The d. C. Circuit. His answers to this committee have not resolved the issue. Frank ly, im surprised that judge kavanagh is not demanding that every document hes ever handled be reviewed by this committee. Unless of course theres something to hide. Thank you. Thank you, chairman grassley. Senator whitehouse, members of the committee. A great pleasure to return where i served as staffer some two decades ago. An even greater pleasure to be here today to testify in support of judge kavanaghs nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States. Judge kavanagh and i first met some 25 years ago when we clerked at the Supreme Court together during the same term for different justices. Although the law clerks were an impressive bunch, brett stood out. That was john dean we were just listening to in his testimony against john deans, against Brett Kavanaghs nomination. I want to go to Elliot Williams joining me now. A former Deputy Assistant general for legislative affairs at the department of justice. Some interesting points there, referring to the idea that what a candidate, a nominee Supreme Court seat does or says in their testimony or in the days prior to it could actually come into play later on. He referred to things that judge reinquist had said. He referred to things that clearance thomas said during his hearings. Right. He did. Now the b problem is that so much of what weve seen from judge kavanagh over the course of this week has been sort of an attempt to stay away from giving meaningful answers as to any major topics. Were constantly going to be seeing conflicts over things we said before and things that might come into play later. But john dean has an accideexce point there. What do you make of the way this testimony has gone in the last couple of days. Weve had things that are controversial, but we continue to be reminded of the fact the vote, the outcome is not in question. Im hesitant to say its not in question. Certainly, the republicans have the majority in the senate, but we dont know how a number of senators including the two critical ones, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski is going to vote. Again, ill return to the point i made a moment ago, which is that we have allow eed Supreme Court justices, nominees, to get away with not saying much of anything at their confirmation hearings. If you notice, the, theres a disconnect between what he said on abortion, and emails when he worked at the white house and what he was saying on the record just a day ago. So its just a little bit, we have allowed this to go on and sort of allowed it to fester where we just accept they say they will follow settled law. Its in plain view right now that there is a, theres difference between what he said before and now. But were you know, if he is to be confirmed, hell be confirmed over huge questions about where he stands on important issues and somehow, that paradigm and how he confirms Supreme Court nominees and what we expect of them needs to change. We just need to keep getting these nominees who have long histories then get silent. Dont go away. I need to continue the conversation with you, but i want to bring in pete williams. Pete, you know, we just jumped into this because john dean showed up earlier than we expected. Whats the relevance of him being there . Well, i think the opponents brought him in because of this question of the president s authority and what would happen if a president were subpoenaed echoes of watergate, john dean was right in it. I think thats why they wanted to hear from him. A reminder fehr opponenfor oppo that he could potentially be a deciding vote on questions of president ial authority about which he has written in the past, his most recent writings said that a president is unique in the government structure and shouldnt be bothered with having to get bogged down in civil lawsuits or criminal prosecutions. Now he in fairness to him, did also say that to give the president that kind of immunity would take an act of congress, but it none the less says something about based on his experience with ken starrs prosecutors, how distracting he thinks this can be to a president and sort of where he is coming from if you will as he would face that kind of question, so i think thats why john dean was brought in excos of echoes of watergate. Lets listen. If judge kavanagh joins the court, it will be the most president ial powers Friendly Court in the modern era. Republicans and conservatives only a few years ago, i know well, fought the expansion of president ial power and executive powers. Thats no longer true. Judge kavanagh has a very broad view of president ial powers. For example, he would have the congress immunize sitting president s from both civil and criminal liability. Pete, is there anything, the one thing about having a guy like john dean there, we know what he thinks. Weve been studying him literally for decades. To this point about whether theres anything earth shattering we can were going from him, any effect this is likely to have on the outcome . Your thoughts on both. Well, i think these last days of the hearing where people get to come in and you know, right after john dean was paul clement. One of the most highly regarded Supreme Court advocates right now and conservative republicans who supports kavanagh. So these last days tend to be a chance for people to say what they think. I dont think they effect votes and in terms of affected votes, i guess you could say the only question is after these hearings, were senator collins or murkowski in any way concerned enough about judge kavanaghs views about abortion that they would vote against him . He did call roe v. Wade sort of to borrow a frphrase, arlen specters phrase, super duper president because its been relied on in subsequent cases several times, but there was the email he wrote in 2003, when he said a draft oped from the white house that said legal scholars that roe set a law. He said i dont think thats what legal scholars agreed on and the Supreme Court could overturn its president. That concerns people who think he should be nominated and could be a vote where Justice Kennedy was. I think to answer your question, im never convinced that this last day of testimony sways many minds. Right. But that particular issue and that particular email on whether roe v. Wade is starry desis desisis may have an impact oimp. Thanks for your continued analysis on this. All right, what happened to the Republican Party . Thats a question that form er president obama whos squaring off against President Trump in obamas first and absolutely blistering assess m of the new assessment just asked. Heres how trump responded moments ago. Im sorry i watched it, but i fell asleep. I value very good. Very good for sleeping. I think he was try iing to take some credit. He was trying to take credit for this incredible thing thats happening to our country. If the democrats, have to say this to president obama, and it wasnt him, but would have been the same thing f. The democrats got in with their agenda in november almost two years ago then what . President obama weighed in on that new infamous New York Times oped by the way. The claim that everything will turn out okay because there are people inside the white house who secretly arent following the president s orders. That is not a check. Im being serious here. Thats not how our democracys supposed to work. Theyre not doing us a service by actively promoting 90 of the crazy stuff thats coming out of this white house and then saying dont worry, were preventing the other 10 . The piece has gotten under President Trumps skin because now hes calling on the department of justice to investigate who wrote it. Do you think Jeff Sessions should be investigating who the author of the oped piece was . I think so because i think its National Security. I would say jeff should be investigating who the author of that piece was. Because i really believe its National Security. Hard to hear, but hes saying Jeff Sessions should be inv investigating this. In response, the New York Times released a statement saying were confident the department of justice understands that the First Amendment protects all american citizens and would not par miss tate in such a blatant abuse of power. And serve as a reminder of a free and independent press to the american democracy. White house is now pushing back on the idea of calling on the department of justice to investigate saying he was simply opining. Jeff bennett is there at the white house for us. Jeff, the president didnt mention the oped or the department of justice in his speech today. But he had plenty to say about donald trump. Lets just stick on the oped. Whats the white house saying . The president called it a disgrace. He said he was considering taking action against the New York Times and as you heard, he suggested he was going to have his attorney general and department of justice investigate. As soon as he said that, Peter Alexander raced back to upper press, where Sarah Sanders sits and she told him the president was merely opining. He wasnt actually directing Jeff Sessions to launch an investigation. Kind of like what happened earlier this month where the president on twitter suggested actually he ordered, Jeff Sessions to shut down the russia investigation. The president said right now. The white house then walked that back and said the president was merely making the suggestion that he wanted Jeff Sessions to take a greater role in this. But today just like yesterday, you heard the president suggest that this oped reflects some sort of National Security breach. The president when pressed wouldnt explain exactly why he was saying that, but he seemed to be echoing the comments we heard from rand paul, who said if this oped wrirt ter is shar with the media National Security secrets, that would be a dangerous thing. There are those who point out thats quite a leap to make considering theres nothing in the oped that reflects issues of National Security and there is no law that makes it a crime to criticize the president , whether youre a private citizen or unnamed Senior Administration official. Im puzzled as to how you make that leap. That because somebody wrote something now the department of justice should be ve gainvestig who they are and what they might be saying. I know there are governments in the world that operate that way. With we tend to be remarkably critical of those. Thanks, jeff. At the white house. Lets move on with my two following guests. I want to talk more about the president trying to assert his authority over the Justice Department. Kelly mcbride and former Deputy Assistant attorney general at the doj, ali williams, joins me again. Kelly, even if you take the white house at its word, that the president was opining, the president is opining about treason, which is a serious charge. He tweeted out the other day then said it again to fox news last night. Which this is 100 clearly not. And hes opining about an abuse of power. Getting the Justice Department to without cause, investigate somebody who wrote an oped. I dont think its any less serious that he is opining than directing the department of justice. All of it is highly, highly inappropriate. Absolutely. Meant to intimidate the press, try iing to get them to back do. I dont think its going to work. But theres nothing in the anonymous column that was run in the New York Times that suggests any criminality at all. Instead, what you have is a critic of the president describing him in very harsh terms and describing what others are doing in the white house including author to try and keep this president from causing significant damage to the United States. If its a crime to criticize your boss, a lot of people in america are going to have a problem. So i cannot imagine that the department of justice would legitimately initiate an investigation because there has to be some indication of criminalalty for them to do that. Elliot, so if kelly says and i tend b to believe her, its not going to work. The intimidation of the press part is not going to work. But the idea that this puts into peoples minds and we have seen when President Trump keeps on saying things, there are a percentage of americans b who believe hill. Sometimes as high as 40 . Sometimes as low as 18 . The president suggest that is the department of justice should be investigating this sort of thing. A whole bunch of people are going to say, yeah, they should do that. The president has long had this notion of saying that because hes the head of the executive branch he necessarily oversees Law Enforcement and can necessarily tell the Justice Department what to do. This has come up before, for instance in the case of the mueller investigation, where he says i could just step in and run the whole thing. Beautiful you started off the show with a clip of barack obama to remember how things used to be because when i was there, he sat down all the u. S. Attorneys, all 94 of them and said, i nominated you, i appointed you, but now you serve the American People. You are independent. And that is how Law Enforcement works and thats how the Justice Department works. And so, this stretching of the executive power, the stretching of the role of the president that the president one seems to have in his head and two, people who arent skilled or knowledgeable in government might think he might be able to tell the Justice Department what to do and we have centuries of history in this country of that type of behavior being seen as inappropriate from the president. Kelly, the New York Times response is robust in what you would expect of news organizations and i suspect organizations like yours and others that support journalists and other media organizations would have similar responses, but in the end, my fear here isnt that the press wont do its job because you and i know examples of countries that are very oppressive. The fact is at what point do we hope everybody in the Justice Department understands that this is in the words of some, crazy town. I think you know, the Justice Department will do what it will. Its probably the American People that we need to be more concerned with. You know, press credibility is low. Now a recent study that we did suggests that its starting to turn around and that more people are starting to trust the press. But what we know is that trump supporters, his die hard supporter rs the osupport e ers are the ones who have the least trust in the press. If the American People hold the Justice Department accountable, we need a Critical Mass f them to be able to find information that they trust and believe. Otherwise, democracy didnt work. And so rielle really, the president is not i dont think even necessarily trying to influence the Justice Department as much he is ryie in trying to influence the American People. But this is a real problem because what kelly says is true. Not only do a large percentage of americans distrust the press, a very large proportion of americans, more than 50 of republicans do. Were in a dangerous place there. Because one shouldnt be undermining the presss Constitutional Rights to do what it does. One should be able to criticize the press and were mix iing th two up here. Absolutely. And the way in which were criticizing the press and criticizing the exercise of free speech is incredibly dangerous. The use of the word treason is a big deal. It is a capital offense. One of the only crimes laid out in the constitution for crimes against the state and crimes for conspireing with enemies that no reasonable human being would think anyone at the New York Times or anyone at the white house gets criticized of doing. The b problem here is its not a National Security problem. Its an hr problem with people who dont like their boss. The person would be fired from most organizations and thats within their rights and could see if they didnt like that. Nikki hailey has just written an oped in the washington post, when i challenge the president , i do it directly. My unanimous colleague should have, too. In it, she writes the author might think he or she is doing a service to the country ch. I strongly disagree. What this senior official in the Trump Administration has done and is apparently intent on continuing to do is a serious disservice. Not just to the president , but to the country. She writes if i disagree with something and think it is important enough to raise with the president , i do it and he listens. Sometimes, he changes course, sometimes, he doesnt. Thats the way the system should work. Strangely, this is not that different from what barack obama just said in his peacspeech. This is a separate talk, but to the point of being critical from inside and using the New York Times to publish a criticism. What do you make of her response . I think were lucky to live in a country tla makes room for all these responlss and that defends a free press no matter who is speaking and whether theyre anonymous or name is to it. There is plenty of room to criticize the New York Times for running that anonymous oped. Theyve had other options available to them. They could have assigned a columnist to interview the subject and then to vet it that way. They could have done a reported story. So theres lots of rooms to criticize the New York Times for their decision. And to criticize the writer, but i think that the underlying theme here is that the free press itself is what we really need and treasure and thats why democracy works. And when trump is undermining the free press, thats when hes actually undermining democracy. So this is an important point to close on. I appreciate you making it, kelly. This conversation has not been a defense of whether the New York Times should have published it or whether the writer did a good or bad thing. Thats a different conversation. The idea that the New York Times nor this author should be subject to an investigation is what were talking about it an how the First Amendment comes into this. So i appreciate your clarity on that. Okay, up next. More on president obamas return to politics in his wither lging comments about President Trump. Is it going to make a difference in the midterms . Thats the question. In two months, we have the chance, not the certainty, but the chance, to restore some semblance of sanity to our politics. Dear foremothers, your society was led by a woman, who governed thousands. Commanded armies. Yielded to no one. When i found you in my dna, i learned where my strength comes from. My name is courtney mckinney, and this is my ancestrydna story. Now with 2 times more geographic detail than other dna tests. Order your kit at ancestrydna. Com these digestive issues can start in the colon and may be signs of an imbalance of good bacteria. Phillips colon health caps have this unique combination of probiotics to help replenish good bacteria. Get fourinone symptom defense. Also try our delicious new probiotic gummies. But one blows them all out of the water. Hydro boost from neutrogena®. With hyaluronic acid to plump skin cells so it bounces back. Neutrogena® it did not start with donald trump. He is a symptom, not the cause. Hes just capitalizing on resent ms th politicians have been fan for years. A fear, an anger thats rooted in our past, but also born out of the enormous uphee values that have taken place in your brief lifetimes. Sometimes, the backlash comes from people who are genuinely fearful of change. More often, its manufactured. By the powerful and the privileged who want to keep us divided and keep us angry and keep us cynical because it helps them maintain the status quo. And keep their power. And keep their privilege. The threat to our democracy doesnt just come from donald trump or the current batch of republicans in congress or the Koch Brothers and their lobbyists or too much compromise from democrats or russia hacking. The biggest threat to our democracy is indifference. The biggest threat to our democracy is cynicism. Those were the powerful words of a former president which stand in stark contrast to the words of his successor who took the place at the helm of democracy. This afternoon, president obama scorched President Trump delivering a litany of reasons of why the current president is a threat to america. Joining me now, the author of thanks, obama. Out in paper back this week. David, good to talk to you. Thank you for having me on and its fun to talk about a president who seems sane for once. Thats nice. Heres the interesting thing about that speech by president obama. Wh what i was a little surprised at was that he did not suggest that the anonymous wrirt of that oped in the New York Times was a hero or anyone to look up to. He was quite critical of that person. What do you make of that . I thought the overarching theme of the speech and of everything president obama has been talking about since his farewell address has been protecting democracy. And so his point that if you write an oped in the New York Times and say well, im doing 90 of what this person who is antidemocratic wants, but 10 of the time, im staging a kind of semicoup that no one knows about so im a hero, that doesnt really fly. I think he was right to point that out. That threats from democracy dont just come from donald trump, they come from republicans enable iing him and from somebody whos patting himself on the back, but is busy ignoring the direct orders of the commander in chief. Not good either. You as a former speech writer for president obama, this is a uniquely important speech for the president. Doesnt come out, hes not been critical by name of President Trump before. He doesnt typically come out and do this thing. Hes held something very important to him the respect that president bush gave him the space that he gave him to be president without criticism. When formlating a speech like this, president obama had to be careful about not becoming the foil that he is going to become for donald trump. I think thats right. He was trying to walk a line and make it clear that this is an eck sepgsal moment. When i was writing speeches for president obama, we would think about the headline. This is that its really dimp t different. At some point, he sounded like an exasperated sint senne. How hard is it so say nazis are bad. Maybe if we could all agree, president obama wouldnt have to give a speech like this, but here we are, we need to talk about these things. I thought that was interesting. He also discussed conservatism versus radicalism. Embrace a risining absolutei by a wlingness to default on americas debt to a refusal to even meet or consider a qualified nominee for the Supreme Court because he happened to be b nominated by a democratic president. None of this is conservative. I dont mean to pretend i, im channelling linking nabraham li now. But thats no he had in mind i think when he helped form the Republican Party. Its not conservative. It sure isnt normal. Its radical. David, what to lines like that get him . Talking about conservatives because what it is going to get him is criticism from conservatives. It will. Or maybe we should start calling them radicals. But i think hes making an appeal to Republican Voters who are thinking about making an exception and pulling the lever for a democrat this time around. As a speech writer, you think about the permission structure youre creating for a voter. In this case, the permission structure is for somebody to say, you know what, im a die hard republican, but my party has veered in this weird dr direction. It seems dangerous. I dont like the crazyness, the lawlessness, so im going to make an exception and vote for a democrat to tap the brakes on this trump guy. Thats the case hes making. David litt, good to see you. Former speech writer for president obama. Up next, a closer look at nikes ad featuring colin kaepernick. We are asking the question, is his presence enough or could nike have done more to address Police Brutality and the oppression of minorities. Plus, youre loorking live at the courthouse where George Papadopoulos is receiving his sentencing. Well bring you that news when we get it. Youre watching msnbc. These digestive issues can start in the colon and may be signs of an imbalance of good bacteria. Phillips colon health caps have this unique combination of probiotics to help replenish good bacteria. Get fourinone symptom defense. Also try our delicious new probiotic gummies. Your hair is so soft did you use head and shoulders two in one . I did mom. Wanna try it . Yes. It intensely moisturizes your hair and scalp and keeps you flake free. Manolo . Look at my soft hair. I should be in the shot now too. Try head and shoulders two in one. And im still going for my best even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. So if theres a better treatment than warfarin, im up for that. Eliquis. Eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. Plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. Eliquis is fdaapproved and has both. So whats next . Seeing these guys. Dont stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your risk of having a stroke. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily and it may take longer than usual for any bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Eliquis, the number one cardiologistprescribed blood thinner. Ask your doctor if eliquis is whats next for you. With pg e in the sierras. And im an arborist cardiologistprescribed blood thinner. Since the onset of the drought, more than 129 Million Trees have died in california. Pg e prunes and removes over a Million Trees every year to ensure that hazardous trees cant impact power lines. And since the onset of the drought weve doubled our efforts. I grew up in the forests out in this area and honestly its heartbreaking to see all these trees dying. What guides me is ensuring that the public is going to be safer and that these forests can be sustained and enjoyed by the community in the future. The president of the United States slammed nike for celebrating its anniversary. It premiered last night during the nfl season opener. The president tweeted about it, quote, what was nike thinking . Kaepernick has remained unsigned after the 2016 season when he took a knee during the National Anthem to protest racism and social injustice in america. He inspired a wave of protests from other prominent athletes. He has since filed a solution grievance against the nfl and last night, nikes ad reignited the national discussion. Heres a little bit of it. Dont believe you have to be like anybody. To be somebody. If youre born a refugee, dont let it stop you from playing soccer for the national team. At age 16. Dont become the best basketball player on the planet. Be bigger than basketball. Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything. Join iing me now is organize of black lives matter and author of the upcoming book sorry on the other side of freedom, the case for hope. Good to see you. Thank you for being with us. Good to be back. I was talking to npr the other day when this happened. I said nike has a long history of taking somewhat, not controversial, but the social activist, social justice side on a lot of these topics. So theyre probably ready for any pushback they get. In the end, it probably helps them more than it hurts them. But im surprised at the response of some who say this is a cleansed version of the story. That if you wanted to feature kaepernick and his struggle and fight, youd talk about the underlying issues that hes complain iing about as opposed just glorifying kaepernick. Whats your take on that . Its important nike is standing behind him. Its important we celebrate the people that sacrifice while the person is still alive. This doesnt ab solve nike from any complaints from nike about their labor practices. He was saying basic things. That racism is alive and present, its in the criminal Justice System and policing. So nike putting that platform behind him is amplifying those issues. The nfl came out and acknowledged his activism. It took the collusion lawsuit moving forward and this ad and i was surprised to see people burning their nikes. That is incredible. So to see nike use their platform to highlight his message is important. This is what im trying to get at. If you want to be Corporate America and capitalize to some degree on this sort of thing, some of its capitalizing and some is that nike has decided its audience respects this sort of thing. Millennials like to support companies that support causes. But in doing so, people who arent following kaepernick or the story will have googled it and figured out what he was protesting. It might promote people to back the cause. You think its more good than bad. I think more good than bad. Remember that colin sbt the extremist in this. Hes the person saying simply racism is real and its present. Colins helping us remember that one in 11 gun homicides and a third of all People Killed bay stranger in this country is by a police officer. You think about the latest news about what happened in dallas. An officer went into somebodys home and killed them. Hes using his platform to say theres a problem and we got to do something about it. So nike is standing behind him in this moment, in this context, its significant. A note from your book. An acknowledgment to cappkaeper, where write thank you for being a friend and using your voice to tell the uncomfort bable truths this nation likes to hide from. One of the questions weve discussed is when he started, he had specific things in mind. It has in the same way black lives matter has, it has extended to cover a whole lot of injustices and bunch of things that go wrong. Thats okay. When one person isnt free, none of us are. I think about my conversations with him about prison reform, the police. The whole system has to change. You know when we say the system is broke b b b and people say its working like it was dine school district, the take away is that it was designed. People made this up and because people made it up, we can make something different. Its one of the reasons why him doing interviews is important. We dont need thoim say the country was born of a racist past. We can all say that. We dont need him to be the mascot for that in interviews. Taking the knee is a will, one day whether you like it or not, will be one of the most powerful protests. Absolutely. The book is out now. Hes an organizer of the black lives matter movement. I know because i had a copy in my hand about ten minutes ago. The other side of freedom, the case for hope. Up next, President Trump warns against a quote reckless assault by al assad on the last rebel stronghold in syria tweeting it would be a grave humanitarian mistake and could be the beginning of the end for the nearly 8yearold conflict. Youre watching msnbc. You shouldnt be rushed into booking a hotel. With expedias addon advantage, booking a flight unlocks discounts on select hotels until the day you leave for your trip. Addon advantage. Only when you book with expedia. Addon advantage. Itll be a hell of a ride. Moon. Its a job so difficult, were gonna have to start from scratch. We need to fail down here so we dont fail up there. This isnt just another trip, neil. We have serious problems. Do you think youre coming back . Five. Four. Three. Two. First man. Rated pg13. Whoever came up with the term Small Business, never owned a business. Are your hours small . What about your reputation . Is that small . Owning your own thing is huge. Your partnerships, even bigger. With dell Small Business technology advisors, you get the oneonone partnership to grow your business. Because the only one who decides how big your business can be, is you. The dell vostro 14 laptop with 8th gen intel core processors. Get up to 40 off on select pcs. Call 877buydell today. i couldnt catch my breath. It was the last song of the night. It felt like my heart was skipping beats. They said i had afib. Whats afib . I knew that meant i was at a greater risk of stroke. I needed answers. My doctor and i chose xarelto® to help keep me protected from a stroke. Oncedaily xarelto®, a latestgeneration blood thinner significantly lowers the risk of stroke in people with afib not caused by a heart valve problem. Warfarin interferes with at least 6 of your bodys natural bloodclotting factors. Xarelto® is selective, targeting just one critical factor. For afib patients well managed on warfarin, there is limited information on how xarelto® compares in reducing the risk of stroke. Dont stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor, as this may increase your risk of stroke. While taking, you may bruise more easily, or take longer for bleeding to stop. Xarelto® can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. It may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. Get help right away for unexpected bleeding or unusual bruising. Do not take xarelto® if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. Before starting, tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures and any kidney or liver problems. Learn all you can to help protect yourself from a stroke. Talk to your doctor about xarelto®. I want to talk about a tosty thats getting overshadowed today, but its enormously important. The war in syria. All sides seem to be readying for the final phase of this war, an offensive that could signal the end of the conflict. President assads forces along with russian warplanes are gathering on the edge of idlib province, on the northwest corner. Its the last major rebel held area. The United Nations fears that ab offensive there could lead to a humanitarian crisis possibly bigger than what weve already seen. According to the United Nations, 3 Million People live in the area. That includes a million children and one and a half million refugees who have been displaced already at least once. Earlier this week, President Trump urged the assad regime not to launch the assault and said the u. S. Would be very angry if it did. Today, u. S. Forces in syria lawn ped an exercise on the other side of turkey after russia reportedly wash ewarned the u. S russian and Syrian Forces would launch an attack in that yarea. Leaders from iran, russia and turkey met in tehran to discuss the situation. They failed to reach an agreeme agreement. Matt bradley has been covering the conflict in syria and joining us now. This is tough because people in some ways have stopped follow ing this story. The assad regime has largely won in syria. And this is their last chance. Thats right. Very few options left for the Trump Administration. The only thing were seeing is nikki hailey, the u. N. Ambassador. She had some comments today. We can listen to what she said. The assad regime and russia and iran have a playbook for this war. First, they surround a a civilian area. Next, they make the preposterous claim that everyone in the area is a terrorist. So every man, woman and child becomes a target. Now she is absolutely right, that you know, this is the russian playbook, but there really are no options for the Trump Administration. There is nothing left. They forfeited any role because trump has alienated everybody involved in this. Theyve alienated the turks and allies. The iranian by scrapping the nuclear deal and now, they have no traction on conflict that is really reach iing the final momt and could result in millions of civilian deaths. Whats this exercise thats taken place on the opposite side of turkey, about 100 Marine Forces involved in a live fire exercise. Theyre not attacking anyone. Not fighting anyone and this isnt near idlib. Is that in some way america flexing its muscles, we could get involved . It could be, but this is, the u. S. Involvement in syria is all b about isis. Isis has been almost entirely eradicated from syria and iraq. The u. S. Mission is is all about isis and now, theyre still doing some of these drills. Still flexing their muscles, but to actually bring weapons to bear against iran, russia, that would be such a bad idea and i dont think that the russians or iranian believe the United States is going to do that. The only option left is diplomatic and there are very few options there. Because weve walked away from those. On one hand, the president s tweet is correct, warning assad, haileys comments are correct, but youre right, the u. S. Doesnt have a lot to say about this. Up next, President Trump is waging his seemingly aimless with china. The effects of which American Auto workers in South Carolina are feeling firsthand. Youre watching msnbc. The same . Thats why capital one is building something completely different. Capital one cafes. Welcoming places with people here to help you, not sell you. With savings and checking accounts with no fees or minimums. That are easy to open from right here or anywhere in 5 minutes. No smoke. No mirrors. This is banking reimagined. Whats in your wallet . These digestive issues can start in the colon and may be signs of an imbalance of good bacteria. Phillips colon health caps have this unique combination of probiotics to help replenish good bacteria. Get fourinone symptom defense. Also try our delicious new probiotic gummies. But allstate actually helps you drive safely. With drivewise. It lets you know when you go too fast. And brake too hard. With feedback to help you drive safer. Giving you the power to actually lower your cost. Unfortunately, it cant do anything about that. Now that you know the truth. Are you in good hands . Metastatic Breast Cancer is relentless, but im relentless too. Mbc doesnt take a day off, and neither will i. And i treat my mbc with new everyday verzenio the only one of its kind that can be taken every day. In fact, verzenio is a cdk4 6 inhibitor for postmenopausal women with hr , her2 mbc, approved, with hormonal therapy, as an everyday treatment for a relentless disease. Verzenio an ai is proven to help women have significantly more time without disease progression, and more than half of women saw their tumors shrink vs an ai. Diarrhea is common, may be severe, and may cause dehydration or infection. Before taking verzenio, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection. Verzenio may cause low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infection that can lead to death. Serious liver problems can occur. Symptoms may include tiredness, loss of appetite, stomach pain, and bleeding or bruising more easily than normal. Blood clots that can lead to death have also occurred. Talk to your doctor right away if you notice pain or swelling in your arms or legs, shortness of breath, chest pain or rapid breathing or heart rate. Tell your doctor if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or plan to become pregnant. Common side effects include nausea, infections, low red and white blood cells and platelets, decreased appetite, headache, abdominal pain, tiredness, vomiting, and hair thinning or loss. Im relentless. And my doctor and i choose to treat my mbc with verzenio. Be relentless. Ask your doctor about everyday verzenio. The hearing for trump Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanagh continues. One of the final witnesses is john dean. He was president Richard Nixons white House Counsel during the watergate scanned. He was just asked about investigations into president s and impeachment proceedings. And could you talk about the difficulty if we dont actually have an ability to have an investigation in terms of an impeachment proceeding . Microphone, sir. I was one who believed very strongly in the independent counsel law. I think thats when congress did express itself that indeed a sitting president could be investigated, and that with stood several tests on its constitutionality. We are currently with the expiration of the sunset clause of the independent counsel law, putting an end to that. We now do it through the regulations of the department of justice, and there are certainly no restrictions other than a policy right now at the department of justice that prohibits investigation of a president. The history of that policy, people seem to forget why it was written. It happened in 1973 when a vicepresident was under investigation by a maryland grand jury and defending himself by saying, you cant indict me, you can only impeach me. An opinion was requested of office of Legal Counsel excuse me and they concluded, and i think it was a predetermined solution to a problem, that indeed the vicepresident could be indicted, but the president couldnt be indicted. And that policy has stood since then. Republicans hope to have kavanagh confirmed by the end of september. The Judiciary Committee could vote out his nomination as soon as the end of next week then it is expected to be moved to the following week. All right, switching gears, President Trump is upping the rhetoric in his trade war with china. Hes ready to slap tariffs on an additional 200 billion worth of china very soon. Telling reporters he plans to impose taxes of up to 25 of chinese imports all depending on the choices made by chinas leaders. His threats are concerning to the Auto Industry particularly in South Carolina where 60 auto manufacturers and suppliers and thousands of skilled workers fuel the citys thriving economy. Nbcs Vaughn Hillyard has traveled the country looking at the impact of these tariffs. He joins us now from the port charleston. Vaughn. Reporter yeah, good afternoon, ali. 66,000 workers across South Carolina are directly employed by auto manufacturing companies. When you look at charleston, South Carolina specifically, for all intents and purposes its thriving economically, in large part because of the auto manufacturing industry. Bmw, volvo, mercedesbenz, have all announced expansions. On wednesday we are at one of those announcements there with mercedesbenz vans. They say they plan to hire an additional 1300 employees. But tariffs have essentially are looming large. Volvo just said they announced they are going to hire 2000 additional employees to help build new autos to go overseas. But they said that that is currently on hold as they wait to see where these tariffs go. China is the second largest importer of u. S. Automobiles and here the port of charleston, 70 billion worth of goods go back and forth between the countries. I want to introduce you to jim newsome, the ceo of the South Carolina port of authority and i wanted to ask him specifically about concerns when it comes to these trade tariffs that the president is looming over these negotiations. How key is to keep those markets open . Very key because, again, import growth is driven by the u. S. Economy, our export growth is driven by other economy. China is code for emerging market. So we all have benefited from free trade and free trade is really a necessity to keep the story going. I think fairness in trade is also critical to promote free trade. Ultimately, its going to be down to the United States and the european union, United States and china. Coming to a common understanding that tariffs should be reduced, not increased. That should be the ultimate goal, is to improve access to markets and let the free market work. Are you concerned about the potential economic consequence of tariffs . I think were concerned about anything that we dont know. I mean, we havent seen the impact yet and we hear anecdotally things retailers are moving goods earlier. Every segment of the market is different. Reporter now, ali, why are the president s remarks on air force one this afternoon so significant . Well, because they the Auto Industry has 15 billion of tariffs on chinese goods. That goes largely to Agricultural Products that the u. S. Sends overseas. And that is particularly the soybean industry which has already seen a 20 price drop. A lot of farmers weve talked to are not breaking even this year. Thats where the president s aid packingage was going to come and take care of that. At any hour now, he could the president could put that additional tariff on goods. Mid nig midnight last night was the comment period. It could come down any moment. He is prepared to put tariffs on the other 267 billion, which would essentially go to every product coming from china into the United States. That includes the likes of soap, paint, toys. But also phones, computers, pretty much everything across the board. And thats where the concern is, that it hits the u. S. Consumer, because its essentially raising the price 25 on all of these goods once they hit the shores here in the United States. We already know from people who have seen some of these prices hit. The issue is what that gentleman told you is something ive heard from people you talked to across the country. We want lower tariffs in general, but is everybody registering that the fact weve got higher than normal tariffs now is because of a trade war that donald trump started . Reporter exactly. What is the end game in this, ali . The president and his administration are frustrated and saying that china specifically is stealing intellectual property. Theyre upset that with chinas plan to be selfsufficient in hightech technology, made in china in 20225, what ultimately are they going to get from this . The ones bearing the brunt of the trade effort are the soybean farmers or potentially the u. S. Consumer. What is the end game . It isnt clear. The president isnt just focused on china. He even raised the prospect of going toe to toe with japan, ali. All right, vaughn, thank you very much for joining us as you have from all over the country to give us a sense of how these tariffs are really affecting people. Vaughn hillyard for us in the port of charleston. The next round of tariffs are ready to go. The stocks took a dip. You can see it there. You can tell on the chart where he actually made those comments shortly after noon today. The dow closing about a quarter of a percent lower back to 29,924. That wraps up this hour for me. Im going to be back here at 10 00 p. M. Eastern for the last word. Weve got a special tonight. Its called obamas back. Thank you for watching. Deadline white house with Nicolle Wallace starts right now. s hi, everyone. Its 4 00 in new york. President trump orders the attorney general to hunt down the oped author attacking him. He gave the midterm message to try to save america from trumpism. The 44th president launching his most direct attack yet against the 45th, calling trump, quote, a threat to democracy and accusing his republican enablers of practicing a, quote, politics of fear and resentment. It should not be democratic or republican. It should not be a partisan issue to say that we do not pressure the attorney general or the fbi to use the criminal Justice System as a cajole to punish our political opponents. [ applause ]