Breitbart tv network . I have to do my own gig for a couple of years . Random stuff from the president last night. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to morning joe on this friday, september 21st. He cries himself to sleeve every night. With my wubbie. Along with susan delpercio, jeremy, rick tyler, and Pulitzer Prize winning columnist, msnbc Political ColumnistEugene Robinson is with us, as well. First of all, as a republican communication guru, how are the republicans doing right now in this kavanaugh fight . Not particularly well, joe. But i think the tide is well, look, here is the problem. This whole process is not designed to get at the truth and now you have this lawyer, katz, who is representing blasey. And theyre putting all these conditions on a hearing. And i think this is maybe backfiring on the republicans not the republicans a little bit, but on the democrats a little bit. But on the democrats and, donnie, youre a pr guy. If youre running pr for the republicans, the last thing that you want is to have dr. Ford testifying on the committee. So is it more preconditions they set down, the more youre going, thank you, thank you, now if you can make it on a rocket ship to mars, thank you. Make this as impossible as you can for us. It seems to me that at some point the democrats are going to have to step in and say, listen, we need your client up there. Yeah. What the republicans dont understand and she will get up there. But i dont know if any of these republicans have any wives or daughters or sisters or in friends that in any way have gone through an assault, but when you listen to a woman talk about how shes gone through and they believe what the breath smells like and everything about it and their eyes well up in tears, do they not understand whats going to happen when this woman gets up there . If they in any way, shape of course they do. This is why they dont want her to get up there. But she will get up there. But they dont want her to get up there. So maybe theyre trying to get a Legal Counsel to ask questions. But now ford is saying theyre not going to do that. Every day this the goes on and another condition is brought up is another horrible day for the republicans. And we saw a lot of frustration. I thought it was particularly interesting when Susan Collins spoke up and said youre moving the goal post on us a little bit and pushing and saying, we cant keep jumping through hoops for you you. But it is horrible for republicans. The fact that they have to go to an outside counsel because they need to have a woman they dont need outside counsel. They need a woman to ask her questions. This is going to be disaster for the republicans and, yet, they still probably need to try and force this through. If they dont get this done by next thursday, its off the table. I think if they find a woman litigator to crossexamination here, thats preferable to having or yib hatch goirin hatc lady, i think youre a little mixed up in your head. But they dont keep their mouths shut. They dont know how to handle themselves. Why dont we talk about that in the news . New polling is showing support for Brett KavanaughsSupreme Court nomination has fallen since hes been accused of committing a Sexual Assault or an attempted Sexual Assault while in high school. According to a new nbc news wall street journal poll, 38 of voters now say they oppose his confirmation. That is up nine points since last month when 29 were opposed. This is the first time in the poll that a Supreme Court nominee has been under water on this the confirmation question. Increased opposition to kavanaugh has come in particular from women over plus 50 who were plus tree in august and minus seven now. Suburban women whose support wentz down five times last month, independents who are plus 15 this month are negative 16 now, a 31point drop. And seniors were plus nine in august and are negative ten now. So gene robinson, that poll and a quarter wont even buy you a cup of coffee at a starbucks on capitol hill. But it does point to the bigger i mean, as far as the outcome of kavanaugh, none of the senators will be looking at those poll numbers. But people who are running in the suburban districts of Hillary Clinton won and that republicans hold are looking at those numbers because, man, that is just one more nail in their political coffin. The very groups that they are already losing, theyre bleeding even more support from. Yeah, they are. And, you know, those numbers, 3834, that means there are a lot of undecided out there. There are a lot of people who arent paying as close attention as we are. When this hearing happens, and i think it will happen, it will those numbers will go up. More people will have an opinion on kavanaugh and i see the opposed number having a much better chance of rising farther and faster than the support number because of what donnie said, because of what the spectacle is almost sure to be like. And so then i think youll see more republicans paying attention to those numbers and they will be quite worrisome. They feel at this point that they have to move ahead, that theyll be worse off if they fail to get kavanaugh through, but that equation could change after the hearing. Jeremy peters, youre looking at how the evangelical Community Leaders in particular are looking at the kavanaugh confirmation. Theyre frustrated. Tell us why. Because they see a chance to cement a conservative on the Supreme Court for a generation. What do they think is not being done . Thats a good question because its hard to argue that the republicans arent doing everything they can to try and speed this along. Theyre in a difficult position. If youre chuck grassley, do you move the hearing a few days forward . That doesnt seem like an unreasonable ask, republican. And republicans have been having two conversations, one, publicly trying to. As reasonable and differential in public saying, yes, we will accommodate you. We will come to you. We will send investigators. We will we wont put you in front of a Public Commission and make you do this on television. On the other hand, because republicans are under so much pressure from their base to get this done, from especially evangelical Christian Catholic leaders, a lot of whom were involved in the Selection Process of kavanaugh in the first place, they realize they if they do not get this done, if kavanaughs nomination falls apart, that very well could be the end of the republican control of the senate because the voters would just be so angry, so depressed, so deflated. At last nights rally in las vegas, President Trump said that Brett Kavanaugh has tremendous support and called the judge a great gentleman. And in a prevalley interview with fox news, the president questioned why the accuser waited. Frankly, you see whats going on and its very, very sad. You say why didnt somebody call the fbi 36 years ago . You can also say when did this all happen . Whats going on . To take a man like this and with that being said, let her have her say and lets see how it all works out, but i dont think uk delay it any longer. Theyve delayed it a week already. And oouyouve been very accommodating. I have been very accommodating. Let her say what she has to say and lets see how it all comes out. But theyve delayed it a week and they have to get on with it. Judges, oh, look at our judges. Oh, whats going on . Brett kavanaugh and im not saying anything about anybody else, but let me tell you that Brett Kavanaugh is one of the finest human beings you will ever have the privilege of knowing or meeting. A great intellect. A great gentleman. An impeccable reputation. So well let it play out. And i think everything is going to be just fine. And were going to get we just got kneel goneil gorsuch. Were going to get brett. Weve got great people. You know the compliments that hes showering Brett Kavanaugh with are the same ones that we heard him talking about mike flynn, Jeff Sessions no, im serious. Rob portman, wonderful guy. Roy moore. The candidate whose baby wore the make America Great again. Ron desantis. He doesnt like ron desantis any more. Oh, not any more . Okay. But its interesting, hes talking about what a great guy kavanaugh is. Kavanaugh was over at the white house for hours a couple of days ago and trump wouldnt even see it because right now he thinks hes toxic. Well, it is a difficult conversation. I think for democrats and republicans, theres not a lot of wiggle room for the very thing that he said about why didnt she come forward . Thats the insane, ignorant male booby trap that any of these idioter and her answer would be because i was terrified or i was ashamed. So suggest that asks the ignorance we dont ask that question of chen or young adults that come forward against the Catholic Church. Nobody is asking why children are, you know, young boys or young teenagers didnt come forward. Its a question of young men. So why are they asking that question of a young woman . This is exactly what the problem is with this nomination where it stands now. Is there was an allegation made. There are some real legitimate questions to be asked. But at the same time, we have President Donald Trump is doing what he did last night was basically almost the kiss of death. This is not the person you want your endorsement from right now. We see a rolling effect of frankly senators, male senators who say really silly ridiculous things and its hurting kavanaugh more and more and were moving further and further away from actually the issue at hand. And the allegation that something happened 36 years ago that we dont know the place or the time, that would make it very hard to get details from and now its just explode intoog a whole nother conversation and thats really going to i think thats going to end the nomination for judge kavanaugh. I mentioned the room for error here. A pair of republican lawmakers are facing backlash over their comments amid the assault allegation against judge kavanaugh. In a Conference Call with nevada republicans on wednesday, senator dean heller reportedly predicted kavanaugh would be. Confirmed despite the allegations saying weve got a hiccup here with the kavanaugh nomination. Well get through this and well get aif to the races. In a followup statement, heller said, no, i dont believe Sexual Assault allegations of any kind are a hiccup. I was referring to how poorly the democrats have handled this process and the fact that the democrats have not worked with the Judiciary Committee chairman in good faith. Meanwhile, in South Carolina, republican congressman ralph norman opened a debate with a joke about the kavanaugh controversy. I thought i was going to be late. Did yall hear the latest latebreaking news from the kavanaugh hearings . Ruth Bader Ginsburg came out that it was groped by abraham lincoln. I thought i was going to have to get back there, but we dont. Here is what orrin hatch said earlier in the week. Do you think that any of these claims are legitimate . No, i dont. I think this woman, whoever she is, is mixed up. Rick tyler. Did you ever do any communication work for either of those three republicans . The if so, just leave. Turn off the lights. Exactly. One of the things we should have learned from the anita hill hearing is not to preserve those optics. And that is exactly what theyre doing. Now, the republicans are aware of this, which is why they want to hire a female outside counsel. But i think what theyre saying, what blasey fords lawyer is saying is they dont want to put her in the position of being crossexamined. Youre stuck between her being crossexamined by a female attorney or preserving the optics of the anita hill hearing which is you have all these white men crossexamining her. Thats what they want to avoid. His polling numbers are under water, but thats been a reflection of the president. Most Supreme Court nominees, nobody hears it when theyre nominated so their polling reflects that of the United States. So its gotten worse and worse. Here is what we dont see in the polling or we didnt talk about it already today. The democrats have solidified, in other words, more of them now think that her claim is serious and true. And more democrats republicanes dont. So this is hyper partisan suspicion on both sides. So the republicans are dammed if they do and damned if they dont. If they dont look like theyre doing everything to put kavanaugh through, theyll dispirit their base and that will be a big problem. But on the other hand, if they on the other hand, if they risk losing independent and particularly women in the upcoming election the. When you look at the poll and, again, it if youre a republican strategist trying to figure out how in the world you stop a blue wave from sweeping over the house and the senate, youre looking at independent numbers that are collapsing for the president , theyre collapsing for kavanaugh. You look at women suburban women collapsing for trump, collapsing for kavanaugh. All the categories are that dropping like a rock for republicans, dropping also for kavanaugh. Man, that is a real problem in an off year election. Gene, am i crazy . Not that its going to happen, but the only move to the republicans at this point is because basically youre seeing on display a metaphor for what this party is which is basically ignorant white men. What would they seem like if all of a sudden they stepped forward and said this is, at the very least, a stain we cant deal with and just say this is not the right thing and we need to move on. Wouldnt that send a signal to women . I know im living in dreamland, but i dont know what the other play is for them. The other play is to just try to blow it through and kind of hope for the best. But they are in a in a lose on the one hand, lose big on the other hand kind of situation. I do think that if they withdraw the nomination, they probably will be punished by their base. And if they push this through without giving what even a you know, a fair and honest hearing to dr. Fords charges, those numbers for independents, those should be just horrifying. And for republicans across the country. They really should be. I mean, thats the number im looking at. If independents defect in those kinds of numbers, its a total disaster. So how do you, you know they dont have a very good play. I tend to agree with you that maybe the better play is to fold on this one, but i dont think theyre going to do it. The only problem with folding on this, and jeremy pointed this out, mika, is you will be going into the election, going back to your base. And your base will be saying, wait a second, youve been telling us for eight years you were going to repeal obamacare. You have the house, the senate, the presidency, and you couldnt repeal obamacare. And youve been telling us for 40 years that you were going to reverse roe v. Wade. The house and the senate and the presidency and you couldnt reverse roe v. Wade. You couldnt get this guy on the court that was the fifth vote for roe v. Wade. So i think jeremy is reporting spot on in that they cant politically, theyre thinking we cant fail on this the because then we go back to our base and they decide not to go out because theyre going to be so dispirited. If kavanaugh passes, then you energize the other side to such a degree, i think you have people standing in line for hours just to vote against this president. Would there be any up side to the republicans saying, you know what . Lets have another investigation, another review, an fbi investigation into this to see i mean, obviously, if this woman is coming forward with such serious allegations, what she would be doing this for, one would assume, is that shes concerned that hes a predator. And so if a person is a predator, there is obviously usually especially with a long lifetime after the alleged incident, there would be a pattern. There would be other women been and an fbi investigation would certainly be able to baear thab that out. If everybody was confident and it would turn out well, i would say, sure, get an fbi investigation because then you can hold up the paper. We had six fbi investigations. Who asked for seven . We have a seventh fbi investigation. These claims are unsubstantiated by everybody but dr. Ford. I mean, thats jeremy, makes a little too much sense to me. But republicans act like youre demanding root canals from everybody on the committee. Because they see this slipping away. They realize how jeopardized this nomination is. Of all the many reasons donald trump won those 77,000 votes in those three states that put them over the top in the Electoral College, i think the largest factor there was energizing religious conservatives and people who voted on the court. Right. So this is why hes president. They have to deliver on this. And trump understands that more than anything else. He knows those are his people, as he likes to say. And we saw, mika, in that semi focus group in oxford, mississippi, issues, taxes, important, not important, she went through it. And then she said the Supreme Court. And two or three of the four trump supporters, without any prompting, didnt say important. They said very important. This is the top issue, the crown jewel. Still ahead on morning joe, manafort, flynn, cohen, gates, who hasnt bob mueller flipped . Well have the latest reporting on Michael Cohens special counsel and what it means for the investigation. But first, lets go the bill carin wes karins with a check on the forecast. The northern half of the country, this will be a gorgeous half of the weekend, but we have to get there. First we have to deal with a Severe Weather threat today. 18 Million People at risk from cleveland, to syracuse and rochester, much of the state of ohio, we could the chance for an isolated tornado. North texas, oklahoma, little r