From our nbc headquarters in new york. Day 608 of the Trump Administration and the pressure is being turned up on Christine Blasey ford. She is accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were both at a high school party. She must decide if she will testify before the Senate Judiciary committee on monday about her allegation. In a letter from her attorney today, chairman senator grassley of iowa wrote, quote, you have stated repeatedly that dr. Ford wants to tell her story. I sincerely hope that dr. Ford will accept my invitation to do so either privately or publicly on monday. I must remind you that consistent with Committee Rules dr. Fords prepared testimony and biography are due on friday, september 21 if she intends to testify on monday. But through her lawyers ford has requested that the fbi investigate her allegation before she testifies, a request that grassley has already rejected. He did offer to send Committee Staff to california to speak with ford. Tonight fords attorney released this statement, quote, dr. Ford was reluctantly thrust into the public spotlight only two days ago. Shes currently unable to go home and is receiving ongoing threats to her and her familys safety. Fairness and respect for her situation dictate that she should have time to deal with this. She continues to believe that a full nonpartisan investigation of this matter is needed and she is willing to cooperate with the committee, however, the committees stated plan to move forward with a hearing that has only two witnesses is not a fair or good faith investigation. There are multiple witnesses whose names have appeared publicly and should be included in any proceeding. The rush to a hearing is unnecessary and contrary to the committee discovering the truth. The president has been publicly supportive of kavanaugh while allowing the senate to take the lead in this fight. This morning as he was about to board marine one, he took care to temper his language. Look, if she shows up and makes a credible showing, that will be very interesting and well have to make a decision. But i can only say this, he is such an outstanding man, its very hard for me to imagine that anything happened. Justice kavanaugh has been treated very, very tough and his family i think its a very unfair thing whats going on, so well see. But i do think this, that given a lot of time, they will continue to give it a lot of time, and really its up to the senate. I really rely on them. I think theyre going to do a good job. Reporter do you believe dr. Ford . [ inaudible question ] id really want to see her. I really would want to see what she has to say. We should note the obvious here. The white house could ask the fbi to investigate fords allegations. Tonight a number of the president s republican allies are pushing to move ahead with a kavanaugh vote in the committee with or without a hearing. Senator Lindsey Graham issued a statement today, quote, requiring an fbi investigation of a 36yearold allegation without specific references to time or location before professor ford will appear before the Judiciary Committee is not about finding the truth but delaying the process until after the midterm elections. It is imperative the Judiciary Committee move forward in the kavanaugh nomination and a Committee Vote be taken as soon as possible. Washington post reporter robert costa, who will join us in just a moment, reports tonight that republicans are concerned about the political implications of rushing this confirmation. He writes, privately, discussions about the political fallout grip the party with republican lawmakers and strategists unnerved by the charge, genderinfused debates that have upended this campaign season. Senator Susan Collins, republican of maine, appears to be well aware of this. Nbc news reports that a source close to her says she had a call with the Deputy Director of the fbi to get a better understanding about how background investigations are conducted. This morning on a local main radio show, the senator continued to publicly press for a hearing with both ford and kavanaugh. I think its not fair to judge kavanaugh for her not to come forward and testify. Both of them need to testify under oath next monday before the Judiciary Committee. Meanwhile, friends of Christine Blasey ford are beginning to speak out describing the College Professors dedication to her her work and her aversion of being in the public eye. Several friends and classmates from her high school wrote an open letter of support for her. One of those friends who says shes known ford for four decades now talked with our colleague chris hayes earlier tonight. Shes a strong woman and she has a Strong Foundation with her family and her friends, and shes tremendously grateful for the support that shes gotten from everyone. And i think thats important to her so that she doesnt feel that shes just hanging out to dry here by herself. To suggest that someone who was sexually assaulted isnt remembering this correctly just makes my head explode. I think it makes a lot of women feel that way. Lets bring in our leadoff panel on a wednesday night, the aforementioned robert costa, National Political reporter for the Washington Post and moderator of Washington Week on pbs. Kimberly atkins, chief reporter for the Boston Herald and mimi roka, former assistant u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of now, now a distinguished fellow in criminal justice at the Pace University law school. Counselor, id like to begin with you and ask you the pure hypothetical. If you were dr. Fords attorney, what do you think you would be advising here . I would be advising exactly what theyre saying, which is not dont testify ever, but dont testify until they have done an investigation. And heres why. This is a sham, and no one knows that better than judge kavanaugh who is a longtime federal judge. If i as a federal prosecutor or any lawyer walked into his courtroom and tried to put on a case by throwing two witnesses up there without doing any investigation outside of what theyre going to say on the stand, he would not be happy with our performance as lawyers in that courtroom. That is not how we look for the truth. That is not how we get at facts in this country. This is not a criminal proceeding, but everybody is saying they want to get at the truth. Theyre saying it in different ways, but people on both sides of the aisle. The only way to do that is to do a full investigation. And it can be done quickly. So i think in fairness to dr. Ford, she has not said she wont testify, as i believe senator collins referred in her statement, that if she says shes not going to testify, thats unfair to judge kavanaugh. She is saying do the work first and make this a fair playing field. Because if you put dr. Ford up there and you put judge kavanaugh up there, we already know whats going to happen. The Many Republican senators have already said as much, that they dont believe her. Theyre going to question everything she says. And unless you have other facts to point to to test the witness credibility with, youre not going to get at the truth. I just want to share a couple things that we have witnessed over the past 24 hours, the first of which happened on this broadcast last night after the president said, this isnt the fbis thing, getting involved in an investigation like this. We put that question to fbi veteran senior official chuck rosenberg. We should take a look at the letter i, brian, in fbi, because it actually stands for investigation. This is precisely their thing. They pass along information to the white house on mr. Kavanaugh, and if the white house wants more information, all they have to do is ask. Two more things here, both on social media, one of them from Steve Schmidt who wrote this tonight. Riddle me this. If someone is lying, dr. Ford, and they know that lying to the fbi is a crime, why would they be asking for an fbi investigation . If a sitting federal judge is accused of something he denies with his reputation at stake, why wouldnt he demand one . And then finally, Stephen Dennis over at bloomberg news. If both kavanaugh and ford testify under oath monday and tell opposite stories, one would be committing the federal crime of lying to congress. Would there be precedent for the fbi to then investigate . Mimi, this is why we have you here. Answers to any of these . Well, absolutely there would be an investigation then or should be about whether one of them is lying. But again, you cant really get at that answer without going beyond the two people. The republicans are trying by trying to jam this through, theyre trying to make this a he said she said situation, and its not. It doesnt have to be. There are other witnesses out there. We already know about them in the public record, which, by the way, i think lends credibility to dr. Fords story. Why would she have told the story and put i think his name is mark judge at the scene if she were making this up. Why would she put a friend of Brett Kavanaughs there for people to go and investigate . But there are so many details already in her story. She said she was wearing a bathing suit. Was it a pool party . There are things you can find or figure out. Its a closed community, there are people you can talk to. So, yes, if one of them lies there should and would be an investigation, but to even get to that point of deciding that, you need to do this, and the fact that, as Steve Schmidt said, the fact that Brett Kavanaugh is not himself saying, yeah, lets investigate this and asking for it himself, i think thats very telling. Its sort of like trump trying to shut down the mueller investigation, hes afraid of what will come out i think is the only thing you can read into that. Kim, your headline got our attention. It is, analysis, Brett Kavanaughs fate depends on which party blinks first and, yes, human lives and reputations are at stake. How dug in are the sides as far as your reporting can tell . The sides are definitely dug in as we see the democrats and dr. Ford are not interested in moving forward without that fbi investigation as a prerequisite. But the senate is a political body. We have republicans and democrats who are making political calculations, and right now they are dug in but the momentum seems to have shifted to republicans who seem to want to move forward with this vote whether or not dr. Ford does appear next week despite the criticism that it looks like they are strongarming her or trying to bully her to rush this process when the process has no real deadline. There is no reason why monday has to be the day. They can take extra time. They can do more investigation if they dont want to get the fbi involved. They can have some sort of thirdparty arbitrator to vet the testimony of the people involved. There are a lot of ways to do this and they are choosing one way which is their way or the highway, the republicans are. But they are making that calculation because they believe in the end they will have the votes to confirm a kavanaugh and, look, at the end of the day, they may be worried about the perception that they are strongarming dr. Ford or that they may have the same problem that anita hill they had with anita hill and Clarence Thomas confirmation, but despite the attention that anita hills testimony got, in the end the republicans got the most conservative justice on the u. S. Supreme court affirmed. And he has been on that court for 27 years. He might be on the court for a decade or more. They remember that. So i think some shortterm political problems might be worth that in their calculation. Okay, robert costa, your job tonight is to tell us everything you know, starting with this. Just how toxic could this become . Are the republicans that willing to take this big a hit and kind of gavel this through . Its a tough question for republicans. In conversation today, brian, with senator jeff flake of arizona, he mentioned the anita Hill Exchange with senators in 1991 during Clarence Thomas confirmation hearing, and it led to the 1992 socalled year of the woman when many women were elected to federal office. And flake worried to me in conversation that republicans could be walking into a moment on monday that is charged, that has a party full of older white men in positions of power, you have an accuser in dr. Ford facing off against people like senator Chuck Grassley of iowa, 85 years old, in Congress Since 1975, who was involved, actually, in that Anita Hill Clarence thomas confirmation process back in 1991. The most interesting thing in my reporting tonight, brian, Many Republicans are publicly calling for dr. Ford to come forward on monday. But privately, many tell me, republican aides, some of them, even some lawmakers, it may be best for the party to avoid the hearing. And they want to avoid anything that may be damaging to them in the midterm elections. Are you hearing any of this move to get her to appear but under protest . In fact, please tell your story and we realize you didnt want it to happen this way, you wanted an investigation first but we need to hear you out. Senator grassley continues to issue estimating saying he is encouraging dr. Ford to come forward, whether its behind the scenes testimony or public testimony, hes saying hell give her the option, but he will not budge on the date. You can see from dr. Fords attorneys, they dont feel its appropriate, but whats telling also is that senator Susan Collins of maine, even senator flake, key votes, theyre not moving forward with a dr. Ford investigation. Theyre continuing to say theyre not going to need that at this point. Until republicans break on that, until a collins, flake or corker breaks on the fbi point, it still looks like this vote could happen next week whether she comes to the senate or not. One more quick one for you, bob, and that is, whats your reporting on the state of the trump kavanaugh relationship . Your writing was so interesting on this the other night. Distant yet close. Kavanaugh again at the white house huddling with don mcgahn, white house counsel, going through what are called murder boards, tough questions were told, things he would probably be asked by Senate Democrats at the monday hearing. But hes not interacting with the president. Why is that . White house officials tell me they need to protect the presidency. Theyre behind kavanaugh. They like kavanaugh. They hope he gets confirmed but theyre trying to keep the president away from this situation, not to get too close because its a fragile nomination. If they need to pull it at some point, Top Republicans tell me they would, but theyre so far trying to balance all these different agendas, all these different dynamics. Kim, to bobs point, people are asking, which collins is going to show up day to day, which flake, which murkowski, for that matter, because all of them seem to have quotes all over the spectrum on this. To that point, folks that ive talked to, particularly democrats, are really puzzled at this idea that there are four republican lawmakers that hold the fate of judge kavanaughs future in their hands. When you look at their voting records, particularly on judicial picks, but really with anybody who the president has appointed, who was nominated, they are largely almost entirely behind them. They almost uniformly vote in their favor. All of these lawmakers voted in favor of neil gorsuch. There is really no strong reason to believe that they wouldnt vote for kavanaugh. So again, the momentum appears to be on their side. It doesnt seem to be something with the exception of that one health care vote, thats what really got Susan Collins that reputation of sort of bucking the president sometimes. But in actuality, they tend not to. Mimi, i have 30 seconds but youre really smart and you can handle this. Remind folks the stakes. The republicans seem willing to take a big chance here because what comes with a justice of the Supreme Court . A lifetime appointment and decades of, in this case, probably a significant vote that will put the majority in the conservative camp on many important decisions, including, you know, not only but very importantly, a womans right to choose. So just the law of the land for the next half century. Exactly. Cant thank you all enough, robert costa, Kimberly Atkins and mimi roka for starting off our conversation tonight. Coming up, its perhaps the president s most withering criticism of his own attorney and thats saying something. And later the president heaps praise on his administrations response to the carolinas while visiting the storm region. The 11th hour just getting started. Cancer. Its very personal. Each of us is different. And each cancer is different. How it reacts, how it evades and adapts. And how we attack it. 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This is staying connected with xfinity to make moving. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and twohour appointment windows. Click, call or visit a store today. President trump ramping up the attacks on his own attorney general, as we said, and one former white house official is not happy about it. Well get to that in a second. This is a new interview with the hill. Tv. Trump berated sessions over his decision to recuse himself from the russia investigation. This time he went further. He said, i dont have an attorney. Its very sad. Im not happy at the border, im not happy with numerous things, not just this. Im so sad over Jeff Sessions because he came to me. He was the first senator that endorsed me. And he wanted to be the attorney general and i didnt see it. Phil rucker and Ashley Parker of the Washington Post spoke to a former white house official about the president s latest attack on sessions who said this, quote, it is a complete disgrace the way that trump is acting like a School Yard Bully against sessions, the official said. I understand his frustration. I understand why he feels the way he does, but what a child. What an absolute baby. Hes disgracing himself. Earlier today the president was asked about his comment that he didnt have an attorney general. Im disappointed in the attorney general for numerous reasons. But we have an attorney general. Im disappointed in the attorney general for many reasons, and you understand that. Reporter are you going to fire Jeff Sessions . We are looking at lots of different things. I have a great cabinet. We have the greatest economy ever in the history of our country, so were very happy with the way things are running generally speaking. With us tonight david jolly, former republican congressman from florida beaming with pride, and frank montoya, former fbi special agent in charge who during his time with the bureau played a role in establishing the cyberinvestigative task force. All right, congressman, you can guess this, im coming to you. Is it an article of faith that the day after the midterms, Jeff Sessions is xeroxing resumes . And the question is does he get fired or resign first . Look, Donald Trumps continued comments about Jeff Sessions simply reinforce that when it comes to leadership, donald trump is a weak and timid man. Hes unable to confront Jeff Sessions facetoface on this. Hes unable to make the hard decision. Instead he continues to lampoon and deride sessions in the press. But i think we do have to wrestle with the question, of course, donald trump would be happy to fire sessions immediately after the election. Lindsey graham has telegraphed that but does Jeff Sessions beat him to the punch . And what does that political story look like . Jeff sessions has served the public for 35 years as a u. S. Attorney, as attorney general in the state of alabama. As a United States senator, he has a healthy impression of himself, as most senators do, if you will, and does he want to go out being fired by a tweet as Rex Tillerson was, or does he actually want to go out on his own terms . I think it actually might be the latter, and we should begin to consider what that story looks like. Hey, frank, how are feds doing their jobs these days when the president says he doesnt have an attorney general, and this week in the last 24 hours, called the fbi a cancer on the country . Its difficult. You know, first and foremost, to professionals, and so theyre going to put their heads down and keep doing the work, but the fact of the matter is everybody is paying attention to this, their partners, their sources, even the folks that theyre running investigations against. And so there is a vulnerability, and its also a huge challenge in terms of the trust that you try to build with the folks that youre working with and the sources that youre trying to develop. So, yeah, its really hard. Its difficult. Its a slap in the face. And, you know, the fact is that it keeps on going. It doesnt end. And people are starting to struggle with it. David, do you see any republican standing up to this . No, not at all. I think the question for republicans is what happens with a replacement nomination . But to your point, Jeff Sessions is one republican right now actually standing up for himself and for the country. And in many ways has become a quiet hero regardless of what you think of his idealogy. He is advancing a very strongly conservative donald trump criminal justice agenda. He is rolling back Barack Obamas criminal justice agenda. Many people disagree with that. But at the end of the day, it is hard to point to another cabinet member that has been resolute in his quiet defiance of this president. I dont think anybody saw that coming with Jeff Sessions, but the reality is Jeff Sessions has continued to stand up to this president , done so under his own terms, but at least hes due credit for doing so. Yeah, good point. Hey, frank, is there anything in what weve just been talking about, what weve witnessed, say, just this week that a mueller would be interested in while he does his work . All of it. I mean, i think hes probably got somebody on staff just responsible for writing down every one of these utterances. It was interesting today two things about the commentary, one, it seemed to confirm everything bob woodward was talking about in his book. But the other part of that, too, is that he seemed to be laying the groundwork in the instance of a dismissal that maybe he cant be cornered on this one in terms of an obstruction of justice issue. That point notwithstanding, the fact remains that he has said so many things about Jeff Sessions, about the russia investigation that point to potential obstruction of justice. Like i said, somebody is keeping notes on every single one of these utterances and its just another piece or another straw on the camels back. If i can make one more point in terms of what the congressman said, i think regardless of what your political idealogy might be, the fact that sessions has continued to stay the course, even seen himself, i think, as part of the thin blue line that separates us from chaos is something noteworthy. Sleep cycle. So you can seize the morning. New zzzquil pure zzzs. Its my job to protect as a public safety,pg e, keeping the powerlines clear while also protecting the environment. The Natural World is a beautiful thing. The work that we do helps protect it. Public education is definitely a big part of our job, to teach our customers about the best type of trees to plant around the powerlines. We want to keep the power on for our customers. We want to keep our communities safe. This is our community. This is where we live. We need to make sure that we have a beautiful place for our children to live. Together, were building a better california. Reporter are you concerned about what Paul Manafort will tell investigators . No, im not. Reporter why . Im not, because if hes honest, and i think he is, hes going to tell as long as he tells the truth, its 100 . Paul manafort was with me for a short period of time, he did a good job, i was very happy with the job he did. [ inaudible question ] i dont want to talk about it now. Never talks about manafort. Please note without saying that he worked for me for a very short period of time. President trump telling our own Kristen Welker there hes not worried about his cooperation with mueller, and as it steams forward, weve learned trumps former National Security adviser Michael Flynn will be sentenced october 19. Certainly indicates mueller has what he needs from flynn and this ap headline notes, muellers legal actions have not been overlooked by trump, which just this week ordered to declassify all those documents that he thinks will be damaging to the investigation. Trump doubled down on this on hill. Tv calling the investigation a hoax six times and a witchhunt four times. As we mentioned, he yesterday referenced the fbi as a cancer on our country in our country, forgive me. Still with us, david jolly and frank montoya. Frank, how big a deal is this, this release of previously confidential text messages, memos that may contain intel sources, methods, things we dont share for a reason . Its hugely disappointing. Aside from the fact there is an Ongoing Investigation and that it will reveal sources and methods, the Biggest Issue is about trust. We are absolutely dependent upon trust to do our jobs, whether it is in developing sources or in our relationships with other agencies in the Intelligence Community or with friendly foreign intelligence services. If these folks think that lending information to the fbi to conduct a National Security investigation is going to result in the president revealing those sources, theyre going to be reluctant to approach us or to cooperate with us. I mean, thats just a simple fact of life. David jolly, i feel the need to just go back and remind everybody, just take a moment. The president this week called the fbi a cancer in our country. There are agents tonight all over this country preparing for court cases in the morning, serving warrants tonight with their fbi jackets on needing to enforce the law. This cant help their lives. You cannot undo the damage that donald trump has done to the Law Enforcement community and to career Law Enforcement agents, both at the fbi, but in other court of Law Enforcement agencies as well. These are Public Servants who protect us and frankly protect the president of the United States himself, and as adults, while we can have discussions about it, the reality is the president s words matter particularly to his base, and they get repeated on other networks that are happy to defend the president and repeat whatever he suggests. The reality is for a president who enjoys wrapping himself in the Law Enforcement community has some sense of pride and suggests that he wants to defend them. He is continuing to undermine them daily. The president should be ashamed of the words that come out of his mouth when he talks about the federal bureau of investigation and the men and women that serve the nation. Also, david, can i ask you about a great piece of reporting in politico . Our friend Josh Gerstein is saying that the plea deal mueller struck with manafort contains several provisions that appear intended to discourage the former trump aide from seeking a pardon and to rein in the impact of any pardon trump might grant. What do you think about that . It appears theyre trying to pardonproof the plea deal. Legal scholars debate whether he could protect this. The bottom line is mueller has suggested and manafort has agreed that if he were to seek clemency or receive a pardon, that mueller could then go after manafort for other crimes and allegations the special counsel might have. He is clearly trying to say to the president , dont move to pardon manafort or i will push even further and get to your doorstep. Frank, a question we ask you from time to time along with many of the rest of our guests, what inning do you think the mueller effort is in right about now . I dont want to mix metaphors, but i was reading this morning that jim comey thinks were entering into the fourth quarter. I think thats a really good analogy there, that it could go into overtime, but the fact of the matter is, i think were heading towards the end game. I dont think it will happen until after the midterm elections, but at the same time i think when trump sees himself or sees the news getting really bad for him, thats when his fury increases. When you hear things like what he said about Jeff Sessions today, about jim comey, about the fbi, that to me is an indicator that we are getting close to that end game. David jolly, frank montoya, gentlemen, thank you so very much, both of you, for coming on tonight. And coming up for us, President Trump tours the ravaged areas of north and South Carolina. And per usual for all the meals and support he handed out, its the side comments, the little moments that got much of the coverage today. More on that when we come back. vo hand can we talk . You know i miss playing catch with the. Grandkids and teaching them how to give a good handshake. Now look at me. Im all bent out of shape. vo tv if you have bent fingers and cant put your hand flat, talk to your doctor. It may be dupuytrens contracture. gary see ya hand youre all about friendly service, and you wont even shake hands . Come on vo your hand is talking. Isnt it time you listened . Learn more about dupuytrens contracture. At factsonhand. Com. The information could be quite handy. In moments of despair, we witnessed the true character of the american people. So true. Citizens all across our country rallied together to rescue the stranded, to protect the innocent and to restore hope to families who have experienced tremendous and unbearable loss. The president today delivering prepared consoling remarks while assessing the damage in areas of north and South Carolina hardest hit by florence. Death toll from the storm now stands at 36. Its expected to rise as floodwaters still continue to surge downriver. In North Carolina, the president met with storm victims where he handed out food, hugged a boy who asked for one, earlier doing what was billed as a briefing with state and local officials. The president stressed the size of the storm and heaped praise on the response. The job youve done has been incredible. Incredible. Theyre talking about it all over the world. Some of the flooding is actually epic. Hard to believe. And weve seen all the pictures where houses are literally covered beyond the roof. You dont even know there is a house there and one of those things. Weve done a real job and we have got to continue to do that real job because another phase is coming in right now and were going to meet that phase just like we met phase 1. Here to talk about all of it, a woman who covers all of it for a living. Jill coven, White House Reporter for the associated press. Jill, a lot to get to here. Number one, he had a job today. He is its been said by others he is empathy challenged in this role. His job was to console. He does love his black disaster raincoat. It was hot in the sun there today. He never takes off his black disaster raincoat while walking or sitting on location. Did he hit the targets today he set out to hit . As you mentioned, this is a president who often has had trouble in these moments where it is the president s job to really rally the nation, to show compassion, to show empathy, to bring people together. The president has been criticized for failing to rise to that occasion. This is a president who tends to make things all about himself. He spends a lot of time congratulating the federal response, congratulating first responders, praising them and a lot less time actually talking to people, addressing them, acknowledging the pain theyre going through. The president actually did seem to learn from his past experience when he went and took similar trips, for instance, to puerto rico last year. You did see more from the president talking directly to the people impacted. He spent time this time on the ground, both in north and South Carolina. He talked to people. He toured two neighborhoods where there was very visible damage. People outside of homes that had been destroyed. You saw debris everywhere, you saw boats scattered on peoples lawns in really devastated areas. You saw the president putting a hand on peoples shoulder asking them, how are you, how are you doing . So you saw some that have display, but nevertheless the president is someone who just cant help himself sometimes. You also saw the president as you showed in those clips congratulating the federal government for its response, and also another couple peculiar trumpesque instances, including at one point where he asked about a region where his golf club is asking on the conditions. He told official, im not sure why i care about that or i like that region so much. Of course its because he owns a golf club there. We have all of those moments. Were going to play some of those small moments where microphones were present. They briefly became a thing today. Here they are. Well talk about them on the other side. Is this your boat or did it become your boat . At least you got a nice boat out of it. Thank you very much. How is lake norman . That area, how is that doing . Good. Its doing good. Its still 10 or 12 inches of rain. I love that area. I cant tell you why, but i love that area. Its been really terrific. Have a good time. Have a good time, he wishes the last person, giving them their styrofoamencased meal. He did not employ his usual goto paper towel distribution method today as he did in puerto rico, asking about lake norman where he has a trump resort. Jill, as you mentioned, they always take the good with the bad with these ones but its the little comments that the crews pick up on these trips. Absolutely. This is a president that seemingly really cant help himself. Hes also somebody who benefits from these situations from a very low bar. Were going in there wondering is the president going to be tossing paper towels to people as though hes at a basketball game . Is he going to insult anybody . Is he going to make it all about himself . So when the president does show those moment, that image you showed of him hugging the boy volunteer, interacting, seemingly asking people how theyre being impacted promising both in north and South Carolina to officials there that the government would be there, that federal resources are on the way. When he does those things, he winds up getting a lot more credit than a typical president would. I want to show you something that ended up on local media, from social media from a local reporter covering the event down there today. This is Maggie Haberman who retweeted this saying, a local reporter experiencing the president up close for the first time. Brett kellman wrote, trumps briefings in North Carolina was surreal. First nobody briefed him. Politicians mostly just thanked him, second he praised local officials for their talent. Third, he said we have the strongest economy ever. Fourth, he asked about lake norman where his golf course is. So, sometimes those of us who cover something every day become process blind, and sometimes it takes a journalist covering it as a local story to say, wait a minute, there is no briefing at this briefing. A thousand percent. Its always interesting when you see local reporters and people new to the beat sort of witnessing the president in the flesh for the first time and reacting to this. These are people who have spent now the last couple of days on the ground talking to people who have been so devastated, whose homes have been destroyed, will be spending the next weeks and months putting the pieces back together. And as he was walking through these communities today, its also important to note that these are both states that voted for the president. He was in very red communities. He was greeted in some places with applause, signs, welcoming him there. Thoogs are trumps people. He has some kind of connection to them other than what theyre dealing with. After the day he spent in his black disaster raincoat, jill coven, thank you very much for coming on. Coming up, the leaders of north and south korea say theyre on a path to achieve denuclearization. Theyll need help from the u. S. , that 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. Experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. Specialists focused on treating cancer. Using advanced technologies. And more precise treatments than before. Working as hard as we can doing all that we can for everyone who walks through our doors. This is Cancer Treatment centers of america. And these are the specialists were proud to call our own. Treating cancer isnt one thing we do. Its the only thing we do. Expert medicine works here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com Cancer Treatment centers of america. Appointments available now. We have very good news from north korea, south cray. They met and we had some great responses. I got a tremendous letter from kim jongun. As you know, it was delivered three days ago. We are making tremendous progress with respect to north korea. So here is part of what he was talking about, kim jongun, welcomed south korean president moon jaein to pyongyang to talk about dismantling the norths nuclear program. But its far from a done deal and there is a reason that veteran diplomats and old korea hands remind us constantly, never believe the north. We have a report on the summit tonight from nbc news correspondent richard engel. Reporter kim jongun pulls out all the stops to welcome south korean president moon jaein with cheering crowd, an intimate lunch and all for this. Today both leaders promising to ease tensions and kim jongun promising to scale back his Nuclear Weapons program. To turn the Korean Peninsula into a land of peace and without threat, kim said. Promising to close his Biggest Nuclear complex if the u. S. Takes corresponding measures. North and south korea agreed to create a nofly zone on their border. These mountains there. Reporter meaning u. S. Air force flights like this one we recently joined are in principle are now no longer allowed. Prior to becoming president , it looked like we were going to war with north korea and now we have a lot of progress. Reporter north korea has so far done nothing to get rid of the Nuclear Bombs it already has. U. S. Intelligence officials have told nbc news they believe north korea is still making Nuclear Weapons. Richard engel reporting on this summit. Two other positive stories have emer emerged. The leader of the north plans to visit the south and the two koreas plan a joint bid for the Olympic Games in 2032. Another break. When we come back, well return to our lead story tonight. At a time when people are saying we have been here before, we have been close to this. The story when we continue. Last thing before we go tonight, while the president s nomination of judge kavanaugh become Justice Kavanaugh is in peril and while there are questions surrounding mondays hearing and whether we will hear from kavanaugh along with his accuser, dr. Ford, right now the argument turns on the role of the fbi, dr. Ford wants them to investigate before she testifies but the republicans rejected that. As we were reminded earlier in this broadcast tonight, the letter i in fbi stands for investigation. The president says this is not the fbis thing. It has a lot of people reaching back to 1991 when a young lawyer named anita hill came forward with allegations about a Supreme Court and well let senator orrin hatch fills in the story of what happens next. I have to say, chairman biden and the Ranking Member, when they heard about it the first time, they immediately ordered this fbi investigation which is a very right thing to do, it is the appropriate thing to do and they did what every other chairman and Ranking Member have done in the past and the investigation was done and it was a good investigation. Senator hatch is now 84 years old. Hes still on the Judiciary Committee, he ranks second in Senate Seniority only to his fellow Committee Member of Patrick Leahy of vermont. Orrin hatch is not in favor of an fbi investigation in this case. This story is still on the move, well see where it is at this time tomorrow night. For now that is our broadcast on this wednesday night. Thank you so much for being with us. Good night from nbc headquarters in new york from msnbc. Very hard for me to imagine that anything happened. Tonight, the stone walling continues. Well, it would seem that the fbi really doesnt do that. At the calls to slow down grow. My advice is to push the pause button on this hearing. Plus, my interview with the High School Friend defending dr. Blasey ford. When you have someones hand over your mouth and you think that you might die by accident, you know who youre dealing with. As the attacks on kavanaughs accuser continue. Whoever she is is mixed up. Just how credible is the Supreme Court nominee . Are you certain youve not had a conversation with anyone at that law firm . All in starts right now