first of all, bob mueller was the fbi director when i was u.s. attorney. i have a lot of respect for him and i would be surprised if he is ultimately worried at all about this. in fact, i don't even think he pays attention to what's going on in the daily back and forth about whether or not jeff sessions has the confidence of the president. bob mueller is going to continue to do his investigation. he continues to staff up. they're talking to people, and they're doing their job, which you would expect. >> fascinating conversation. always appreciate having you on. thank you, guys. >> thank you. >>> when we come back, one of

and i think bob mueller is up for the job. i do -- would worry about some under him who may be having another agenda, like trying to get tax returns, and the president has no obligation whatsoever to release. >> do you worry that president trump will try to fire robert mueller? >> i would think that would be a very extreme situation. i would hope that mueller doesn't cross the line into tax returns. and he should let go of some of the business things. let's face it, the president is not subject to the normal ethics issues when it comes to business. >> but how will he know if president trump has investments in russia if he doesn't look at his tax returns and his financial dealings? >> first of all, legally, the president could have investments in russia. >> sure, but there are entanglements he's looking at? >> but the president is exempt from most, if not all of those. it's just this president has a very complex business relationship around the world, but he's been clear, the president has been clear, he doesn't have those rela

i agree it would be a bad idea to get rid of bob mueller. bob mueller is so well regarded. to even talk about pardon at this early stage, at least the president has tweeted it's too early. let the investigation play out and let's find out what happens and let's move on from there. >> we need to get to the facts before conclusions. so the big deal is to follow the money. we have some hint about the net worth of jared kushner and ivanka trump. and we'll go to the naval base in virginia for the honoring ceremony of gerald r. ford. back in a moment. ne who makes it easy to find what i want. booking.com gets it. and with their price match, i know i'm getting the best price every time. c'mon, gary! your vacation is very important. that's why booking.com makes finding the right hotel for the right price easy. visit booking.com now to find out why we're booking.yeah! oscwe went back toing bithe drawing board...s. and the cutting board. we removed the added nitrates and nitrites, by-products, and artificial preservatives in all of our meat. every. single. one. why? for the love of h

you'd have to kill off really more than just bob mueller. you would have to kill off a criminal investigation that actually proceeded bob mueller's appointment. that would be a very extraordinary thing for a president to do especially investigation involving himself. he might have the power to do it but it's never happened before. >> not to mention the investigations going on on capitol hill. there's a number of investigations there. i like that you said wallowing in watergate. you know how us tv people love i illiterations. thank you for that. calling a vote. what does that say? >> it may say more about mitch mcconnell's sensibility. he may be at the end of his rope with his own members. he's done everything he thought he knew how to do to try to get this to a positive outcome. so far has not been able to do it. i think he wants to put people on the record. that would give people who want to vote for a repeal and repiea and replace the opportunity to say they were able to do that. it would bring some finality to this chapter of it in the se

that he should fire bob mueller. that reported by "the washington post." moments ago we also just got new reporting from "the new york times." i'll read you the lead here. president trump's lawyers and aides are scouring the professional and political backgrounds of investigators hired by the special counsel, bob mueller, looking for conflicts of interest they could use to discredit the investigation. so this is a variety of the same information that "the washington post" is also reporting this evening. according to the times, some of the investigators hired by mueller have vast experience prosecuting financial malfeasance and the prospect that mueller's inquiry has stoked fears among the president's aides. mueller's team -- and this is new -- has begun examining financial records and has requested documents from the irs related to mr. trump's former campaign chair, paul manafort. the records are from a criminal tax investigation that had been opened long before trump's campaign began. paul manafort was never charged

mueller to look into his tax returns. >> yes. >> but bob mueller, we understand from some reporting, is looking -- will attempt to look into the tax returns. what do you have on this? >> so look, every prosecutor can walk down to the justice department when they have a reasonable basis to ask for someone's tax returns. when they think -- and a reasonable basis is a pretty low standard to say this could be relevant to my criminal investigation and get the tax returns including the tax returns of the president. and what we are hearing is that the president found that disconcerting. remember, this is a client learning what's going to happen and what could be asked on a very big stage. >> yeah, it's nerve racking, i get it. however, we've had some of the president's supporters, we just had congressman chris collins saying that would be totally out of bounds. that's basically a fishing expedition because the president already released the financial disclosure statement. nobody needs to look at his taxes. what's the thinking legally on this? >> well, think about the ways in which if you're

if he did resign, bob mueller could continue in his role. and it would be problematic for a new attorney general to discontinue or to fire bob mueller. if that happened, the expectation would be that there would be a fire storm of reaction and not just from the democrats. there would be republican that's have expressed admiration through the years who would not be pleased to see him depart. >> you have seen this unanimous chorus of trump support no matter what happens. they seem to line up. and i'll wondering, are you beginning on hear rumblings of republicans turning on jeff sessions? that would be a harbinger of what could be an acceptance of a new ag who would clear the russian investigation off the books. >> i don't think it matters who the attorney general would have trouble getting confirmed. if jeff sessions resigned. i would bet this won't happen quick i'll give you my best example. you have to think of who is confirmable. the senators will grill a nominee and get their pledge -- >> chris christie? >> it doesn't matter who. they woul

bob mueller is a great guy. he's going to sift through facts.tease out the if there's nothing there, he will report there's nothing there. anybody to do with this point in time, let bob wherer's investigation go it will go. vonnie: we are talking about the president. as we learn more about this, it does bring up certain questions. ultimately about whether he can forth.ted and so there will be ramifications in polling as well. think that if in fact, -- i say anything on he character. if in fact, there's negative bob mueller, i think that will cause a real house atfor the white this particular point in time. know in bob mueller he has massive experience in this kind of thing. he won't reign an investigation is allowed to move beyond necessary.unds is the mandate for this investigation, how broad is it? can mueller define it i'm? degree yes. you have to go where the factors take you. you to of the fact take legal documents then you have to them.t see how they fit in the maze. see whether or not there's relevancy. w

the people bob mueller is hiring are the a team of pick public servants. the american people are not just spectators. we are citizens. whether or not there's smoke or fire here, donald trump is trying to remove the fire department that's going to put this out, and that should outrage all of us as american citizens. >> we're going to take -- go ahead quickly. >> donald trump has made contributions to democrats. we should never forget that every time he says something like that. >> what a conflict of interest this president has. thank you for that. that's a very important point, ana. i was going to miss that. thank you for that. we're going to take a quick break. everyone please stay with us. we'll be right back. in our house, we go through a lot of toilet paper. mom! so we switched to new charmin super mega roll. get six regular rolls in one with charmin super mega roll our longest lasting roll. guaranteed to fit. enjoy the go with charmin. choicehotels.com. badda book. that's it?. he means book direct at choicehotels.com for the lowest price on our rooms g

the people bob mueller is hiring are the a team of pick public servants. the american people are not just spectators. we are citizens. whether or not there's smoke or fire here, donald trump is trying to remove the fire department that's going to put this out, and that should outrage all of us as american citizens. >> we're going to take -- go ahead quickly. >> donald trump has made contributions to democrats. we should never forget that every time he says something like that. >> what a conflict of interest this president has. thank you for that. that's a very important point, ana. i was going to miss that. thank you for that. we're going to take a quick break. everyone please stay with us. we'll be right back. ays through♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ we check our phones 85 times a day. so it only made sense to create a network that keeps up. introducing xfinity mobile. it combines america's largest, most reliable 4g lte with the most wifi hotspots nationwide. saving you money wherever you check your phone. yeah, even there. see how much you can save when you ch

so he will have a more compliant attorney general in bob mueller. hal halle, this is just extraordinary, the president undercutting his own attorney general, the chief legal officer of the nation. >> reporter: let me make a couple of points on the important points you're making here. number one, nobody forced, as far as we know, nobody forced the president to send a tweet calling his attorney general beleaguered. and he said he would never have put him in that position if he had known that he would recuse himself from the investigation. the moment you just played, the eye roll is not the most significant thing. ive if you were to play out this video, you have people -- i would wonder if that's what the laughter from the students and the eye roll is, when you're posing for a picture and somebody is asking questions. i'm not going to try to assess the moment. but i would point out that that happened. that was the first question, shouted at the president today, was about his attorney general, that has been the question for the president, ever since tha

host: what kind of relationship does he have with bob mueller? guest: bob mueller has been a mentor to chris wray. james comey has been a mentor to him. he had strong words of support for both of them yesterday. he said in response to questions about president trump calling this rush investigation a witchhunt that bob mueller does not engage in witchhunts and he had some very strong words of support for james comey's character, although he offered some blunt criticism of his approach to the hillary clinton email investigation last year. host: you heard senator feinstein in that clip say, "that is a good start." what are you hearing about the prospects of him being confirmed as fbi director? what does it mean to senators that you have a nominee who has been part of the justice department and has worked his way up? guest: surprisingly, in washington, which is really contentious and partisan right now, i can away from watching five hours of that hearing yesterday thinking christopher pathhas a relatively easy to winning confirmation with bipartisan

do those sound like legitimate conflicts of interest that could be a problem for bob mueller? >> no. certainly not. i mean, this is stretching beyond belief that a prosecutor would be recused or disqualified because he's -- he has left a golf course membership or had made a contribution to a political party. these are not bubble children who live in an environment that is outside and normal discourse and intercourse in political life. these are all people who have been picked because of their expertise as prosecutors. most all of them have been taken from the justice department itself and mueller, who has received bipartisan praise as the right person to lead this investigation is the last person in the country, quite frankly, who would be guilty of a conflict of interest. so, this, to me, simply demonstrates more smoke in mirrors an attempt to distract from the underlying investigation and it makes people properly ask the question, what has trump got to hide that he's going through all of these con va luted measures to break up the investigation. >> dana bash was reporting th

i've had them with bob mueller. i can't find a single senator who believes that bob mueller either now or in the past hads behaved in an unprofessional way. if this president decides to fire bob mueller without cause, i think all options would be on the table. i think it would trigger a very substantial constitutional crisis. >> how about triggering the hate going on in the country right now. last night, whether it was unprofessional, inappropriate or disrespectful, the president gave an aggressive speech at a boy scout jamboree, speaking as a mom, not politically driven, but speaking tonight at a rally in ohio wildly oversubscribed. the tone the president is taking, whether it's with little kids last night or massive crowd tonight, how dangerous is this if you think about the tone, anger he's inciting? >> i've always felt that america is strongest when we set the bar high. and again and again, we're seeing unprecedented presidential firsts and i have never heard, for example, about a president politicizing a boy sc

it because they have faith in bob mueller. i had a chance to check in with the republican senate chair and asked him directly about the president's line about the family finances and he said if that's in the scope of mueller's investigation, he should investigate it. >> do you have any concerns saying bob mueller shouldn't look into the finances of the trumps? >> i haven't seen that particular thing, but bob mueller should look at anything that falls within the special scope of the mandate. >> and that includes the trump family finances? do you think the president should fire him? >> no. no. >> now, the longest serving republican in the senate told me earlier today that bob mueller is a quote, totally honest man. he has questions about attorney he's named, but he has faith in this investigation so far. >> meanwhile, manu, the russian investigation on the hill is heating up with chuck grassly, a republican, telling you he may subpoena donald trump, jr. and paul manafort if they do not agree to testify next week. that seems pret

they've talked about bob mueller having been a trump golf club member at some point. they've talked about obviously these complaints about looking into financial matters and trump business matters. are any of the things that they've raised to your mind legitimate concerns or legitimate grounds for trying to undermine the investigation? >> it's clear from the reporting that they are looking for a pretext and charging, with regard to mueller personally. this is a someone who is a life-long republican who was head of the criminal division, republican administrations, who for 12 years was head of the fbi in both republican and democratic administrations and is respected by law enforcement across the country. they raise the fact that he worked with james comey, but comey may be not necessarily a central figure in this, but in any event, comey and mueller have never been to each other's houses. one was head of the fbi. one was deputy attorney general, and they overlapped. that's absurd. of course, there are people on his staff who have participated in supporting political c

why would they be talking about interfering in bob mueller's investigation? stuff that we spend time asking questions about. do you spend as much time doing that? >> i try to keep my audience informed on those things and what's going on. so yes. but you have to understand that we had a precedent in the 1990s. we caught the president he red handed. we were cutting taxes, we had balanced budgets and a lot of americans were like, if the dude is white, why do i care? i got a job that's working out for me. and i think what we are missing here is the solidity of trump's base is not because of adoration of trump. that's his cult. it is because of how low they regard the opposition and how low they esteem politicians in general. if trump does the things michael just said, we could have 4 k proof, 4 kmpbl resolution that putin handed a cashier's check to trump and most of his voters won't care. if he doesn't, man, this is what you get when you get a guy colludes with the russians. he has to deliver on governing. >> there's an interesting, i don't know. my statistics i

let's let bob mueller do his job. let's have impartial assistance for bob mueller, not the democrats who are supporting the other presidential candidate. that doesn't mack any sense ke all. we want an impartial jury here. >> understandably so, but does it bother you that the president keeps bringing this up in his tweets? doesn't that add to the distraction and your ability to get the work done that you want to do? >> well, perhaps. but keep in mind that that is part of what this president is about. i mean, obviously as has been established long ago, he is a cot t counter puncher. he will fight back. and we got that. but again we in congress, we continue in the house to do our job. and we have 20 do that because the american people elected us to do our work, they elected us to repeal and replace obamacare. we need to do that. they elected us for tax reform and to address our infrastructure, to build our military back skrup. that's what we need to concentrate on. >> all right, sir, thank you for your time. >>> coming u

first of all, bob mueller was the fbi director when i was u.s. attorney. i have a lot of respect for him and i would be surprised if he is ultimately worried at all about this. in fact, i don't even think he pays attention to what's going on in the daily back and forth about whether or not jeff sessions has the confidence of the president. bob mueller is going to continue to do his investigation. he continues to staff up. they're talking to people, and they're doing their job, which you would expect. >> fascinating conversation. always appreciate having you on. thank you, guys. >> thank you. >>> when we come back, one of jeff sessions' former colleagues on the judiciary committee joins me. i'll ask her what she thinks of the president's attacks on the attorney general. i was playing golf days ago... love golf. i used to love golf. wait, what, what happened? i was having a good round, and then my friend, sheila, right as i was stepping into the tee box mentioned a tip a pro gave her. no. yep. did it help? it completely ruined my game. well, the truth is, th

quote, the president told top aides he was especially disturbed after learning that bob mueller would be able to access several years of his tax returns. a close adviser is quoted by the post saying that the president's tax returns are outside of mueller's investigation. one of the president's lawyers jay sekulow told the post that the "told" the post that the transactions are quote far outside the scope of a legitimate investigation. all of that explanatory reporting and work down from the "washington post." simultaneously the "the new york times" reporting that bob mueller's inquiry evolving into an examination of trump's financial history quote has stoked fears among the president's aides. so i say that bloomberg story yesterday was really important in part because of what it seems to have occasioned, bloomberg reports that the president's finances and his financial transactions and his business transactions are now being investigated. also, "the new york times" reporting within the last couple of days that deutsch bank is having his trump transactions reviewed by banking regulator

mueller, where they're going to find out dirt on bob mueller. that's clearly also meant strategically speaking to have a chilling effect on mueller and his investigators. that we are out there looking at you. >> intimidation. >> you know, we are not going to just sit back and let you roam all over his finances. we're going to draw lines and if and when you cross them, we're going to have stuff on you. that is not an accident. that is purposeful to make sure bob mueller knows the stakes that he's playing at here. and i think the trump camp -- the trump white house, it seems to me that's a strategic earth on their part. >> as if there wasn't enough tonight, jeff, we're learning the spokesman for president trump's legal team is resigning tonight. what do you know? why? >> we doe know that marco corallo, the spokesman for the president's legal team, who really has been in this role for a couple of montzs or so, he is no longer part of this of this organization, of this effort here at the white house to speak for the president's outside legal team an

probably bob mueller himself to continue this investigation. bob mueller is following the money. he is looking at the financial dealings. it is not only appropriate, it is proper and necessary to do. and the president of the united states may be able to fire the attorney general. he certainly wants a political lackey in that role. a lap dog, not a watchdog. but he cannot fire the special prosecutor without extraordinary consequences on both sides of the aisle. i've talked to a number of my republican colleagues who have already indicated they would be prepared to act. >> one of the problems that democrats and republicans have voiced in the past about special prosecutors are they end up investigating -- they're first tasked with looking into a land deal, and the next thing you know they're looking into whether or not president clinton had an affair with an intern. there are similar republican complaints about the valerie plame leak investigation, who leaked valerie plame's name. it ends up being a fishing expedition and there are very few people in public life whose lives can bear

it's what forced the deputy attorney general to appoint bob mueller as a special counsel. it's what then triggered the rest of this set of investigations. had he kept comey in place, there would certainly be an fbi investigation underway, but there wouldn't be any of this structure that we're seeing now, that clearly the president finds so disturbing. i think the last point, and this goes back to something that jeff got at before, which is that at the moment that mueller was appointed, you heard a lot of republicans saying that, you know, he was a perfect choice, he's very nonpartisan, his war record in vietnam is remarkable, his time as fbi director. and so the president probably realizes that it's going to be an uphill battle to go make the case for partisanship that he's now pushing. >> it's interesting, david sanger says, you don't always know what the president's thinking. in some cases, you know exactly what he's thinking. you know the words conflict of interest are seared on his brain right now and he wants to say it out loud in his interview with "the new york time

that's exactly what bob mueller is investigating. the russian effort to hack and interfere in the election. they're already interested in the meeting and no doubt it sharpened with the russian american lobbyist. chris? >> thank you so much, ken. and our unbelievable team there, investigative team that broke this big story this morning. >>> also joining me now, nbc political analyst and white house bureau chief for "washington post." you heard about the president's legal team and i want to talk about that in a minute. but let's talk about donald trump jr.'s lawyer who put out this stam and said this is not a story. he said he talked to this guy and he says he isn't affiliated with the russian government. so, i guess we're supposed to believe someone who used to be a soviet spy. tell us your take on these latest revelations. >> you know, it's really troubling for the trump team and for the white house because all of this was not fully disclosed a few days ago back when don jr. said he had a strategy of letting everything out there. dis

and i think it is appropriate that bob mueller continue to do so. i also, frankly given who bob mueller is and his career, don't expect him to be intimidated by anything the president says. >> i don't think he has the cut of that jib. thank you. up next, senator mccain msnbc promises his sparring partners that he'll be back following some difficult health news. straight ahead, we'll talk to kelly ayotte. one of mccain's close former colleagues in the senate. ♪ if you've got a life, you gotta swiffer what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪ >>> o.j. simpson was granted parole after serving nine years in prison for a robbery conviction. he said he was sorry for the 2007 robbery saying he was just trying to ret

is that the president can't fire bob mueller. rod rosenstein would have to do that or someone within the justice department. not only that, in fa if mueller allowed to proceed with the investigation, the justice department has to come to congress and report that under the law. so he has some free reign here and i think it's very important for the american people that we get to the bottom of what happened so then we can move on to 2018 and other elections and know what the facts are so we can protect our elect system. >> rod rosenstein, the person who would be, as you say, responsible for any termination, was pressed by congress about that very issue, and he made it clear that the buck stops with him. of course, he could be dismissed. but did you feel like the assurances that congress received from rosenstein was enough to feel that this special counsel will not be in danger? >> i do. i think so, and then we also heard from christopher ray who did an excellent job at his hearing, the newly nominated fbi director, and he made it ve

and the fact is i know bob mueller for a long time. i worked in the justice department. he is a man of integrity, very highly respected in washington. when he was pick, very bipartisan support for this man. we need to let him do his job. wherever that may lead. i think if he fired bob mueller, i think he'd see a tremendous back losh responsibilities from democrats but also house democrats. >> become lash from both sides, democrats and republicans. it really could happen, especially as muller continues to dig in to his investigation. and it could lead to a final disclosure of donald trump's tax returns or at least add to a little bit that has dripped out over the last couple of years people have been looking for them. david kay johnson, richard painter, chief white house ethics lawyer under george w. bush. and steffi pinkel. david, if i recall correctly how it came to you, what would bob mueller be looking for specifically in going through trump's tax records? >> well, donald trump has had dealings with the so-called red mafia, former russians who are criminals in new yor

we know that in a "new york times" interview this week the president said that if bob mueller started looking into the president's personal finances, he would consider that a red line. now jay sekulow, the president's lawyer, says he is not considering using pardons and they are not on the table right now, but this tweet shows us that this is something on the president's mind. he's not saying he'll use it but he's definitely leaving that option open here. >> and we learned house and senate negotiators agreed on the sanctions against russia that could possibly be sent to the president's desk after a vote so, how do you expect the white house, if it hasn't said anything thus far, how do we expect the response to be? >> reporter: that's a great question. we have not heard anything from the white house yet on this agreement that came from senate and congress negotiators this morning regarding this bill that would put new sanctions on not only russia but north korea and iran as well. the sanctions on russia would come in response to russian meddling in the election and their military aggre

mueller in straying into his money and businesses, a fear that bob mueller might actually subpoena the tax returns that you might see inside the trump organization in a way that might embe rasz him? is that what we're seeing here a president that is afraid of what might be found? >> i would assume mueller and his crew would get the tax returns. but you're supposed to keep books and records. donald has been known in the past to keep two sets of books and records, and not have books you're supposed to have. i'm sure bob mueller is going to look at them closely and the irs people do a good job when sifting through, when given a target to look for, they know how to find needles in hay stacks. >> we're hearing the word money laundering, not just with paul manafort but the questions of what happened with the german bank that was the last lender left that would lend to donald trump that's been indicated to money laundering. how wide and extensive do you expect this to go? we're also now talking about a major global bank. >> when you start an investigation, you follow it wherever it leads. it

so wouldn't tax filings from 2013, 2012 be especially interesting to bob mueller right now? >> they would be and i wouldn't be surprised if he already obtained him. mule are and no one in the irs is compelled to tell trump if he's gotten them. >> such a double-edged sword because they can't comment because the president has always said "i'm under audit." they can't confirm or deny whether he is under audit. >> if mueller does get his hand on them, the only way the public might now is if mueller brought them to congress to make an impeachment case. >> i know your work is not done as you continue to look into this and special when it comes to jared kushner, especially when it comes to the filings of jared kushner and ivanka. >> and in our next hour, "a.m. joy," looking at how the next trump communications director wasn't always on the trump train. oscar mayer is making big changes to hot dogs. we went back to the drawing board... and the cutting board. we removed the added nitrates and nitrites, by-products, and artificial preservatives in all of our meat. every. single. one.

let's see if bob mueller could hire one republican. this would be a great test. could he hire one republican who is for trump? that would be an exciting moment of moving towards bipartisan. it would be about 15-1. >> sean: all right, newt gingrich. "understanding trump," six weeks on the best-selling list. when we come back, right here on "hannity"... >> in retrospect, i probably would have done things a little differently. this is before the rush of media. before they were building it up with the press. >> sean: donald trump, jr., kellyanne conway will join us with reaction and later, gregg jarrett says it's utterly preposterous for the democrats to say donald trump, jr., committed a crime. he will join us along with geraldo rivera. i've got a message for liberal joe, he announced he's leaving the republican party. i'm going to address his little departure later. and of course, the final minute of the show goes to terrence williams tonight. straight ahead. ask about once-a-day namzaric. namzaric is approved for moderate to severe alzheimer's disease in patients

bob mueller is a registered republican. he's a career federal prosecutor, fbi director, assistant attorney general of the criminal division. he's not going to be susceptible to the same challenges that clinton made of star. i think it's an unavailing legal strategy. i also think that it actually hurts the president to make these veiled threats in this respect. remember, comey testified that the president made these same veiled threats to him, the loyalty test, the back off flynn with the hope thing, comey said i heard all these things as threats. now you see the president doing the same thing, using the same sort of language with respect to mueller. and i think essentially bolsters comey's claim as to the tone and import of what the president was saying to him. so in the end if there's a credibility contest between the president and comey with respect to whether or not there was an obstruction of justice, i think the president is hurting himself in legal terms. and i'm surprised his lawyers are allowing him, if they can con

mueller's investigation and if jeff sessions is not going to be a person who get rid of bob mueller, donald trump might have one more piece of ammunition to get rid of jeff sessions which could lead to taking back or removing bob mueller. so it's unclear how much longer jeff sessions is going to stay in place. but the longer jeff sessions holds on, without the full confidence of the president, it gives democrats an opportunity to say the president is not loyal to the people that were local to him. look at what happened to jeff sessions. don't go with the president, especially as they're negotiating the health care bill that's coming up. >> and, jonathan, what's your take on that? do you think president trump will let jeff sessions go? >> i think it's a tough situation for the president in terms of a couple things. number one, if he let's jeff sessions go, there's no reason for jeff sessions to protect the president in any sort of congressional hearings or investigations. and number two, it's not clear that anybody would take that job to succeed jeff sessions who would be capable or w

let me read to people what he said about bob mueller. the special counsel. this is him in his own words, so listen to what president trump says. >> mueller is looking at your finances and your family's finances unrelated to russia. is that a red line? >> would that be a breach of what his actual -- >> i would say yes. i would say yes. >> paul, i want to ask you this. isn isn't president trump right? if bob mueller is looking at his family's finances, unrelated to the russia investigation, doesn't that turn into a phishing expedition? >> you don't know what's related. his son himself said, donald jr., said, this is 2008, his son gave an interview that said an extraordinary amount of our money is coming in from russia. we need to know, why did the president not release his tax returns? because he didn't want us to see something. why is he telling mueller in public in "the new york times," i'll fire you if you look at my finances. any decent investigator now knows they must look at his finances. that -- it's like the cops show up at the serial murderer's house

bob mueller is not looking at the polls, he doesn't care. the senate intelligence is not going to be swayed by a moving number of today's poll compared to the numbers on the question. i would go back in time and remind people that most americans, i'm talking 60 plus percent did not think watergate was serious until the hearings. they knew there was a break-in and a saturday night massacre and the president didn't want it to go forward. you can look hour after hour at the demeanor of the people and the questioning they are placed under. that is the american system, to put the people under a jury or in this case, a jury of the public and question them closely. that's why the hearings grassley is talking about are so important. >> michael, the fact that the republican chair of the senate judiciary has been moved to say yesterday, look, if don jr. and paul manafort don't volunteer by the end of today, we are going subpoena them. >> yeah. that's pretty significant. you know, i think one of the things that's really hanging over this entire series

we do know that president trump himself has said that he interviewed bob mueller to be f.b.i. director very shortly before his appointment as special counsel. one of the conflict that we reported today, the whitehouse has been examing is of all things bob mueller's membership at the trump national golf course in northern virginia. apparently whitehouse advisors tell us there was some variety of dispute over his membership fees at that club. now mueller's office has told us that's not true. there was no membership fee dispute so we're continuing to try to learn more about that. but whatever happened at the golf club, president trump clearly did not see it as an impediment to potentially appointing bob mueller to be f.b.i. director so it's interesting they're now returning to that autopsy i been. >> sreenivasan: let's thank you a little bit about the legal team it seems to be changing. >> that's right. we saw the resignation of mark koralo who was the spokeman for the team. he was the spokesman for mark mc kazowits. he's a new york base attorney who worked for trump on various m

i'm stunned that the white house is out there trying to slam bob mueller. i mean, there just airport many people walking the face of the earth with the credibility and respect on both sides of the aisle as bob mueller about i they appear willing to do anything. this package looks like it includes sanctions. it was worked out at the end of last week on russia but also on north korea and maybe iran. if the president were to veto this, it may very well pass the house with more than two-thirds majority, which is what you need for a veto override. look, i think if the president were to veto sanctions on russia when there is a consensus that russia needs to be sanctioned more heavily for their attack on our election, i think it would be viewed as absolutely rank politics and self-protection and it would put my republican colleagues in a bind as they have been so many other times. do they stand up for the country and what they know to be right or do they slavishly back a president that scares them a little bit? >> i'm curious with regard to your republican colleag

i think bob mueller makes it very hard for him to do that. the way in which rod rosen steen has set up this investigation makes it hard for him to do that. but i think it's likely that the president thinks about ways in which he can put an end to the investigation. >> so you got into a bit of a twitter spat with the vpd and you said there's real evil in the epidemic rate of lying when they're talking about health care. real evil, that language that you stand by? >> listen, it's strong language. i don't deny it. but here is my point. the vice president is a very smart person. he went out and gave a prepared set of remarks in which he claimed that the republican healthcare bill strength end and secured medicaid for the moet vulnerable in america. he knows that's not true. i mean, there is zero basis for that claim given the fact that 15 million of the most vulnerable americans will lose their medicaid coverage and want be able to afford anything else because of this bill. and so i use that word because this looks like a knowing, intentional fab

i know bob mueller and folks ought to have tremendous confidence in him. i mean he is the consummate professional. he's going to call it like he sees it, he's going to be doing it the right way, but bob mueller is going to be determine whether or not crimes have been committed that can be used for prosecution or impeachment. clearly that's not our bar, that's not the standard of conduct that we're looking for from our president or our administration. it shouldn't just be whether you committed a felony or not. it should also be whether or not you're observing the kind of norms that we have been talking about here today, that are so essential to really the fabric of the rule of law, so while i have total confidence in bob mueller and his ability to conduct this investigation. i don't think that we should just be putting all of our hopes in that will tell us whether anything bad happened here, because there's potential and i don't know what the facts are, so i'm not drawing conclusions about what he may ultimately determine. but there are facts here that shou

>> bob mueller is there to investigate and prosecute crimes. congress, however, has an obligation to find out what happened with respect to collusion with the russians. based on what we have now, it's quite clear that we don't have collusion here like we didn't have with president bill clinton having sex with that woman. if this isn't evidence of collusion, i don't know what is, but this time we care about the lie. this is about betrayal of our country. congress needs to get to the bottom of this. we need the facts. they should not wait around for bob mueller. his job is the criminal investigation. congress' job is to make sure the people who are serving in the white house are loyal americans and not violating any laws or acted inappropriately. >> you make an interesting point. we always talk about the coverup being worse than the crime. in this particular case there's a potential coverup but the underlying issue here about meeting with russian government officials who have information that may have been stolen about america is an entirely diff

plenty of time to kill off the bob mueller investigation in any case. now, this top republican in the senate. the senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell, he could stop something like that if he really wanted to by technically never letting the senate go into recess. he did that during the last administration to stop president obama from making any recess appointments. i have no idea whether he would do the same thing here to stop president trump from kiboshing the investigation through that kind of a maneuver. but the washington postulate tonight are reporting that the white house is having discussions about this prospect now. quote, president trump and his advisers are privately discussing the possibility of replacing attorney general jeff sessions and some confidants are floating prospects of who could take his place were he to resign or be fired. members of trump's circle including white house officials have increasingly raised the question among themselves in recent days as the president has continued to vent his frustration with attorney general.

david: presumably, bob mueller will take a look at this. there are report he will be looking into this. if there were more there or if he decided to proceed, would he go to a grand jury? what would be the next step? >> people think about grand juries as being, the moment there is anything there, you go immediately to a grand jury and air this out. sometimes you do. i suspect the first call will be made to lawyers for the participants in the meeting, to say that investigators want to talk with those individuals about whether to include paul manafort, the president's son-in-law, and the presidents son. they may not speak voluntarily with fbi agents. there may be consideration of whether or not to bring them to a grand jury, or whether their clients will assert the fifth amendment. much of which will happen behind closed doors and the public won't see much in the way of a manifestation of what is actually going on but ultimately, those decisions are made by prosecutors. , about case, bob mueller whether or not anyone should be charged but the

yes, there is an ongoing investigation by bob mueller and committees. i think it is pre mature to be jumping to the next step about what should happen in the event something does happen. we don't know if there was collusion or not. these e-mails don't look good bust that's up for the special prosecutor to make that recommendation. >> fair enough and final question. should mitch mcconnell have at least one hearing before they vote in the senate? >> well, i think there should be more transparency on the health care issue. i've always felt that way. >> should he have a hearing? >> yes. we should. the democrats shouldn't have muscled obamacare through the way they did and i don't think we should either. >> always a pleasure. i really do appreciate it. >>> coming up, did donald trump jr. commit a crime? we'll talk about that and where the mueller investigation goes from here. ♪ ♪ more kinds of crab than ever, new dishes, and all your favorites. only while crabfest lasts. red lobster. now this is seafood. i realize that ah, that $100k is notwell, a 103for