Legend. Oscar nominated actor Burt Reynolds has passed away at the age of 32. Good morning, everyone. It is friday, september 7th. Im Ayman Mohyeldin alongside Frances Rivera and louis bergdorf. What a week it has been. We begin with President Trump who went to montana last night where he railed against an anonymous New York Times oped. During a Montana Campaign rally, the president spoke about it at length, as you can imagine, after spending more than two minutes talking about impeachment. Later, comparing the coverage of his administration to that of abraham lincolns gettysburg address. I can never get a good story. I mean you look at this horrible thing that took place today. It is really is it subversion . Is it treason . It is a horrible thing. You know the good thing about that . Even liberals that hate me say, thats terrible what they did. The latest act of resistance is the oped published in the failing New York Times by an anonymous, really anonymous, gutless coward. They had me stomping around, screaming with anger up in my area of the white house where i live with my wife and son, barron. They had me screaming, shouting like a lunatic, and i had a television. I said, what are they saying . I had six people in my office. I was in the oval office and we were having a talk on trade. Actually it happened to be trade with canada, they were telling me what is happening. They said, sir, youre not up there screaming, ranting and raving, youre here talking. Thats how dishonest it has become. The socalled resistance is angry because their horribly des have been rejected by the American People and it is driving them crazy. Crazy. Theyre the ones, honestly, that have been driven crazy. And the white house continues to hunt for the Anonymous Senior Administration official behind that scathing New York Times oped. The times reports that white house officials have been calling around asking cabinet secretaries if they are responsible. So far, every cabinet official has issued a denial with the exception of chief of staff john kelly and attorney general Jeff Sessions referred nbc news to this statement from Sarah Sanders that calls the anonymous official a coward. Sanders denies a report aides are printing out and delivering the denials to the president directly. Senator rand paul though reportedly recommended members of the administration be subjected to lie detector tests. According to the times, there was some discussion about it among the president s advisers. They reportedly discussed asking senior officials to sign sworn affidavits that could be used in court if necessary. One outside adviser tells the paper the white house has a list of about 12 suspects. And republicans on capitol hill seem to be on different pages when it comes with how to respond to the oped. The chairman of the House Freedom caucus and trump ally mark meadows tells politico, quote, were evaluating options on how to get to the truth of what happened here, mainly in the interest of protecting national security. Here is what House Speaker paul ryan said when asked if congress should investigate who wrote it. A role to investigate it . Reporter find out who wrote the oped. Not that i know of. But, look, the person the person who works in the administration serves at the pleasure of the president. It is a person who obviously is living in dishonesty. It doesnt help the president , so if youre not interested in helping the president you shouldnt work for the president. Were you surprised that someone would feel this way and act that way . Well, the New York Times has big stories on the front page all the time based on anonymous sources, so i guess this is the most recent example of it. But it means that someone near the president is actively working against him inside the white house. Are you surprised someone would do that rather than, say, resign publicly . I really dont have any further observations to make about it. A newlydisclosed email shows Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh discussed whether the landmark roe v. Wade should be considered settled law. Kavanaugh advised against referring to the Supreme Courts decision on the case as the settled law of the land. At the time the email was actually written, kavanaugh was revealing a proposed oped supporting one of president george w. Bushs conservative Appeals Court nominees. The op said stated that, quote, it is widely accepted by legal scholars across the board that roe v. Wade and its progeny are the settled law of the land. He proposed deleting that line, referring that im not sure that all legal scholars refer to roe v. Wade as the settled law of the land. Still, his email stopped short of saying whether he personally believed that the abortion rights precedent should be considered a settled legal issue. Now, here is what judge kavanaugh had to say when asked about that email yesterday on capitol hill. Roe v. Wade is an important precedent of the Supreme Court. It has been reaffirmed many times. I thought the oped should be accurate about what in describing legal scholars. Now, the roe v. Wade issue has put the spotlight back on a pro abortion rights. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, neither senator has said whether they will vote to confirm kavanaugh. According to Portland PressHerald Collins has not been swayed by the email. Marc kasowitz denied he or anyone at his firm has had contact with Brett Kavanaugh. Harris grilled the Supreme Court nominee on whether he had any contact with members of kasowitzs firm recalling the mueller probe. In a statement to cnbc, a spokesman for kasowitz hit back at the allegations saying, quotes, there have been no discussions regarding Robert Muellers investigation between judge kavanaugh and anyone at our firm. However, harriss aides told cnbc they had reason to believe a conversation happened and are continuing to pursue it. Kavanaugh yesterday firmly denied he had any contact with the firm. Meanwhile, harris pressed kavanaugh on whether he could recuse himself on cases directly affecting trump. Will you commit to recusing in any case involving the civil or criminal liability of the president who appointed you or nominated you . The independent of the judiciary requires i not commit on how to decide a certain case in either direction. So if i answer that question in either direction i would be violating my judicial independence. And coming up on morning joe more on the kavanaugh confirmation hearings. Senate judiciary members will join the conversation to give their takes on what theyve heard from the judge. Joining us from washington, d. C. , Senior Writer at roll call neils luzuski. Lets talk about the anonymous op said. What kind of precedent do you think has been set for other white house staffers with that oped . Well, i think the present question is somewhat dependent on if we are able to quickly find out who the author is or not. Obviously the New York TimesEditorial Board and the editorial page staff has no interest in that becoming public for good reason. They want to protect their sources. But the curious thing will be whether or not there are more of these to come and how senior senior officials are that are in these opeds is going to be important as well. You know, i generally think that the New York Times isnt going to accept an oped and call it a Senior Administration official if it is not really a Senior Administration official. But you dont necessarily know what else might be produced in other media outlooks. I wonder when they say Senior Administration official does it mean a household name most americans would know or is it someone in a slightly Different Department or Agency Within the white house. The timing of that also curious to see. Why now . Niels, i want to turn to the kavanaugh hearings. We are talking about day three, the longest yet, just shy of 14 hours here. A lot of talking about roe v. Wade and settled law. When it comes to those emails from 2003 about that, could that be what a confirmation hinges on . It could be, but i dont necessarily think thats going to happen because the explanation that judge kavanaugh gave yesterday about what that particular email was referring to sounded to me like something is going to be believed by senators like Lisa Murkowski of alaska and Susan Collins of maine, the Republican Hospital have disparate positions from their colleagues in the Republican Caucus on abortion rights. So i dont necessarily think thats the case, but what the real question here is why exactly was it teamed to be Committee Confidential in the first place. There was a bunch of the stuff that was coming out on thursday where we didnt really understand i didnt understand certainly why exactly this had not been in the Public Record previously. Yeah, and the other email cory booker that was referencing about Race Relations and Police Brutality as well. A lot at this moment as he put it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Well talk to you in a little bit. I know youre going to stick around. Turning from politics now, sad news out of the world of entertainment. One of hollywoods most popular leading men, Burt Reynolds, has died at the age of 82. The star of deliverance, smoky and the bandit and others. He was a soughtafter actor and notably turned down iconic roles that made the careers of others including han solo, james bond, micha Michael Corleon, and Richard Geres edward in pretty woman. He was expected to make his return in the upcoming film once upon a time in hollywood. He is survived by his son quentin. Here is what he had to say to me when i interviewed him for access hollywood in 2016. I had a great time and a wonderful career and great friends, wonderful friends. Do i have any regrets . Yeah. I probably hurt some people along the way. I wish i hadnt. I wish i could make it up to them. Im trying now. I have fabulous son, he is a wonderful young man. Hes an editor, so i will get to closeups if he edits one of my pictures or ill take him out of the will. What a remarkable career. Man. Still a sense of humor, too. Every time i see han solo, Michael Corleon and pretty woman, it is hard to imagine. Burt reynolds. Wow. I heard yesterday he was at one point in 1978 in four different films that were all released at the same time. So there was at one point thats how prolific an actor he was. Still ahead, the Trump Administration was heavily criticized for separating children from their parents at the border. Now the administration is pursuing a new family detention policy. Later, Rudy Guilliani appears to backtrack over whether or not the president will answer questions about obstruction from special counsel Robert Muellers team. Those stories and a check of our weather when we come right back. This is a story about mail and packages. And its also a story about people. 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And i get to do that. I get to provide that for them. Welcome back. The Trump Administration has announced a new rule over the detention of Migrant Children, adding another layer to the ongoing border separation crisis. The administration announced yesterday it will lift courtimposed restrictions on how long Migrant Children will be held in a detention center. The rule which goes in effect in 60 days will allow i. C. E. Agents to keep children with their mothers in detention facilities indefinitely while asylum requests make their way through court. An official speaking on condition of anonymity tells nbc that the purpose is to interpret an agreement that said children could not be held in detention longer than 20 days. Meanwhile, a new trump filing by the Administration Last night offered an update on the number of Migrant Children still separated from parents. The filing said 416 of the more than had than 426 children are still in government custody. Switching gears to a story making headlines. Officials in five states are investigating decadesworth of sexual abuse claims in the catholic children. Attorneys general in illinois, missouri, nebraska, new mexico and here in new york have asked local diocese for their records in an effort to unearth cases potentially covered up by the children. Some states including new york issued subpoenas for documents for which most local bishops complied in new jersey. A criminal investigation has been launched. It follows an explosive pennsylvania grand jury report that detailed more than 1,000 victims accusing priests of abuse. Pope francis faced railways simp for his knowledge and coverup of a longtime cardinals inappropriate behavior. Some highranking catholics and parishners called for him to step down. A troubling story there. Lets get a check on the weather with bill karins. You are tracking some flooding in the ohio valley this morning. Yes, the big concern heading through the weekend will be flash flooding. I know a lot of people want to talk about florence and how it could impact the east coast, i will get back to that in the next half hour. What was left of Tropical Storm gordon and a depression still spinning over arkansas with heavier rains to the south here. Theres a stalled front in the middle of the country and the combination of the two will lead to heavy rain. The worst of it is arkansas, missouri, illinois, indiana and into ohio, a portion of West Virginia and Northern Virginia is under a flash flood watch. Here is how much rain will fall. So the chart here shows you the green is one inch, two inches the blue. When you get to the red, thats five inches of rain. The pink is seven inches of rain. The bulls eye is between st. Louis and indianapolis, a possibility of getting a widespread seven to eight or nine in total. When you get this much rain in the mountains, that could be problematic, too. That will be one of the stories going throughout the upcoming weekend and thats not associated with anything to do with florence which you will see a lot of headlines about over the next week. New york, cloudy. Still a little humid with a chance of storms in d. C. As far as the weekend goes, the flash flooding threat in the ohio valley saturday into sunday, it travels into pennsylvania. We will talk more about florence coming up. Yes, it does look like we could have a hurricane along, near the east coast next week. I will talk about it coming up. Thanks for that. Still ahead, tigers in the lead. Serena is one win away from making history and the nfl season kicks off in the city of brother love. Which team needed to reach into its bag of tricks to win. Thats next in sports. Back in a moment. But mania, such as unusual changes in your mood, activity or energy levels, can leave you on shaky ground. Help take control by talking to your doctor. Ask about vraylar. 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