the public eye. he's done that through a variety of methods, anonymously leaking friends, associa associates, his ex-wives, using exactly the methods he condemns in the op-ed. now the popular consensus around this is he is a self-absorbed bonkers deli er ers delinquent. he is working hard to get around that. >> okay, here's what's crazy. there are people who attended trump's fund-raiser in the hamptons two weeks ago who would concur he's a self-absorbed delinquent who's a business bafoon but they like those policies. >> they're willing to let the kid in the garage light off firecrackers around the lawn mower because they're getting those things. >> exactly. so why does this change anything? >> he's so self-absorbed he won'

in work used by author tim o'brien to describe combat in vietnam, this environment i think is described well. he says this environment has the feel of a great ghostly fault. thick and permanent. there is no clarity. the only certainty is overwhelming ambiguity. this is what they're up against. fog of battle, trying to make sense of a lot of stuff. the liend of the day, between intelligence success and intelligence failure came down to the commander who was in the hot seat, especially at that critical moment where everything and nothing seemed true. it is then that an officer came face-to-face with one of wars truism. intelligence cannot make decisions, only commanders can. this gets me to ulysses s. grant. i have to let you know of my buyers. i am an enormous fan of grant. i am well aware of his troubles, but i also have great regard and my regard for him grew even more after climbing into his command ends i tried to be balanced, you may see that i do admire him particularly with intelligence. ulysses s. grant, graduate of west point who read more novels and i'm sure he read about intel

i'm joining by eli stokeles and tim o'brien, from bloomberg. thank you both.ting word there is a huddle in the hallway and susan collins and murkowski, the two women who are pro-choice and may well vote against this nominee for other reasons and also joined by joe manchin from west virginia who is teetering and not willing to say where he stands and jeff flake. so they are the deciders. >> there is high drama and those are thought to be the four swing votes and it depends on who you talk to. i talked to a democrat on the hill who said i think -- i think he's going through and we may see no republicans defect because that -- the last couple of hours of that hearing were such a rallying cry for the republicans and for the republican base. although the senators were talking about whoer having to decide, those are the ones who matter. those are not base senators and i think it just -- it does come down to that. the white house loved it. the republican party -- >> they said they loved it. >> because they felt like they were in a hole this morning and -- >> with the

with us to discuss, tim o'brien. executive editor for bloomberg opinion. he's in puerto rico on this anniversary. and representative plaskett. one year later, president trump touts his response saying it was a win. you just wrote an article where you're saying that's not the case in terms of puerto rico. we do have to put into perspective, puerto rico was, at least in terms of the power grid in a compromised state before the storm hit. >> correct, but it wasn't 70% of the power wasn't out here as the president has said, stef. the loss of life here conservativetively about 3,000 people. that puts it on par with 9/11. the winds that hit this island were about 155 miles an hour. florence's winds were around 85 miles an hour. it took 11 months for the power grid to get back online. for most puerto ricans. many of them still have to jerry rig electricity and solar panels to get power to their homes. i would also note that it took almost two weeks for the president to come to puerto rico after maria hit. when he gave his state of the union speech in january. he

they quote trump biographer tim o'brien. two things motivate almost 100% of his behavior.ation or self-aggrandi self-aggrandizement. and breaking in the last few minutes, news having to do with another former member of the trump team caught up in the mueller probe. federal prosecutors and attorneys for michael flynn have informed the court they're now ready to set a sentencing date for donald trump's former national security adviser. like manafort, flynn also pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate. it's so surreal, paul butler, to go from reporting on the former chairman of his campaign to reporting on the former the forl security adviser for the united states of america under donald trump as cooperating witnesses in the mueller probe into russian collusion. >> yeah, so part of this, again, we've always thought of this as a pyramid prosecution. you start at the bottom and go up. it's always been interesting that the people on the bottom are pretty high ranked like michael flynn and like the former chairman of the campaign. but, look, all this means is that michael flynn ha

tim o'brien is an attorney covering the supreme court for two decades.lso the author of "murder at the supreme court" landmark cases and crimes. intriguing read. today we'll talk about the hearing up ahead this week. kicking things off, we just heard from amy klobuchar talking about a lack of transparency. do you agree with her in any sense? >> not really. these documents are protected by executive privilege. it is the bush administration, the last -- president bush who said he didn't want them released. it would be nice to have them but what you really need to look at are his past opinions, how thoughtful they are and scholarly they are and i think that's enough. >> molly: there is a significant amount of information that is available. bill burke, the president for former george w. bush explained to the senate judiciary committee why some of the paperwork was being withheld. they are deliberations concerning the selection and nomination of judicial candidates. meanwhile there are more than 440,000 documents in total that are available for looking over.

joining us now, attorney and a journalist, tim o'brien, who covered the supreme court two decades ago has come and gone this morning, where does this go? >> well, i think the assessment of judge kavanaugh seems to be on the money. i and you however have known some people, producers in our own industry, who appeared to be pillars of the community, turned out to be something quite different. so this is a tough case. as your anchor, chris wallace, pointed out, i thought republicans are in a dicey situation here. there was a time where they might be able to look the other way. that is not today with the #metoo movement. they have to treat us fairly, and it has to be perceived as fair. she has to have an opportunity to present her case as best she can. it is going to be tough to prove that this happened. how does judge kavanaugh prove it didn't happen? if you treat her fairly, i think that is in the republican's best interests. >> sandra: are her requests fair? >> well, i agree that it is unusual to have the accused appear first. i don't think that is going to fly, necessarily, or he has t

i'm joined by ya sinda, and tim o'bri o'bri o'brien. what woodward says in his book about the president is he's incapable of expressing the truth because he doesn't know how to word it. and more scary to me that he's unattached to reality. now he's coming out and saying he deserves a pluses for his handling of hurricanes and basically is ignoring what looks to be the storm warnings of him losing both house of congress in november. >> he wants to look like he's winning at all times even if he lost. obviously some 3,000 people were killed in hurricane marie, people had no electricity in puerto rico, which is part of the united states, for more than a year. he doesn't want to deal with the reality that there were people suffering because of things his government failed to do. so in his response, instead of taking credit for that, he's saying it's the mayor of san juan, who's been open and critical of how much i should have done differently -- >> so he picked a fight with a minority woman. >> yes. >> that's not unusual, is it? >> no. >> let