Chiang rai, thailand. How soon will we see the second phase of the rescue begin . Reporter yeah, good afternoon, yasmin. And thats a question, unfortunately, i cant answer. The divers are sleeping at the moment. They will regroup in about five hours time. But it could be anything from 10 to 20 hours after that before we see any more of the boys or their coach coming out. But as you say, a really fast and successful start to this operation. Much more successful, said the commander, than they had been expecting. In fact, he called it a masterpiece. Its a rescue the whole world is watching, and it really has been extraordinary. So a team of 18 divers, thats 13 International Experts and 5 expert thai navy s. E. A. L. S, were involved. And ten were at the very apex of the operation, approaching the boys cave sometime today and taking first two boys out. Each boy had one diver behind, one diver ahead. They were virtually underneath the lead diver. And, of course, at one point, they had to don their scuba masks and go underneath the water. We dont know for how long. But that is a perilous journey for young boys, most of whom who have no swimming ability whatsoever. And then the first of the boys emerged. There were cheers. The divers at the cave entrance began to hug each other. The boys were put on gurneys and into waiting helicopters. And off they went to a hospital where they are recovering here overnight. Then a few hours later, a second set of two boys emerged. One of them was weak. He had to be treated at the cave entrance for some time. But all four boys are now in the hospital, leaving eight still in the cave, along with their assistant coach. It began, this rescue, in dramatic fashion with the rescue commander saying its now or never. This is dday, he said. And the reason for that was falling rain. It really came down in torrents. And also falling oxygen levels inside the cave. They had reached basically dangerous levels, and they had to start that rescue operation. They had to start getting the boys out. It was suspended, because all the oxygen tanks had been used up. Now, thats not a very serious thing. Theyre using this overnight pause in order to resupply both the oxygen tanks, everything they need, and to give the expert divers some sleep. So the operation will restart in about five hours time when the divers regroup. And to go back to your first question, yasmin, were not absolutely sure on timing. But this operation will restart sometime monday, our time. Back to you. We do know that the clock is ticking there, because it is still very much the rainy season. And they have to get those boys out as quickly as possible. Were going to stay on top of this story and bring you the updates as we get them. Were going to be checking back in thailand in an hour or so. Bill neely, thank you for covering this. Very much appreciate it. Back here in the United States, everybody, the president s lawyer did the morning show rounds. And as is often the case, when he does, he made some news, of course. He threw down an ultimatum to Robert Mueller. Watch this. I didnt say they have to prove a crime. Right. What i said was, they have to give us a factual basis, meaning some suspicion of a crime. So he also offered a dare to michael cohen. We want michael to handle this in a way thats most helpful to him. Michael is not going to lie. Hes going to tell the truth. As long as he does that, we have nothing to fear. And interestingly enough, he also gave an admission of something the president has previously disputed. Not sure if guiliani has ever done this before. Oh, wait, he has. That he wanted comey to go easy on mike flynn. Watch this. As a prosecutor, i was told that many times, can you give the man a break. Either by his lawyers, by his relatives, by friends. You take that into consideration. But you know, that doesnt determine not Going Forward with it. All right. So joining me now, cristina greer, associate professor of Political Science at fordham university. Tara dow dell, democratic strategist. Ed mcmullin, former chief policy director of the House Republican conference and Gloria Brown Marshal associate professor at john j. College of justice and author of the Voting Rights war. Lets start with this admission we heard from guiliani here. Im going to go with you. Give me a reaction to what he just had to say. Yeah, well, i think guiliani is hes in a terrible position, as is his client. President trump. They dont see it that way, though. Well, i think they do. I think they have decided theyre going to fight this battle. Its a political battle. And they understand that eventually this will come down to impeachment. So theyre fighting this war in this battle in a political way, not a legal way, as much. I think in the end, this is going to come back to bite them. Because right now there is an absence of information from the special counsel. We dont know what they know or not. Thats the way it should be. We get drips and drabs of information in the press. But we really dont we dont know what the special counsel knows. So in that information void, guiliani and the president can say all kinds of things. But ultimately, information will come out, and if they have already spent their time making this defense of the president based on this political fight, which in the end they cant support the things they have said, then i think theyre going to be in trouble. Do you think the president and guiliani understand the position that they are currently in, as evan says . They understand that they are fighting a battle for a political and public opinion. And they want to make the ground very fertile for the possibility that no one is going to have the political will to go against the public if they undermine the Mueller Investigation to the point where the public does not believe that its being handled fairly. And the more they put these things out here, and we have seen the polls show it, the more people begin to question whether or not the Mueller Investigation is being done fairly. Its funny. I spoke to someone who worked alongside mueller at the fbi, cristina. And he talked about the fact that theres a reason in which mueller is not allowing leaks to happen. This is a man who is sticking to his guns with regards to this investigation. He is trying to keep everything close to his vest. So when guiliani goes on television and says Something Like, obviously they dont have anything, because if they had something, we would have heard it at this point, according to this gentleman that i spoke to last week, that is not the case whatsoever. Right. This is just the way in which bob mueller operates. Because hes a professional. And hes an adult. Were not dealing with a professional or an adult in trump or guiliani. And so as gloria said, trump is playing the court of public opinion. So weve already seen 45 of americans now are saying, well, maybe bob mueller is taking too long or maybe he doesnt have anything. Because trump can just throw something out there and then for the 24 or 48hour news cycle well phenomenfollow that. So he loves saying, some people say or maybe thats the case. Whether its completely, you all call it unfactual. Remember human beings would call it a lie. And we sort of follow these lies consistently. So its this constant game of deflection. The thing is, Robert Mueller is being incredibly methodical as to how hes gathering this information. I think a lot of americans do worry, though, when he presents the case to congress, to the president , to the american public, this particular president will say, okay, well, yeah. So what . Right . And they have already won the pr war on it. Listen, were still waiting for his tax returns, right . So anything this president says, he can just back pedal. And we have seen him change his story literally in the same event. Right . Not even the same day. The same sitting event. And he just he keeps going along with it, as do his supporters. Tara, i want to address what Rudy Guiliani said on meet the press earlier today. Lets watch that, and then well talk. We would not recommend an interview for the president , unless they can satisfy us that there is some basis for this investigation. Its our firm belief, and we think nothing contradicts this, that the president did nothing wrong. And all the leaking thats gone on, there has been no leak of any fact that says the president conspired with anybody in russian. So all the leaking going on the majority of leaking going on is coming from the white house or the president s lawyer, at that point. And then you talk about the don junior meeting at trump tower. You talk about pop lthe obstruc of justice, in which guiliani in that interview does not address. Exactly. Because guiliani, in addition to being the pr attack dog, which is his primary role, is also working with the legal team behind the scenes to stall. Because he also said in addition to the fact that hes put this ultimatum down, he says he does not anticipate or expect the special counsel to even agree to his interview ultimatum or guideline. So he acknowledged he doesnt expect agreement, because this is about stalling. What theyre hoping to do is, number one, this was stated earlier but i want to really reinforce it. They want to muddy the waters for voters who are loosely paying attention. That is a tried and true pr strategy that you do in campaigns. Ive worked on many of them. So they want to muddy the waters for those loosely paying attention. And its working. And its working. The other thing they want to do is they want to continue to attack and undermine the special counsels credibility but also want to paint trump as a victim of this liberal witch hunt. And in doing so, his bases trump as a victim and themselves as a victim. So this is about keeping the base energized and moving them through to the midterm elections, because trumps strategy is a base strategy for the mid terms. Quickly, gloria, because i heard you say off camera that is ridiculous when we were listening to Rudy Guiliani there. Do you think congress is doing a good job of defending bob mueller or propping up bob mueller and defending his reputation . Or do you think thats their job . Well, it is part of their job, because his power comes from the law that says that he has the ability to follow any of these leads and anything that has to do that rises from the russian probe. My concern is, and its ridiculous because there is no civilian, anyone in the government or nongovernment, who can say to a prosecutor, show me what it is that you want me to talk about, and ill decide whether or not i want to arrive and talk about it. That is ridiculous. It didnt happen for nixon. It didnt happen for bill clinton. And it should not happen for donald trump. All right. My panel sticking around, everybody. Still ahead from runner up to front runner, the new name reportedly rising to the top of the president S Supreme Court list. Thats coming up. Welcome back, everybody. Youre looking at live pictures of marine one there. The president inside, headed to air force one in new jersey, where he spent the weekend. Hes, of course, going to be heading back to washington to make that major announcement on monday evening, which were going to be talking about just now. Because we are just now a day away from the announcement of President TrumpS Supreme Court choice. And we could have a new front runner, everybody. The New York Times reporting the president is expressing fresh interest in judge thomas ha hardiman, the runner up last year when neil gorsuch was the pick. Sources telling the times trump is intrigued by his story, hes the first member of his family to graduate from college and drove a taxi to pay for his college tuition. Mitch mcconnell has told President Trump that hardiman and judge Raymond Kethledge present the fewest obvious obstacles. The others are judge Brett Kavanaugh and amy coney barrett. As you see, all four there on your screens. Joining me now, my panel, tom goldstein, co founder and Supreme Court contributor. And gentleman my nelson, Naacp Legal Defense Fund director counsel. Lets talk a bit more about this. Weve got a lot to cover. Im going to start with you, tom. Talking about hardiman being the top pick. Sure. Judge hardiman is from pittsburgh, and he has the kind of every man quality that i think the president associates with his strongest supporters. Hes known to the president , because hardiman was said to have come in second place last time, so the president had spent some time with him. Hes also known to the president s sister. He hasnt decided in any cases involving abortion or affirmative action, gay rights, but he has gun rights and has been strongly in favor of gun rights. So i think he thinks that would appeal to a lot of his supporters and hardiman would have no real trouble getting confirmed. So he brings up a good point in that theres not a long list of decisions, especially when it comes to roe v. Wade with regards to hardiman. That is something that democrats are seizing on. And they feel like its a way they could feasibly win with regards to this scotus pick, right . They could get some republicans to come to their side. But if they have someone like hardiman, is that a strategic decision with regards to the president s pick . Well, certainly hes trying to choose someone in who cant be criticized too heavily, who doesnt have too much of a record for folks to pick apart. I think we need to take a step back, and before we think about the specific nominee, that this president is so embattled that he absolutely should not put another justice on the court under the investigations that you were just talking about in the previous panel. Right. In light of the fact that so many of his policies have been overturned by courts. We have 23 indictments, and plea deals coming out of the Mueller Investigation. There is no way that we should shift our focus to think about the specific nominee and not recognize that at this moment, our country is besieged, this presidency is embattled, and really this pick should not actually come to fruition. The thing is, gloria, it seems as if it is impossible at this point to stop the president from making this decision and from Going Forward. Democrats have to put up a really good fight and get a couple republicans to turn their way in order to block this. You are so right. And the problem is, weve not seen the strategies be successful from the democratic side. They could have a newfound energy. They could have a sense that this time they have a strategy that is going to be winnable. But so far, they have not been able to get that message across to enough people to slow things down. And the conservatives have already said, theyre pushing to have a nominee confirmed before the mid terms in november. Do you think thats actually going to happen . I think theyre going to do everything they can. The fact that they would snub obamas president obamas nominee and actually not even interview him, and then push neil gorsuch on to the court. He sits there under a taint, under a cloud by the measure that allowed him to be on that bench today. But he still is a fullfledged u. S. Supreme Court Justice and can decide these cases. So they dont care the process by which they get their person on the bench. They just want them on the bench. Tom, how much influence does mcconnell actually have on the president s decision . Probably not a ton. So long as the president makes the judgment that his pick will get through. What mcconnell is telling the president is if you take someone like Brett Kavanaugh, who worked in the bush administration, who worked for ken starr in the clinton investigation, there is a longer paper trail. But mcconnell isnt suggesting that the other people who are being considered on the short list cant get through. And i dont think that the relationship between the president and the majority leader is that deep that hell care a ton. Whats interesting to me, janai, is the republicans are going to seize on this when it comes to the mid terms. For a long time we have been talking about what is the issue the republicans can seize on and they can campaign on and we thought it was taxes. That fell by the wayside. We thought it was north korea, seems like thats falling by the wayside. Immigration has been a pain in their side now with regards to the Detention Centers and separating children from their parents. However, the scotus pick is something that conservatives and swing republicans can really get their hands around and vote for. Its something that when i spoke to people back when trump was running up against hillary, the reason why they voted for trump, despite the fact they didnt necessarily like him as a candidate was because of the fact he could put conservatives in the Supreme Court. And this is something that they could really take a hold of and run with. And they could really turn the mid terms so they keep control of congress. Well, i think this is a rallying cry for both sides. But youre absolutely right. The reason that thencandidate trump put out a list of 25 potential nominees for the Supreme Court early on was to show to his base that he was willing to stack the court with ideological conservatives at any cost and to let them know that this was the road map that he was working closely with the federalist society, a very wellknown conservative group, that helped him put together this list of very conservative potential nominees for the court. But what we need to understand is that the crux of the issue is the same on both sides. Any justice is going to be deciding the laws of this nation. So any of the issues that you talked about, immigration, reproductive rights, lgbtq rights, racial equality. This will be a conservative court for some time. All of those hang in the balance. Right. So what is actually looks as if were getting a word from the president. Lets listen. I have not made it official yet, obviously. I have not made it final. But were very close to making a decision. How many people are you deciding between . Well, lets say its the four people. But theyre ex