lemon. sn" "cnn tonight" starts now. breaking news, president trump considering whether to fire special counsel robert mueller. this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. that word coming from a close friend of the president. i will speak to that friend very shortly, so stay tuned. attorney general jeff sessions now just hours away from testifying in public before a senate committee investigating russia's meddling in the election. it will be the first time he testifies in congress since recusing himself from the justice department's russia probe. but will he invoke executive privilege to answering some questions? you'll see what the white house says now. today's meeting, president's full cabinet giving new meaning to the phrase, hail to the chief. >> this is a great privilege you've given me. >> thank you for getting this country moving again. >> thank you for the opportunity and the blessing that you've given us to serve your agenda and the american people.

>> i want to begin tonight with cnn's senior political analyst mark preston, senior analyst jeffrey toobin, investigative correspondent for yahoo news and correspondent analyst abbey phillip, white house press for the "washington post." i'm proud to have all of you in my presence on the show this evening. especially you, mark preston. another week in the russia investigation seems to be front and center, president trump evidently weighing to terminate robert mueller from the special investigation? we're going to speak with chris in a moment, by the way. politically speaking, and i think chris ruddy believes this as well. this would be a mistake of epic proportions. >> no doubt. in fact, let me read you a comment from senator lindsey graham yesterday on cbs "face the nation." speaking of president trump, he said, you may be the first

president in history to go down because you can't stop inappropriately talking about an investigation that if you just were quiet would clear you. now, that is senator lindsey graham talking about trump just tweeting and being involved in an investigation when he should just be quiet. now, could you imagine if he actually fired the investigator that is investigating him and his campaign and his administration right now for possible russian ties? it might actually be the final straw that would break the camel's back and put republicans into the corner where they would have to actually be more aggressive in their investigation of donald trump. >> as a matter of fact, i can't imagine it. nothing surprises me now. i was talking to jeffrey toobin, by the way, next question for you, but when we came on, i said, can you believe it? how would this even work? >> to answer that specifically, the regulation that -- of the appointment of the special counsel, it's not the president who can fire him, it's the attorney general.

and that would be, the president would order the attorney general -- >> who is under scrutiny. >> -- presumably who is recused, and then it would be up to rob rosenstein if he would fire him or he would quit the way elliott richardson and then william ruckle quit after the president told him to fire bob cox in the firehouse massacre. the question would be would anyone in the justice department actually follow the orders or would they resign? i have to say, i am less convinced that the republican party would abandon donald trump if he did this. the republican party here, you know, they are completely unified. every once in a while, john mccain says, i'm very concerned, and then he's still voting with them down the line on everything. so i think this is an intensely loyal agenda-driven republican party, and if he fired comey, i think it would be very bad politically, but i'm not sure

the republicans would really turn on him. >> i have a reason to believe why that's happening. i think it's fairly obvious but let's move on. abby, a source close to the president telling jim that the president should steer clear of doing something like this, but at the end of the day, the president listens to his gut. anything could happen. >> when people tell him what to do, he tends to react, oftentimes by doing the opposite. so we're in kind of a weird space right now where you have a lot of people trying to gently prod him not to do something that chris ruddy apparently thinks he's thinking about pretty seriously. and with this president you never really know. i think what's really clear, though, is that there are a lot of people in the white house who are increasingly concerned about this. one of the reasons -- you know, i think there is a lot of reason to believe the republicans are nervous about backing away from trump, but i do think that one of the reasons this would be a last straw is because it is the

only hope to get this investigation off of their backs. there is no other option but to allow the special investigator to have this investigation run its course. if they lose that, it really opens them up in a profound way that they have not been opened up to before. many of these members are going to be up for reelection in a very short amount of time. we're talking less than 12 months here. i think many republicans just want rod rosenstein to do what he's going to do and quiet. >> abby, when you're saying beyond the investigation, whether the investigation turns up anything or not, there could be nothing there. but politically it's bad for republicans if that does happen and bad for this president. >> yeah. i mean, even if the investigation turns up absolutely nothing, just the idea of having someone over in a corner who you can say, oh, this guy is handling this investigation, a lot of republicans need that idea, they need to be able to say that to their constituents to they can move past this. >> let's talk more about the republican party. one in particular and that is the former house speaker,

michael, newt gingrich. he said the republicans are delusional if they think the republicans can be fair. look who he's hiring? time to rethink. but then this is what he tweeted just a month ago, to jeffrey toobin's point. robert mueller is a superb point to be special counsel. his reputation is full of honesty and integrity. the media should calm down. which is which? what's changed? which one should we believe? >> remarkable the way things change. i do want to say, don, i think on this show about six weeks ago when mueller was appointed, i raised the possibility that the president might fire him, and i think you kind of dismissed it and said it was impossible, so i just want to state that for the record -- >> i was wrong. >> -- that it's in the mix. >> if i was there, i would pat you on the back. go ahead. >> but look, i mean, it is -- i can see a scenario where trump does do this. he says there's nothing to this

investigation, it's a waste of time, it's a waste of money, they've spent months, they haven't come up with any evidence of collusion, and it's a distraction from my agenda, and he would make his case to the american people, and if the congress doesn't like it, they can impeach me. you know, i don't know that he will do that. it is still highly risky. rod rosenstein would almost certainly have to resign and that would leave him, president trump, with almost nobody at the justice department. there's only, like, three confirmed, trump-confirmed appoint appointees at the justice department and you would have a justice department completely depleted unable to complete his agenda. it's certainly high risk, but i don't think it's completely out of the question. >> you're right. it felt like six weeks ago, but

it was less than a month ago. in this world it just feels like a long, long time when it hasn't been. >> it feels like donald trump has been president for three years. >> we've been talking about -- you were saying that jeff sessions would have to become involved if he wants to remove the special counselor, but jeff sessions is testifying tomorrow. what are you looking for? >> i don't think sessions would be involved if he wanted to remove him, it would be rod rosenste rosenstein. you know what i look for is for sessions not to answer a lot of questions. i think either -- he will either cite executive privilege or infect cite executive privilege. you know, the congress does not have a lot of options with witnesses who refuse to answer questions. you know, theoretically they could find someone in contempt and then go to court, but you can't do that the day of the testimony. so they really are at the mercy of sessions. sessions is certainly going to

have to answer questions about why he didn't tell the full truth about his meetings with russians. i mean, he's acknowledged that he didn't disclose those. but he'll have some explanation that it was an oversight or it was in his senatorial duties. but in terms of his conversations with the president about the firing of comey, i anticipate that there will be pretty much a stone wall. maybe others disagree with me. >> i want to ask mark about that because we saw it in coats and rogers with their appearance. they didn't answer a lot of questions and jeffrey toobin saying he'll probably invoke executive privilege. do you think we'll learn much from sessions tomorrow, mark? >> we did see rogers on capitol hill. he did meet with the intelligence committee behind closed doors. i do think jeff is correct. there are areas where jeff sessions will absolutely not go into tomorrow. i don't think he will try to use the word executive privilege if he can get away without using

it. much like we saw from the two intelligence chiefs when they were on capitol hill. but i think when push comes to shove, he will, in fact, invoke executive privilege. i also think one thing to look for tomorrow, there has been a lot of speculation that donald trump was very upset with jeff sessions, in fact, was so angry at him that sessions in turn offered his resignation, which was not accepted. tomorrow will we see jeff sessions, while appearing to be loyal, also try to salvage his reputation which has been dragged through gutter a little bit. look for that tomorrow, and then you can see if those on the inner circle, are the knives turned inward on trump at all. >> thank you, all. michael, again, you were right. >> appreciate it. when we come back, a pretty strange cabinet meeting. president trump first boasting about his term so far. >> i will say that never has there been a president, with few

exceptions -- in the case of fdr, he had a major depression to handle -- who has passed more legislation. >> is that true? and then he invited his cabinet members to do the same. we're going to show you what they said, next. ♪ ♪ award winning interface. award winning design. award winning engine. the volvo xc90. the most awarded luxury suv of the century. visit your volvo dealer to take advantage of our midsommar sales event offer. visit your volvo dealer to take advantage bring you more ways to helps reduce calories from sugar. with more great tasting beverages with less sugar or no sugar at all, smaller portion sizes, clear calorie

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table offering mr. trump gushing praise. >> mr. president, thank you for the honor to serve the country. it's a great privilege you've given me. >> mr. president, an honor to be on the team. >> i want to thank you for getting this country moving again and also working again. >> i can't thank you enough for the privilege you've given me and the kinship that you've shown. >> i want to thank you for keeping your commitment to the american workers. >> it's been an honor to be able to serve you. >> on behalf of the senior staff around you, mr. president, we thank you for the opportunity and the blessing you've given us to serve your agenda and the american people. >> don't laugh, don, i've seen you with your staff. that's exactly what it's like around the don lemon show. >> i feel bad. come on, seriously. >> it looked like north korea. the way, you know, the dear leader. didn't it seem like north korea to you? >> it just seems really odd.

i've worked for a lot of bosses, and never have i seen any group of people or team put in a position like that. it just strikes me as weird. michael jackson, what do you think? >> first of all, it's such an honor and privilege to be on your show, don, that i can't thank you enough. look, it's bizarre, but obviously the president feels like he's not getting the appreciation he deserves, and so if he can't get it from congress or the news media, he's getting it from his immediate staff. but beyond that, i don't know what to make of it. >> here's what one cabinet member, he took a different route. watch this. >> mr. president, it's an honor to represent the men and women of the department of defense, and we are grateful for the sacrifices our people are making in order to strengthen our military and can always

negotiate from a position of strength. >> mark preston, that was probably a better route, right, choose to go praise the troops? >> yet again, general mattis has shown that he really is the grown-up in the room, certainly in the administration wh. when his name was being floated for that position to oversee the department of defense, there was a big sigh of relief on capitol hill and i think throughout washington, throughout the country. someone who understands what his mission is and really was always known as a soldier's general, somebody who looked out for them. don, just to the point of what we saw there from president trump, in many ways, and we haven't said this yet, it seems like it's humiliating, because those people around that table were all very accomplished people, whether in private life in business or whether in politics, and to sit there and to affirm president trump is just outrageous. >> more accomplished than the man who is actually president. that's why i said it just seemed really sad. abby, one person who

consistently praises president trump is the vice president. he does it a lot. take a look at this. >> well, it's the greatest honor of my life to stand shoulder to shoulder with donald trump. today, thanks to the perseverance, the determination and the leadership of president donald trump -- >> the greatest honor of my life is to serve as vice president to the 45th president of the united states of america, president donald trump. >> what you saw two days ago is what i see every single day. a leader with broad shoulders and a big heart. a believer. >> greatest privilege of my life. is to serve as vice president to a president keeping his word to the american people. >> is this just a job of vice president? do all vice presidents do that? >> to a certain extent, but mike pence is like a jedi master at praising president trump. he's really, really good at it

and that's one of the reasons he has the job that he has. one of the funny things i thought about that whole moment earlier today was that mike pence actually kicked off that whole tableful of celebration of trump, so anybody who came after mike pence, it would have been really hard to sort of go a different route with it when pence, you know, starts off by saying it's the greatest privilege of my life. everybody else has to kind of follow suit. but, you know, this is one of the reasons that people who know mike pence, his loyalty to trump, his willingness to defer to trump at all costs is one of the reasons why he remains in the room, one of the reasons why they actually are pretty close, and despite many, many difficult moments in this administration, mike pence has always been pretty consistent in saying the things that he said today and pretty much every other day of the week. >> you know, don, because i have no life, i actually watched the whole thing. you cannot believe how long it goes on. i mean, that's the thing, we

just showed bits and pieces here. but this festival of praise, it just goes on and on. it's much more bizarre when you see it all together. >> so much so you sort of don't believe it, right? >> it looks like a parody of something. >> speaking of parody, this is chuck schumer. watch this. >> i want to thank everybody for coming. i just thought we would go around the room. lucy, how did we do on the sunday show yesterday? >> your tone was perfect. you were right on message. >> michelle, how did my hair look coming out of the gym this morning? >> you have great hair. nobody has better hair than you. >> before we go further, i just want to say thank you for the opportunity and blessing to serve your agenda. >> the only difference there, abby, seriously is that they laughed at the end. there is no difference if you play both of the videos back to back. it's just that the schumer group laughed. >> isn't it amazing?

this is the leader of the democratic party in the senate making -- essentially making fun of the president of the united states. that's a really amazing thing that we're just sort of sitting her and observing as if it's a normal monday. but i just feel like it's so unusual where we are right now, where this is the kind of relationship that leaders in washington have with one another. it tells you a lot about where we are. >> it is a normal monday. >> it's monday again. >> it is a normal monday in the trump administration. >> i have to go back on tv and talk about the trump administration, no. michael jackso michael, i want to get your response to this because i want to talk about this whole loyalty thing with comey. this is something president trump told charlie rose about loyalty back in 1992. of course, this was donald trump the businessman before he was president. watch this. >> i would have wiped the floor with the guys that weren't loyal, which i will now do,

which is great. i love getting even with people. >> you love getting even with people. >> absolutely. you don't believe that? yeah, you do. i know you well enough, i think you do. >> but tell me, you're going to get even with some people because they -- >> if given the opportunity, i will get even with some people that were disloyal to me. i had a group of people that were disloyal. >> how do you define disloyalty? >> they didn't come to my aid. >> did they turn their back on you? >> no, but they didn't do small things that would have helped. >> so, michael, what do you think about that, considering the whole thing, what the cabinet just did, comey saying he wanted -- sort of gave him this loyalty test, the former fbi director? >> exactly. that's very revealing, and just to bring this around to something serious, comey didn't show that kind of loyalty, he explicitly did not, didn't show that sort of lavish praise that trump that he wants from his subordinates and he got fired. i should also point out that

there was some pretty interesting comments yesterday by prepara, the attorney in new york who was fired by trump as well, and he talks about getting two phone calls by trump in which he's sounding him out, wants to shoot the breeze. clearly was looking for that same level of aprobation, didn't get it. i should point out, because this could come up tomorrow. he gets another, a third phone call from trump, doesn't take the call, reports it to the justice department to sessions' chief of staff, and then is fired the next day along with all the other u.s. attorneys. so one question for sessions tomorrow is, did barrara's refusal to take that phone call get reported to him and was then reported to the white house, and was there a connection there if you didn't take the president's phone call you were going to get fired? >> i want to play this -- can we play the president touting his

accomplishments today quickly, please? >> i will say never has there been a president with few exceptions. in the case of fdr, he had major depression. who has passed more legislation, who has done more things than what we've done. between the executive orders and the job-killing resignations that have been terminated, many bills, i guess over 34 bills and congress signed, a supreme court justice who is going to be a great one. going to be a great supreme court justice and many other things. we've achieved tremendous success. >> so, abby, he has signed more bills, but as the fact checkers have pointed out, they don't have any teeth. most presidents have had bigger legislative successes than this president. so that didn't quite pan out to what he's saying. >> yeah. some of them were naming a post office. i don't think the sheer number of bills is really what's important here. we could even go back eight

years when we were in the middle of an enormous recession. congress had to pass legislation. the stimulus bill. so there has been a lot that prior presidents have done. this white house is really grasping for things to do in part because health care and tax reform still aren't happening. so this is a little bit of projection on his part. >> they want to change the russian narrative. thank you all. when we come back, ivanka trump saying this about the media coverage of her father. >> there is a level of viciousness that i was not expecti expecting. >> but should she be so surprised? this is a story about mail and packages.

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she has been out of the spotlight for a while, but in a rare interview ivanka trump had an interesting take on the coverage of her father. >> there has been a level of viciousness that i was not expecting. i was not expecting the intensity of this experience. but this isn't supposed to be easy. my father and his administration

intends to be transformative and we want to do big, bold things, ask we're looking to change the status quo. so i didn't expect it to be easy. i think some of the distractions and some of the verocity i was a little blind-sided by on a personal level. but for me i'm trying to keep my head down, not listen to the noise and just work really hard to make a positive impact in the lives of many people. >> that was good advice to her father. let's discuss this now. cnn contributor and sally quinn, "washington post" contributor. perhaps i didn't say that clear enough. her father should take her advice, put his head down, don't listen to the noise and do his work. but i think she was talking about washington, d.c.

she said she was surprised at the viciousness directed at the trump family. what gives here? i'd like to introduce her to her father. i mean, seriously. >> this is the thing. i do not think that the trump family in general sees themselves clearly. i think that they are so insular and that they spend so much time together and very little time with people outside of their family that i don't think they're able to accurately view themselves as other people view them. when you only surround yourself with a small circle that is mostly other family members, of course you're not going to have a clear view of the way that other people think and see and view you, and everything is going to feel like an attack from you because everything is coming from the outside. >> also, if you go into -- the president did this or donald trump did this willingly. he wanted to run for president. the family didn't have to do that, but they went along willingly. they put themselves out there.

they became spokespeople for him. >> not only spokespeople, ivanka trump is one of the senior advisers in his administration, so is the son-in-law. these are not people who are young children or even adult children just along for the ride when their father decide to do run for president. ivanka trump introduced him when he first decided to run for president. she introduced him when he was given the nomination at the national convention, and now she's serving as a senior member of his staff. so the idea this is just his family, they're along for the ride went out the window when she decided to do all those things and then accept a formal position within his white house. >> because people are so nice in the real estate world. i know, i've experienced it. you say ivanka trump clearly wasn't paying attention to her father during the campaign. her father is the, quote, godfather of viciousness. that's what you say. was this a blunder for her to say? >> the word viciousness is an absolute blunder. donald trump has just beat up on everybody. that's what we know him as, the

commander in chief who does snul insults all the time. just this weekend he had to do another one, calling comey cowardly. ivanka trump never had a problem with ted cruz's father being part of the kennedy assassination, or donald trump not knowing about david duke or about the "lock her up" with hillary clinton, on and on. donald trump has made it to the white house by hitting the low road harder than everybody and being wolverine vicious and fearful as can be donald trump, so nobody can feel sorry for her. >> let's take a trip down memory lane at some of the things donald trump has said. listen to this. >> rosie o'donnell is disgust g disgusting, both inside and out. i don't know what i said, i don't remember. i view a person who is flat-chested as very hard to be a 10. we are led by very, very stupid

people. this guy ted cruz is the single biggest liar i've ever dealt with in my life. but it's political bull[ bleep ], do you understand? i call him little mark, little mark. forget you. just forget it. [ cheers and applause [ cheers and applause ] >> let's defeat her. megyn kelly is a lightweight. this is a lightweight. this is not a reporter. if you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? seriously. okay. just knock the hell -- i promise you, i will pay for the legal fees, i promise. i love the old days. you know what they used to do to guys like that when they were at a place like this? they would be carried out on a stretcher, folks. >> sally? >> well, first, don, let me say what an honor and privilege it is to be on your show.

i'm so grateful and truly blessed. >> thank you. >> but doug is right. i mean, the president of the united states sets the tone for the rhetoric in this town, and he started 16 months ago. and the idea that ivanka would go on television and talk about hostility was so apalling to me. it was like, what planet did she come from? she has been the famous "saturday night live" ad -- perfume ad complicit, but she has been complicit with all of this. mocking that journalist who was disabled and the muslim family whose son was killed and calling do comey a nut job. it's just in one week you could add them all up. the hostility and the meanness, the press, we are all enemies of the people. so i can't understand what she's thinking when she talks about she wasn't prepared for the

level of hostility when she has been living with this level of hostility the entire campaign. and you notice all the way through when she was talking about the administration and what they had accomplished, they want to do big things, it was always we. and so you can't have it both ways. she can't have it both ways. she can't say, you know, i'm the liberal influence and i'm the one who tried to get him to stay in the paris agreement, and i'm trying to make sure that, you know, there's parental leave for people who have children, which is going to cost billions of dollars and probably take away from building the wall. but -- and then turn around and say, we are doing this and we are doing great things, and we're shaking things up, and we want to do grand things and everybody else is being so vicious. i mean, she is just two-faced. >> she is an accomplished woman, she's very smart. is this just about -- is she trying to save her brand here? what's going on? >> yes, i think she is.

>> emily. >> lemily, you're up. >> your simple answer was? >> yes. i think it is without a doubt interesting to see ivanka trump stay silent on just about everything. she doesn't talk about the russia investigation until she was kind of obliquely asked about it this morning. she doesn't talk about the women's march on washington. she doesn't talk about planned parenthood losing funding. she doesn't talk about any negative issue that would impact her brand. on that she says, my influence is silent and personal with my father. i don't have to talk about my opinion with the public. >> have you seen her influence anywhere? >> when she goes on air to talk about the things that are positive that would be attached to her brand. workforce development week in the white house, that would serve someone who would want to go back in the real estate sector very well. maybe the other thing she doesn't want to be publicly attached to. ivanka trump is a master brander and i think we're seeing a

master at work. >> they say over at the white house, douglas, that the white house is urgently trying to change the subject this week. the source says we can't turn off the russia noise, but we need to do a better job filling the atmosphere with an alternative. and that plan includes ivanka trump in the mix as a distracter. is that a smart strategy? >> i don't think it's smart. ivanka trump, i'm not sure where she gets these high approval ratings. she seemed to be interesting because she had power, that she was going to be the one that controlled donald trump's twitter, that she was going to be the hostess of the white house. as sally just mentioned, by her staying mute, she's now become kind of an irrelevant person, hence, she's turned to "fox & friends" morning show and is going to play to a hard right audience and try to be a darling with that crowd. she's now just another person in the trump choir.

>> in an interview with fox news, donald trump jr. seems to corroborate james comey's events in the michael flynn matter. flynn says he never told comey or even suggested for him to drop the flynn probe. here's donald trump jr., though. >> you and i have both known my father a long time. when he tells you to do something, guess what? there is no ambiguity in it. there's no, hey, i'm hoping. you and i are friends. hey, i hope this happens but you have to do your job. for this guy, a politician, to then go back and write a memo, he felt so threatened, but he didn't do anything. >> sally, the only problem with that is he seems to confirm, at least comey's testimony. that's not what his father said. his father said he didn't have that conversation. >> he didn't seem to confirm, he confirmed it. he said, that is what my father said. and did you notice the terror in his eyes when he talked about, when my father says do something, do something?

it looks like he's been there before. but what i thought was interesting is when ivanka said, oh, well, the wonderful thing about comey was that he vindicated my father. well, i don't know what that vindication was since the brother already said that the father said what the father didn't say. so, i mean -- and then the other thing was that supposedly the president had been told by comey that he was not under investigation. three times comey admitted that. but that doesn't mean he will never be under investigation, that just means at that particular moment he was not under investigation. so i don't see that there's any vindication here at all, and i think donald trump jr. just blew that one away. >> emily, you say the issue -- i think you believe that those sons are just not in the loop. they're supposed to be running his businesses, anyway. >> i'll give you a perfect example. so back in april, eric trump did an interview with an overseas paper saying, my sister was the

one who convince mid fathd my f launch the strikes on syria. i was with a reporter in israel and she told other reporters that that was absolutely not true. the sons are out of the loop. they're not talking to their father every day yet they're still doing interviews with the press every week. they're making statements that are not true based on the fact they don't know what's going on and that's causing them to make some pretty big slip-ups. melania and barron have finally made their move into the white house. how that could change the trump presidency. that's next.

it's a good day for the trump family, the president's wife melania and son barron joining them in the white house. i think that's a good thing. it's been nearly five months of the presidency, emily. i think it's a good thing. maybe they'll have a calming effect. it will center him in the white house. what are your sources telling you? >> i think that's a really hopeful, optimistic way of looking at things.

here's the thing. there are a number of people close to the first family who say that the first lady does have a calming influence on the president, and we saw that when they were together for nine days straight on the foreign trip, the president didn't really step out of turn. at least he wasn't tweeting crazy things. the issue is that she is there when he does some of his more outlandish things. she was there yesterday evening when he was tweeting up a storm. so i don't think that anyone is a moderating influence on the president. if we learned anything in these first 150 days, ivanka trump is not a moderating influence, jared kushner isn't a moderating influence. the president is an almost 71-year-old billionaire. he is who he is and i don't think his wife, daughter or son can change that. >> by the way, who is barron trump? i think he's a cool kid. he's normal. i love how he's a kid with his fidget spinner.

>> that was actually the defining moment of fidget spinners, i think. >> kids 10 or 11. even i love them. you say you're amazed by the lack of fun president trump is having as president, and you hope melania can change that. explain. >> look, melania trump is an asset for donald trump, particularly right now. he's under siege. every day is just raining terror on him, and he needs to break the paradigm that he's always in a defensive crouch. so by having her in the white house, by having his son there with him, he may be able to go out around washington, d.c., be able to socialize, visit people's houses. ronald reagan used to pop in on conservatives' homes in capitol hill, have a quiet meal. it might be able to be trump's washington. right now it's not. he seems like an outsider in d.c. he seems more comfortable in

europe and mar-a-lago than he does in the white house. >> interesting. sally, this is already a white house full of rivalries and reportedly feuds. and now you have another trump entering five months later who clearly has her own opinion about the people in her husband's administration. talk to us about that. >> i would like to first say to doug, i don't think this is going to be trump's washington, and i don't think he's going to be going out to georgetown parties or any other private -- >> why not? >> well, he doesn't like to do that. he was well known in new york for not going out to dinner parties. that's not -- he's much more comfortable in his own home and mar-a-lago and the white house and new jersey than he is outside in other people's territory, or in the trump hotel. but he likes to be in control of his own environment, so i don't see him going out around the town or being part of washington in any way. >> but at least his family will be with him if he has to be in the white house, if he's more

comfortable there, he'll have his wife and child with him. >> but i don't think she's going to be a softening influence on him. i think she moved down here because she was more and more doing various things in the white house and doing activities and participating in governors' meetings or dinners, and i was at the children's hospital recently for the opening of the healing garden, and she came there. so that meant that she had to leave new york and leave barron to come down and do these events. and she's been doing more and more of them, so my feeling is she felt it would probably be better for her and barron to come down to washington so they could be together and he could go to school and she could spend more time with him. i suspect her pants will move in -- parents will move into the white house as well and that will be a comforting influence on her and barron. >> it's interesting, emily, when

you think about the different administrations who are in washington. i think with the reagans it was much more of a festive party, classy and elegant. in the bush years, president bush didn't like to go out so the white house was i'm only there in and out, but i hear people say the trump hotel may be one of the biggest attractions there as a night life. >> i spent two days at the trump hotel before the election. i was one of three people staying in the hotel. it was one of the eeriest nights of my life. how things have changed. now it is packed every night. the bar is completely full. i was truly one of two people sitting at the bar two nights before the election. if there is one thing that trump has done for washington -- >> his own hotel. >> -- he's created a hot spot. >> in his own image. >> that he's done for himself. >> of course. >> when we come back, marking one year to the day of the pulse

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this is cnn breaking news. breaking news, president trump considering whether to fire special counsel, robert mueller. this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. that word coming tonight from christopher ruddy, a friend of president trump's. i'll speak with him in just a few moments. in a few hours, jeff sessions will testify on capitol hill before a senate committee investigating russia's meddling in the u.s. election. sessions may invoke executive privilege depending on the scope of the questions. remember when the president

tweeted, you see in court, after an early defeat after a travel ban? an appeals court dealing another blow to the white house, affirming a hawaii judge's ruling that blocked the first version, the revised version of that ban. we'll discuss all of this. i want to begin this hour with the former u.s. attorney matthew whitaker, and john flannery, and former white house ethics lawyer painter, and april ryan. thank you all for joining me this evening. we have a lot to discuss. april, according to christopher ruddy, the president is considering firing robert mueller. the reaction tonight has been swift. why do you think this is coming out tonight, april? >> well, one, this president has never left us unexcited and