reading axios am in a bit. you can sign up for the news letter going to sign up.axios.com. that does it for me. "morning joe" starts right now. it's a very scary situation where you're guilty until proven innocent. >> due process. >> due process. >> due process. >> due process. >> due process. >> due process. >> i must say that you, sir, under historic scrutiny, were proven innocent. thank you. >> okay. president trump yesterday declared an end to the scary time for brett kavanaugh. good morning. and welcome to "morning joe." it is tuesday, october 9th. along with joe, willie and me we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle, national political correspondent for nbc news and msnbc and author of the book "the red and the blue, the 1990s and the birth of political tribalism" steve kornacki. joe, my question to you is how you would sum up what you saw yesterday happening in the east room at the white house? >> it was graceless. >> yeah. >> it was a president who once again had an opportunity not to be the great uniter, not to be abraham lincoln after the civil war talking about with malice toward none, but to do a small thing or two, send an olive branch, but he had all the members of the supreme court there, including the liberal members of the supreme court, and instead it ended up being a political pep rally. willie, that would be unbecoming in any circumstance. i remember being very bothered by barack obama in the state of the union address using supreme court justices as a prop, attacking them for citizens united, with when he knew they had to sit on their hands and not clap. but last night was nothing short of a political pep rally, with even brett kavanaugh calling out the republicans who voted for him and ignoring everybody else. >> yeah. time and again when the president gets a chance to heal the country he does the opposite. from charlottesville forward and go back to the campaign as well. when you look at brett kavanaugh and that two shot, how uncomfortable he must have felt or maybe he didn't, i don't know, i can't get inside his head after what he's been through the last month to have the politics continue. i'm sure he wanted to move on and get past this. the president knows and we know beginning last week with his change in tenor about this whole situation, that this is a good political cudgel for him, it works for republicans, they feel they're under siege and he's going to push this as he said explicitly yesterday, into the midterm elections. the president gathered -- >> i was going to say, willie, wasn't it brett kavanaugh himself that was going down the list, thanking republican senators, not mentioning anybody else, making it clear that his political allegiance were on one side of the aisle. >> if you thought he was partisan in his testimony which a lot did when he talked about a clinton conspiracy, that wasn't helped by yesterday's event whatsoever. he looked even more partisan, as the president and republican senators got together at the white house as mika said for a ceremonial swearing-in for supreme court justice brett kavanaugh, here is how the president began his remarks. >> on behalf of our nation, i want to apologize to brett and the entire kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure. those who step forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation, not a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception. you, sir, under historic scrutiny, were proven innocent. >> wow. >> mike barnicle, usually -- >> that's crazy. >> that would be seen as so offensive for a president to use the supreme court swearing in after he had already been sworn in, to score even more political points, divide the country even more, that there would be political repercussions, but every poll that has been coming out over the past week showed just the opposite, that actually the president being tacky and the president behaving the way he has, has done nothing but help. >> well, we're no longer surprised by his behavior, joe. we're just -- at least myself, i am constantly amazed and depressed at some of the things he says. he's the president of the united states. he uses a faux swearing in of a supreme court justice who had been sworn in prior to last evening as a platform to go after the white male vote in this country and perhaps other votes just like that, akin to that. but the level of hypocrisy also is striking. we played the clip coming in to the segment about due process, due process, due process, and yet the president, you know, talking yesterday to the international association of police chiefs sort of applauded stop and frisk, which is basically no due process. he goes out to -- he sets out to the country each and every day as we've said before to divide the country, not to try to unite the country as you alluded to. it's never occurred before in the presidency. >> never. >> it was an incredibly strange and graceless moment and here's kavanaugh and what he said last night. >> every american can be assured i will be an independent and impartial justice, devoted to equal justice under law. although the senate confirmation process tested me, as it has tested others, it did not change me. my approach to judging remains the same -- a good judge must be an umpire, a neutral and impartial decideder who favors no litty gant -- litty gant. a judge must be independent not interpret or make the law. >> i have to say, it's really hard to figure out which brett kavanaugh to believe. do you believe the one in 2015 that was talking like that? do you believe the one in 2018 that sounded like the right wing's version of hillary clinton when he talked about right wing conspiracy, but this time brett kavanaugh talking about a left wing conspiracy? what about last night when brett kavanaugh decided to call out every single republican senator that was responsible for him getting through the process, getting through the judiciary committee? was there a time since the man is on the supreme court for life, to figure out a way to extend an olive branch? of course there was. but this is a graceless, tacky, trump era that republicans believe like lindsey graham that the way that you win is by being graceless, by showing absolutely no class, by refusing to turn the other cheek, and to ram victories down your opponent's throats. and we will see in less than a month whether voters will reward them for that. that all really depends not on the republicans that come out, but the democrats who decide to stay home. if after two years of this democrats still decide to stay home, if after two years of this, women decide to stay home, if after two years of this, after charlottesville, after everything else, black voters decide to stay home, if after two years of being called breeders and rapists, mexicans and -- mexican-american and other hispanic-americans decide to stay home, well, then they and we get the government that we deserve. steve kornacki, it's hard to find any trend lines over the past week that don't overwhelmingly favor republican senate candidates. what can you tell us right now? >> yeah. i mean especially when you say on the senate side. i think we have to go into the discussion of the senate just acknowledging the battleground there to begin with is already on trump territory largely. it's ten democrats trying to defend seats in trump states, one republican trying to defend a seat in a clinton state. the biggest movement, the most significant movement, potentially we're seeing on the senate front the one that jumps out is tennessee. tennessee was sort of this surprise target that emerged for democrats over the summer. phil brettson personally popular, former governor not too attached within his national party's image. he got in the senate race and has led in the polls in spring and summer, nbc/marist poll, but in the last two weeks we've seen two polls come out in tennessee, one shows him pulling behind by five points, one shows him polling behind by eight points. another one in the field right now, i'm interested to see what final result there is if we've got three showing a pretty steady gap there for brettyson we start to say something significant maybe has changed in that race. this is one of those when a democrat trying to stitch together a path to a senate majority tennessee was emerging something as close to an essential state for you, especially because some of the other big movement we seem to be seeing is in north dakota and north dakota is probably the single most vulnerable democratic seat on the map, heidi heitcamp running in a state trump carried in 2016, falling behind by 11 points in one poll last week and that 11-point gap came before she announced her opposition to the nomination of brett kavanaugh to the supreme court. so again, if you lose a kavanaugh seat and you're democrats at that point you got to pick up in arizona. that's doable. pick up in nevada. that's doable. but you need like a tennessee or a texas, also the polling news not encouraging for democrats. the latest out of texas either. the red states, whether talking about tennessee, north dakota, something happened. the kavanaugh fight happened and that was a battle that was on republican ground. that was like robert e. lee sending his soldiers up pickets charge, except it was democrats over the past several weeks in the red red states running straight up the hill into political gunfire. let me ask you steve what you thought about "the washington post" article and the poll that they conducted yesterday that came out about 46 or 66 of the most highly contested swing districts actually 69 and there were i guess -- there's -- democrats had a four-point lead, do democrats see that as positive news or does that show perhaps some slippage there as well? >> yeah. no, they see it as positive news, but it's tough to know exactly what that number means because we don't have past polling from these 69 districts to show you how they looked exactly a couple years ago. we also -- it would be helpful if you're going to sort of take an assortment of 69 districts, instead of getting a number from across those 69, i would be curious to get the individual race numbers because one possibility there is, you know, is there a handful of districts, particularly these suburban districts that republicans represent but that hillary clinton won in 2016, this a handful of those districts that's potentially driving that number and sort of unevenly distributing the democratic strength? i'm not quite sure what to make of it except i think it speaks to the bigger picture trend or story line that i think we've always known is there with the house, in these metropolitan suburban areas of the country, right outside washington, d.c., right outside denver, right outside kansas city, you know, southern california, you can find a bunch of -- new jersey, you can find a bunch of examples of it around the country, the democratic energy there has been off the charts since day one of the trump administration and i expect us to be seeing blue waves in these metropolitan areas around the country. the question, though, becomes, is it a national blue wave that's enough to get democrats past 23 seats or does it just become a series of isolated metropolitan waves. >> one guy energized by the confirmation of brett kavanaugh is senate majority leader mitch mcconnell who led the process, spoke in kentucky yesterday where he said how proud he is of the republican caucus for not being intimidated by protests against kavanaugh. >> we were literally under assault. these demonstrators, i'm sure some of them were well-meaning citizens, but many of them were trained to get in our faces, to go to our homes up there, basically almost attack us in the halls of the capitol. >> that's a theme you will be hearing. "the washington post" reporting republicans believe they can channel their issue by recasting democrats as an angry mob over the recent protests and what they perceive as the mistreatment of brett kavanaugh. >> the radical democrats have turned into an angry mob. >> the angry level wing mob. that's what they've become. >> they have encouraged mob rule. i hope we can say no to mob rule. >> those who tried to overturn the rule of law and replace it with mob rule lost. i've never been more pissed in my life. >> i'm really proud of my members for not buckling under those mob-like tactics. >> we want to bring in now from washington, the author of the "new york times" news letter on politics, with lisa lara, lisa is with us. good to have you on this morning, lisa. give us your reaction to the display at the white house last night and what are you hearing in terms of how people in washington are reacting to it? >> well, i think we have to break down a little bit what's happening here. what happened for weeks and weeks, republicans saw this huge enthusiasm gap in their midterm polling and you would talk to republican pollsters and they would say there's a 12-point gap in how excited democrats are to vote and how excited rinse are to vote. that was not a good thing. they were concerned about it. the kavanaugh confirmation fight started happening and they saw that gap close up and we got to sort of an equal place between republicans and democrats. then something else happened, which is that republicans won the fight. everyone knows that losers are more energized to vote than winners. grievance out -- beats out gratitude at the polls every time. this is part of republicans trying to keep that sense of grievance, that sense of fight going, for the next 28 days. you know, they're taking a little bit of a victory lap and that's deserved. they won this huge goal of getting a conservative majority on the highest court for a generation. but the fact is that they won. so i wonder, it feels like it will be a little difficult to maintain the sense of grievance for the next 28 days. 28 days in politics is a long time. >> lisa, let me just push that a little bit because usually that works, usually that's the way sort of the aggrieved side ends up being able to raise money and develop enthusiasm, but in this case, there's a lot of grievance the way republicans feel the way kavanaugh was treated isn'ts this the number one thing this they are looking for is to name supreme court justices and get them through. i would think this could be a nightmare scenario for democrats? >> yes. it is the number one thing that they're looking for from the president and, of course, the president -- >> he did it. it was a big accomplishment. >> of course the president's base loves this about him, he's a fighter and sticks it to everybody all the time. don't forget that democrats also are very aggrieved about this. i was in michigan yesterday and i sort of -- one thing i wondered whether democrats could be any more energized than they are already, particularly democratic women, i was talking to activists in that state they were wondering the same thing and the fight over kavanaugh has supersonic charged their efforts. they are seeing more engagement. >> yeah. >> from women and there is this historic gender gap and independent women will matter, particularly in those suburban districts that -- house districts we were talking about. it's energizing on both sides. it's not -- >> yeah. >> just that. >> that's what -- >> so -- >> i think that's important to remember. >> yeah. but that's the danger for democrats, joe, i think because they are energized for sure, but aren't republicans now going to be saying, not just the base, joe, but republicans across the board, you know what, he's -- he's definitely outside the lines of the norms, but he's getting it done for us. he's getting everything that we want, that we haven't seen for decades, joe. >> right. >> done for us, and including one of the most important things on their list? >> yeah. you know, the -- it is true that it is so much easier to get people out to vote when you have a list of grievances. that's why midterm elections usually go against presidents. that's why in '94, there were a lot of grievances against bill clinton that had nothing to do with the economy. republicans won big. in 2006, a long list of grievances against george w. bush, despite the fact that economy was strong. 2010 and 2014, willie geist, in both instances, barack obama's coalition of the ascendent could not come out and win in a off year elections. willie, let me talk to willie, can you show me willie, i would like to see willie -- >> looking for willie. >> i'm hiding. >> how are you? >> go ahead, joe. >> it's good to see you, willie, how are you doing? but it's like what tom nicoles said yesterday, which is, which is, the remarkable thing about donald trump and this republican party is, that they play the card of grievance and they play the card of grievance, despite the fact that they own the supreme court, they own the house of representatives, they own the united states senate, they own the state department, they own the defense department, they own the epa. do i need to continue? they own everything in washington, d.c., and yet they're still aggrieved, poor lindsey graham, he's pissed, never been so pissed in his life, you know what, lindsey is part of a monopoly. the republicans own washington, d.c. they own a monopoly. they can do whatever they want to do. and yet, they're still playing the aggrieved card and we'll see if it works for them a month from now. >> yeah. we will see. we'll see where that energy is. i think you can't overstate what lisa said, which is that president trump is a fighter and that's the way he's viewed by his party, that's the way he's viewed by conservatives as you know well, joe, and this was a moment in our culture where they saw a man un fairly accused in their eyes, they believed that a lot of these allegations were scurrilous and he highlighted the ones that were the worst of them yesterday, did the president, and he stood there at the side of judge kavanaugh in a moment where a lot of people might have walked away from kavanaugh and said i don't need the headache, i think that moment we really can't overstate how big it was for a lot of people, that president trump stood there at the side of a man that a lot of people in this country believed was getting a raw deal and didn't do the thing other politicians might do, which would be to walk away from him. >> that's part of donald trump's unique and bizarre gift. i mean he has a capacity to just concentrate on resentment and anger, he does it very skillfully. joe, let me ask you, you've been out there running, you've run for office, is it possible for a candidate in this case the president of the united states, to fuel an entire party for a month on anger? is that possible, on anger? >> well, listen, if the election were being held seven days from now, then i would tell democrats to duck, they were going to be disappointed. it is true that a week in politics is a lifetime. if -- i always say this and know it to be the case just by following election, if james comey letter had come out 20 days before the election, hillary clinton would have won. 30 days before the election. hillary clinton would have still won. it depends on what happens between now and election day, what is there that donald trump can use as a trigger to gen up his base. as you know in off year elections it's really, really k difficult, for presidents, even popular presidents from ronald reagan to barack obama, reagan had a disastrous midterm in 1992 followed by a disastrous midterm in 1996 when the democrats took back the senate by winning a lot of seats in the supposedly solid republican south. there's still a very, very long way to go, but i must say, mike, i've been extraordinarily disappointed in the democratic party. i've been extraordinarily disappointed in their inability to -- >> to fight back. >> to put together a message, extraordinarily disappointed in their ability to fight back. extraordinarily disappointed in their ability to organize, to have a national plan. i'm getting calls from people in the democratic party every day talking about the fact that right now, they don't have a robust, aggressive way to make sure that they pull out voters, that they don't have a game plan to pull out for instance the black voters that helped doug jones win in alabama. it's just amateur night. it seems constantly that it's amateur night for the democratic party. they have 29 days to wake up or they're going to be sitting around the morning after the election whining and complaining about how republicans stole another election and maybe they will blame martians this time, except for blaming themselves and looking in the mirror and blaming themselves for not having a coherent message again, for the second time, in the trump era. for the second time in two years they don't have a coherent message and apparently they don't have a ground game. if democrats win, mika, they're going to win because they have strong candidates district by district by district. this national democratic party does not exist. >> okay. still ahead, it's -- i don't disagree. still ahead on "morning joe," in the views of the president, the allegations against brett kavanaugh are, quote, hoax. much like climate change and the russia investigation. more on how branding could impact the midterms. and speaking of russia, the russia probe, a new report is shining a bright light on the social media strategy of rick gates, who has already pleaded guilty in the special counsel investigation, but first, let's go to bill karins with a check on the hurricane closing in on the florida panhandle. >> good morning, mika. we know it's heading to north florida about noon wednesday the expected landfall. the only question how strong will it be. one day left for preparations in north florida. 90-mile-per-hour winds, as strong as you get for a category 1. later today should be a category 2. maybe by tomorrow morning a category 3. here's the latest hurricane center forecast. they have a category 3 coming straight into panama city beach florida, apalachicola, the area hardest hit, and the storm surge worst to the right. tallahassee with the forecast we get very strong winds too. we have, obviously, hurricane warnings for north florida and even watches for areas of georgia and south carolina on the right side your winds could be high if we get gusts. the storm surge, the thing that's the greatest concern for life and property, eight to 12 feet to the right of the center. notice that's not in panama city. right now about five to eight feet for you. the wind forecast as we go throughout wednesday, watch what happens. panama city gets up there, 88, apalachicola, 125-mile-per-hour winds and the worst for tallahassee would be wednesday evening with winds into the 90s. these power outages will be widespread through southern georgia and all of north florida. we got the wind with this storm and the storm surge, those will be the two most deadliest things that we have to worry about. other areas of the country, a lot of active weather out there, but for once, areas from new york and the northeast, you get a decent, dry day and record highs in some areas. a crazy october, but all eyes are on hurricane michael. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. be right ba. a once-in-five hundred year storm should happen every five hundred years, right? 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saturday night. david price got shelled, didn't survive, one and two-thirds inning, last night severino wasn't fooling anybody. when you got it you got it. sometimes when they're guessing where every pitch is going there's very little you can do. last night was the red sox night, which means tonight, the yankees will win 15-3. >> i like your continued fatalism. after last night the red sox beat the yankee, it pains me to say this on national television, 16-1, i say. i asked mike when i came in, joe, is it a bad sign when in a critical playoff game in the ninth inning your backup catcher is pitching as austin was for the yankees? gave up the cycle to brock holt. that was the first, mike, cycle in the history of the playoffs, in the long history of baseball playoffs, first time anybody has hit for a cycle. it is a new day. they are only down 2-1. you have to win two games out of two. cc sabathia pitching tonight. >> let's stick with the themes of what we do here each and every day. politics and baseball are pretty much similar. you do it every day. you play baseball every day. they do politics every day. votes are like runs. you can never have enough. 16 runs last night. we need a few tonight. >> you don't get to transfer those over to tonight, joe. >> and mike, you don't really even have enough against the yankees. when we were ahead 10-0 last night, i said the yankees can score 12 runs in six innings. it's the truth. i have to say, though, the democratic party, obviously, doesn't have a leader that knows thou guide it. the boston rod sox, let's look at, you know, bringing in devers at third base, taking out newness, bringing in holt at second base, taking out kinsler, vasquez behind the plate, and who was the fourth, pearce, holt, devers at third base. >> yeah. >> every one of alex cora's moves came through and produced runs in a big, big way. >> yeah. but that was last night. tonight -- we got to do it again tonight. we have to do it again tonight. nothing better than beating the yankees on their own lawn. tonight is the night. >> yeah. so willie, i know it will be a shock, but there are some teams that play outside of the acela corridor. i have been saying for a week now that i thought that it was actually going to be the dodgers and astros in the world series. how good are the houston astros? that is an extraordinary team, top to bottom. the dodgers, this may be their year. the brewers, man, they're about as hot as anybody in baseball too. those are three great teams that are going to be colliding. >> i mean the brewers, mike, absolutely crushed -- >> the brewers -- >> the brewers are great. nobody talks about them. the dodgers are great and they play on the west coast, we don't see them as much as other teams. but the astros might be better than last year. >> the brewers have won 11 straight games, the hottest team in baseball. the astros are a fully rounded ball club, great pitching staff and to be feared. no matter -- even against the red sox. >> the astros should be feared. >> all right. more purse cleaning. still ahead, okay, there are -- >> more what? >> four weeks -- >> i'm just saying, you guys talk a lot about this. i clean my purse. >> she cleaned a lot of her purse last night and i think she's going to be reorganizing. >> baseball wife. >> i got her to stay up until the sixth inning which is a world record. >> mika, excuse me -- >> yeah. >> are you aware joe calls during the game. >> yes. >> no. he calls you and he -- i can't believe these -- and lamere, who is obsessed. >> the thing i like about lamere is we're up 10-0 and lamere and i -- >> and marty. >> jonathan lamere going my god, if he doesn't get us into the seventh inning the yankees will come back. i agree. i told lamere yesterday, yesterday he said of pitching, we're down 2-1, we're going to go to -- it is -- isn't it remarkable, mike, i know we have to go, and willie, i was very concerned about evaledy, he had a lot of up and downs, you can tell after the first batter in so many cases when a pitcher has his stuff, evaledy was throwing 99-mile-an-hour fastballs to right-handed pitchers on the inside high. he was first inning, he -- he threw about ten pitches that were just unhittable. you can tell early on that guy had his stuff. >> joe, willie and i were saying the same thing earlier. you could tell about evaledy and louie from the bronx. mookie betts, first batter up for the red sox, barreled it up hit the ball 415 feet into left centerfield, it was caught, but you could tell they were on him. >> yeah. >> you know, i was excited until i watched last night and i realized when i kept hearing this name, you have been talking about vivaldi and now i understand there's this player. i love him. >> i love him too. >> he's basically a relief pitcher. >> he has three pitches. we should all love him. pinpoint accuracy last night. >> hit his spots. >> mika did say, though, she goes if they win tonight is it over? i go no. then they have to win tomorrow night. if they win tomorrow night is it over? i go. well this series, but we have a seven-game series against the astros. she goes then is it over? no, if we win we have another -- this is going to be going on until halloween. >> it's endless. >> just like this segment, alex says. >> wrap it. there are four weeks left until the midterms and i would like to like maybe we could play vivaldi on the way out. several gop candidates using the fight over brett kavanaugh as a line of attack, but can democrats turn the issue around on vulnerable republicans? "the new york times" jeremy peters joins us with his latest reporting next on "morning joe." " here we go. discover. i like your card, but i'm absolutely not paying an annual fee. discover has no annual fees. really? yeah. we just don't believe in them. oh nice. you would not believe how long i've been rehearsing that. no annual fee on any card. only from discover. experience has done is gotten republicans excited. fox news reported over the weekend the enthusiasm gap has closed by about eight points, almost even now on enthusiasm and our fundraising, our on-line fundraising has sky rocketed. >> the saga to confirm brett kavanaugh to the supreme court may finally be over, the outrage over his appointment is beginning to catch fire across the political landscape in competitive contests around the country. our next guest writes that both sides of the aisle are intent on making the kavanaugh appointment a rallying cry for their side. joining us now, "new york times" reporter jeremy peters. jeremy, what are you hearing beyond capitol hill on the reaction not just to this appointment but to the ceremony last night and moving forward politically in terms of how they plan to use this contentious nomination as a political tool? >> i think, mika, last night's remarks by trump that kavanaugh was proven innocent, as he said, just a classic example of the president trying to rewrite history on his own, more favorable terms. i think it's statements like that that have really energized the left to the point where, you know, they have linked trump to the kavanaugh confirmation bat until a way that -- battle in a way that he wasn't before. this was a debate about gender and equality and the treatment of women and believing survivors of sexual assault that was unfolding with trump kind of largely as a side character. then he opened his mouth, he opened it twice, when he started attacking christine blasey ford, when he said yesterday that this is all a hoax and a fraud and made up language we've heard all sorts of times before about allegations leveled at trump himself, and that feeds the sense more broadly that the republican party is being dismissive and disparaging of women like those who came forward, like dr. ford. >> you know, lisa, we've seen the first sort of the first wave of political reaction that was from republicans on the defensive and then going on the offensive trying to defend brett kavanaugh and getting him over the finish line, but you've got to believe if the last year and a half is any indication of how politics in america works, there will be a counter offensive from the very groups that jeremy just brought up, the very groups, the women voters in virginia that helped elect a governor, women voters in alabama that helped elect the first democratic senator there since the early 1990s, you've got to believe that that counterattack is coming? >> right. i think that's right. that's exactly right and a really good point. what we have seen is a sustained burst of enthusiasm among the democratic party and the grassroots and democratic voters. this level of enthusiasm is something that's been going on for, well, really since the president won. i actually have a question for my colleague if i can throw it back to jeremy, a question i'm asking a lot myself, we know the president's base is solidly behind him, but is that enough to get them over the hump in these midterms? like what's your gauge of the level of enthusiasm there from all your reporting on these various races? >> right. you know, as we were talking about before, lisa, voters don't come out in midterms to say thank you. >> right. >> i think that's a real concern among republicans that the confidence and the enthusiasm that exists right now dissipate four weeks from today and that energy on the left matches and exceeds that of the energy on the right. in the piece that i wrote today, one of the things that we tried to look at very carefully, how are republicans in house races, in close competitive house races responding to this, what you find from dave brat in virginia to rosscom in the suburbs of chicago and elsewhere in the -- in these suburban races, republican incumbent house members are not talking about this. who else isn't talking about this, martha mcsally, the republican nominee in arizona for senate, dean heller, the incumbent senator republican in nevada. they don't want to get near the kavanaugh confirmation because it's such a toxic issue with the types of voters they need in the these purple states. that's a sign of the difficulty here republicans have in threading the needle. do they spike the football over kavanaugh or approach it with more delicacy? >> as we talk about what will or will not motivate republicans to go to the polls, the politics of it, one of the things you and i have been talking about is this cultural aspect, which is that although republicans control washington right now, conservatives and republicans feel like the culture is aligned against them, by that i mean the media, pop culture, late night shows, things like that, and donald trump is the man out front defending them against all of that. >> donald trump has all the right enemies to them and he fights back against them, he doesn't apologize to them, doesn't bow to them. there's a big element that folks on the right see in that and i think that the kavanaugh fight brought that out a lot. i think it brought out a sense on the right that maybe they weren't that invested in brett kavanaugh himself or kavanaugh's opinion on this or opinion on that, but they were invested in the atmosphere that was created and the atmosphere they perceived was that the media majoring in television and cable news media, was out to get kavanaugh, that pop tour culture was out to get brett kavanaugh and they were going to stand with him and trump was going to stand with him and i think that's the tension that trump has benefitted from time and time again. one thing that i think trump sometimes succeeds the doing is, sometimes he can push his opponents enough to start acting the way he's been trying to tell his voters they act like. >> you know, jeremy peters, you're right that some republican candidates are staying completely away from kavanaugh, but if you have a trumpist, a guy that's completely embraced donald trump and actually has made donald trump's sort of existence the justification for his campaign, you've got a guy like ron desantis, he's talking about it. >> oh, yeah. >> he's going right into the middle of the battle and still trying to kiss up to donald trump. >> oh, yeah. absolutely. ron desantis is kind of a perfect example of the conundrum the party is facing right here. ron desantis, you cannot become governor of florida just by relying on trump voters in a midterm cycle like this. he was quiet about this, and only over the weekend did he really erupt and say, you know, this is a disgrace and he started echoing the language that trump has been using, this really aggressive tone, this angry leftist mob has undermined the rule of law in our country, how dare they, we can't let them get away with this. races across the country you're seeing the split reaction. >> all right. jeremy peters, thank you so much. li lisa lare and steve kornacki as well. coming up, rod rosenstein finally had his meeting with president trump yesterday and he may have learned something from james comey's experience, don't go alone. we'll talk about that ahead on "morning joe." minimums and fees. they seem to be the very foundation of your typical bank. capital one is anything but typical. that's why we designed capital one cafes. you can get savings and checking accounts with no fees or minimums. and one of america's best savings rates. to top it off, you can open one from anywhere in 5 minutes. this isn't a typical bank. this is banking reimagined. what's in your wallet? 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[ applause ] >> the white house wouldn't say last week whether the president recognizes the exoneration of five men wrongly convicted just as justice kavanaugh doesn't face. >> this about donald trump and, of course, you can talk about michael flynn as well during the campaign. these are people and donald trump still has crowds chant locker up for a political arrest. donald trump without due process calling for a political arrest when no indictments came down. donald trump and mike flynn and others around him saying if somebody pleads the fifth that must mean they are guilty. you have the central park five case. donald trump believes in due process when it suits donald trump. of course, you can say that about a lot of people in politics. it really is, it really is sad that we've gotten into tribes and people believe in due process when it suits their political purposes. they don't when it doesn't and donald trump is chief among those offenders. >> it was a strange display last night along with joe, willie and me we have mike barnacle, msnbc political analyst and former chairman of the republican national committee michael steele. nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of kasie dc, kasie hunt. and professor of history at tulane university walter isaacson. great panel this hour. >> great panel. i want to start with walter really quickly. walter, i can't be shocked. none of us can be shocked by anything that goes on any more. i just thought last night was the most tacky, classless display for the president of the united states using the united states supreme court as a political prop, so many of them do. but they don't call them over to the white house and they don't have all the justices sitting there in an attempt to show some, some unity and have the president of the united states turn into a political pep rally. i've never seen anything like that. i'm wondering if you have. >> no. that's what donald trump does. he turns them into pep rallies. he turns them into reality shows. that's what he knows how to produce. the problem for joe and people like yourself is it's successful. he is somehow articulating what a lot of people feel, which is boy, i guess everybody ganged up too much on this guy. it was unfair. and i think it was astonishing that donald trump almost with the help of the democrats had been made something that should have played very strongly into the democrats hands into something that's going to on balance help republicans especially running for the senate. by painting it as a notion of mobs of people who tried to destroy this nice man, somehow or another he changed the narrative. >> walter, you said almost with the help of the democrats. did the hemisphere -- there's a great piece in "the washington post" this morning. did the democrats, did the media play right into donald trump's hands over the past two weeks? >> absolutely. right into donald trump's hands. whether it was avenatti. the way understandably passionate democrats felt they had to show the same passion that some republicans have, but they played into the hands of those who thought this was a mob rule, and that people weren't listening to both sides. and it was a shame that the democrats, in my opinion, so over played that hand because up until then, whichever way the vote went, it was going to help the democrats. now if the democrats lose the mid-term election i think the democratic politicians who did that really ought to go into another line of work. if you can win the mid-terms you ought to get a different type of job. >> agreed. >> i would say the same applies to members of the media covering the story. >> i think everybody went overboard in a way that -- i'm down here in louisiana, back again after being up with you last week. even down here, people who felt that dr. ford could be trusted, maybe this guy on balance you wouldn't want on the supreme court, they had reasonable thoughts about it, they just felt everything got so piled on with ridiculous accusations that seemed to undermine the very serious ones of dr. ford. >> by the way, mike barnacle, allegations against the supreme court nominee that five, ten years ago most likely would not have made print, unsubstantiated allegations on one side and then on the other side and i'm talking about the stories that followed dr. brown's story -- dr. ford's story, would have been much stronger if dr. ford's story would have stood alone instead of unsubstantiated claims that followed a string of them. on the other side, what "new york times" reporter, what "the washington post" reporter was assigned a story by their editors to go see what really happened with dianne feinstein and fine and her staff. the sort of questions that would have happened if the republican party had done the same thing. not one. i challenge "new york times" reporters this morning, not reporters, editors, i challenge "the washington post" editors, i challenge "wall street journal" editors, i challenge editors across america, write that story. what happened with dr. ford's agreement with a congresswoman, with dianne feinstein? why did they leak that story? more importantly look at yourself and ask yourself the question why didn't we report on this in real-time when we would have reported it if grassley and his office had done the same thing. i've been quite clear here. i think republicans acted shamelessly in those judiciary hearings. lindsey graham embarrassed himself. republicans embarrassed themselves. but mike so did a lot of democrats. so did whoever leaked that letter and pushed dr. ford out of the closet. and journalists in america have a lot to answer for. why count they play this down the mid signal >> well, joe, first of all quickly the republican members on the judiciary committee put them aside. there's no separation between them and president donald trump. they speak the same language. they could after the same sores to peel the scabs off on the american public. on senator dianne feinstein i believe and other people believe that was the core of the democratic weakness in their blafr over the course of the past month. that letter to senator dianne feinstein, she received it in early july. the idea -- i understand, you know, dr. ford wanted to remain anonymous. there was a way to do that. there was a way to get that letter, the contents of that letter into the hearings. that was a critical point in what happened during these hearings. and the other thing was michael avenatti's client, the woman who reported she went to several parties, several parties justice kavanaugh was present and there was a series of gang rapes. preposterous story. it ran on the front pages of many newspapers. you know, i don't know what to say after that. the ball game was lost in terms of public opinion and now we're in, to you know, it was a hoax. the president of the united states basically calling it a hoax. it was truly depressing experience. >> well, again, willie, the question is why didn't they focus on the allegations before them? why didn't they ask the same tough questions of dianne feinstein and her staff that they should have rightly asked of chuck grassley and his staff. you held the letter for a couple of months. you waited until kavanaugh's hearing was over. and then you released it at the very end. again, the only question i'm asking today is why didn't one editor for the "new york times" or one editor for "the washington post" or one editor for the "wall street journal" say you know what? that's a story we really need to dig into deep because they are not telling us the truth. >> i can't answer that question for them, joe, but your larger point is absolutely right, which is that, you know, oprah winfrey made a speech before the usc graduating class in may who said don't fight hysteria with more hysteria. i think people who are against brett kavanaugh still have a good case that the fbi investigation was not a real investigation. if they just focused on dr. ford's allegation, we want to look into this, that was not a real investigation and they are right about that. i want to play for you michael steele what the president said followed by what judge kavanaugh said afterwards. >> on behalf of our nation i want to apologize to brett and the entire kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure. those who stepped forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation. not a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception. you, sir, under historic scrutiny were proven innocent. >> every american can be assured that i'll be an independent and impartial justice devoted to equal justice under law. although the senate confirmation process tested me, as it has tested others, it did not change me. my approach to judging remains the same. a good judge must be an umpire, a neutral and impartial decider who favors no litigant or policy. a judge must be independent and must interpret the law, not make the law. >> so, michael steele, what did you make of what was a political scene. justice kavanaugh was sworn iran officially the day before. what did you make of the two shot of the president making a political speech with the newest justice standing by his side? >> it was sort of this split screen moment because you had the president still engaging in the political game. he was throwing down the politics as much as he could just affirming to his base and those who rallied around him and judge kavanaugh what this moment was really about. what it symbolized right there in the white house with those supreme court justice sitting there. for kavanaugh a different narrative. kavanaugh recognizes one thing to be a nominee. now i'm a member of the bench. i'm a justice. i've got to live in this town as a supreme court justice. i can live here as a nominee under those political pressures and scrutiny. i'll be scrutinized as a justice and in need that reputation, my reputation to be a fair jurisprudence. once that's balanced not the imbalanced nominee you saw who was reactionary and quite honestly political. so you saw kavanaugh trying to continue to rehabilitate his own narrative while the president was holding on to his own black robe saying a little bit, not too far, not too fast we have some politics to do here. it's the way trump sees things. he sees things through that political pricism. the republicans want engagement, okay let's engage. that turning point is when he went after christine blasey ford. when he made his own decision despite what everyone else was saying i'm going to take her down my way, i'll take this down politically my way and he was successful. >> you know, kasie hunt, democrats listened to the president last night. listened to brett kavanaugh. kavanaugh saying he needs to be an umpire, he needs to be neutral, he needs to be independent. then he did roll call of republican senators that fought like hell for him. didn't mention a single democrat. donald trump talking about a fair and dignified process that every nominee deserves as if brett kavanaugh was the first person to ever be put up and as if merritt garland never even existed and the ugliness of merritt garland never even existed. a man they even refused to talk to. there wasn't a process for that. i wonder how down are the democrats right now are. are they beaten down or do you sense defiance? >> defiance. i would say the opposite. i think there's a little bit of concern or at least i've spoken to some people who were a little worried perhaps the democratic base would get discouraged by their leaders here in washington. that has happened in the past over the course of the last year. but i do not think that that is this is how this is shaking out at all. instead the anger is just growing around this idea that, you know, now justice kavanaugh can go through all that and still end up on the supreme court. i mean you're seeing in their fursin i fundraising, kamala harris and heidi heitkamp. this is animating people. the other piece of this, i think, that's remarkable as well is that this fight united the entire republican party for what may be the first time in the trump presidency. i mean, you know, normally i spend my time with a microphone talking to these republican senators about the latest tweet that the president sent or latest thing he said today and oftentimes they have to figure out how to say that they don't agree with it without actually getting under the president's skin. this is not like that. this across the board from the president to mitch mcconnell, this is mcconnell's life's work and while a lot of people always thought kavanaugh's confirmation would be in doubt my sense is mitch mcconnell was never going to let this go. >> so in that "the washington post" survey we were discussing last hour, a decisive factor in the democrat support appears to be women who prefer democratic candidates by 14 points, 54 to 40% while men favor republicans by five points. new cnn ssrs poll shows 31% of women approve of the job that the president is doing. 62% disapprove. on the flip side 51% of men approve while 43% disapprove. that's a gender gap of 39 points. potentially more troubling for republicans, a spike in the number of women who support the democrats over the republicans in their choice for congress. this chart based on nbc/wall street journal poll shows the trend since 2010 when republicans took over going from a six point gap that year to a 25 point one this year, joe. >> it's a gender gap, kasie that seems to be very significant. the question, though, is do democrats get out the vote? that's what it all comes down to. we saw in northern virginia, obviously, women in northern virginia making a big difference in the virginia gubernatorial race. we saw black women in alabama helping doug jones get elected in alabama. can you tell me what are the democrats doing? do they seem organized around this concept that if they win this fall they will win because of motivated women? >> i think that's absolutely what they think. that gender gap is devastating. those trend lines -- i'm not clear how the republican party can recover from something like that in the long run. i think the question is, you know, how much of this is strictly about president trump and will those lines start to trend back together if he's no longer seen as the leader of the republican party. i think every piece of evidence we have from the sheer number of women who are running for office, irmean record numbers and we should be clear these are mostly democratic women. there are some republican women running, of course, but this is predominantly a democratic trend. when you look at virginia, this organization a lot of times was coming from the bottom up not the top down. if anything the democratic party here in washington has had to sort of take a breath. there's been some congressional races where they missed really good candidates, amy mcgraph in kentucky is a good example of this. i interviewed a couple of months ago. she's incredibly sharp candidate. they wanted to nominate someone else, the mayor of lexington who had been in the political system for a long time, a white man. she beat him in the primary. so now they are helping her. but you saw that in that breakdown in the state house races, first transgender woman winning in a republican state. we don't fully have our heads around the depth of this yet. so i think it could actually, as much as we talked about it, it could surprise people on election day. >> walter i remember jimmy carter in 1980 when he made his announcement to run for re-election against ronald reagan and he came out swinging against reagan and he talked about and i'll just paraphrase. he talked about a country that was divided between men and women, blacks from white, urban america versus rural america. maybe president carter was about 40 years too early to really see the sort of division we're seeing now where you do see, you look at the poll that shows a massive gender gap for women between republicans and democrats. you can see the same for rural and urban. you can see the same for black and white. this is politically a country divided, almost split straight down the middle. pick your category whichever ones jimmy carter brought up 40 years ago that seems to be, you know, where the dividing lines are. >> you know, joe, you put your finger on the worst thing about this, which is we were very, very divided as a nation. we got more partisan over the past 15, 20 years. the trump election made it even more so. and with dr. christine blasey ford's testimony, so deeply appealing and resonate with a lot of women but also the whole circus that ended up surrounding the thing that got a lot of men upset. now you see a big divide between men and women. i'm teaching at tulane, i'm seeing a divide between young men and women in the classroom where they are rolling their eyes at each other. so you're taking a nation and ripping it apart on every seam line, every fault line you can possibly find. liberal, conservative, republican, democrat, rural, urban, north, south, now male, female. i just hope people get sick of this and by the way get sick of the way both parties have resorted to let's see how much we can whip apart the dna of america rather than join it together that some candidate will come along and say, okay, time-out, let's start bring this thing back together. >> walter, what do you tell your students in class today? what do other educators across america, talking to high school students or college students or grad students, what do you tell them? how does this -- how do we repair the breach? how do we move forward? >> i tell them this happened many, many times in our country. that it happened in my memory during the vietnam period, in the civil rights marches down here in new orleans and the rest of the south. it happened during the mccarthy period and, of course, in the greatest tragedy of all, happened during our civil war. we're pretty good at bringing people back together. but, the question is do we have systems now that just continually push us apart? systems ranging from gerry maar gerrymandering. what can we do about the systemic problem tearing us apart. second you're in college, you're around the table, this is the most diverse table you'll ever be around. i look at my seminar people, look these are people from vietnam and here's some that are black, we have whites, some very conservative, a couple of kids from kentucky deeply supportive of trump and thought that brett kavanaugh had his reputation savaged. let's see if we can have a civil conversation about it to show that it doesn't have to become the way it is in this country. >> walter isaacson thank you very much. still ahead on "morning joe" we've been talking about how women vote but what about how they run. the president of emily's list weighs in on the number of female candidates putting their names on the ballot. you're watching "morning joe". we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ let's face it everybody hates fees. now sofi has no fees on personal loans. that's right no fees on loans to remodel your bathroom. ♪ no fees on loans to consolidate your credit card debt. see no fees just feels good. ♪ boo yeah. if you've got the drive, you can do a lot with no fees on personal loans. boo yeah. unstopand it's strengthenedting place, the by xfi pods,gateway. which plug in to extend the wifi even farther, past anything that stands in its way. ...well almost anything. leave no room behind with xfi pods. simple. easy. awesome. click or visit a retail store today. thinking about impeaching a brilliant jurist, a man that did noning wrong, a man that was caught in a hoax, that was set up by the democrats, using the democrats lawyers. now they want to impeach him. i've heard this from many people. i think it's an insult to the american public. and i think you're going to see a lot of things happen on november 6th that would not have happened before. i think a lot of democrats are going to vote republican because i have many friends that are democrats. the main base of the democrats have shifted so far left that we'll end up being venezuela. this country would end up being venezuela. i think a lot of democrats are going to be voting republican on november 6th. >> that's the president speaking yesterday outside of the white house and joining us now former republican media consultant to four presidential campaigns and founder of the communications firm merrimac potomac. and president of emily's list. two sides of the coin here of the conversation we've been talking about which is who is more energized by the confirmation of brett kavanaugh. i'll start with you. do you believe that the progressive base, do you believe that women will take the energy of having lost this fight and bring it to the polls with them in a month? >> well, you've seen the results of democrats success for the last year and a half. these particularly women have been on fire, rearing to go from virginia a year ago to alabama, to over 40 legislative special elections that democrats have picked up. we have a historic number of women on the ballot. they are organizing. this just puts some gasoline on a fire that's burning pretty hot anyway and we're seeing nothing changing that. in fact, i was just in washington state a couple of weeks ago, the weekend after the hearing. they had record number of canvassers -- this was still september canvassing that weekend women wrapping around the block wanting to canvas. >> patrick, you said there are not a lot of winners in this kavanaugh episode, but republican intensity if you listen to president trump yesterday he has seized on this. he believes this is a moment where he stood by the side of a man in his view unfairly accused and walked through fire. what happens to republican intensity? >> if you look at the rcp average a couple of weeks before this all started with judge kavanaugh, democratic intensity was 10 points and more, significantly in some polls. we're now seeing about 6% depending on the polling you look at. i think what's happened is both bases, unfortunately, are back alive. the base politics of this continues to be problematic. what does that mean? the ugly side of both ends of this thing tends to drive thoughtful dpriefrs the middle out of the process. this is ugly and nasty. when you see the way people are reacting to this i think what we got realize is between new york and california there's a big country out there. while each of these senate races are interesting to us and we look at the up and down what we have to think about is what does the average person, what do independent voters think? what do younger voters think. we talked about this off camera. do people turn out or are they so turned off by this process that fewer people come out than we would like to have participate. it's a double edged sword. >> i cited an nbc poll with the stipulation that it was taken two months ago, in the summer before all this kavanaugh episode took place. which showed millennials only 55% of millennials which is a huge voting block, 55% said they planned on voting in the fall and 16% of millennials said they were deeply involved in politics, that they were deeply interested in politics. does that concern you given that millennials trend towards democrats? >> well, what's interesting about the polls we're seeing with millennials though the numbers are not where we want it in general, it's higher than the previous mid-terms and you're talking about a huge population. it's the largest voting bloc right now if they choose to vote. an uptick of a couple points is a lot of votes. there's also a lot of organizing going on on college campuses. folks aren't focused on what's going on the ground. there's an active ground game going on. again, i was with some younger women who are sort of in shock about what just happened with kavanaugh. they are digesting it. they are not sure what to do about all of this because does this mean i can -- i should not tell my story. i feel like i'm back in college. we can't go backwards. we have a choice here. there wasn't an election held on saturday. it was an appointment. a nomination. the election happens in november. we have a voice now. it's all about voting. i think we're going to see, honestly i think we'll see one of the largest turn outs in mid-term elections possibly in our lifetime. yet we've always expected that the republicans, you know, they are pretty good voters in mid-terms. it's our side that doesn't always vote. what we've seen in the last 18 months is really high turn out among democrats and "independent women" are coming our way. >> michael steel has a question. >> one thing that is curious to me, there's a lot of eye rolling amongst the boys and girls, the men and women. we look at polls showing this wide gap, this gulf really between the way men are seeing this president, this presidency, kavanaugh and the way women are. i'm curious as to anyone's fought as to what animates this difference? how does that translate into the turn out? you see the president trying to create a him too moment, sort of playing up white male victimhood in the face of these allegations. does that further split this effort between men and women in terms of how they look at the election? how do you see that narrative playing itself out? >> you know, i think it certainly is a good point. the question becomes for most of us who is responding to polling data. as a fan of polling i thought for a long time we got this figured out. we all live and die by these polls. my problem is i'm suspect of polling as someone who has relied on polling my entire professional life based on what happened last time. there's something about this president, there's something about this guy and the mood of our country which puts us ainu economic place. i think people underreport. it's not politically correct for many of donald trump's biggest followers to sort of tell you what they are really thinking. more importantly, i think there's a lot of people in this country who don't necessarily identify as strong trump voters, who don't talk about it because it's not polite at a cocktail party, unkchl at the country club and not what you want to talk about at the faculty room at school. there's a great amount of underreporting. i do believe what stephanie said, women are angry and highly motivated to come out and vote. there's a lot of people in this country who saw the ugliness of this battle and it's not as clear as that. i talk to women all the time who say yes it makes me angry but other things make me angry besides this. i do think women are very smart consumers, smarter than us gentlemen most of the time and very good at separating the wheat from the chaff. >> stephanie, the democrats just lost big time in this kavanaugh fight on so many levels. i'm curious to hear what you have to say, you say there's a lot going on out there. a lot of excitement. what is going on exactly? what is the universal unifying message for the democrats? >> well, right now what we've seen for the last 18 months is really a desire to change the party in power, right. folks say this election needs to be nationalized. the truth is this election is about donald trump and the republican party. it's a mid-term. voters will decide whether or not they like the direction of this republican party or not and what we have seen for the last 18 months is a strong absolutely not driven by women voters, the turn out of democratic women, and "independent women" coming our direction. i do not believe that anything that has happened over the kavanaugh hearings will change that trajectory. keep in mind the electorate the 53% women or more, so this is a huge problem for the republican party. so i do know that women right now, a lot of women, not all women, we're not all the same, but there's a lot of women right now who are taking a breath and trying to digest what happened over the weekend. but that doesn't mean they are stepping out. i think they are gathering their strength and we're going to see something pretty extraordinary led by women and really fabulous women candidates who are running in historic numbers this november. >> stephanie and patrick, thank you both for being on this morning. still ahead, new reporting that during the 2016 election former trump campaign official rick gates solicited for a social media disinformation campaign and it wasn't from russia. that is coming up on "morning joe". at booking.com, we can't guarantee you'll find gold on your wild west vacation... but we can guarantee the best price on that thar rental cabin or any hotel, home, boat, yurt, whatever. ♪ just don't get carried away with the wild west thing. hey guys. get the best price on homes, hotels and so much more. booking.com, booking.yeah i have no idea how we're going to get through this. follow me. unitedhealthcare has the people and tools to help guide you through the confusion, well that wasn't so bad at all. that's how we like it. unitedhealthcare. thank you as well to our deputy attorney general rod rosenstein for being here. flew down together. the press wants to know what did you talk about? [ laughter ] we had a very good talk, i will say. that became a very big story actually, folks. we had a good talk. we just had a very nice talk. we actually get along. and really good talk. i think we'll be treated very fairly. everybody understands there's no collusion, no russia, all made up by the democrats. they are the ones that cluollud with russia. >> just lies. just lies. just showering down on the president there, no collusion, no russia. there was collusion, there was an attempt at collusion. it's clearly out there. we already have the evidence, mr. president. i don't know if you know it but in this case you're the elm pmp without any clothes. we already have evidence that there was collusion. was it illegal? we don't know. certainly an attempt at collusion by you and your sons and everybody around you. yeah, there was a lot of russia. no russia? what your even talking about? what planet do you think we're from? do you keep insulting your supporters and followers by saying no russia. do you really think they are stupid? remember you said the last 400 pound guy. oh, wait hold on. the guy that you appointed your director of national intelligence said it was russia. guess what? the person you put in charge of the department of homeland security said yes there was russia interfering in the election. the fbi said, yes, there was russia interfering with the election. the cia, same conclusion. guess what? the united states military, that you say you support, you support the military. fill their intel tells you russia was involved as well. yet you believe the word of vladimir putin, a kgb agent. you believe what the kgb agent says instead of everybody that you hired to run the intel community of the united states of america. so you trust putin, you trust the kgb, you just don't trust the united states military. actually, guess what? there was collusion. there were attempts at collusion. and there was russia. russia tried to interfere. you don't have to believe me. please don't. please don't because i know it hurts you. you might tweet a nasty tweet or something. you'll go crazy about that. why don't you just talk to dan coats? you hired him. right. talk to dan coats. guess what, you can talk to chris wray. you hired him. you can talk to kirstjen nielsen. you're the one who hired her. believe it or not in this case she said not only did russia try to interfere with american kird it's an ongoing effort by vladimir putin and russia to interfere with american democracy and you say no russia, no russia. what? no russia where? because when it comes to election, when it comes to your election, there was russia involved and you and your sons and your campaign staff, you guys were all so eager to hear from russia. you were monti hall with russia. let's make a deal. i love it. it's like me eating fried chicken in my grandma's house in dalton, georgia. grand marks i love it. except in this case it was don jr. and trump tower. you mean the russia government has a representative that will come here that has bad news about hillary clinton? you mean we can work the enemy of the united states for our own political purposes, somebody who is trying interfere with american democracy? not i'm going to call the fbi. i love it. then you walk out together, mr. president. you said the russians were just interested in adoptions. it was about adoptions, mr. president. oh, my god. you know, that's a great line, i guess. except for the fact, mr. president, that it was a lie. and here's the thing that you should be really concerned about. you were the one who concocted the lie. the lawyers were on the ground because the lawyers would have told you, mr. president, don't do that. that suggest to prosecutors you're obstructing justice. but they weren't there to warn you. so you dictated the letter to hope hicks. she sent it. and guess what? the lie was spread. the attempt to obstruct the truth got to the "new york times" and then, of course, it fell apart, like a cheap suit just like that and we found out -- we found out that actually there was collusion. there was russia. there was an attempt. now listen, we don't know if it's against the law. we certainly don't know if russia had an impact on the 2016 election. i don't think they did. i think james comey did more than vladimir putin. but we do know this. you're lying on the tarmac and when it comes to russia you've been lying for years. i just can't wait to find out one of these days what vladimir putin has on you. >> i know. >> we'll be right back. >> we'll be right back my name is elaine barber, and i'm a five-year cancer survivor. surviving for five years is a big deal. i had so many people at ctca helping me find a way to go through the treatments. the reality of cancer is not everybody survives. at ctca, they have a huge celebrate life event. that was amazing, because the whole day was about all of the survivors. i'm excited about my future. visit cancercenter.com to schedule an appointment now. takes more than just investment advice. from insurance to savings to retirement, it takes someone with experience and knowledge who can help me build a complete plan. brian, my certified financial planner™ professional, is committed to working in my best interest. i call it my "comfortable future plan," and it's all possible with a cfp® professional. find your certified financial planner™ professional at letsmakeaplan.org. wat t. rowe price, hundreds of our experts go beyond thesional numbers to examine investment opportunities firsthand. like a biotech firm that engineers a patient's own cells to fight cancer. this is strategic investing. because your investments deserve the full story. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. this is moving day with the best in-home wifi experience and millions of wifi hotspots to help you stay connected. and this is moving day with reliable service appointments in a two-hour window so you're up and running in no time. show me decorating shows. this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving... simple. easy. awesome. stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today. >> under republican leadership america is leadership, america is booming, america is thriving, america is winning, because we are finally putting america first. we are putting america first. and we have the best economy in the history of our country, the best. but if democrats take control, they will try to plunge our country into gridlock, poverty and chaos. and that's what's going to happen. >> that's president trump speaking over the weekend in kansas. joining us now, senior political reporter dave leaventhal. also with us, fortune magazine editor at large lee gallagher. we heard the president's case here. historic lows on unemployment, 3.7%, the lowest in half a century, the dow going through the roof as he got into office. what did you find? >> donald trump likes to present himself as being the savior for the u.s. economy. make no mistake about it, there are plenty of places all across the country that are doing just fine right now. we wanted to go to cities that are struggling, places that feel they've been left behind. that while other places may be benefitting from this economic boom, they're failing right now and they're failing on key issues like housing, education, infrastructure that are critical issues in this midterm election. the people don't really care who's in the white house. they just want washington to work for them and they feel like washington has done nothing but fail them. >> was there a difference between when you set out to do this project, when you identified these communities and once you actually got on the ground consequential we heard th -- once you actually got on the ground, was it a lot worse than you imagined? >> in some cases. we identified these places which are representative of plenty of places across the country. when we got on the ground, what we found was a profound sense of hopelessness often times from people, but still hoping that things could get better for them. i think one particular story that we tell is about lumberton, north carolina. that's been in the news recently because of hurricane florence, but there's almost this hurricane that people forgot about, hurricane matthew. so many of the folks we talked to for this piece said, man, two years ago things were bad and they never got better and now they're even worse. it's that depth of despair that they have to say i'm still couch surfing two years after the fact. what is going to help me? we're a poor county. what are you going to do for us, washington? and the answer hasn't been forthcoming. >> this is a great series, a valuable series. it's also a series that could have been written 20 years ago, 30 years ago. we live in a country where, at least in my experience, i don't know anybody who would like to be born poor in america. it's always almost the same trilogy of items that keep them lacked into poverty. it's the lack of access to good education, health care and the most important word in america, jobs. so what do you hope will happen from this series? or is it just another sort of take a look at what's still happening here in america. >> you're absolutely correct that this is a series that has a sort of sad timelessness to it and could be written at any point in time during a year or in the past and sadly in the future too. in part, we're publishing this because we're on the eve of a critical midterm election and the issues that we write about in the series are critical issues in this midterm election. people have an opportunity to decide for themselves the direction of this country. is congress going to be dominated by republicans? is the house going to go to the democrats? we don't know yet, but the choice is going to be made soon. all of these places also said they felt like the political disconnect between them and washington is something that hurts them. we want to shine a light on these places to effectively show the country and also the politicians that represent these places that there are cities out there, there are communities out there that have deep, deep needs. >> lee, what's going on in that you've got these grand statistics, 3.7% unemployment, economy is growing, wall street is booming. why aren't republicans telling that story? what is it that's preventing them from getting into that narratives s as opposed to play the donald trump bright shiny object of the day game when there is a consistent narrative about the economy they could be running on this fall? >> i think everyone is running on the narrative that everything is doing great. the bright shiny object is this wonderful economy that the pthd -- president is taking credit for. why aren't we focusing on these economies and the other half? never before has the economy been so divided in this way. the statistics are stunning. things are going great if you are invested in the stock market, if you are a ceo of a corporation. but there are many, many people who are not participating at all in this. in fact, some are suggesting that we need new statistics to show that. we don't need to just focus on gdp and the stock market. i think things like this are really important. you are starting to see some attention being paid attention to some of these communities. let's create innovation in places far away from silicon valley, places like kentucky. there's no question this is a lost narrative. you're right. >> the series "abandoned in america" is out today. still ahead, brett kavanagh gets a seat on the supreme court and a rare apology from a president who never says sorry. but it wasn't the kind of apology you think. plus, why democrats should avoid pinning their hopes on a big turnout from young voters. "morning joe" is back in a moment. voters. 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[ dramatic music playing ] we got a bad fire. there's no easy way to say this... they're gone, neil. we need you to be commander. we need to fail down here so we don't fail up there. what are the chances this is the last time the boys are gonna see you? 5... 4... 3... 2... first man. rated pg-13. it's a very scary situation where you're guilty until proven innocent. >> due process. >> due process. >> due process. >> due process. >> due process dunch. >> due process. i must state that you, sir, under historic scrutiny were proven innocent. thank you. >> president trump yesterday declared an end to the scary time for brett kavanagh. welcome back to "morning joe." it is tuesday, october 9th. along with joe, willie and me we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle, national political correspondent for nbc news and msnbc and author of the book "the red and the blue, the 1990s and the birth of political tribalism" steve kornacki. joe, my question to you is how on behalf of our nation, i want to apologize to brett and the entire kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure. those who step forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation, not a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception. you, sir, under historic scrutiny were proven innocent. >> wow. >> mike barnicle, usually that would be seen as so offensive for a president to use a supreme court swearing-in after he had already been sworn in to score even more political points, divide the country even more, that there would be political repercussions. but every poll that has been coming out of the past week has shown just the opposite, that the president being tacky and behaving the way he has has done nothing but help. >> well, we're no longer surprised by his behavior, joe. we're just -- at least myself, i am constantly amazed and depressed at some of the things he says. he's the president of the united states. he uses a faux swearing in of a supreme court justice who had been sworn in prior to last evening as a platform to go after the white male vote in this country and perhaps other votes just like that, akin to that. but the level of hypocrisy also is striking. we played the clip coming in to the segment about due process, due process, due process, and yet the president, you know, talking yesterday to the international association of police chiefs sort of applauded stop and frisk, which is basically no due process. he goes out to -- he sets out to the country each and every day as we've said before to divide the country, not to try to unite the country as you alluded to. it's never occurred before in the presidency. >> never. >> it was an incredibly strange and graceless moment and here's kavanaugh and what he said last night. >> every american can be assured i will be an independent and impartial justice, devoted to equal justice under law. although the senate confirmation process tested me, as it has tested others, it did not change me. my approach to judging remains the same -- a good judge must be an umpire, a neutral and impartial decider who favors no litigant or policy. a judge must be independent not interpret the -- interpret the law, not make the law. >> i have to say, it's really hard to figure out which brett kavanaugh to believe. do you believe the one in 2015 that was talking like that? do you believe the one in 2018 that sounded like the right wing's version of hillary clinton when he talked about right wing conspiracy, but this time brett kavanaugh talking about a left wing conspiracy? what about last night when brett kavanaugh decided to call out every single republican senator that was responsible for him getting through the process, getting through the judiciary committee? was there a time since the man is on the supreme court for life, to figure out a way to extend an olive branch? of course there was. but this is a graceless, tacky, trump era that republicans believe like lindsey graham that the way that you win is by being graceless, by showing absolutely no class, by refusing to turn the other cheek, and to ram victories down your opponent's throats. and we will see in less than a month whether voters will reward them for that. that all really depends not on the republicans that come out, but the democrats who decide to stay home. if after two years of this democrats still decide to stay home, if after two years of this, women decide to stay home, if after two years of this, after charlottesville, after everything else, black voters decide to stay home, if after two years of being called breeders and rapists, mexicans and -- mexican-american and other hispanic-americans decide to stay home, well, then they and we get the government that we deserve. steve kornacki, it's hard to find any trend lines over the past week that don't overwhelmingly favor republican senate candidates. what can you tell us right now? >> yeah. i mean especially when you say on the senate side. i think we have to go into the discussion of the senate just acknowledging the battleground there to begin with is already on trump territory largely. it's ten democrats trying to defend seats in trump states, one republican trying to defend a seat in a clinton state. the biggest movement, the most significant movement, potentially we're seeing on the senate front the one that jumps out is tennessee. tennessee was sort of this surprise target that emerged for democrats over the summer. phil bredesen personally popular, former governor not too attached within his national party's image. he got in the senate race and has led in the polls in spring and summer, nbc/marist poll, but in the last week we've seen two separate polls in tennessee, one that shows him falling behind by five points, one that shows him behind by eight points. there's another one that's sort of in the field there. i'm very interested to see what the final is there. this is one of those when you're a democrat trying to stictch together as a path to a senate majority, tennessee was emerging as something close to an essential state for you, especially because some of the other big movement we've been seeing is in north dakota. north dakota is probably the single most vulnerable democratic state on the map. that's heidi hieitkamheitkamp. she fell behind 12 points last week. again, if you lose a kavanaugh seat and you're democrats, at that point you've got to pick up in arizona. that's doable. you've got to pick up nevada. that's doable. then you're going to need a tennessee or a texas. >> and the reddest of the red states, whether you're talking about texas, tennessee, north dakota, you're right, something happened, the kavanaugh fight happened. and that was a battle that was on republican ground. that was like robert e. lee sending his soldiers up picket's charge, except it was democrats over the past several weeks in those red, red states that were running straight up the hill into political gunfire. what do you think about the "washington post" article and the poll that they conducted yesterday that came out about the 46 or 66 of the most highly contested swing districts -- actually, 69, and i guess democrats had a four-point lead. did democrats see that as positive news, or does that show perhaps some slippage there as well? >> they see it as positive news, but it's very tough to know exactly what that number means. we don't have past polling from these 69 districts to show you they looked a couple years ago. it would be helpful if you're take an assortment from those 69 districts, i'd be curious to get the individual race number. one possibility there is, is there a handful of districts that republicans represent but that hillary clinton won in 2016, is there a handful of those districts that's potentially driving that number in sort of unevenly distributing the democratic strength? i'm not quite sure what to make of it, except i think it speaks to the bigger picture, trend or story line, that i think we've always known with the house. that is in these metropolitan suburban areas of the country, right outside washington, d.c., denver, kansas city, you know, southern california, new jersey. you cou the democratic energy there has been off the chart since day one of the trump administration. and i expect us to be seeing blue waves in these metropolitan areas around the country. the question, though, becomes is it a national blue wave that's enough to get democrats past 23 seats, or does it just become a series of isolated metropolitan waves? mitch mcconnell says republicans were, quote, literally you shouliteral ly under assault by protesters. first, here is bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> good morning, mika. all eyes on hurricane mika. it's now up to a category 2, wind up to 100 miles an hour. in about 24 to 30 hours it's going to be coming into north florida. there's the center of the storm. there is florida. it's heading almost directly for panama city. right now less than 400 miles away. the forecast path will update again at 11:00 east coast time. they have a category 3, 120 miles an hour winds and weakening as it goes through southern georgia. this would be a daytime landfall tomorrow between about 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. that's when you'll see the worst of the damage. then the storm with 60 miles per hour winds travels to 50 miles per hour winds off north carolina. we could still see power outages scattered because of downed trees in areas of south carolina and north carolina. storm surge is typically the most deadly portion of these storms. 8-12 between cedar key and apalachicola. our thoughts are with them as they're evacuating and getting out of town. this is tomorrow 4:00 p.m., 125 miles an hour winds at the coast. on the backside, 88. it's a small, exact storm. but whoever gets it, you're going to see that's almost catastrophic damage to roofs and trees all through this area. we'll watch this for you and give you updates throughout the day. washington, d.c., it looks like you could get a little bit of rain from this storm as we go through thursday. but a lot of the worst winds will stay to your south in the carolinas. 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 we're 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 we're proud to call our own. treating cancer isn't one thing we do. it's the only thing we do. expert medicine works 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or paying your bill is easier than ever with x1. x1 help. another reason to love x1. say "teach me more" into your voice remote to get started. one guy who was incredibly energized by the confirmation of brett kavanagh is senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. he spoke in his home state of kentucky yesterday where he said how proud he is of the republican caucus for not being intimidated by protests against kavanaugh. >> we were literally under assault. these demonstrators, i'm sure some of them were well-meaning citizens, but many of them are obviously trained to get in our faces, to go to our homes up there, to basically almost attack us in the halls of the capitol. >> that's a theme you'll be hearing. the "washington post" reporting, republicans believe they can channel their supporters outrage into a winning issue by recasting democrats as an angry mob over the recent protests and what they perceive as the mistreatment of brett kavanagh. >> the radical democrats have turned into an angry mob. angry, left wing mob, that's what they've become. >> they have encouraged mob rule. i hope we can say no to mob rule. >> those who tried to over turn the rule of law and replace it with mob rule lost. i've never been more pissed in my life. >> i'm really proud of my members for not buckling under those mob-like tactics. >> we want to bring in now from washington, the author of the "new york times" news letter on politics, with lisa lara, lisa is with us. good to have you on this morning, lisa. give us your reaction to the display at the white house last night and what are you hearing in terms of how people in washington are reacting to it? >> well, i think we have to break down a little bit what's happening here. what happened for weeks and weeks, republicans saw this huge enthusiasm gap in their midterm polling and you would talk to republican pollsters and they would say there's a 12-point gap in how excited democrats are to vote and how excited. republicans are to vote. that was not a good thing. they were concerned about it. the kavanaugh confirmation fight started happening and they saw that gap close up and we got to sort of an equal place between republicans and democrats. then something else happened, which is that republicans won the fight. everyone knows that losers are more energized to vote than winners. grievance out -- beats out gratitude at the polls every time. this is part of republicans trying to keep that sense of grievance, that sense of fight going, for the next 28 days. you know, they're taking a little bit of a victory lap and that's deserved. they won this huge goal of getting a conservative majority on the highest court for a generation. but the fact is that they won. so i wonder, it feels like it will be a little difficult to maintain the sense of grievance for the next 28 days. 28 days in politics is a long time. >> lisa, let me just push that a little bit because usually that works, usually that's the way sort of the aggrieved side ends up being able to raise money and develop enthusiasm, but in this case, there's a lot of grievance the way republicans feel the way kavanaugh was treated isn't this the number one thing this they are looking for is to name supreme court justices and get them through. i would think this could be a nightmare scenario for democrats? >> yes. it is the number one thing that they're looking for from the president and, of course, the president -- >> he did it. it was a big accomplishment. >> of course the president's base loves this about him, he's a fighter and sticks it to everybody all the time. don't forget that democrats also are very aggrieved about this. i was in michigan yesterday and i sort of -- one thing i wondered whether democrats could be any more energized than they are already, particularly democratic women, i was talking to activists in that state they were wondering the same thing and the fight over kavanaugh has supersonic charged their efforts. they are seeing more engagement. >> yeah. >> from women and there is this historic gender gap and independent women will matter, particularly in those suburban districts that -- house districts we were talking about. it's energizing on both sides. coming up, enthusiasm doesn't exactly feel like the word you'd associate with the bitter fight over the supreme court. but that's the marker when it comes to how brett kavanagh's confirmation might impact the midterms. we'll see which party has the edge, next on "morning joe." s t edge, next on "morning joe." - [narrator] it's a difficult conversation, but an important one. how do you plan on taking care of your final expenses? a guaranteed whole life insurance policy from united of omaha life insurance company, a mutual of omaha company, will help. - the expenses after someone dies, those that we incurred with my mother-in-law, it was expensive. - [narrator] our guaranteed whole life policies provide $2,000 to $25,000 in cash benefits. and with some 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(soft piano music) hundred roads named "park" in the u.s. it's america's most popular street name. but allstate agents know that's where the similarity stops. if you're on park street in reno, nevada, the high winds of the washoe zephyr could damage your siding. and that's very different than living on park ave in sheboygan, wisconsin, where ice dams could cause water damage. but no matter what park you live on, one of 10,000 local allstate agents knows yours. now that you know the truth, are you in good hands? and i am a certified arborist for pg&e.ughes i oversee the patrolling of trees near power lines and roots near pipes and underground infrastructure. at pg&e wherever we work, we work hard to protect the environment. getting the job done safely, so we can keep the lights on for everybody. because i live here i have a deeper connection to the community. and i want to see the community grow and thrive. every year we work with cities and schools to plant trees in our communities. so the environment is there for my kids and future generations. together, we're building a better california. what the kavanaugh experience has done is gotten republicans excited. fox news reported over the weekend that the enthusiasm gap has closed by about eight points. it's almost even now. our online fund-raising has skyrocketed. >> while the saga to confirm brett kavanagh to the supreme court they finally be over, the outrage over his appointment is beginning to catch fire over the political landscape. our next guest writes that both sides of the aisle are intent on making the kavanaugh appointment a rallying cry for their side. joining us now, "new york times" reporter jeremy peters. jeremy, what are you hearing beyond capitol hill on the reaction not just to this appointment but to the ceremony last night and moving forward politically in terms of how they plan to use this contentious nomination as a political tool? >> i think, mika, last night's remarks by trump that kavanaugh was proven innocent, as he said, just a classic example of the president trying to rewrite history on his own, more favorable terms. i think it's statements like that that have really energized the left to the point where, you know, they have linked trump to the kavanaugh confirmation battle in a way that he wasn't before. because this was a debate and gender and equality and the treatment of women and bheefing s -- believing survivors of sexual assault that was unfolding with trump kind of large lly as a side character. then he opened his mouth, he opened it twice, when he started attacking christine blasey ford, when he said yesterday that this is all a hoax and a fraud and made up language we've heard all sorts of times before about allegations leveled at trump himself, and that feeds the sense more broadly that the republican party is being dismissive and disparaging of women like those who came forward, like dr. ford. >> you know, lisa, we've seen the first sort of the first wave of political reaction that was from republicans on the defensive and then going on the offensive trying to defend brett kavanaugh and getting him over the finish line, but you've got to believe if the last year and a half is any indication of how politics in america works, there will be a counter offensive from the very groups that jeremy just brought up, the very groups, the women voters in virginia that helped elect a governor, women voters in alabama that helped elect the first democratic senator there since the early 1990s, you've got to believe that that counterattack is coming? >> right. i think that's right. that's exactly right and a really good point. what we have seen is a sustained burst of enthusiasm among the democratic party and the grassroots and democratic voters. this level of enthusiasm is something that's been going on for, well, really since the president won. i actually have a question for my colleague if i can throw it back to jeremy, a question i'm asking a lot myself, we know the president's base is solidly behind him, but is that enough to get them over the hump in these midterms? like what's your gauge of the level of enthusiasm there from all your reporting on these various races? >> right. you know, as we were talking about before, lisa, voters don't come out in midterms to say thank you. >> right. >> i think that's a real concern among republicans that the confidence and the enthusiasm that exists right now dissipate four weeks from today and that energy on the left matches and exceeds that of the energy on the right. in the piece that i wrote today, one of the things that we tried to look at very carefully, how are republicans in house races, in close competitive house races responding to this, what you find from dave brat in virginia to roskam in the suburbs of chicago and elsewhere in the -- in these suburban races, republican incumbent house members are not talking about this. who else isn't talking about this, martha mcsally, the republican nominee in arizona for senate, dean heller, the incumbent senator republican in nevada. they don't want to get near the kavanaugh confirmation because it's such a toxic issue with the types of voters they need in the these purple states. that's a sign of the difficulty here republicans have in threading the needle. do they spike the football over kavanaugh or approach it with more delicacy? coming up, it's not the type of response democrats are hoping for. >> we're with nbc news. is anybody here going to vote in the election on november 6th. anybody? anybody? nobody's going to vote. >> of course, that's just one snapshot in a larger picture. a look at what some california students think or don't think about the upcoming elections. k about the upcoming elections (vo) this is not a video game. this is not a screensaver. this is the destruction of a cancer cell by the body's own immune system, thanks to medicine that didn't exist until now. and today can save your life. ♪ ♪ somebody left a note on my door the other day. it said ted cruz, tough as texas. i mean, come on. if somebody called my wife a dog and said my daddy was in on the kennedy assassination, i wouldn't be kissing their ass. you stick a finger in their chest and give them a few choice words. or you drag their ass out by the woodshed and kick their ass, ted. come on, ted. >> oh my god. >> really i had somebody tell me earlier that wasn't that good of an ad. it's a great ad. i don't know. maybe i'm just a red neck but that's exactly what i've said off screen. if somebody insulted my family, i wouldn't be kissing their butt the way that ted cruz has for the past couple of years. that ain't texas. i don't care what anybody says. this isn't about politics, at least from the south i was born and raised in, that ain't right, the way he's been kissing up to a man who insulted his wife. that ain't right. and insulted his daddy. >> we're a long way from the republican convention in cleveland where ted cruz was up there getting booed. he's come all the way around on president trump since he became president. the ad points out how the senator has aligned himself with president trump despite trump's repeated insults aimed at cruz and his family during the campaign. the ad featured the actor sonny carl davis as the character he portrayed in "bernie." the state already has set a record with nearly 15.7 million registrations in this year's midterms. some people saying a taylor swift effect. vote.org says they were up 65,000 registrations nationwide since taylor swift said she was voting for two democrats in her home state of tennessee. registrations in tennessee were up by more than 2,000. joe, donald trump after hearing about taylor swift's endorsement said i like her music 25% less now. that was his quote. i'm not sure how much he liked it to begin with, so that could be a lot or a little, depending. >> yeah. >> i'm sure that shattered taylor. so she got a lot of people out to vote apparently from vote.org. look what you made me do. >> there you go. >> that's for my kids. it's really interesting that -- you like that? it's really interesting that i had somebody tell me last night that ted cruz ad was not that good. that was somebody -- that was a yankee from new york city. because i can guarantee you that speaks to -- i don't know if it moves a vote or not, but it certainly would speak again to the south that i knew where somebody insulting your wife or somebody insulting your father would not go over very well. i thought it was a very effective ad. tough as texas. he's not tough as texas. he snivels in donald trump's shadow. >> well, we'll see if it moves voters. he's doing okay in the polls. we're going to hop over to california. jacob soboroff is here. what did you find out? >> i think that guy in that ad could beat any candidate running in the united states of america right now. that's sort of part of the problem with what we saw in california. most people think california is uber liberal. those people have not been to orange county where there are four districts that are republican held. i think they have a lot of work on their hands. watch this, you guys. ♪ >> los angeles, downtown's union station probably isn't where you'd think to start a quest to find some of the most traditionally republican territory in america. the biggest county in america is also one of its more diverse and democratic. but if you take a short train ride south, the politics can seem a world apart. >> used to be that when you were going from l.a. to orange county, you crossed through what political pundits would call the orange curtain because you go from a democratic area into a republican area. this year back in washington, democrats are hoping that's changing. so you all live in orange county? >> yes. >> if you watch the news, all you hear about is brett kavanagh. >> that's all you hear about. it's hard to think about something else and all you hear is about kavanaugh. >> do you think that's what you're going to be thinking about when you go into the polling booth on election day? >> i hope not. >> what things would you rather be thinking about? >> traffic and pollution. >> we hopped off the train in irvine so we could carpool with the rest of our team. democratic support hinges on turning out people of color and young voters, at least in part. we headed to the university of california campus. >> in and out burger. what do people care about in irvine? >> myself and a lot of my friends are minorities. we're a lot into like minority rights and stuff. >> are there enough of you to flip the district? >> i hope so. >> there are about 26,000 kids that go to school here at uc irvine. if the democrats can get them to vote for them, then maybe republicans will be in trouble in this district, but i don't know. not to be annoying, but we're with nbc news. is anybody here going to vote in the election on november 6th? anybody? anybody? nobody's going to vote? is anybody going to vote in the congressional election in november? you are. thank you. sir. what do you care about? >> school. >> what about you? so if you were going to vote, what is the thing that's going to get your vote? >> probably school and expenses. >> you're not talking about the issues that people talk about on the news, the russia investigation. >> i don't watch news. >> you don't watch that stuff. are you registered to vote? >> not yet. >> how old are you? >> 18. >> this could be your first election. >> yeah. >> ultimately you could decide whether or not the house of representatives is in democratic or republican control. are you thinking about all that? >> not currently. maybe if i took more time to get informed about what's going on right now in politics. i assume that the people voting have at least some idea who they're voting for. >> are you going to vote? >> i should. we're like the most unreliable voter demographic. i should vote to increase those numbers. >> that's what the democrats want. but they can't count on you guys, necessarily? >> no. better vote. all the old people are telling us to vote. >> oh, am i old? >> no. >> older. sorry. >> dude. once you have a kid, you're old unfortunately. so joe, earlier i was watching you and you were saying how the democrats were failing miserably to connect with people across the country. i spoke to the secretary of state in california. we have automatic voter registration in california. the number one party people are opting into is no party preference at all. both of these parties are failing miserably to sign people up. >> you know, i had younger kids, younger people in my district. always asking why i only advertised on talk radio when i did radio, why didn't i advertise on stations that younger voters listen to. and i said you don't vote. i could do it, but i'd be wasting my money. i'm here to talk to you to try to get you to vote, but it is remarkable that these students that have crushing debt, that are going to have crushing debt when they get out of college, that have crushing debt from what the federal government's dumping on them, that are growing up in an america that could be radically different than what they expected, that they remain just as disengaged today as always. >> not only, that but these four contiguous districts in orange county are all within striking distance for the democrats. if these young voters chose to tune in, they could literally be the ones -- there's 26,000 of them at uc irvine alone -- to actually flip the district. but they're more concerned with the issues they think about when they wake up. a lot of times when you watch what's going on in washington, d.c., they feel like they don't have faith in our institutions. when they see brett kavanagh yelling or christine blasey ford and feel like her story doesn't get through, i feel like they don't feel like they have an incentive to get up and actually go to the polls. >> yeah. same as it ever was as far as young voters go. it is impossible to get young voters out at a high level. this year the big question is for democrats are they going to be able to get out hispanic voters, black voters, younger voters and other demographic groups that should be flooding out in support of them. >> yeah. that's going to be the ongoing issue over the next three weeks as early voting has started now in many states around the country. so that's a separate turnout effort from what you do on the ground election day. the other piece of that and what is so, i think, poignant and important about jacob's piece is these voters, if they had something exciting to get them to the polls, there's still no guarantee that would do it. there's just something about younger voters when it comes to the civic responsibility of voting and participation that they just don't connect to. and both parties, quite honestly, as much as democrats talk about it, the run-up to that evide effort on election day is not as effective as they'd like to brag. both parties fail miserably at it. >> nbc news poll from august, only 55% of millennials, a huge voting bloc say they intend to go out and vote in the midterm elections. >> that's surprising, because companies are falling all over themselves to get millennial employees. one of the things they care most about are social issues. i think one way to connect with them is music. i don't know the demographic of those new registrations we saw after taylor swift. but that is where a lot of these young voters connect. you go to where they are and they sign up. will they vote? that's another question. >> you can certainly understand that, though. sure, they like eddie veddar and taylor swift and like the music, but they don't like what they hear out of washington. they're not going to vote. they don't like what they hear. >> right. >> 100%. there's nothing else to say other than politicians in washington at some point have to realize that fighting with each other is turning people off all across the country. if it doesn't stop, these young people will never go out to vote, many of them. >> jacob soboroff, thank you very much. lee, thank you as well. up next, to those calling for term limits on the supreme court, our next guest says welcome aboard, because he's been making that argument for decades. e he's been making that argument for decades. ♪ my love has come along ♪ my lonely days are over at last. applebee's new neighborhood pastas. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. every road in the world is now an information superhighway. and the car has become an accessory to the smartphone. ride hailing, car sharing carpooling... mobility services are proliferating. and there's a new generation who don't seem to want to own cars in the first place. it all means massive disruption to the car industry, cities, businesses and investors. ♪ my mom was freedom, and my dad, adventure. they baptized me in mud and christened me on rock, so i got tougher. they fostered a love of learning, so i got smarter. taught me to appreciate the finer things in life, so i became more civilized and refined. thank you, freedom and adventure, for giving me this rugged, civilized, wandering soul. for giving me this rugged, civilized, [ beep ] first man is "the best we're going to the moon. neil armstrong. buzz aldrin. that is a big mother... it's gonna be a hell of a ride. 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liberty mutual doesn't hold grudges... how mature of them. for drivers with accident forgiveness liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty ♪ joining us now, former clerk to supreme court justice thorough thorou thoroughgood marshal. his new book is "invisible." the forgotten story of the black woman lawyer who took down america's most powerful mobster. stephen carter, when want to get your take on the confirmation battle we just saw with brett kavanaugh. you argue in a recent opinion piece entitled the supreme court needs term limits that more vacancies would make the confirmation process less vicious. tell us more about that. >> well, first of all, the kavanaugh process was so sad on so many levels. i don't think anybody was happy with it. one of the reasons i think we fight so hard is you look at the number of 5-4 decisions the supreme court reaches. those are going up. the more those decisions go up, the more valuable each seat is, each vacancy. vacancies don't come around very often. we fight over them because there aren't many of them. if you have more vacancies, there's less to fight over. if you lose one, there's always one the next year. moreover, you also know whoever you confirm, you're not confirming for 30 years or 40 years, you're confirming for nine years. which interestingly, is about the time that us judges served in the early years of the republic. >> and you know, stephen you're exactly right. that's why the arguments are so vicious. you always hear people saying this is for a lifetime appointment. this election could be on the court 25, 30 years. if suddenly that's nine years, you're right, that defuses the process. also, you talk about strategic retirements. i'm reminded of that moment early on in 2000 when the election returns were coming in. somebody quoted sandra day o'connor turning to her husband and sighing and say, well, i guess we'll have to stay in washington for four more years. started with a lot of how these justices think. ruth bader ginsburg is not going to retire until donald trump leaves town. >> i think unfortunately that's right. justices like the rest of us sit around and make these political qualificationings. all of us would rather live in a world in which they didn't. unfortunately, it's not the world we have. >> yes. mike barnicle. >> how would it work? rotating three justices at a time, the term limits nine years? >> my idea, the ideal, would be actually to have nine-year terms and one justice appointed every year. people say wouldn't that mean there'd be a big fight every year? i think there would be a big fight every year. what you'd have instead is people realizing it's not that important because it's only nine years and there's another one next year. >> entitled invisible, the forgotten story of the black woman lawyer who took down america's most powerful lobster. i suspect i'm not alone there. but also a deeply personal story to you. >> so unis carter, the woman the book is about, was the granddaughter of slaves and in the 1930s when no one was doing anything like this, she was an extraordinary woman. she was a prosecutor in new york. who came up with the legal story that put lucky luciano in prison. in a dition to that, she was an early feminist. in the early '30s talking about sexual harassment including the treatment of women in the workplace by their male superiors back when that wasn't even a word, when no one had even thought of those things. >> and she is also your? >> she's also my grandmother. it's a story i heard about in bits and pieces when i was growing up. but i fever really understood quite how extraordinary and rare and brave she was. you have to imagine, in the 1930s, the special prosecute effort for organized crimes, thomas dewy, later ran for president, he hired these 20 lawyers. the press called them 20 against the underworld. there's 19 white males and one black woman who was my grandmother. and then in the office, they seat her all the way down at the end of a long hallway, by herself, away from everyone else, don't give her any important work to do and she's still the one that came up with the theory that put him in jail. >> how did that happen? how did she gain the entree to be considered for a job? >> i know it's hard to think of today, black people overwhelmingly voted republican. we forget in the 1930s, 1940s, the republican party was actually the party of civil rights. >> of beabraham lincoln. >> the democratic party was the party of segregationists at the time. i know it's not that way anymore. i'm saying that's the way it was then. and so she moved in republican circles in new york. there were stories that dewy was looking for a woman to hire but no one thought he was going to hire a black one, especially one who had only been out of law school at the time i think for four years. >> mika. >> you also wrote a piece about what your grandmother would think of what was happening today pertaining to brett kavanaugh. what would she have said? >> so her response would have been complex. at first, i mentioned before, my grandmother was a big republican back in the days when black people were overwhelmingly republicans. she was a big republican. at first, she would have been in favor. but she was also as i said, she was an early feminist. she gave a speech in 137, for example, about women and the way they're mistreated in the workplace, the way men press them for sexual favors and other things. she said boiling oil is too good for those men. she campaigned constantly for the rights of women in the workplace. i think with the actual facts of what happened, she would at the very least would have demanded a much more detailed investigation than we actually got. if that investigation wasn't forthcoming, i think she probably would have broken with the party and ended up in opposition. it would not have been the first time she broke with a party on a moment of principle. >> the book is invisible, the forgotten story of the black woman lawyer who took down america's most powerful mobster. professor stephen l. carter, thank you, congratulations on the book. good to see you. >> great pleasure, thank you. >> couple minutes here for final thoughts as we head into another day here. >> another day here. a lot of people looked at what happened last night and may think that america can't go on. this is the worst breach in etiquette, in constitutional norms yet. well, america can go on. we have a way to counterbalance. it's called registering to vote and then going out and voting. right now, there is no doubt democrats need to understand, donald trump has had the best week or two of his presidency just over the past couple of weeks. right now, he's got the wind at his book for the first time i'd say in a year or so. if democrats want to challenge donald trump, they're going to have to work hard. >> well, at the beginning of this really ugly process, i just felt in my gut, i said it out loud, this is exactly what donald trump wants. and he got it. and i think the democrats handed it to him. and so did the media. and he won. >> mike barnicle. >> there's a lot going on with donald trump as we know every day, multiple times a day. the front page of "the new york times" today is about another issue. it's a front page story, seeking mercy from the u.s. at 2 years old. a story of about a 2-year-old who was in federal immigration court yesterday trying to find out if a judge will either deport her, give her a guarantee of asylum or reunite her with her parents. this is in the united states of america today, a 2-year-old. >> watching the president last night, he feels he had a victory on two fronts. on the one hand, he got his second supreme court justice in just 20 months. open the other hand, he believes what the process revealed about his opponents will help him in the midterms. >> unemployment at 3.7%. stock market as high as it's been. 8:07 p.m. all that really matters, right? >> dig deep, one more time, that's all we need. a good start from c.c. >> all right. >> whatever that means. okay. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> thanks so much, mika. good morning, everyone, i'm stephanie ruhle. starting with day one. brett kavanaugh set to hear his first argument as a supreme court justice this morning after last night's prime-time swearing in ceremony. judge kavanaugh, emotional, after being sworn in, promising to be independent and impartial, while president trump promising no such thing. instead, apologizing to his nominee o