11th hour blitz to boost republican candidates. in florida, he fired up his base with a warning about a migrant caravan from central america. keep in mind, it is dwindling in size and still weeks uz way from the u.s./mexico border. still, the president now says that the threat of violence, be it real or imagined from the caravan, warrants sending as many as 15,000 u.s. troops to the border. consider this. that would nearly equal the number fighting terror groups in iraq and afghanistan. it would exceed those in iraq and be more than those fighting al qaeda and the taliban in afghanistan. abby phillip is at the white house with more. does the white house have any answers to how the president justifies that extraordinary use of american military force on the u.s. border here? well, the white house is pointing to that issue, pointing to the president sending troops to the border and saying that they are the ones dealing with what they have characterized as
the fbi and white house are failing to take even the most basic steps to investigate this matter. we must not repeat the mistakes of the past and rush the process before we re able to gather more information and the fbi s able to reopen and complete the background investigation. and that, of course, the illusion to rushing the investigation, harkening back to anita hill and clarence thomas in the 1990s. now, we will hear from senate majority leader mitch mcconnell midday after he huddles in the regular weekly policy luncheon. he said it was a good decision that the committee made this decision to have monday s hearing. he said we will move forward. sunlen serfaty on the hill, thanks very much. leading up to monday s hearing, the white house will mount a public relations campaign to bolster judge kavanaugh s image. sources telling cnn the trump team s plan is to rely heavily on women who know him to vouch for his character. let s go to abby phillip at the white house. abby, you kn
reiterate those claims, you know, this week, even after more information has come to light. they have even considered organizing some kind of news conference involving some of these women, talking about the kavanaugh that they knew and talking about what they believe, what they believe he was capable of at that time in his life. now, all of this, of course, goes back to the president, relies on president trump not weighing in in a way that the white house or republican allies believe is damaging to this effort. the president has been measured, both on twitter and in person. he does have a press conference scheduled for later this afternoon. so we ll have another opportunity to see how he chooses to weigh in on this. meantime, brett kavanaugh preparing for potential testimony and one of the key points there, helping him understand how to defend himself without attacking dr. ford. jim and poppy. abby phillip at the white house, thanks very much. joining us now is sar sarah pitlick, s
voluntarily step aside. i don t think that is part of the makeup of jeff sessions. susan, do you agree? is this someone who will have to be fired? if jeff sessions was going to resign because donald trump wanted him to that would have happened already. the president has ridiculed and demeaned him. jeff sessions has not been the attorney general many people expected him to be when he was named. he s turned out to be a much more independent figure. thank you both, susan page, margaret, preappreciate you bei here. now to the president s long time friend and the head of the national enquirer david pecker flipping. abby phillip is back with more. the two of these men, you cannot overstate how close they were. there was one point president president said the national enquirer should win the
know about this situation according to the associated press that the national enquirer had a physical safe that kept these bad stories and documents related to payments to women who were alleged to have affairs with president trump in a physical safe so there is potentially a trove of evidence that prosecutors may have access to and now the president has one fewer friend in this fight. it could be why we heard president trump talking about flippers. he said it should be outlawed, flipping in a case like this, giving prosecutors in exchange for leniency. we could be seeing why the president is so annoyed and angry about that situation. abby phillip at the white house, thank you. the names is reporting the manhattan district attorney s office may look into possible