white house ceremony that looked more like a victory lap last night. >> on behalf of the nation, i want to apologize to brett and the entire kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure. i must state that you, sir, under historic scrutiny were proven innocent. thank you. >> every american can be assured that i will be an independent and impartial justice, devoted to equal justice under law. >> and gaining strength, hurricane michael, picking up speed and taking direct aim at the florida panhandle. >> the time to evacuate and heed the local warnings is now. hurricane mike is going to be a devastatinging storm. >> and good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington with the big breaking news today. nikki haley, one of the first cabinet choices are resigning in a move that surprised the white house and state department official officials al alike. but when did the president first know? he is not saying. both he and haley are trying to smooth over the shake-up in the security team announced weeks before the midterms. >> she told me probably six months ago that she said, you know, maybe at the end of the year, and end at the two-year period, but at the end of the year, i wanted to take a little time off and take a little break. >> a lot of people want to say that there is a lot of reasons why i am leaving, but the truth is that i a want to make sure that the administration and the president has the strongest person to fight. >> joini ing me now is kristen welker, and wendy sherman, former undersecretary of state for the obama administration, and michael costa from the washington post and moderator the of washington week on pbs and msnbc contributor kimberly atkins. and kristen, first to you, when did he know and who else knew? we know that she had an appointment a week ago, because loft people in the white house, at least under the top ranks did not know this was coming. >> well, that is right, andrea. we are trying to drill down on exactly when the president was to told. as you point out last week, he did have a meeting with u.n. ambassador nikki haley and we have been working the sources here behind the scenes here at white house and capitol hill, and i will tell you that there is a sense of surprise. a sense of surprise that she is leaving now with exactly four weeks into the mid-term election, and one source describing it as disappointing that she would make the decision right now, and the political ambitions are broadly known and have been talked about and she addressed them head-on and she said, i will not run in 2020, but behind the scenes, there is speculation, can does she want to run for office later down the line and run for senator from south carolina, the state where she served as governor, and again, andrea, it is the timing that a lot of people are remark ing on. and president trump said they discussed this loosely six months ago and you are absolutely right, because they put on a united front in the oval office today. president trump praising nikki haley and she of course thanked the president and said it was the on honor of a lifetime. she was a critic of the candidate trump, but one of the first to join the administration in the transition, andch suppord helped him to explain to the public the foreign policy with whether it relates to north korea, iran air strikes or syria. and north korea is one of the most controversial flashpoints, and it was nikki haley who came out to defend the language of fire and fury and it worked because it got meeting with kim jong-un, and there was other news that related to her in the oval office when the president said that we are working on a second meeting with kim jong-un right now, and we hope that it is going to happen in short order. as it relates to the u.n. ambassador and when he is going to replace haley, and the president not giving an exact date or person, but he is hope ting to have the replacement named within two the three weeks. an dre andrea? >> let's drill down on that, because as kristen said, that the president did talk about another summit with kim jong-un because mike pompeo came back at 10:21 last night to be precise from the trip to north korea and beijing and seoul, and so there is a lot to talk about there on foreign policy. but robert costa, first to you. announcing it before the mid-terms, and if she told the white house that she would leave by the end of the year is one thing, but to announce it before the mid-terms, is that protecting her own political posture in case the mid-terms are not going well or unrelate and where do you see this falling out? >> it is the u.s. senate to have a chance to consider another nomination in the coming weeks or months before the congressional majorities could adjust or even turnover no the democratic side should they have a blue wave in november. the ambassador's remarks were revooling. and she showered praise on jared kushner and ivanka trump and early in 2017, she was with close to that the wing of the administrations, the more moderate wing and worked closely with is secretary of state tillerson, and now as the president said sitting next to the the u.n. ambassador, pompeo who is the player in the policy as she heads to the exit. >> and of course, the national security adviser, wendy sherman, john bolten and his deputy who are both very, very hard-line, and bolton is famously the u.n. ambassador and while decrying the u.n. saying that if he had his way he would blow up the top the ten floors of the u.n. building and then not confirm and serving as a recess appointee under george w. bush and now clearly coming into the potential friction with the moderate republican from south carolina neck can ki hikki hale >> yes. no love loss for ambassador bolton and he does not believe in anything multi lateral, and obviously, she represented the institution that he hates so much. i agree with bob. i believe there is a lot going on here, and perhaps nikki haley is looking at a seat if lindsey graham is attorney general and she wanted to get out before the mid-term turnover, and i believe there is at least a turnover in the house, and lot of speculation of what is going on in the u.n. office whether she is pulled forward for any kind of oinvestigation or hearings. she has also been at odds with t the administration, and in a careful way on many issues like human rights, like on sexual violence and that is going to become more difficult in the days ahead. and the last point that i would make is on ivanka and jared, and we will see if the president has ivanka in mind for ambassador. >> what an interesting appointment that would be, and jared kushner being praised and he has done a lot of things importantly, and some not so importantly in the administration, but to praise him for a middle east peace plan that is yet to be realized is quite over the top i would think that in her comments in the oval offi office. josh letterman, you have been covering the foreign policy to closely, and i wanted to ask you about this, because she wrote in the response to the anonymous new york times op -ed, she had her own op-ed where she wrote, i would say step up and help the administration to the anonymous, and do great things for the the country, and if you disagree with the policies, make the case directly to the president, and if that is not working, and you are bothered then the resign on principle, and she said at the time that when she disagrees, she does it privateliment for the most part, she did do it privately, but there because moment after charlotteville when there was notable friction, but you can see, josh, a great deal of tension, and certainly tension with tillerson and great tension, and jockeying for the position when she saw his weakness. with pompeo now so close to the president, and bolton cementing his role, what was the space for her on the foreign policy? >> that is right. and particularly as the president and john bolton are making it clear that they don't have a lot of use for the united nations, and pulling out of the international courts trying to minimize the u.s. fund s fs for united nation, and you wonder how much impact she could have had with those strong figures like mike pompeo and john bolton also in the picture, and to your point about the disagreements in public and private and she was really the person in the administration best able to thread the needle and that is why it is a loss for the administration, and you know, president bush would have had what he called the passionate conservatism, and nikki haley was able to talk about the issues that in a way soft of softened them. i remember a trip i took with her to turkey and jordan to the refugee camps for seerpians and she was talking all about the need to help the refugees, and the next day, president trump came out with a budget that completely gutted the funding to the unicef and the major reductions to the funding in refugee causes and we asked her how to square the two thing, and she gave the answers of look, this is a starting point, and we will continue to be the most generous nation and we do care about this, but we need the edge, and this is more palatable to the mainstream and more moderate people which is where the loss is going to be felt, andrea. >> those are good points. kimberly atkins, we think of the republican party and with where it is right now, and the fact that she went through the muslim ban, and the migration crisis and immigration, and separation of children, and canceling all palestinian refugee aid, all of it, as well as the hospital relief to christian hospitals in east jerusalem, and serving arab s in eastern jerusalem and so many policies that are contradictory to a what many believe are her core values for what she is coming from in south carolina. and she did it without an abrupt breach. >> and she has managed to keep enough distance from the white house not to be caught up in the controversy and fury over a lot of the policy. and by and large, she has been a unified person and on board with the trump agenda, and some differences such as the cap on the refugees, but by and large, she has been able to do that and be sort of like what was described as as the trump whisperer and not to just the moderate people, but to the world, and other nation, and leaders who have turned to her to try to understand what the trump doctrine was when it was not clear. it is interesting now that she is stepping down from that and it is a loss for trump, but the key question is who replaces her now? will they be able to use the same finesse in dealing with not only the folks in washington w but those around the world. >> and robert costa, we expect my sources tell me that jeff sessi sessions is going to resign after the midterms before he can be fired and there is a big shake-up after the midterms and the big opening is attorney general. i am not at all sure that lindsey graham who has become closer and closer to the president and playing golf with him after the key confirmation saturday night, that the key person of confrontation battle that lindsey graham could possibly be image i ed -- imagie and i can't see him taking on the mueller probe and take over as attorney general, because whoever replaces lindsey graham, i mean, jeff sessions a rather as attorney general will not have to recuse himself and will take over the mueller investigation. >> i don't like to speculate, but senator graham loves the senate and he likes to have a hand in the judicial policy and foreign policy and he enjoys being a member of the chamber and he enjoys being a ally of the president to be close to the president and golf with him. >> and he loves the military issues more. >> and a former j.a.g. lawyer, and there were people eyeing the a.g. post, but it is not a complicated chess game of graham coming in and haley waiting on the out sooside to come in, but is more about haley trying to leave before the mid-terms ash and we will see if there is any other scrutiny coming up in the coming days and we don't want to get into that until it is fully reported and see how it plays out, but her time has come to an end in the administration in policymaking. >> and kristen, the president is heading to iowa today and he going to make anb announcement about ethanol which is hugely popular in iowa and continuing to do this intense midterm rallying in states, the red statess and the big states that he won so, with so large margins and trying to nail down the senate. >> and that is right. and the announcement in iowa today clearly aimed at giving some relief to the folks there who feel as though they have been hit hard by the tariffs, and is so the president going to continue his victory lap on that, but also last night, of course, from the ceremonial swearing in of justice brett kavanaugh. but andrea, as you are appointing out, this is one of several stops that he is making this week. he is also heading to pennsylvania, ohio and kentucky this week alone. he is feeling emboldened and i had a chance to ask him a number of questions on the south lawn yesterday and he went so far as to say that some democrats will be voting republican, and no indication that is the case in the poll, but it is a sense of the fact that he is drid to fight as he is heading out just a month now to the midterms, andrea. >> and one quick beat before i lose wendy sherman, your expertise, and pompeo returnses and says close to agreement on a second summit and some issues to only be nailed down by the leaders and that i have a willingness from kim jong-un to let the inspectors into the missile test site, and are we moving ahead in a way that no one u could have predicted when they first started in singapore? >> well, we are certainly moving ahead, andrea, and where we are heading to is not entirely clear, and there is no question that there would be a second summit, and the president wants it on the calendar as quickly as he can, and i would suspectt before the midterm so he can say that he is a great national security president, and so at the site that has already exploded to get insp ectoinspec other sites a that we want to see inspected, but i am not entire entirely convinced, but remain skeptical. i am heading out the singapore myself, and this is complicated because south korea says they don't want an initial declaration because they don't know what they have in the nuclear arsenal and we should take it step at a time, and give something to north korea, and we have given them quite a bit and we are about to give them a second summit. >> wendy sherman, and robert kos tashgs and kimberly atkins, and jonathan and kristen, thank you as well. coming up, day one, mr. justice kavanaugh beginning the tenure on the supreme court bench to today. what is the impact going to be going forward? you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" and pete williams is next. is next. how much horse power does this thing got? doing great dad! is next. looking good babe! are you filming. at booking.com, we can't guarantee you'll be any good at that water jet thingy... but we can guarantee the best price on a hotel, like this one. or any home, boat, treehouse, yurt, whatever. get the best price on homes, hotels and so much more. booking.com, booking.yeah brett kavanaugh beginning the lifetime appointment for the supreme court by takeing his set on the bench and one day after trying to alleviate the passionate detractors after his remarks at the white house. >> the supreme court is a team of nine, and i will always be a team player on the team of nine. on the supreme court i will seek to be a force for stability and unity. my goal is to be a great justice for all americans, and for all of america. i will work very hard to achieve that goal. >> but the kavanaugh confirmation fight is fresh on the minds of a lot of lawmakers and some voters voters in both parties hoping to keep their sides reenergized for 28 more days to deliver a big message for the midterms. msnbc correspondent pete williams and mimi rocha, and matt miller from the justice department and msnbc justice and security analyst. and pete, tell us what it was li liket the court today and did he ask questions and tell us about the cases that were argued. >> in is the scene of protests over the weekend but not today. the police were expecting big crowds and they had bicycle racks blocking off the access to the front steps of the plaza to the court with a little gap to get there, but there were a small number and perhaps a dozen or 20 on the back side of the court watching the justices coming into the parking garage and chanting some and then came around to this side, but there was not much protest. but i am here, andrea, to tell you that there was violence in the court canroom when sotomayor pinched another justice. there was a subject that comes up here all of the time about a statute that the lower courts have struggled with called the armed career criminal act and the question is what offenses qualify to give you a mandatory sentence. two cases involved and one is a statute in florida that says any resistance to a person or anything that you can do to another person that causes pain or injury can count as the statute and a question as to whether or not pinching counts. and that is when sotomayor pinched neil gorsuch, much to his surprise, and that is as raucous as it got today. no protests in the court. and we very seldom get anybody standing up and yelling in the oral argument in the court. many terms go by without that happening at all and again, the police were prepared for that today and telling people lining up, remembering that protesting in the court is a federal fe felony, and so it was quiet and respectful in the court can, and justice kavanaugh was a little bit more active than the freshmen justices are, and asked a dozen questions and maybe 13 or 14 more in the second case than the first case, but it is fewer than some justices asked and fewer than other justices asked and that is it for the first two case, and he is going to be back again tomorrow for two more technical cases, and one is involving how long the department of homeland security can have someone in custody if they are here illegally and commit a crime. and one is who is responsible if asbestos is added to a navy ship and someone is injured by it. technical cases. and one more note, the chief justice did give the typical greeting when a new justice comes on welcoming them saying that he is looking forward to working with them in the common cause. >> pete, we should also note and you have reported continuous ly there is an inherent reason both because they need each other's votes, and they need five voteses to win a decision, but they also have a certain culture the there. and that you had several of the liberal democrats showing up not only on saturday night for the official swearing in, but showing up certainly last night at the white house for what really was more of a rally, ceremonial moment in prime time, but you had braeuer and ginsberg the -- breyer and ginsberg there. >> yes, they will be working for voting with you have a potential ally. and is so they start out with the proceed inings sworn in to a member of the court, and he sat next to elena kagan and they were chatting and smiling and joking, and that is the way it is going to go. >> and of course, they know each other well from the legal circles and law school circles. >> yes, she brought him in to teach at harvard, right. when she was dean. >> and i should point out that elena kagan and sotomayor was there also as well. and mimi rocha, talk about the change in the court, and also, i wanted to ask you briefly about rod rosenstein and whether there was anything improper as him of deputy a.g. flying on air force one and not a private meeting and so it was onot the moment that a lot of the anticipated with the president, and the president then the reaffirming that he is not planning to replace rod rosenstein. >> well, andrea, the two things that you are asking about are linked in some big principled way which is that we have seen through this process of kavanaugh getting confirmed to the supreme court such a politicalization of the process, and i know that politics have always played a role in the supreme court, but what we saw here where, really, a whole portion of where women and sexual assault survivors felt that it was a thumb in the nose to them to get kavanaugh confirm and then saturday night, the sort of, you know, the swearing in, really was, you know, with the standing ovations, and the statements about the pain to the kavanaugh's family, and i mean, it just took something that should be so sacred and made it feel both political can in a way that i think that it has not felt previously and hurtful in a way. and i think that if you are looking at what happened with rod rosenstein on the airplane, and i don't know what the content of that meeting was. what i know is that it looked bad. it looked like trump holding something over rosenstein, and someone who, you know, is overseeing this criminal case in which he is a subject and for him to sort of felt like and sounded like he was dangling his job security basically. there may be nothing improper that happened, but the fact that we even think that way now, i think it is a testament to how much trump has politicized the court, law enforcement and the fbi and things that many of us who have worked in law enforcement for so long have held sacred and we want to keep politics out of. >> and matt miller, you have work ed in worked in the democratic administration in the justice department and what say you about rod rosenstein? >> well, there is nothing inherently wrong with deputy attorney general flying with the president on the air force one in a normal world, but in is not nor mal world. rod rosenstein gets to decide if it is expanded or approve the indictments and he has a say in how the investigation is going forward and so two issues, the appearance of rod rosenstein walking odown the stairs with the white house chief of staff is leading people to lose faith in the independence and the credibility of that investigation out of the justice department and that is an important thing. the credibility of the justice department is one tof the most important attributes and it needs to maintain it. the second is what they actually talked about and whether they did talk about the investigation. i am troubled when you see the president walk out after this meeting and for months he has been calling the investigation a witch hunt, and he comes out and saying that they will be treated fairly, and it is an odd thing to make you wonder what they talked about, because we know that it is i reported that rod rosenstein has discussed this with the president in the past. and rod has done a good job managing it, but at times he has bent to the president's will, and i hope that is not what happened yesterday. >> and he has to meet with the house investigators as well about all of the allegations in "the new york times." thank you, matt miller and mimi rocha and matt williams at the supreme court. and now, hurricane michael is barreling towards the florida panhandle and the coast. it is to be one of the most destructive that the region has seen in decades. mandatory evacuation has been issued for southwest florida counties as hurricane michael threatens to bring storm surge and ferocious winds and rain for the next few days. >> florida has not seen a storm like this in some time, and the time to evacuate and heed the warnings is now. >> and msnbc meteorologist bill karins is joining us now. >> yes, in is much different than florence. and this is a big wind and storm surge event and a lot of the power outage is the legacy of the storm. we will take you through the latest and the strongest that we get for the hurricane. if we get any stronger, we go to major category 3 hurricane and we are right at 110-mile-an-hour winds and if you are drawing a line, it is pretty much even with miami but headed due north to the panama city. the forecast has not changed much, but the only question is what intensity it will move on to shore. right now, it is almost right over panama city, and the right quadrant over ap patch c quadrant over apalachicola. and then as we go to the northeast, it is going to travel as a tropical storm over much of the carolinas and we will get downed trees and scattered power outages in this region where we are looking at roughly from the university of michigan engineering department where they run a program and saying 2 to 3 million people without power by the time that the storm is said and done. what kills most people with these hurricanes is storm surge. this area is prone, and 8 to 12 feet, and not a lot of cities, but apalachicola is very populate and they could be looking at serious damage. so tomorrow, andrea, we are waking up and starting to get breezy and this is a daylight event and especially in afternoon when the winds pick up to 63 and by the time we get to the dinner hour in the 60, 70, 80 range through northern florida and southern georgia and the legacy is if we get it up to the low cat 3 or cat 4 to panama city and apalachicola, and after th that, we will is will have to to see how far inland the winds carry with the rain. >> and was there any sign that nikki haley was going to step down? you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not a cream. it's a pill that treats moderate to severe plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla,75% clearer skin is achievable. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a 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911 emergency care is there when you or your love one need it. i wanted to do this, because nikki haley, ambassador to the united nations, has been very special to me. she has done an incredible job. she is a fantastic person. very importantly, but she also is somebody that get s s it. >> president trump praising his soon to be former u.n. ambassador nikki haley and one of the administrations's last moderate republican voices. joining me is david ignatius, and foreign affairs columnist, and sabrina siddiqui and sam stein who is a msnbc contributor and former columnist for the daily beast. and we gather that the president and certainly john bolden and the secretary of state were not surprised. the secretary of ostate has been traveling since friday in asia, and seoul, and david ignatius, he was in seoul, tokyo, beijing and got back last night, and now, according to the "post" and your columnist, that the white house had posted the resignation, and so that it was on that day october 3 snrd >> it appears from the documentation that it was known by the white house for a week. and we will be getting the reporting that helps us to understand better what prompted nuk can ki haley to submit this r -- nikki haley to submit this resignation letter and the implications to the president. and when you lose the most prominent woman in your administration at a time when tr trump's relationships with the women, and dealing with issues that matter to women are a key concern of the country, that has to be trouble for trump. >> and indeed. and to announce it at the high point or the low point if you will of the kavanaugh confirmation battle last week would have been troubling to the say the least politically troubling. a and lot of people would have read a lot more into that or perhaps read something correctly into it, sebrina, and we don't know. >> yes, it is remarkable to keep it under wraps for this long, but there are a couple of factors that could have come cointo the play. we are a, of course, a few weeks a wway from the midterm electio ark, and there is is certainly a lot of indication that it is going to be a potentially big year for the democrat, and so if you are someone like nikki haley who has higher political ambitions, maybe you want to get out before and that you have a narrative about a administration beset by turmoil and also an ethics complaint filed against her about the private jet, and she is a i have, and perhaps wanting to get out ahead of that as well. i know that repording from the "guardian" her colleagues were caught off guard and there were no immediate signs that her departure was imminent, but a lot of the the people there always felt that the ultimately, she was in this position to raise her own public profile. they did not see her as being there for more than a couple of years, and so it is a question of when and not if. >> and sam stein, the politics of this, and the high level female appointee, and more moderate republican and hard-line on some things, but certainly at odds with the president's policies disbanding relief agencies and contributions to the agencies. >> yeah, and you know, she was in a very interesting difficult situation at the u.n. she had been politically at odds with donald trump in the 2016 campaign and brought into the administration sort of as a nod no the moderates even though she is herself quite conservative and clearly in the tenure at the u.n., they did not always see eye to the eye, and increasingly as my colleagues at the paper reported that it is something that did not go well at her perspective and the world was laughing at the president and increasingly john bolden encroaching on her turf and disband i disbanding the multi lateral treaties, and so it is an odd time politically and usually, you do it after the midterm election os to avoid the spector of the administration in the turmoil, but also to make sense, because there really was a culture clash going on there and had been brewing for a while. >> and david ignatius, in terms of the foreign policy, will anything change? >> well, i think that sam is righ right, it is a period of some eclipse for nikki haley, and bolden has come on strong on issues affect iing the u.n., an stressing this withdrawal from u.n u.n.-related agencies, and she does not appear to be a central player on iran, and the period in which the secretary of state mike pompeo a has the president's ear and the decisive voice before nikki haley was the person who was most visible on foreign policy when the secretary of state rex tillerson basically was a no-show, and just not in the public eye. i think that there is going to b be some consequences, but it is more of the politics that interests me. nikki haley is in play now any time any issue involving women's issues, foreign policy comes up, people will ask what does nikki haley thinks, and that is probably what she wants. >> she notably at the he bottom the resignation wrote that i will speak out from time to time, and she will not run for office at 2020, but she did not preclude the idea that she would speak out, and if you read out between the lines, she is telling him, i might speak out against you. >> and it does not preclude her from running, and so much time of running now and then on either part of the ticket. >> she is going to be a player and her resigning a month before the mid-term is going to get a lot of play today and this week coming up, rather than being one other footnote in a series of the cabinet shuffles and resignations and firings to say the least. >> yes. >> and sebrina and sam of course, and david ignatius, thank you all. and vanished. is this picture the clue as to what happened to the missing saudi dissident? you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. what you gonna say when you get onto the moon? a lot of things have to go right before that happens. 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"dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. of a prominent washington post wri writer from saudi arabia is raising questions around the world about whether or not he is still alive. jamal khashoggi was last seen entering the consulate in turkey to get pap ore thework to marry his fee yaiancee, but she says never came back out. and there is a picture of him n entering the consulate, but no picture of himp coming out. and joining us is the global editor for the washington post who brought khashoggi to the washington post and helped him to have a wider voice. he was known for 25 years internationally and within the circles of our foreign policy community. karen, first of all, your friend, your colleague, and talk to me about this terrible disappearance and what you now know. >> first of all, andrea, thank you so much for having me and covering this story. right now, i mean, there is still a lot of murkiness. again on saturday, jamal dis disappeared now at this point a week ago or so. and saturday saudi officials said that they believed that he was murdered inside of the consulate. saudis have been denying it maintaining that he left all along. but i think that obviously, it is extremely difficult for us, and for me in particular, because i worked very closely with khashoggi over the last year. we had a lot of plans to do so much more as far as arabic and as far as bringing more stories about the region to the "post." and so, i think that right now, it is at least heartening to see that some members of the administrations speak out about khashoggi. marco rubio, senator bob corker and chris murphy just to name a few, and pompeo had a statement and vice president pence had a statement, but right now, we want answers either way. whether he is alive, whether he is dead, whether he has been kidnapped, and i think that it is harder not knowing either way. >> and as far as you know, has the administration -- and i know they are doing it quietly and took until yesterday to make public statements -- are they doing anything to pressure the saudis to come up with answers or are you concerned that they might be, you know, going along with the saudis, because of that important relationship as far as they are concerned? >> sure. i mean, as far as i know there's been communications and contact between state department and officials and the saudi counterparts, and you know, of course, you know, we would love for as much pressure and demand for the answers as possible. i think that in particular it is important that the state department speak out, because khashoggi was mentioned in a statet department report on human rights within saudi arabia and quoting his need or the desire to leave saudi arabia, because he felt under pressure. so, khashoggi was a u.s., and he was living here in the washington area, and in virginia. he -- he was, is a resident here and applying for his green card, and so i mean, he was living here. so, you know, we are just hoping that as much pressure for, you know, credible investigation to the look for answers are coming. >> well, again, we are all thinking about him, and working as hard as any of us can to try to get the answers as the government we hope is doing the same. thank you so much, karen at, frm the washington post. and revolving doors. and is nikki haley's departure a sip of things to come at the whi white house? stay with us here at msnbc. ay keeping billions of dollars of your interest. they've been treating you like you're lucky to have them. that's not right. it's time to show them who's the boss of your money. you. ally. do it right. is important to me so father being diagnosed with advanced ally. non-small cell lung cancer made me think of all the things that i wanted to teach my kids. 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(avo) living longer is possible. it's tru. keytruda, from merck. ask your doctor about keytruda. and joining me now, msnbc political analyst rick tyler, former spokesman for ted cruz and newt gingrich and ron clan, former white house aide and former judiciary committee top official as well. welcome both. let's talk about nikki haley for a minute. what's the fallout for this? she says in her resignation letter, date ad a week ago and t announced until today of course, i expect to continue to speak out from time to time on important public policy matter, but i will surely not be a candidate for any office in 2020. as a private citizen, i look forward to supporting your re-election as president, et cetera, et cetera. that's a long way from here. what is her political future in the party, rick? >> her future's wide open. it's remarkable the white house managed not to leak this in a white house that's notorious for leaking. it's also true that donald trump uses to his advantage because today's the opening day of the supreme court of newly minted justice brett kavanaugh and so we sort of moved on from that story, which i think was in the president's interest. but for nikki haley, look, i don't think things went very well in the last u.n. meeting. i'm not sure that she got to look at the speech he was reading. otherwise i think she would have made some corrections to that speech so he was not openly laughed at and mocked. nikki haley is playing her cards very, very well. she's going to -- she has managed her time in this administration as well as anybody has. and she's going to get out right now. but i would look forward to her being a potential candidate if trump doesn't run again or in 2024 or if lindsey graham perhaps gives up his seat. she would be a contender for that seat as well. >> ron clan, as someone who's gone through so many nominations of these justices and never seen anything like this, what becomes the moving spirit here? does it motivate democrats? anger the grievance? or the rallying that the president has been doing every day on the trail and again at the white house last night? does that motivate the republican base? who turns out? >> well, look, i think there has been some rallying over the republican base over the past couple of days around justice kavanaugh and the campaign to get him confirmed. the fundamental rule in politics are unhappy people vote. and justice kavanaugh got confirmed. that means the people who didn't want him to get confirmed are the unhappy people. i think you're going to see a tremendous outpouring of democrats. women who felt not listened to as part of this process. i think in the end president trump got the supreme court seat. i think democrats will get the political advantage. >> what about the senate? the senate seems to be more solidly reverting to its republican -- republican map, the advantage with only one republican incumbent really in play. >> look, it's obviously a much better map for republicans than democrats this time. a lot more incumbents. fewer of theirs are up. i do think, you know, over the final month of this campaign, a lot's going to happen, first of all, and i think it's going to give a big juice to democratic turnout in key races. >> ron clain, rick tyler, thanks. we'll be right back. ight back. i feel happiest when i'm out enjoying my favorite things, like spending time in my garden. that's why i need a humana medicare advantage plan. many humana medicare advantage plans cover everything - from emergency care and hospitals stays, to doctor office visits, and prescription drug coverage. in fact, last year, humana medicare advantage prescription drug plan members saved an estimated $6900 on average on their prescription costs. humana has a large network of doctors and hospitals. plans that include vision and dental coverage. and most plans include silver sneakers fitness and a rewards program. all for a zero dollar monthly plan premium in most areas. now i can be happy and healthy and keep enjoying all of my favorite things. your health and happiness is important to us. call or go online now to get your free decision guide and see how a humana medicare advantage plan can help keep you enjoying your favorite things. 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 thanks for being with us. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." now here's stephanie for "velshi and ruehl." >> thank you very much. there's a lot of news to cover. good afternoon. i'm stephanie ruhle. my partner ali velshi on assignment. it is tuesday, october 9th. let's get smarter. >> at the end of the year, nikki will be leaving. we'll miss you. we'll be speaking all the tile. b we'll be speaking all the time. but we will miss you. thank you very much. >> look at what happened in the past two years on foreign policy. now the u.s. is respected. it's a great day in the united states. i'm proud to have been part of the team. now i don't have anything set on where i'm going to go. for all of you that are going to ask about 2020. now, i'm not running for 2020. i can tell you what i'll be doing