he meets with the president on thursday. what does his uncertain future mean for the investigation? >> i think it's really important that there be a step back taken here and a review. and basically a time-out on this inquiry. >> and speaking to the world, in an hour, president trump will address the ungeneral assembly, a certificatie i asserting american sovereignty. >> translator: if the united states wishes to use force in order to sanction the petroleum industry of iran, it will certainly see the appropriate response. >> we begin today with judge brett kavanaugh, taking the extraordinary and arguably risky step of going on fox news to deny allegations of sexual misconduct. he says he will not withdraw from the supreme court nomination process. the president and majority leader mcconnell now trying to galvanize republicans behind a nominee who the polls show is increasingly unpopular. i've got a great team to help me break it all down. first, here's where things stand. judge kavanaugh's national tv interview, a first for a supreme court nominee, is part of a republican counteroffensive designed to keep sexual misconduct allegations from derailing kavanaugh's nomination. the judge says he wants, quote, a fair process, so he can publicly defend his integrity, repeating the phrase 17 times in 25 minutes. he responded to the allegations one by one. starting with dr. christine blasey ford, who says kavanaugh tried to rape her when the two were teenagers. >> i never had any sexual or physical activity with dr. ford and the truth is i've never sexually assaulted anyone. in high school or otherwise. i'm not questioning and have not questioned that perhaps dr. ford at some point in her life was sexually assaulted by someone in some place. what i know is i've never sexually assaulted anyone. >> then there is the allegation just made public over the weekend that kavanaugh exposed himself to deborah ramirez while the two were classmates at yale. >> i never did any such thing. never did any such thing. the other people alleged to be there don't recall any such thing. if such a thing had happened, it would have been the talk of campus. the women i knew in college and the men i knew in college says it's inconceivable that i could have done such a thing. >> and there are some other accusations floating around out there, alleging even more extreme forms of sexual misconduct. kavanaugh says overall they just can't possibly be true. >> i've never sexually assaulted anyone. i did not have sexual intercourse or anything close to sexual intercourse in high school or for many years thereafter. and the girls from the schools i went to and i were friends -- >> so you're saying through all these years in question you were a virgin? >> that's correct. >> never had sexual intercourse with anyone in high school? >> correct. >> and through your years in college since we're probing into your personal -- >> many years after. i'll leave it at that. >> according to the hill, the white house held a conference call monday morning with administration officials vouching for kavanaugh's character and urging surrogates to publicly defend him. the president himself called kavanaugh on monday to tell him privately that he still stood behind the nomination and publicly what you're hearing more and more over these last couple of days are republicans, including the present, blaming democrats for the allegations. >> coming out of the woodwork from 36 years ago and 30 years ago and never mentioned it. all of a sudden, it happens. in my opinion, it's totally political, it is totally political. >> a smear campaign pure and simple. aided and abetted by members of the united states senate. >> it's amazing to me these allegations come out of nowhere at the last minute. it's not untypical for our friends on the other side to pull that kind of crap. >> it does seem that the allegations represent taping point. before that, the republicans, including the president, had been careful to say kavanaugh's initial accuser dr. ford should be heard. after ramirez alleged some horrific behavior in college, the white house and the rnc began circulating e-mails, challenging her story. republicans like john cornyn and orrin hatch essentially saying they don't buy any of it. the gop leadership scorched earth approach to ramirez was in sharp contrast to judiciary chairman chuck grassley's correspondence with christine ford after ford complained about mcconnell's sharp accusatory remarks, grassley released a letter he sent to her that read, quote, i'm writing to say i'm committed to a fair and respectful treatment of you. he signed it chuck and added, p.s., i look forward to your testimony. we know that testimony is still set to take place this thursday in front of grassley's committee. but if it does happen, how much will it matter? on monday, majority leader mcconnell seemed to promise kavanaugh would get a vote no matter what. >> i want to make it perfectly clear, mr. president, judge kavanaugh will be voted on here on the senate floor up or down. on the senate floor. this fine nomination to the supreme court will get a vote in the near future. >> capitol hill, which is ground zero for political drama right now. clearly, garrett, kavanaugh supporters are nervous or they wouldn't have put him out there. how close or i guess how far is mcconnell from having the votes he needs to get kavanaugh confirmed? do we know? >> there's a two-step process. first there will be that committee vote to get kavanaugh to the floor. the committee is probably safer ground for kavanaugh at this point. we're watching mostly jeff flake who's been the one holdout on the committee who said he really needs to hear from dr. ford. he's perhaps the most shaky republican vote there. the floor is a whole other matter. what's happened over the last day or so appears to be a crystallization on the two camps on the republican side. those who believe that the allegations against judge kavanaugh are a smear campaign who feel like the second accuser, the one who came forward in the new yorker article, doesn't show a trend but really shows a democratic campaign to undermine their nominee. on the other side, those senators who had questions about the first accuser who see the second accuser as perhaps part of a troubling trend and want to see what happens thursday. i can't tell you how many senators i spoke to yesterday trying to take the pulse here and was just essentially pushed back to let's wait until thursday, let's see how this goes. the main folks on that list are the folks we talk about a lot, susan collins, lisa murkowski, would are always thought to be on the fence about this nominee. bob cork are who is retiring. i think there is a wider circle of folks who really want to see how judge kavanaugh performs in this setting. whether his denials are as credible as dr. ford's story. before they can put their stamp of approval on someone who will sit on the court for the rest of their time in the senate. right now, i think everyone is digging into those two camps and there's a lot of breath holding, if you will, for what will happen thursday and who will appear more credible. >> garrett, thank you so much. let's go to the white house now where nbc's kristen welker joins us. talk to me about this strategy. the white house strategy. the wider gop strategy. to get behind and stay behind kavanaugh. >> it's a very trumpian strategy. essentially deny, dig in, and that is what prompted that extraordinary moment that we all saw last night, judge kavanaugh appearing to defend himself and effectively say these allegations being lobbed against me just aren't true. we have really not seen this from a supreme court nominee before. and he did it in part i think to lay the groundwork ahead of thursday and to reach out to all of those viewers, voters, who were skeptical right now. look, we've also seen the white house change its rhetoric, as you pointed out, at the top, chris. i think that's been notable, not just the president, who, remember, last week, at the beginning of the week, was very much saying we want to hear from dr. ford. then by the end of the week, he was accusing her of effectively painting her as a liar. we've seen the rhetoric of his top officials shift as well. kellyanne conway, one example of that. was last week saying there's no reason to attack dr. ford. then in the wake of this second accusation by deborah ramirez, the tone changed dramatically with kellyanne conway saying look, this is starting to feel like a left wing conspiracy. huckabee sanders was on the morning airways and she was asked whether the white house would be open to hearing testimony from ramirez. >> you said everybody's voices should be heard. does the president want ms. ramirez too appear before te committee as well? >> we certainly would be open to that. that process will take place on thursday. let's also let brett kavanaugh speak and let him tell his side of the story before we allow allegations to determine his future. >> the other headline i think we saw, chris, during that interview with brett kavanaugh overnight, is he said he had spoken to the president. the president reiterated his support for him during a phone call conversation earlier this week. that is consistent with all of my reporting, which is that the president, judge kavanaugh, have no plans of withdrawing this nomination, chris. >> christine welkewelker. thank you. i want to bring in my guest. a former white house communications director with the obama administration. david jolly served as a republican congressman from florida. maya wally is senior vice president for social justice at the news school and an msnbc legal analyst. let me ask you to put on your communications hat. as a strategy what do you make of the decision to have brett kavanaugh unprecedented, go out there, make his case and if garrett's right and a lot of people agree with him that this is going to be a credibility contest between ford and kavanaugh, how'd he do? >> so with my communications, hat on, and i rarely take it off, to be honest, i expect you're goinging to run a fair process this morning. here's -- i think the white house yesterday made a fundamental political decision that they needed to get their base as excited about this as obviously women across the country are already and democrats are excited about this. so you see mcconnell taking the floor to denounce the smear campaign. you see the really unprecedented move of a supreme court nominee campaigning for the job. because that is what he is doing. he is campaigning for the job. i think that the people who are inclined to watch fox news probably feel that he is, you know, that the white house strategy publicly is working with their base. but i think that the bigger question really is the women across this country who see a political party that is fundamentally decided we're going to confirm him no matter what and we don't care. let's not forget, both of the women are on the record. these are not anonymous sources. these are not people who are hiding behind the cloak of anonymity. they're on the record. they've asked for fbi investigations. the person who doesn't want an investigation is the person who went on fox news last night to defend his integrity. so i think that thursday is going to be critical but it's critical for the republican party here because women are watching. >> yes, and maya, in his opening statement, when judge kavanaugh first went before the judiciary committee, he said the supreme court must never be used as a partisan institution. yet he goes on fox news, he asserted himself in the most public way into what has become a political war. so did he help himself at all last night? if this is a preview of what we're going to see on thursday, how do you think he did? >> first of all, i think it's absolutely clear that you only have the ability to judge credibility. whether or not he is being truthful, if you have a full fbi background check. because otherwise he just says no, i didn't -- >> he was pushed on that -- >> it's very interesting, he was pushed on that question and he kind of side-stepped. he certainly never got behind the idea of an fbi investigation. >> that's right, so he's asking for a fair process except that he is denying dr. ford a fair process and himself a fair process by simply not asking for the fbi open background check. that's all we're talking about. we have to be very careful to not continue to use the language of investigation because that suggests a criminal process. this isn't a criminal process. it's a job promotion application. and the thing that struck me the most about that interview that i would say is not credible is the fact you have a lot of information out there that suggests he was a very heavy drinker, that he was part of -- whether it's, you know, his yale secret society, whether it's the fact that his friend and another accused person, mark judge, would get blackout drunk. there's a lot of stuff swirling around him that suggests that the image he is painting of himself has some holes in it, including his own high school roommate. now, that's not to say he didn't, say, get blackout drunk and not know whether or not the incident with dr. ford happened. we don't know. right? the most important thing here would say anyone who thinks he is telling the truth was probably reassured last night. anyone who's paying attention to all the facts out there has a lot of questions about his veracity. >> they're all always are, it's been pointed out this is what the fbi does. there always are ways to get to the truth that don't just involve he said/she said. a lot of other people out there who went to high school and college with brett kavanaugh. but, david, i want to read what the "washington post" said about how the new allegations against kavanaugh have influenced this discussion. deborah ramirez's account in the new yorker was widely viewed inside the white house as flimsy and the sudden emergence of michael avenatti further galvanized the circus-like side show. i wonder what you make of this tone among republicans from a purely political perspective. they went from i think treading pretty carefully, many of them, including as kristen pointed out, kellyanne conway. she needs to have her time to make her case. and now it's so much more scorched earth. >> purely politically, it's clear the white house decided to lean in yesterday. to the earlier point, they deployed really the three main principals, donald trump who made statements backing kavanaugh. mitch mcconnell who said we're going to do this regardless of what the american people think and then kavanaugh obviously in the interview last night. what i think they are missing is the political peril they are looking at thursday. this is setting up to be one of the most disastrous political days for republicans in a generation on thursday. it's because of this, without other evidence, this will remain he said/she said. people will have to choose who they believe. i choose to believe dr. ford. most of my republican friends choose to believe kavanaugh. what i've trieded to impress upon my republican friends is you don't actually have to reach the point or the degree of deciding who to believe to realize that this process has now become tainted. kavanaugh is now so controversial that if he were to ascend to the supreme court it would bring controversy with him for decades and to the court. the right answer is to begin to talk about kavanaugh withdrawing. otherwise, to one of the earlier comments -- >> so it's better for the country, it's better for the party? >> it's better for the country first and it's also better for the party. listen, look at kavanaugh's interview last night. i think there was something -- it was subtle but it was glaring. when he suggested that because he had not engaged in sexual activity in high school, in college, that somehow that freed him of accusations of sexual assault, those are two very different things. that's very much a republican defense, to say i was a virgin, could i not have possibly sexually assaulted a woman. that is frankly a dumbing down of the republican party we will see on display i'm afraid on thursday. >> maya, an extension of that, i want to talk about the hearing. because dr. ford claims republicans have hired this sex crimes prosecutor and axios is now reporting the democrats are now consulting experts on sexual victimization, college drinking. what do you make of all this? >> i make of this in the absence of having the actual neutral nonpartisan background check that we would normally have in an ordinary process that is not as politicized as this one, that everyone has to go to these -- these kinds of very, very important, by the way, research, ideas about how this happens, who comes forward, why, when and how to approach trying to get at what may have happened here when we actually have a mechanism available to us. let me just -- i want to really reinforce this incredibly important point. we have a confirmation process in which that has been extraordinary from the beginning. this is only the latest and very explosive nature of how extraordinary it's been. for example, the fact that the democrats only have had 7% of the documents, background documents on judge kavanaugh, is not a small thing. particularly when he has had credibility issues raised even before these allegations. you know, we could talk about his role in, you know, confirmations of previous nominees when he worked for the bush white house in which he has a pattern of overstating a position that makes him look the best it can make him look and then unraveling underneath him later. so i think that's actually very relevant to this process and really goes back to the underlying point. this is about the highest court in the land. and about its credibility. one more point of history, which i think is important here, judge douglas ginsburg, ronald reagan helped push his nomination after bork was borked. he was pulled because he admitted to smoking marijuana. now fast forward to today and we have someone accused of sexual a salt and we're not pulling it. why? >> yes, where are we, anita, where are we? we can't ignore the fact we are in this me too place. we can't ignore the fact that we're now really just spitting distance from the midterm elections. there's so much going on and yet it does have these feeling, i think, of huge importance. tell me if i'm wrong about making a statement about who we are and where we are as a country and are we in a different place than we were with robert bork, in a different place than we were with clarence thomas? >> it's been less than a year since the original harvey weinstein pieces came out and we really had a moment in this country that has continued. it's continued as you see women stepping forward to run for office at every level. as you see unprecedented amounts of small donations going to those women candidates, and a house class next year, at least for the democrats, that will be the most diverse and have the most females of any class in history. so we're at a moment, we're at a moment where it seems a huge chunk of the political system has decided to ignore the lessons of the past and ignore the lessons of clarence thomas. i was a young staffer on capitol hill during the clarence thomas hearings. i worked in the senate. the feeling of watching, you know, the questions, why didn't you come forward? you're a yale lawyer. people would have believed you. we're here 27 years later and people still aren't believing the women who step forward and say why didn't you come forward earlier. and here's the -- >> a lot of people are saying that. the president of the united states. >> of course because that is his only response given his own issues. it's also an entire political party that has made a fundamental decision they don't want to know the facts, that this is, again, the politics of this, the end justifies the means, let's get this guy on the court. we'll deal with the collateral damage later. i think what david jolee said was really insightful. the long-term damage to this political party is i think going to be profound coming out of this, regardless of the outcome, because the sense that they're not listening to women and they haven't learned that when a woman speaks up, you need to listen to her and treat her with respect. so -- >> anita, you're going to stay with us. david will stay with us. maya, thank you so much. we're going to talk much more a little later on. up next, is he in or is he out? whether deputy attorney general rosenstein will still be employed by the end of the week. what will be departure mean for the mueller investigation? first, it's important to remember why rosenstein is in such hot water. >> on friday, "the new york times" alleged that last year rosenstein discussed recruiting cabinet members to invoke the 25th amendment to remove mr. trump from office for being unfit and then raised the idea of wearing a wire to secretly tape the president. smart. yes. the wire's really smart because, think about this, if trump were caught on tape saying something horrible, he could win the 2016 election. how do you win at business? stay at laquinta. where we're changing with contemporary make-overs. then, use the ultimate power handshake, the upper hander with a double palm grab. who has the upper hand now? start winning today. book now at lq.com. >> tech: don't wait for a chip like this to crack your whole windshield. with safelite's exclusive resin, you get a strong repair that you can trust. plus, with most insurance a safelite repair is no cost to you. >> customer: really?! >> singers: safelite repair, safelite replace. brushing only reaches 25% of your mouth. listerine® cleans virtually 100%. helping to prevent gum disease and bad breath. never settle for 25%. always go for 100. bring out the bold™ this morning, questions swirling about the fate of deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, the man who's overseeing the mueller investigation. for now, he still has a job, but his hold on it is tenuous at best. around this time yesterday, there was speculation he would learn his fate. be fire order resign as he met with chief of staff john kelly at the white house. but rosenstein emerged from that meeting with a public handshake and his job intact. all this uncertainty comes after a report in "the new york times" that rosenstein suggested secretly recording the president and discussed invoking the 25th amendment to remove him from office. here's the president announcing that the two will meet thursday. >> will you fire rod rosenstein? >> i'm meeting with rod rosenstein on thursday when i get back from all of these meetings. we'll be meeting at the white house. we'll be determining what's going on. we want to have transparency. we want to have openness. i look forward to meeting with rod at that time. >> here to weigh in, nbc national security only intelligence reporter ken dilanian. jennifer dasco is a law professor at american university. ken, i don't remember seeing it, certainly rare to see the chief of staff actually come out to say good-bye to somebody like that. what's going on? do we know what to expect on thursday? >> my interpretation was john kelly was trying to tamp down some of the speculation about rod rozenstein and signal that his job is safe because even the president's closest allies like sean hannity on the fox news channel have been saying please don't fire rod rosenstein before the midterms. that's been hannity and kelly know that most americans support the mueller investigation. and firing of rod rozenstein would look like an attempt to obstruct it and that's not good for donald trump. by the way, chris, while contrary to some reporting, pete williams and i were both assured by separate reliable sources yesterday that rosenstein never formally offered to resign. if he's going to be out of there, president trump will have to fire him and that may look like a cover-up, chris. >> there's the question of the other thing going on thursday which is this incredibly dramatic hearing with kavanaugh and professor ford. is this just a coincidence? is it because that's when the president gets back from the u.n. general assembly, ken, or is this another game of let's do a little distracting? >> i'm sure the white house is not terribly upset that the rosenstein soap opera is going to distract from the well-spoken professor accusing the supreme court nominee of sexual assault on live television. i think rosenstein will survive because firing him doesn't really do anything for donald trump. the mueller investigation doesn't go away. the solicitor general presumably would take over rosenstein's job of supervising that investigation. but the evidence would remain. i've said this before. trump would have to fire the entire justice department and the fbi to kill the mueller investigation. >> if he resigns or is fired, what would this mean for the special counsel's election? or investigation? >> so it depens who takes over rosenstein's position. it's critical that rosenstein is -- he's the supervisor. so there's all kinds of questions. would a new appointee potentially fire mueller? that's a possibility. even more insidious, limit funding, restrict access to witnesses. all kinds of things that whoever's in that position can do to control the mueller investigation. that's why it's so important to have somebody in there who is independented ed aand will supe continuing investigation of the trump campaign and of collusion -- potential collusion with russia. >> if he does depart, the oversight goes to a guy named noel francis crowe. before he took the job, he was a lawyer at jones day. this is the firm of course, the same law firm that represents the president, so in your mind, would that be a conflict? >> it certainly raises some serious concerns. just to be clear, it could go to the solicitor general. but the president also potentially has the authority to appoint somebody else, anybody else, who's been senate confirmed to that position. so the president could, if he so chose to do so, could select somebody who is going to be quite sympathetic to his position about the ongoing investigation. that's a risk. >> the president's lawyer, jay sekulow, talked about this. i just want to play a little clip of what he had to say. >> i think it's really important that there be a step back taken here. and a review. and i think it's a review that has to be thorough and complete. a review that has to include an investigation of what has transpired with all of these statements and all these allegations going back to this, and basically a time-out on this inquiry. >> so he says take a time-out. but we also know that top democrats have made it clear that they believe firing rosenstein would provoke a constitutional crisis. i mean, jennifer, is that where we're at potentially? >> certainly, if, in fact, rosenstein were fired and if, in fact, there were some way that the mueller investigation were limited, impeded or ended, that absolutely would be a constitutional crisis. and the parallels to watergate are just quite stunning in that situation. >> jennifer, thank you very much. appreciate that. as always. coming up, increased scrutiny of the caption in brett kavanaugh's high school yearbook and why nine members of georgetown prep football team called themselves ronata alumni. first, last week marked the one year anniversary of hurricane maria's landfall in puerto rico. since the devastation and slow recovery, there's been renewed talk of the u.s. territory becoming a state. but it's a move president trump came out against strongly and for one particular reason. >> with the mayor of san juan as bad as she is and is as incompetent as she is, puerto rico shouldn't be talking about statehood until they get people who know what they're doing. if they get good leadership, that could be something to talk about. with peel liople like that invo i would be an absolute no. it was the last uld b. song of the night. it felt like my heart was skipping beats. they said i had afib. what's afib? 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>> so our intrepid sternfellow, a reporter at the "washington post," traveled to one of the locations we were told mark judge was likely holed up, and one of those was a friend's bethany beach beach house. what he found was a man with his car stuffed to the rafters with his belongings and clothes. basically getting out of town to get away from this story. i spoke with his attorney after the interaction between our reporter and mark judge, where mork judge declined to answer any questions. all he said was how in the world did you find me. and his attorney said, look, i told him to leave town. he is under a lot of stress. this is an incredibly toxic environment. this story is trying to swallow him whole. and he doesn't recall what happened in this particular instance. he doesn't recall this incident at all. yes, he admits that he drank a lot in high school and he, in fact, as we know, he's written a book about it, but he can't help anyone reconstruct this evening that christine ford alleges was one of the most damage iing and harrowing for her. >> the yearbook is frankly filled with references to partying and drinking. there are a couple things i just want to talk about. one photo that stand s out. the caption says, there you see it, alumni, apparently a reference to the student, ronada. they say it refers to the conquest of her. does this make sense when judge kavanaugh's lawyer said he only went out with her once, they had a brief kiss and that's what this referenced, at least on his part is about. >> i wasn't at georgetown prep. i wasn't at any of the sister schools at the time. so i can't judge. but what i will say is that last night in his interview on fox news, kavanaugh repeatedly used the phrase never, especially in the context of heavy drinking. and there is -- it may suggest why it is that he has been so loathe to have independent investigators, you know, do any additional background on this case. but the reality of this is there's a yearbook here in which it is clear he and his group of friends had a certain culture that's not unusual for high school. it's not unusual for high school in 1983. it's not unusual for high school now. there's clearly a culture there he is trying to deny. i think it does raise issues about his credibility. >> congressman, ronada was one of these women who signed this letter supporting judge kavanaugh. he referenced that letter a couple times during the interview. this was before she knew about what was written about her in the yearbook. and she released a statement to "the new york times" saying in part, i can't begin to comprehend what goes through the minds of 17 year old boys who write such things but the insinuation is horrible, hurtful and simply untrue. i pray their daughters are never treated this way. does this to you go beyond boys being boys? and i'll ask you, you know, again you weren't there, i wasn't there. but does it sound credible to you that his lawyer would say, look, this is just about somebody he knew? it doesn't mean anything more than that? >> i think that's far too generous of an assessment for kavanaugh. the reality is this is not just boys being boys. these are allegations of a crime. i think the fear among be republicans going into thursday is all of this begins to unravel. what i mean by that is even if we begin to discuss kavanaugh's sexual proclivity and whether or not a crime occurred, democrats are also going to have the opportunity to revisit this entire culture through which kavanaugh emerged. in particular, drinking, heavily drinking and gambling. so grassley's going to have to make a decision. does he cut off that type of question? does he limit questioning just to the matters of dr. ford? or are democrats allowed to bring in this longer story of mark judge and kavanaugh and this culture? it's why when we talked about in the last segment republicans pushing this very quickly, i think it's less resolve that we're seeing from republicans and more panic. because they know this can get out of control very quickly if you're a republican. >> what's your expectation, david? what do you think is going to happen on thursday? when you raise these questions, you know the kind of pressure that chuck grassley is under. what do you see happening? you know some of the players. >> i think the fix is in. i mean, i think mitch mcconnell knows just as he orchestrated the merrick garland holdout, he is going to make sure kavanaugh gets pushed through. the only thing that stopped this is not who members of the committee choose to believe, it's if it becomes so politically untenable. the person i want to watch is jeff flake. we always talk about collins and murkowski. frankly, republicans should be ashamed if we only look to female republicans to stand up in moments like this. jeff flake has an opportunity to have his mccain moment. his defining legacy moment. and honestly people are talking about whether or not jeff flake might run for president or run as an independent. if he is considering that, he has to vote no on kavanaugh. he cannot support kavanaugh. i think he could be the first domino that gives permission to other republicans. without jeff flake i think the fix is in. this vote goes through. >> thanks to you and to the tenacious work of the reporters at the "washington post," david, anita, thanks. coming up, any minute now, president trump is going to depart trump tower on his way to address the u.n. general assembly. what we expect him to say and how the world might react next. how can we say when you book direct at choicehotels.com you always get the lowest price on our rooms, guaranteed? 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(giggles) get symbicort free at saveonsymbicort.com. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. as if there wasn't enough going on in washington, all eyes in the next hour turn to new york, where president trump will speak before the united nations general assembly. we're about 30 minutes away from that. he is expected to call for other nations to exert their sovereignty to solve challenges. a situation sure to be front and center today is iran. president trump tweeting this morn, despite requests, i have no plans to meet with iranian president rouhani. i'm sure he's a lovely man. different from what we heard from president rouhani who spoke with nbc's lester holt in an exclusive interview. >> translator: there is no such program for a meeting. mr. trump did not create conditions necessary to bring about the atmosphere conducive to a meeting. >> our guest is a bloomberg opinion columnist and editor as well. nbc's andrea mitchell, our chief foreign affairs correspondent. we talked in the break, andrea, can't remember u.n. general assembly's you've been to and there's always some hot spots around the world. can you remember a time when there was so much roiling abroad with so many crises here at home and the president going to speak? >> not anything like this because this president has chosen really to blow up the world order that we've known since world war ii to withdraw from international multilateral organizations and to do it with zeal. and to enjoy this. what they call, you know, putting american sovereignty first. putting america first in a way that is really deeply offensive to europe, to a lot of other countries, to canada. he's not meeting with justin trudeau, our longest ally to the north, our unguarded border. not meeting with justin trudeau over disputes with tariffs and nafta, having accused them of violating our national security with their trade policies, which is deeply offensive to our canadian allies with troops in afghanistan and elsewhere around the world. and then of course going after iran today. withdrawing from the iran deal, which was a u.n.-mandated agreement. >> and then you have this great interview that lester holt sat down with theñiçób >> the united states is not capable ofñi bringing the oil exports tofá zero. this is anñi empty promise. it's thrpe that isi] empty of credibility. >>w3 you have the u.s. reintroducing the oil and gas industry on november 4th. how do you see thiss7çó relatiop playing out? by the way, i'm sure he is an absolutely lovely man. >> i think the rhetoric on both sides. the united states does not have to reduce iran's exports to zero for it to really hurt. iran's current level of exports is not enough to sustain an economy for migration. iran has been under it for a long time. a lot is based on technology an( infrastructure that is 25-30 years old. he needs to export more to build on that. even if the u.s.q reduces expors by 25%, 30, 40, anything hurtse iran. given the sense ofxd what's -- thee1 relationship that he need with southlp korea. y north korea is his new best he's talking a terrificxd guy. rocketman who was threatening, they were threatening each other with nuclear threats and now they are going to have another summit, he says. that's what he said yesterday. the unpredictability of donald trump is actually working for him in some ways, but what is so disconcerning to the allies, europeans in particular, but cancelling refugee aid. isolating them, siding with israel. they are america's democratic çó ally, but oli democratic and republican presidents tried to call for a two-state solution and give the palestinians some hope of agreement. there's no preface on that. the longñr awaited peace deal fm thefá proposals from jared kushner, hisñit( son-in-law, th have note1 realized to do it no. it will just die.w3 it is filtering down. >> it's how he has responded from the u.n. agenciesñi that makes america stande1 alone. politically, they think this is a great way to reclaim the conservative base because he's starting up against the world. >> we have 30 seconds left. the president has not left, yet. thefá pool ))ñ$olding at trump tower, running a bit behind. what does your gut tell you? ti to script something that will cause 'p+e sleepless nights?bu >> he's going to cause conniptions. thexd united nations and appeal to national sovereignty rather than a group effort, that's going to an aa meeting, causing people to have a drink. it'sfá completely contrary to t united nations. we are all in this together. we work together to solve problems, not look out for your own interest and we'll look out for ours. >> what a great analogy. áqq andrea mitchell, so nice to sit on the set with you. trump administration going out to get brett kavanaughñr confirmed. raj shah will be here. ah will b. don't forget that the past can speak to the future. ♪ ♪ i'm going to be your substitute teacher. don't assume the substitute teacher has nothing to offer... same goes for a neighborhood. don't forget that friendships last longer than any broadway run. mr. president. (laughing) don't settle for your first draft. or your 10th draft. ♪ ♪ you get to create the room where it happens. ♪ ♪ just don't think you have to do it alone. ♪ ♪ the powerful backing of american express. don't live life without it. in the movies, a lot of times, i tend to play the tough guy. but i wasn't tough enough to quit on my own. not until i tried chantix. chantix, along with support, helps you quit smoking. it reduced my urge to smoke to the point that i could stop. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. some people had changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, or suicidal thoughts or actions with chantix. serious side effects may include seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking or allergic and skin reactions which can be life-threatening. stop chantix and get help right away if you have any of these. tell your healthcare provider if you've had depression or other mental health problems. decrease alcohol use while taking chantix. use caution when driving or operating machinery. the most common side effect is nausea. my favorite role so far? being a non-smoker. no question about it. talk to your doctor about chantix. a hotel can make or break a trip. and at expedia, we don't think you should be rushed into booking one. that's why we created expedia's add-on advantage. now after booking your flight, you unlock discounts on select hotels right until the day you leave. ♪ add-on advantage. discounted hotel rates when you add on to your trip. only when you book with expedia. you knowfá how we like to e the xdshow, no matter what, the is good news somewhere. galaxy soccer match. rockets red glare ♪ thei ♪ in air >> wow, that 7-year-old winner of the national anthem contest, tiny but mighty singer went viral when she belted out the star stangled banner. she might have a future. that wraps up this hour. coming up now, here in studio, in new york,fá stephanie ruhle.( >> listen, you have a voy9ñ >> i can attest toñi that. >> love you. >> see you in akoq bit. i am hallie jackson in new york. we will see president trump asking the united nations there showing up with the first lady, a policy speech and sticking points. we will explainó[ cthose,çó eve two showdowns shadow them. now brettçó kavanaugh taking a page from the donald trump