Evening again from our headquarters again. Day 606 of the Trump Administration and it looks as though well be covering another Brett Kavanaugh hearing on monday, but it doesnt look like it was one that his camp was looking forward to. The Brett Kavanaugh court just got extremely complicated. They will hold a public hearing next monday with kavanaugh and his accuser, dr. Christine blasey ford, a College Professor in california. Nbc news reports that kavanaugh spent roughly nine hours inside the white house today and that a white house official described him as, quote, chomping at the bit to testify. In an offrecord interview with the Washington Post, ford alleged, quote, one summer in the early 1980s kavanaugh and a friend both stumbling drunk corralled her into a bedroom during a gathering of teenagers at a house in montgomery county, maryland. While her friends watched, she said kavanaugh pinned her on her back and groped her. When she tried to scream, she said he put a hand over her mouth. I thought he might inadvertently kill me, said ford. Her attorney spoke out about the allegation. She clearly considers this attempted rape. She believes if it were not for the severe intoxication of Brett Kavanaugh, she might have been raped. Is your client ready to testify before the Judicial Committee publicly and tell this story . She is. Shes ready to do whatever it takes to get the story out, yes. She will take a polygraph. This is a serious allegation. Again, her client has given an ontherecord interview with the Washington Post. Kavanaugh said, quote, this is a completely false allegation. I have never done anything like what the accuser describes to her or to anyone. Because this never happened, i had no idea who was making this accusation until she identified herself yesterday. He goes on to say, i am willing to talk to the Senate Judiciary committee in any way the committee deems appropriate to refute this false allegation from 36 years ago and defend my integrity. Today President Trump was standing by his nominee and indicated he is willing to allow the process to move forward at its own pace. Judge kavanaugh is one of the finest people that ive ever known. Hes an outstanding intellect, an outstanding judge respected by everybody. Never had even a little blemish on his record. The fbi has, i think, gone through a process six times with him over the years where he went to higher and higher positions. He is somebody very special. At the same time we want to go through a process. We want to make sure everything is perfect, everything is just right. So if it takes a little delay, it will take a little delay. It shouldnt certainly be very much. The president s Senior AdviserKellyanne Conway also made an appearing addressing, if not leading, the white house messaging about kavanaughs accuser. The president and i have spoken at length about this. So put aside all the nonsense thats on tv and in print. She should not be ignored or insulted, she should be heard. Members of the Senate Judiciary committee now have one week to prepare for this next hearing. This afternoon republicans on the hill weighed in on the accuser and the next steps. Do you think that any of these claims are legitimate . No, i dont. I think this woman, whoever she is, is mixed up. But i cant speak for her. All i can say is, no, i dont. Do you believe dr. Ford . I dont know enough about dr. Ford and her allegations yet to reach that kind of judgment. If judge kavanaugh has lied about what happened, that would be disqualifying. Is there the possibility that you believe her story but he is still qualified to serve on the court . Id have a hard time putting somebody on the court that tried to rape somebody. The Judiciary Committees democrats were pushing to delay this weeks vote on kavanaugh before this. They are now arguing for a closer examination of the allegation against kavanaugh before another hearing is held. As a former prosecutor, there is no way that i would put a crime victim on the stand without an investigation, let alone a witness before the entire american people. Its a disservice to her and a disservice to judge kavanaugh. There should be a thorough fbi investigation, especially when the two principals are contradicting each other. Why would a group of people who left the Supreme Court seat vacant for over a year are so anxious to go ahead with this process . Its mindboggling in my view, and raises some issues. Lets bring in our leadoff panel on a busy monday night. Sam stein, politics editor for the daily beast and cynthia, a writer and lawyer. Cynthia, youre the lawyer here, so id like to start with you. First of all, lets start with your takeaway of whats known so far and the possible optics next monday of the gop side made up of 11 white males on the Judiciary Committee . Well, lets start first with the case itself. I was a sex crimes prosecutor. Thats the way i started as a prosecutor, and ive looked at hundreds of those cases over my career. It really is a base credibility balancing and we wont be able to know that until she testifies. And thats why its so disturbing that somebody like senator hatch would already announce that he doesnt believe her, because he has never spoken to her. Hes never read her statement, he doesnt know anything about her polygraph. He doesnt know anything about her statement to her husband or to the psychiatrist or anybody else she ever spoke to about this before it was released. So its hard to believe that he could be allowed to make a credibility determination since hes already made up his mind. But thats the job here of the people on the committee, and i would agree with the senator from hawaii that this should have been investigated by the fbi first before they go forth and have this public hearing. But it is going to be a credibility balancing act, her credibility with the prior consistent statements, and the polygraph, which is very unusual in a case like this. We dont polygraph rape victims ever. So you would never have a rape case or attempted rape case or Sexual Assault case with a polygraph because we would never do that. So thats interesting. Judge kavanaugh had an issue and senator leahy has accused him of being untruthful with the committee, so it will all play out on the credibility front. Cynthia, i have a dual question for you. Number one, ive not known you to be a political person. You think it would be Standard Operating Procedure or something close to it to have the fbi come in . You never have a criminal case where the first thing you do is put all the witnesses on the stand in front of the jury. Thats not the way our criminal Justice System works. First theres an investigation by people who are specialized in doing investigations. And then there is a discussion with the police or the fbi, and actually in rape cases, more often the police because its usually a state crime. But you would have a discussion between the prosecutor and the investigating agency, and you make a decision about how to go forward. And they spend time with the victim and you decide what to do next. You dont just throw everybody on national television. Thats a dumb way to do an investigation and it doesnt serve judge kavanaugh well and it doesnt serve the victim well. Heres part 19 of my initial threepart question, then well move to you gentlemen. When senator graham says on sean hannity that she hired an attorney in august, paid for a polygraph in august, he was surprised she hadnt planned on sharing her story all along. Whats the problem with that . Its just snarky and it wasnt helpful. The question now is what happened not now that it happened and it came to pass. You should give them the advice, wow, youre going to be taken through the wringer, and lets take steps, as things inevitably do, that were prepared to battle that. Having a polygraph, there is a lot of talk back and forth about polygraphs because of television and what people think about polygraphs. I dont do the polygraphs myself, but as someone who has used polygraphs in numerous cases, they are a wonderful tool in the prosecutors toolkit to figure out who is being deceitful and who isnt. I think its amazing she passed that polygraph. In fact, i would love it if maybe judge kavanaugh want to get we call it getting on the box. Maybe judge kavanaugh wants to get on the box, and while hes there, lets ask him if hes going to overturn roe v. Wade. I think youll agree that was as controlled and as on message as weve seen the president in recent memory. What do you think is going on in the west wing and in the residence tonight . Well, listen, youre right, that was a president who was listening to his coaches, listening to his advisers for a change. They told him dont inflame it, dont tweet about it, dont attack the accuser, dont make this worse than it is. And, in fact, thats what he tried to do. He tried to stay on the line that a lot of president s would if they were under similar circumstances. That is, expressing your confidence in your nominee, saying that youre willing to take a delay in the hearing in order to hear out the accuser and not do anything to insult her or to, you know, further make this, you know, the polarized process it already is. Youre right, its surprising because we havent seen him do that very often. It does suggest he has the capacity to do it when he chooses to. But well see how long that lasts. Tune in again at 6 00 a. M. Or 7 00 a. M. Tomorrow after hes watched fox friends and well see what the twitter is. They say the president has never had a special connection or affinity with kavanaugh. If it comes down to it, hell have to move on. Sam, to your knowledge, is there a plan b . We spent all day reporting what a plan b might look like, and theoretically you can envision it, which is get kavanaugh to withdraw his nomination, perhaps before this public hearing on monday. Install one new, try to push it through, and if worse comes to worse, try to have a lake duck session. Youll still have the majority then. Thats a plan b. From everything i could get from talking to officials in the white house, they have to desire to go down that road. Its for two reasons. One, they fundamentally believe if they are to give in at this point on kavanaugh, it will invite further democratic position to whoever it is that replaces kavanaugh or any Supreme Court nominee. And secondarily, in a political nomination, trump knows it hinges on two things. One is the appetite for these political fights, and the second is delivering them the type of conservative judges that they dream of. If you were to back away from kavanaugh at this juncture, he would be disappointing them on both those fronts 60 days before the midterm election. They are now looking at plan bs. They are trying to rally the troops to threaten lawmakers not to get wobbly, theyre looking for ways to assure some evangelical leaders that may have been getting wobbly and they plan to forge ahead. It depends what happens on monday because it all could blow up in their faces. Weve had cases, watergate comes to mind, where the chief counsel has taken part in the questioning, though theyre attached at the joint with the committee. Having said that, if you were hired overnight as chief counsel, lets say, for the democrats kavanaugh is not on the box but hes on the stand and hes sworn in, what would you ask him . There is an interesting aspect of his statement, and that is its not that and this happens in a lot of these types of cases. Theres two ways to go, two things you see. One is, i was there and we were both drinking and there was a misunderstanding. The other is i was never there. So its interesting to push that, i was never there. Im surprised thats what they did given his friend, mark judge, who apparently wrote a book that talked about how they did a lot of drinking and perhaps they dont remember everything that they were doing. So i think you just have to the question here has to include the information from mark judge about all the drinking that they did and how possibly they dont remember and that maybe possibly they had blackouts and probe that area. I would also like to know i noticed in a statement he didnt say whether or not he knew her. It would be nice to know if he even remembered her and what he remembered about her. There are a lot of things you would want to know that you would actually prefer to do in private and not on national television. But theres certainly a lot of things that need to come out. Can i just say one question that i think will be asked is a very straightforward question which somebody on the democratic side is going to say to him, judge kavanaugh, your accuser has taken a polygraph test and she passed. Would you submit to a polygraph test . And he would be faced with a difficult decision there. What do you say, no . If youre in trouble, then you have another moment that could rock the nomination. I dont see how he gets out of that obvious forthcoming question. The name did not in fact immediately jump to mind when he saw it from the Washington Post reporting on sunday. He says hes told people around him that he has a vague recollection of her from the social circles that were in there, but he doesnt have a strong memory of her. Remember, he went to an allboys school so he wouldnt have gone to school with her, and we dont know even from her account just how much interaction they had prior to this particular incident that happened. So hes telling people that he doesnt have a strong memory of her, and i think what youre going to hear between now and the hearing on monday is this idea that perhaps she was confusing him with somebody else. Perhaps a case of mistaken identity. And thats because they know they cant attack her directly and say shes making it up. Thats what they did with anita hill in 1991. Today that probably wouldnt fly in the metoo era. That would cause a lot of backlash, so the best defense they can mount is shes thinking of somebody other than him. It was 36 years ago, and it wasnt him. And cynthia, any other similarities between this and the anita hill matter other than the fact that were going to be looking at, you know, grassley and ashe . Yeah, they were around then. As peter mentioned, i think they will be very gingerly and very careful because they know the suburban white women are watching and they werent happy with the way anita hill was treated, and the election is 50 days away. Sam stein, collins and murkowski. Their states are to the west in the united states. If this guy goes down, were going to come back with another name on the list more conservative. Thats the only thing that argument runs up against is passing the collins and murkowski test. Right, and you know to a certain degree, mcconnell does not want to have to start from scratch. You know, the disappointment with the base at having to scrap kavanaugh will be palpable. I think they are worried about that. On the other hand, you get the sense talking to people on the hill that they also are really deeply nervous about this monday hearing. Theres really very few things that can go positive for them here. Its going to be a he saidshe said, and eventually you have to vote on that. And then what to do about murkowski and collins. My sense is they basically are waiting to see where the chips fall. One of those chips are what do the democrats in red states do . It was widely seen that the mansions in the world, the heitkamps in the world, end up voting for them. Its given heitkamp and mansion and donnelly to say, we cant take our chances with this guy. I would take sams scenario and spin it out even further. I think sam is right, the democrats have a free pass to vote against him. And then you are looking at a very, very dicey situation. Lets say for sake of argument, kavanaughs nomination doesnt go forward. It doesnt seem conceivable you get another nominee before the election, vetted to the committee and voted on. Thats a lame duck sam was talking about. Lets say the democrats win the senate, which is what Mitch Mcconnell was talking about as early as last week. Then youre in a completely different scenario. The idea the senate would go ahead with a lame duck confirmation of a justice two weeks after saying they couldnt even consider Merrick Garland because they wanted the democrats to have a say. There is nothing that could help this. I was going to say the lame duck couldnt hunt, but i couldnt have asked for a better three on this big night of all nights. Peter baker, sam stein, and cynthia, i think im authorized to invite you on Live Television to join the coverage of this hearing because we need a lead counsel. Coming up, peter mentioned this. The kavanaugh controversy just one facet of a white house in turmoil. Looming midterms is another. The russia investigation yet another. Lets not forget thats why the president s decision to declassify key documents and Text Messages late today is so controversial. Were just Getting Started on a monday night. I have not spoken to judge kavanaugh. Has he offered to withdraw . Next question. What a ridiculous question that is. Do you think his confirmation is on track . I think hes on track, yeah. I think hes very much on track. If they delay it a little bit just to make sure everybody is happy they want to be happy, i can tell you. The republican senators want to be 100 happy themselves. To repeat, judge kavanaugh was in the west wing for nine hours today by our count. President trump saying judge kavanaugh is on track for his nomination after the allegations surfaced that kavanaugh assaulted a girl when they were in high school. As we mentioned, kavanaugh is strongly denying dr. Christine blasey fords accusation. The ap reported tonight that President Trump mutes the somewhat perilous situation they find themselves in. White house aides met behind closed doors cognizant of two realities, that scuttling the kavanaugh nomination and finding a reappalachianment would likely postpone confirmation hearings until after what could be a difficult midterm election, while pushing back too hard in his defense could alienate female voters as well as female senators who could hold the judges future in their hands. On friday, lets not forget, Paul Manafort pleaded guilty on conspiracy charges. He has agreed to cooperate with bob mueller. Its been more than a week since Bob Woodwards book fear was released. Have we heard much about that . No, because were talking about the kavanaugh hearings. And the New York Times has not unmasked the person who wrote the anonymous oped in the times. With us jonathan lemere, White House Reporter for the associated press, and nancy, White House Reporter for the Washington Post. Nancy, is this an issue because some have branded this the white house for females . Traditionally theyre pushing back on the white house attorney and trying to get trump and the white house and congress to have a very muted and necessary response to these kavanaugh allegations, and its very different than what we have seen from President Trump before. He likes to hit back and write on twitter. That was his instinct when he heard about it on sunday and i wanted to hit back as well. But he didnt address the allegations until monday afternoon, this afternoon, and even when he did, he did so in a much quieter way than he normally does. And the dems used this point. She said she would never put witnesses directly on the stand before having an investigation. The dems say theyre trying to run out the clock because the midterms are coming and all of it is one big traveling mess. Everyone is cognizant that the midterms are looming. And its hard to imagine a lame duck process goes through considering what happened with Merrick Garland. Right now the republicans and the white house are trying to work in tandem to get this through. They are trying to impress upon the president that he should temper his usual reactions. Donald trump has, in the metoo moment, time and time again he is to believe powerful man who stands accused of misconduct. Whether it was roy moore, roger ailes, rob porter, his staff secretary, and of course himself. He has denied over and over again the more than a dozen women who said he mistreated them and touched them inappropriately, even though we heard him brag about them on the access hollywood tape. At least for now he has stayed disciplined. Whether that lasts, we could wake up tomorrow to his twitter feed. They understand whats riding on this, that so many republicans who have mixed feelings, shall we say, about this president , the ability to deliver Supreme Court justices is a key measure. So he doesnt want to blow this. And also he knows they need a victory here and admits to all the turmoil, as you just laid out, thats swirling around this white house right now. He still mentions gorsuch in every speech before every group. Nancy, we often depend upon you around here to give us the heads up, the beware of distractions and shiny objects. Can you do exactly that right now for this week . Yeah, well, i think whats interesting is as the kavanaugh news was breaking today and it was sort of day two and they were urging trump to stay quiet, meanwhile there was a major news dump going on in the white house and they were releasing info about things they have been working on for a long time. I think to really distract from that news. And some of it contains some really important nuggets. For instance, secretary of state mike pompeo announced that the cap on the number of refugees that could come into this country would be only 30,000 people next fiscal year, which is much, much lower than weve ever seen historically. The president is going to release some previously classified documents related to the russia investigation. Thats a huge deal. And also it was announced theyre going to put billions of dollars in tariffs on china. And so all of this sort of came out this afternoon, and on top of that the special Investigation Continues a pace. Mueller released something that hes going to try to schedule a sentencing for former National Security adviser mike flynn. So while the kavanaugh show is happening, and i would say its not just a reality show, there are real world implications at stake, the white house is doing all these other things this week and definitely something we should keep an eye on. Glen bollinger, leading republican pollster was even blunter. This is in the scope of a larger article. People think the economy is doing well, but thats not what theyre voting on. Theyre voting on the chaos of the guy in the white house. That, of course, would be the Trump White House worst case scenario. Thats a very unnerving proposition for those close to donald trump who are trying to bank on the booming economy, at least for some people, not all, its a pretty stratified economy, and thats why republicans should control the fall and why donald trump should enjoy another four years, that the economy is doing well under him. If people are focusing on all the drama that goes with, that is trouble for the west wing. I think you are seeing an effort, not successfully, but the president has been out there trying to talk about the economy at times, and that message doesnt seem to be sinking in. Instead, and this is a moment where hes not been particularly disciplined, we are seeing shiny objects. I just outlined the russia revelations say it, declassification. We expect him to go to North Carolina at some point to check on the storm damage which is always a test for a leader. It was just a couple days ago that he questioned the death toll in the puerto rico hurricane, another thing that seems like it was a year ago with where the news cycle is, but that will be in the forefront again. Hell rally for both nevada and missouri and hes also coming to new york next week for the united nations. Last year thats where he debuted the phrase little rocket man and really unnerved world leaders. Again, its going to be an image for voters. Do they look at him and say this is a president who is in charge of the world stage and ahead of a booming economy . Or is he just further delving in . Coming up, as weve been talking about, as the president declassifies these documents, even Text Messages in the russia investigation, prosecutors say they are ready to sentence the president s former National Security adviser. What that may say, or not, about his cooperation with mueller and what it has yielded. All of it coming up. This is important. President trump is demanding the release of fbi documents related to the russia investigation and essentially an investigation to celebrate a new sandwich with a taste so inspired, we introduced it in the place that inspired it. The new jimmy johns 9grain wheat sub, now available at a jimmy johns much, much, much closer to you. Wheat yeah freak yeah™ this is important. President trump is demanding the release of fbi documents related to the russia investigation and essentially an investigation into himself. According to a white house statement, the order comes, quote, at the request of a number of committees of congress and for reasons of transparency. The declassification applies to redacted pages of the fisa warrant obtained to monitor former Campaign Adviser carter page and fbi interviews. More notably, trump also directed the doj to publicly release all Text Messages relating to the russia investigation without redaction of james comey, andrew mccabe, peter struck, lisa page and bruce ohr. Put another way, this is a way to make public some private issues just days before the election. It comes on the same day we know they are ready to sentence Michael Flynn. Hes been cooperating ever since. With us to talk about all of t daniel goldman, a former assistant u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york. Ill get straight to the point. How big a deal is this . Brian, i think this is the most egregious and flagrant, obstructive conduct that the president has ever exercised since he became president. I think in many respects, it may be worse than firing jim comey, and heres why. The president is under investigation. He absolutely has the power to declassify documents, but what he is doing here is he is declassifying documents related to an ongoing confidential investigation into himself and his family. So its kind of a dualpronged, improper abuse and attack on the rule of law. Because, first of all, it would be wrong under any circumstances to declassify anything relate to do an ongoing investigation. Congress absolutely has oversight power, but it does not have oversight power during and over a pending investigation. When you layer on the personal selfinterest that the president has in getting these particular documents, these political enemies who hes been attacking on twitter for months and months and months, and to put their Text Messages out in public, this is a flagrant abuse of his power to undermine the investigation and our general tenet of the rule of law. Who do we see about that . And by that i mean, congressman schiff said tonight that hes been told by folks, feds, folks in the fbi, that this might cross a red line for them. Who is going to say so . Who is the Controlling Legal Authority on an order like this . Well, its an order effect til to the department of justice. So Rod Rosenstein was overseeing this aspect, this investigation, because Jeff Sessions is recused. So its really up to Rod Rosenstein to figure out how to deal with it. Traditionally when Rod Rosenstein was getting improper requests along these lines, this is the most blatant to date, but hes dealt with them in order to try to give a little in order to defuse things and protect the investigation. If this is over the red line, as congressman schiff says, and i agree it really does appear to be, then he has two choices which is either to say, no, were not going to turn this over, or to resign. And i think that its no coincidence that this follows on the First Business day after Paul Manafort cooperates. And this is an obvious attempt to begin to continue to undermine this investigation as it is closing in more and more on perhaps him, perhaps not, but certainly his campaign and maybe his family members. Last question, it was a big deal today when we heard flynn in muellers view ready to be sentenced. Are there any tea leaves to be gleaned about how valuable his cooperation, how useful it was . Well, i dont think it means he wont testify. I think what likely has happened is that his testimony has been taken either before the grand jury or in proffer sessions. He has done enough most likely to get a sentence of probation, so there is no reason to allow him to cooperate further and testify. Thats ordinarily how it would work. Cooperators arent sentenced until the last defendant against whom they have information is sentenced. But because flynn does want to get on with his life and hes made that clear in court proceedings, and he probably has already done enough to get a sentence of probation, it may just simply be that he is going to be sentenced to his probationary term and then he will testify down the road with his grand jury testimony there hanging over him that he cannot be inconsistent with. But it is interesting to me. The aspect of it is it really is a sweetheart deal. I thought it was such a sweetheart deal that bob mueller was ultimately withholding additional charges, that he didnt want to disclose them before this investigation. But thats apparently not true and Michael Flynn got a good deal. Hopefully well know all thats happened behind the scenes. Thank you for being here. Daniel goldman with us tonight. Coming up, some new polling races from some big senate races. All we have to say is steve kornacki, after this. I know i said the last couple segments were really important. This is really important, too. As we said earlier the midterms are 50, 50, days away. What is the definition of early balloting . Voting begins this friday when people in minnesota, south dakota, vermont and wyoming can start their absentee early voting. And some polls show early battles with some big senate races around the country. With us at the big board tonight, the only person we would want to do this, steve kornacki, or political correspondent. Steve, what do you have . Its the battle for the senate, democrats trying to get the majority there. Its also starting to come in focus thanks to the new polling. You got six blue seats right here. Democrats in danger of losing these seats. Conversely we have four red ones here. This is where democrats think they have a shot to make inroads, to pick off republicans. Democrats need a net gain of two seats if theyre going to get back the senate. So within this battleground, we have four new polls we can tell you about just coming out. This one here, arizona. This is one democrats think they have a shot of picking up. This poll shows their candidate winning by 7. We had a poll at nbc a while back that also showed Kirsten Sinema ahead. Phil bredesen up as well. And in missouri, Clair Mccaskill tries to hold on over josh hawley. What republicans are thinking will save them is the battlefield is so tilted in their favor. This is quickly what i mean by that. If you gave arizona the democrats based on that poll we just showed you, if you take that tie in missouri and you say, hey, thats going to be broken for Clair Mccaskill, she wins that state. Tennessee, if that one flipped and if you had montana, we just showed you if chester got that. Mansion has been ahead in polls there. Ive given six states to the democrats and theyre not even at 50. They need two more at this battleground to get the majority. If youre a republican you could say, hey, we can flip south dakota and all cruz has to do is hang on in texas and theres republicans there. The good news for them . Those polls suggest there could be a wave there. The bad news for them is geographically thats a tough climb. Nobody better at breaking this down. I wouldnt do this to you, but at 50. They need two more at this battleground to get the majority. If youre a republican you could say, hey, we can flip south dakota and all cruz has to do is hang on in texas and theres republicans there. The good news for them . Those polls suggest there could be a wave there. The bad news for them is geographically thats a tough climb. Nobody better at breaking this down. I wouldnt do this to you, but we could do the segment every night and still not get tired of hearing you talk. I would do it every night. Coming up, parts of North Carolina. Lets not forget under water and even where the sun is out and the storm has moved on, the flooding is still predicted to worsen. Well have the latest on the aftermath of what was florence when we come back. From the very beginning. It was always our singular focus, a distinct determination. To do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. To fight cancer. And never lose sight of the patients were fighting for. Our Cancer Treatment specialists share the same vision. 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Last thing before we go tonight, is admittedly our current journalistic obsession and hobby horse. The recent decision to remove bylines from the New York Times front page. What could only be called a newspaper war, during this time when people look for and click on the work of the bakers and schmidts, weve been confounded by this decision, carried out in the name of streamlining the design. At any rate, we learned that a very smart and resourceful and perhaps similarly outraged New York Times reader has made a Browser Extension that adds the bylines back in. Armed with this development, we can once again see the names of the reporters working on the muck and mire and tragedy in North Carolina, and in washington. The fight goes on to put names with the news at the times. Thats our broadcast on a monday night. Thank you so very much for being here with us. Good night from nbc news headquarters in new york. This morning new developments in Brett Kavanaughs confirmation fight. The Supreme Court nominee and the woman who has accused him of Sexual Assaulting her at a High School Party more than three decades ago will both be able to testify on capitol hill next week. President trump orders the release of highly classified documents related to the russia probe. He wants to declassify a number of Text Messages from top intel officials. Plus, the flooding disaster from the remnants of Hurricane Florence continues. Rescue crews are searching for stranded residents as floodwaters fill neighborhoods