Process to take a skas so to speak scalp so to speak. She is qualified and has risen up the ranks. I was out at the c. I. A. They are excited to have her. Dana Catherine Herridge joins us live. This is a pretty big deal on capitol hill. It is. The first woman nominated to be c. I. A. Director has arrived on capitol hill a short time ago to try to win over those who are the holdouts in the senate and meet with the democrats including dianne feinstein, senators heinrich and joe manchin. Senator feinstein is important because she led an investigation into the c. I. A. Program in 2014. It became so acrimonious that they started to accuse them of spying on the investigators. They told fox at the end of last week that even minimal support role in the Controversial Program of the waterboarding that included the architect of 9 11 Khalid Sheikh mohammed would disqualify her. As far as we know the senate never confirmed somebody with operational role in the use of torture. That would be a first and it is a new low for the country if its confirmed. It is important to give folks at home context. The former c. I. A. Director john brennan was a top decisionmaker for this controversial Interrogation Program. He was confirmed by the senate as the c. I. A. Director under president obama. Gina haspel at that time was a midlevel manager at the c. I. A. And had no say on policy. I think gina haspel should be given the same shake that john brennan was given. That is, it is fair for the committee to look into the records and fair for them to ask the tough questions. Ultimately, they have to let the facts guide their decisionmaking. And the decisionmaking is about whether this individual is qualified to lead that agency. The way the vote is stacking up at this point it will come down to a handful of senators. Rand paul, i told this at the end of last week, he did not have a meeting set to meet with haspel before wednesdays confirmation hearing. But he was still open to that meeting if it is able to happen. Dana . Dana all right, thank you. Youre welcome. Dana for more im joined by john yoo, former Deputy Attorney general in the burned. Im glad you are here. Like a bad penny this issue of the legal underpinnings of the enhanced Interrogation Program comes up over and over again, especially when people want to make political points. Bear with us and explain with us again the legal underpinnings and how the Justice Department came to that decision. First, i want to make clear, gina haspel is not a lawyer. Its not here job to come to legal conclusions about the meaning of the antitorture statute of the president s powers under the constitution. She is one of the men and women out in the field who protect this country right after we were knocked down on to the mat after 9 11. She did carry out a very difficult job. At the Justice Department we were the ones who have the job to figure out what did the laws require. The way we thought about it, congress had written an ambiguous statute saying dont torture. We undertook weeks of Legal Research and writing opinions to define the lines where we said you cant go beyond these lines. You can interrogation short of those lines but dont go beyond them. We were trying to make sure that gina and people like that did not cross the line to torture. I think we did that successfully. Now i think she is being punished by armchair quarterbacks, democrats in the senate or the rand paul, republican in the senate. I couldnt think of a better way to get us back to the pre9 11 mindset than to say we will prosecute or punish you for carrying out your orders when we were asking you to be on the edge, on the envelope to stop another 9 11. Dana john, isnt it true that there have been bipartisan and independent investigations in to this . And there has been no decision to prosecute anyone . John put aside what Catherine Herridge said about people being confirm who had were involved in the same program. Attorney general holder appointed an independent counsel, much like bob mueller to investigate all of this. There were no charges brought against anybody because i think they saw that in the end, the statute that Congress Passed that existed at the time of 9 11 was vague and that we were trying to make sure we didnt violate the law. Dana look at what President Trump said today on twitter. He said, my highly respected nominee for c. I. A. Director gina haspel has come under fire because she was too touch on terrorists. Think of that. In these very dangerous times, we have the most qualified person, a woman who democrats want out because she is too tough on terror. I want to ask the reason that they would come to the Justice Department for an opinion to be sure they are doing the right thing. We ask them to do very tough things. What happens if they have the legal approval and then they carryout the orders and years later, decades later, they are prosecuted for same work. I think it would be devastating for the intelligence community. John im sure the aclu and rand paul would like every c. I. A. Agent in field to be a lawyer. I cant think of a better way to lose the war against terrorism. But the main point is we should encourage the c. I. A. When they have a hard question to go to justice. They followed all the rules. Gina haspel and her colleagues followed the rules. They came to us. They didnt go off on their own off the reservation. The statute says you cant inflict severe pain and suffering and we tried to figure out what that was so the c. I. A. Would not violate that law. Dana you stand by that original piece. Obama administration changed things. I think even under president bush. The standard was changed or whatever. So its not like gina haspel would be overseeing a department that is going to reach back into a previous tool box if things have already changed. That would be irresponsible. We shouldnt forget that we only use these on three people. Dana right. Terrorists. John Khalid Sheikh mohammed, the master mind of the 9 11 attacks. Only three people and we stopped. Congress passed a new law in 2008 to clarify what it meant. The legal regime is different now. Gina haspel is coming in as the c. I. A. Director, i hope, with a different set of laws and rules. We arent going to struggle like she and i and others did after the 9 11 attacks to figure out what to do. Dana let me switch gears. Rudy giuliani made news over the weekend. He likes to be out there and be on the offense. I have a specific question for you. I know your expertise is about the government and the way it is set up and the executive branch and relations to others. What do you think the ruling would be from the Supreme Court about a president having to obey a subpoena from an independent counsel . John you are proving that you seem to have gone to law school already. That is a great question of the separation of powers. In the watergate tapes case the Supreme Court told president nixon you have to show up and obey a subpoena if its issued by a criminal prosecutor. Nixon voluntarily gave in at that point. I think for the good of the country he didnt say forget it, i dont have to obey a subpoena. Its still unresolved under constitutional law. Could a president say another branch cant compel me to appear before it . Just like president s never testified before congress. A president never appeared as a compelled witness in a criminal trial. President trump couldnt say hey, chief Justice Roberts i want you in the oval office to explain to me the crazy obamacare opinion you issued. They are separate and should respect each other. We dont know what would happen if the president did not obey a subpoena. Dana that is kind of fun. We dont know the answer to that basic question. Im going to put it on my next exam. Dana all the students you have, you have a clue. John yoo, thank you. John thank you, dana. Dana a big primary day for the g. O. P. Tomorrow as the voters in four key battleground states head to the polls including West Virginia. Three republicans vying for the chance to flip senator joe manchins seat. Now President Trump is weighing in, trying to take down one candidate and peter doocy is live with that. This race is pretty interesting. President trump did not endorse one candidate. He actually endorsed two people. He wrote this on twitter, to the great people of West Virginia we have together a really great chance to keep making a big difference. The problem is, Don Blankenship currently running for senate, cant win the general election in your state. No way. Remember alabama. Vote jenkins or a. G. Morrisey. Congressman Patty Jenkins who got half of the congressman evan jenkins got half the shout out is grateful for what he calls a shoutout. We are excited about the momentum and we are excited that President Trump gave us a shoutout this morning. We feel really good. We had actually today a whole group of the Trump Delegates to the National Convention announce their support for my candidacy. We are on the move, we are on the home stretch. We will win tomorrow. But blankenship tells us that he rejects the president s comparison there to alabamas failed Senate Candidate judge roy moore. He is getting bad information. My accusers is hillary clinton, and barack obama. Not young women. I think he is getting the wrong story. Mitch mcconnell doesnt want me to be in the senate because he knows i believe we need new leadership there to drain the swamp. Blankenship did go to jail for a year on a conviction for conspiring to violate mine safety laws. Because he is still on probation, a third candidate, the attorney general Patrick Morrisey is pointing out that blankenship filed a Financial Disclosure and to see what that might mean, he called blankenships probation officer. My campaign will be informing his probation officer in nevada about this issue right away to determine if this refusal to comply with the federal law violates the terms of the supervised release. The probation officer apparently got notified today. But blankenship tells me that he already gave the p. O. A heads up and he laughed at the charge that a Financial Disclosure not yet filed could possibly disqualify him or get him arrested. He says the p. O. Compared it to a late credit card payment. Dana . Dana you get all the best assignments. Thank you for bringing us that report. We appreciate it. We have much more on all the big primary contests tomorrow. Watch this. I believe at the end of this day, nancy pelosi will not be speaker. Republicans will keep the majority. Not because we want it to happen, because what we have achieved. Dana so how are the races in the four key states shaping up . Chris stirewalt is on deck. New tough talk from north korea. What the regime is saying and how it could impact an upcoming summit between the president and kim jong un. Plus, we are waiting the White House Briefing. We will bring it to you live as soon as Sarah Sanders steps to the podium. Hey shrimp fans this ones for you. Its red lobsters create your own shrimp trios. Pick 3 of 9 new and classic creations for just 15. 99. With new creations like savory crabtopped shrimp, and parmesan truffle shrimp scampi you better hurry in before shrimp trios is gone. We believe nutrition is full of possibilities to improve and parmesan truffle shrimp scampi your pets life. We are redefining what nutrition can do. Because the possibility of a longer life and a better life is the greatest possibility of all. Purina pro plan. Nutrition that performs. On a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. Your Insurance Company raises your rates. Maybe you shouldve done more research on them. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. Dana its midterm monday. G. O. P. Voters in four key states indiana, West Virginia, North Carolina, ohio are heading to the polls tomorrow for primaries. As the republicans try to hold on to the majorities in congress. Joining me now, chris stirewalt, editor of halftime report. Six days ago fox news hosted a debate in West Virginia for the republicans two are vying to take on joe manchin, the democratic incumbent senator. And tell me about what has happened since then. All of a sudden this morning we get a tweet from President Trump that says to the great people of West Virginia, we have together a really great chance to keep making a big difference. The problem is Don Blankenship currently running for senate cant win the general election in your state. No way. Remember alabama. Vote representative jenkins or attorney general morrisey he weighed in. He halfway did. I was caused to think about what people like romney and so many others did with trump in 2016 when they said whatever you do, dont vote for this guy. For whom should we vote . I dont care. Just not him. You know how that worked out. Dana mmhmm. If the president was serious about wanting to stop blankenship he probably should have picked, right . He probably should have said. He knew he didnt want to pick because they are both flawed in their own ways. Jenkins is probably a better general election candidate that morrisey but he is more establishmentarian figure which would upset folks. Morrisey looking like he has a tougher poll against jenkins against manchin. Difficult choice so he is chose not to choose. As a consequence blankenship is probably helped in that if the support drives off in both directions and blankenship can keep his solid core, maybe he can pull it off. Dana then what, you know, the president says, remember alabama. Certainly, blankenship might remember alabama. And that roy moore was expected not to be able to win that primary. Or the president said that he wanted him not to, but he did anyway. President in a controversial move we have all talked about for a long time endorses roy moore. And roy moore ends up losing. So the president could change his mind and perhaps people that support blankenship who want Something Different to go in there and fire up washington. May realize the president will come around if he has to. Im sure he would. Im sure if they nominated blankenship that the republicans look, if the republicans could get behind somebody who was credibly accused on multiple occasions of Sexual Misconduct toward teenager girls i assume they could find it within themselves to come around for a fellow who was convicted of white collar crimes. Though they were connected ultimately to very tragic incident. I suppose if they come around for roy moore they could come around for blankenship. The other thing here, this is unfair comparison. Blankenship is not roy moore. Dana right. Roy moore couldnt win as it turns out the alabama general election. There is no reason to think Don Blankenship would do substantially worse than either of the other two. I dont think either of the other two made a conclusive case they are the best nominee for the general election. I think the white house here is overcooking the broth a little bit. Might have been better off to let it play out on its own. Dana take us to North Carolina. I want to read you a quote from steve bannon. He is saying about the Midterm Elections you have to make it up or down vote november 6. You want trump on the ticket in every district. You have to put trump on the ticket. You are not voting for congress. You are voting for donald trump. This is something that president s in first midterm try to distance themselves to say this is not a referendum on the president. This is a referendum on congress. But bannon is suggesting the exact opposite. Good strategy or no . I assume comments like that is why steve bannon is making the phone call from an indies closed location undisclosed location deep in the political wilderness. You cant trump the deciding issue in every race. Some districts the republicans do want to make it about trump. If you are in West Virginia where the president probably has 70 job Approval Rating you want a referendum on trump. But a lot of the districts, particularlies the dozens of districts where the president is not particularly popular and the republicans are fighting control of the house, they want to talk about tax cuts. They want to talk about issues. They want to talk about those things. They dont want it to be a referendum on trump. If its a referendum on trump, what the democrats are immediately able to say is send me to washington so that i can put a check on this runaway presidency. It has worked in many cycles in the past. I would work again for them this time. They have to pick and choose where you use the president and where you keep him at a distance. Dana so we have talked about West Virginia, indiana and ohio the past couple of weeks. We havent talked about North Carolina and the ninth congressional district. What is happening there . Are the republicans in danger of possibly having another conor lamb moment there . It is possible. What is remarkable about the primary you have an incumbent republican u. S. Member of