suggesting that congress pass a law that would shield the president from both civil and criminal proceedings. real quick, joan, do you see any reason that kavanaugh would feel the need or should refuse himself from any kind of russia-related legal proceedings with regard to the president? you know, i think it would depend on how it comes to the court. let s say that robert mueller wants evidence from the white house or wants the president s testimony, he could cite the seminal case of u.s. v. nixon that said that richard nixon had to turn over the watergate tapes and say it s crucial for a criminal investigation here. and i would think that the context would determine just how he would assess it, and i wouldn t think he necessarily would have to recuse. again, it would depend on how that question arose. absolutely. so mark, the republicans that folks are watching right now are susan collins and lisa murkowski. two key votes on key issues here. two key voices on key issues
a worse job as president. what does kavanaugh s record mean for his future? the plucks at play now? joining me the politics at play now? joining me, mark preston and analyst joan biscupic. great to see you guys. joan, let s talk about the minnesota law review article from 2009. what do you make of it because this also comes from a man who cut his teeth working for ken starr. that s exactly right, kate. you know, we have to let s get some context here. back in the 1990s, he was a very aggressive prosecutor with then-independent counsel ken starr pursuing bill clinton and the monica lewinsky affair. brett kavanaugh, in fact, was aggressive in encouraging many questions be asked of president clinton about the sexual nature of his relationship with monica lewinsky, and then he was part of the so-called starr report that went to congress in 1998
rounds during his private meetings to reassure senators his independence, if you will, from president trump. that was a big issue at that time. i remember senators coming out and divulging those conversations which is actually surprising when they do. let s see what comes from then these private conversations between brett kavanaugh and the senators. first lesson, brett kavanaugh, they re never private when you re speaking to anybody on capitol hill. one thing to remember. mark, great to see you. joan, thank you very much. thank you. coming up for us, after 18 days trapped in a cave and an extraordinary rescue mission that captivated the world, the 12 boys and their soccer coach are finally out. we ll go live to thailand with the latest. and president trump is en route to meetings with key nato allies now. why did he just tell reporters that his meeting with russian president vladimir putin may be the easiest of all? we do whatever it takes to fight cancer.
what was interesting there, too, is you saw mike pence when he was given the opportunity to say something. the first thing out of his mouth was to praise president donald trump for all the judges that he has gotten confirmed which i thought was kind of interesting given that this is supposed to be the day for brett kavanaugh. but who am i to know? there s always an audience of one, mark. i don t know how much longer you have to be we have to be talking about this for that. joan, did anything stick out to you? yeah. a couple things. first of all, this is this is almost phase one for the hearings. these courtesy visits are actually important because groundwork is laid, he gets a feel for what the senators are going to be asking him, and he actually starts making his case. even though they involve a lot of pleasant trries about their e state interests, this is where he will start to put senators at ease, and they re crucial. and we need to go back to it but we re out of time, th