so he didn't -- he tried to fire robert mueller. he obviously didn't fire robert mueller. does that make a difference whether or not there this is an actionable obstruction case? >> if that were the only fact, the only piece of the mosaic in the proof, it might have less weight. remember, he fired jim comey one month before. so firing was very much on his mind as a means to rid himself of the so-called retro thing. he bragged to foreign minister lavrov and kislyak that he was so relieved that he had fired comey and thereby stopped the investigation. now it's the surrogates that are attacking the special counsel, the surrogates in congress, the defenders who are launching it. i saw it on the fbi and law enforcement. we have a constitutional crisis looming and that's the reason why we need to protect the special counsel with legislation that i've offered along with a number of republican colleagues and democrats to make sure that the special counsel is protected in this investigation. >> you described that as a constitutional crisis. clearly that would be a conflict with the

did the president say he wanted to fire robert mueller? >> well, i have no inside information regarding what he did or didn't say. that wasn't part of my portfolio while i was in the white house. >> you never heard him say that he wanted to fire robert mueller? >> no. and i couldn't talk about it even if i d. so let's move on from that. >> hang on. i just want to get to this quickly and then get to a bigger issue because i think it is important. any knowledge did you ever he ever hear that he threatened to quit to stop the president from firing robert mueller. >> i wouldn't be able to do it under my obligations anyway. >> have you testified to special counsel? we have heard eight lawyers, eight people have? >> again, i wouldn't be sitting here today if i had been interviewed. so the answer to that is no as well because of my ethical obligations having left the white house recently. >> good. now, that we have that behind us, what is your take on the reporting that cnn has confirmed that the president said he wanted to fire robert muler and

i mean, robert mueller, there is some real conflicts. he comes from a law firm that represent members of the trump family. he interviewed the day before, or a few days before he was appointed special counsel, with the president who was looking at him potentially to become the next fbi director. >> so you see the talking points there, eli, and i was reminded of this moment. i heard an interview with maggie haberman of the times tonight that while he was attacked in realtime for those remarks, it turns out he was right. >> chris knew this because he was one of the people talking with the president in realtime and perhaps putting those ideas in his head. i talked to chris ruddy a lot. he's consistent in his belief that he's articulated to reporters and the to president that the president and that his lawyers have not been defending him enough in fighting off the special counsel and challenging enough in the courts in considering terminating him. so this is a possible action that the president considered that chris ruddy thought was a good i

robert mueller will be fair to you? this larger investigation? zbloo we're going to find ouct.t because here's what we'll say. no collusion. there's no collusion. now they're saying oh, well, did he fight back? did you fight back? said -- fight back. fight back. oh, it's obstruction. so here's the thing. i hope so. >> how do you define collusion? mag asked this earlier. >> you're going to define it for me. but i can tell you, there's tho collusion. i couldn't have cared less about russians having to do with my campaign. the fact is, you people won't say this, but i'll say it. i was a much better candidate. you say she was a bad candidate. you never say i was a good candidate. i was one of the greatest candidates. nobody else would have beaten the clinton machine, but u i was a great candidate. some day you're going the say that. good-bye, everybody. >> another exchange he had. rebecca, what's your analysis of what we just heard from the president on a whole host of issues. >> that statement you just played, wolf, is an

president, did you seek to fire robert mueller? >> fake news, folks, typical "new york times" fake stories. >> reporter: but a source confirms to cnn that trump did call for mueller's firing and don mcgahn refused because he disagreed with his reasoning. two people told the "times" the president expressed concern over what he saw as three possible conflicts of interest with mueller serving as special counsel. one involving a dispute mueller had at trump national golf club causing hum to resign his membership. another that mueller's law had previously represented his son-in-law, jared kushner and, finally, that trump had just interviewed mueller as comey's replacement for fbi director. back in june trump was also openly airing his frustrations overs russia probe on twitter saying "you are witnessing the single greatest witch hunt in american political history led by some very bad and conflicted people." two months after the reported attempt to fire mueller, he was asked if he'd ever considered it? >> i haven't given it any thought.

so robert mueller knows. robert mueller knows that the president tried to fire him. robert mueller wants to interview the president in his investigation into possible obstruction of justice by the president, and he knows that one of the pieces of evidence of obstruction of justice is that the president tried to fire him. the president's firing of fbi director james comey provoked the appointment of the special prosecutor, who is investigating the president for obstruction of justice because of the firing of james comey. and now we know the president tried to fire the special prosecutor himself. and now donald trump knows that the special prosecutor knows that the president tried to fire him. is the president still eager tonight, as he says he was last night, to be interviewed by the special prosecutor who knows the president tried to fire him? the president has probably known that since december 2nd. probably known. could have known since december 2nd, that robert mueller knows that the president tried to fire him because december 2nd is the day when we discovered pu

robert mueller was not fired, obviously. so in and of itself the act isn't grounds for obstruction or anything else. but could the intent, how does the intent tell you about the president's mind-set and might that seep in other parts of the investigation? >> well, first of all, you don't have to succeed in obstructing justice to obstruct justice. that he didn't ultimately fire mueller doesn't mean anything. in and of itself, it is a conclusive piece of evidence. it is one more piece in the puzzle as we try to discern what the president's motives, intent was. that is actually quite important because he does have the legal authority to fire government officials. and in this case it would be indirect. you would have to pressure somebody at doj to do it. but he can't do it corruptly. you would have to look at intent to see if he was trying to prevent himself from being further investigated. he certainly told us that was his intent in firing mueller -- comey. so this fits with that. he said i haven't even given getting rid of mue

mueller, with the white house pushing back. >> did you want to fire robert mueller? >> fake news, folks, fake news. typical "new york times" fake story. >> the president's common proclamation, how might the latest reported episode fit into the big picture of the russia investigation? >> it adds up to a continuous pattern of interference, obstruction of justice. >> saving mueller, democrats want to make sure the president can never fire the special counsel. might republicans join them in that effort? plus nikki haley having to answer a question she probably never imagined she would get as u.s. ambassador to the united nations. details, next. >>> so new this morning, democrats launching efforts to protect special counsel robert mueller in the wake of reports that the president ordered his white house counsel to fire muler in june. "the new york times" and "washington post" reports senate democrats plan to include that legislation as part of continuing budget negotiations, with republican senator lindsey graham co-sponsoring yet another measure. and republican senator t

. >> is there any chance at all that the president will fire robert mueller? >> no, you know, i saw a couple of people talking about this this morning and the answer to that is no. >> we have no intentions of firing bob mueller. we're continuing to work closely and cooperate with him. >> is the president going to continue to cooperate? >> there's no way he's going fire him. >> there's no conversation about that whatsoever in the white house. >> you know, you covered this team. it's sort of awkward now that we know that back in june, the president went to his jeef counsel over there at the white house and told him i was i'm going to go ahead and fire him. >> that's right, not only did the president discuss this, the only reason he backtracked was because the whout counsel threatened to quit and it's this running story that the president often contradicts his own spokesm spokesman. white house officials, those who aren't the face of the white house, but every white house official, the president consistently contradicts them. we see that time and time again. but

you can't lie if you're in front of robert mueller's people. i think given the discrepancy about what the president says, i think he'll have to answer questions. this is hardly unprecedented. vag ronald reagan answered questions as well as bill clinton. >> he we've learned that there was a meeting of several hours last week. what light could he shed on this entire investigation? >> well, he would know the kind of pressure that is being placed. and that has been placed on people like rod rosenstein, people like jim comey. he was attorney general. when many of these conversations that are very, very questionable between president trump and jim comey occurred when it is possible and again, these are allegations that the president was pressuring the deputy attorney general. pressuring jeff sessions. we've seen the pressure on jeff sessions. i've never seen, i don't think any of us have ever seen a president openly humiliate his attorney general on twitter. if he's openly humiliating his attorney general twitter and calling him weak, i would like to

wanted robert mueller to be fired here. this is something the white house cannot move beyond here as he tries to address business matters here at davos. the reality here for the last six or seven months, the white house has said it is not true. the president did not want to get rid of robert mueller. this, of course, is not the case. so the white house lawyers are not commenting on this. they are saying they are cooperating with the office of special counsel. the reality here now is this potential obstruction of justice investigation still going on here is centering more on that moment last june when the president, we are now reporting, and told wanted the firing of robert mueller. christine. >> bombshell. you are right. the russian investigation -- every development casting a long shadow to davos, switzerland. jeff zeleny, thank you. >> joining us on skype is senior analyst areeva martin. thank you for staying up late. a lot to discuss regarding the president's desire to fire the special counsel robert mueller. his counsel

have met with robert mueller and his investigators. we don't know what happened at long-awaited meeting between the president's and special counsel's legal team but cnn helpfully notes, trump lawyers no longer puts dates on when they expected the mueller investigation to end after previously predicting thanksgiving, then christmas, then the aenend of this past ye. but there were two big developments today on the republican effort to block or stymie the mueller investigation or at least politically bloody the fbi enough so that the investigation may get hurt in the process. i said a lot happened tonight. a lot has happened today and into tonight. what we seem to be seeing from concerted effort by republicans to try to derail or stymie or somehow deride the mueller investigation, first thing was this surprise tonight. this moment. you remember that back in march, a week before trump fired all the u.s. attorneys, the attorney general jeff sessions recused himself from over seeing any investigation at justice department that pertained to t

and for robert mueller, this news wasn't news to him. does he actually have a resonating value in this administration? so i think he was befuddleed d that. >> the interesting point on obstruction is that in order to have obstruction, there is a pattern of activity. and the reporting that he was considering or that he ordered the firing of mueller who had only been in the position for about a month, i think, casts doubt on the purported reasons for firing director comey. in other words, the president has come up with a reason that they have given as pretext for firing director comey. the fact that now they were going to fire mueller as well indicates that what he was really trying to do was get at the investigation, and it wasn't for all these other pretextual reasons. >> what was not in the published pre text of why he fired comey was on camera and in an interview with lester holt is where he said it. >> it does not immunize you for prosecution for that charge. if you endeavor to do that, that can carry as much weight as the overall acco

lawyers have met with robert mueller and his investigators. now, we do not know what happened at this long awaited meeting between the president's legal team and the special counsel's legal team. but cnn notes, quote, the trump lawyers are no longer putting dates on when they expect the mueller investigation to end, after previously predicting an end by thanksgiving. and then christmas. and then by the end of this past year. so, you know, there were two big developments today on the republican effort to block or stymy the mueller investigation, or, at least to politically bloody the fbi enough so that the investigation may get hurt in the process. i said a lot happened tonight, a lot has happened today and into tonight. but on this, what we seem to be seeing in terms of a concerted effort by republicans to try to derail or stymy or somehow deride the mueller investigation, first thing i want to tell you about was this surprise tonight. this moment. you'll remember that back in march, actually, a week before trump fired all the u.s. attorneys,

mueller is something that you have to figure robert mueller will pay attention to. >> shepard: why wouldn't he? this matter of an interview with the president, much has been discussed on this the last couple days, whether he would be under oath or not. doesn't seem to matter. if you're being interviewed by the fbi, you have to tell the truth. aside from that, are they working on the rules for this sort of thing? do we know? >> absolutely. we're told that the president's lawyers are in active negotiations with representatives of the special couns counsel's office. there was some talk about written questions and answers. nobody thinks that mueller will sit still for that. if you have an answer, you'll want a follow up to the answers. so you couldn't do that. so they will sit down, you know, as you say, if they sit down in an interview, you don't have to put him under oath. any lie to the fbi is a crime as we saw because george papadopoulos and michael flynn pled guilty to lying to the fbi. there's talk about the length of the interview, there's talk about what subject matter, how broad the sc

has he been interviewed by robert mueller? >> caller: i'm not sure whether he is among the people who has gone in or not. most people who are in the white house or have left the white house have already been in for at least one round. >> this would have been something, i wonder if this would have been something that robert mueller himself was aware of previously or at that time. >> caller: i don't know the answer to that, so i don't want to speculate, if mcgann has been in already and it didn't come up, i feel confident he will be called back in and it will get raised. >> i think don mcgann has already testified, and i agreed with maggie. if it wasn't raised he'll be asked about it. don mcgann is a witness here in a lot of ways. don't forget, sally yates went to don mcgann about general flynn. and that was 18 days before flynn was eventually fired. >> he was the point person. she was -- >> he was the point person. and we've been told throughout this year that don mcgann and the president have had a very uneasy relationship, an

mueller. >> why do you want to fire robert mueller? >> fake news, folks. fake news. >> "new york times" fake story, it's fake news, it's not true. the best we can ascertain is along the following narrative. we first started looking into this into the beginning of june, the newsmax ceo and a friend of president trump set on pbs about the president was "weighing" whether to fire robert mueller. i was told at the time that the president had a conversation with don mcgahn and other people in which the president said something to the effect of i have the authority to fire him, i can fire him if i want to but the conversation didn't go much further than that. in the last 24 hours, i've been doing some more digging and talk to a few more people who said the conversation likely bridged into the idea of should we think about getting rid of mueller and the president saying don mcgahn, could you go talk to rod rosenstein over at the justice department who is the person in charge of the special counsel and take his temperature on it to which don m

president, why did you fire robert mueller? why did you want to fire robert mueller? >> fake news. typical "new york times" fake stories. >> i'm sure the president does regular interviews with the "new york times." ty cobb, the white house's lawyer in chief, in part of russia-related matters, simply said, quote, we decline to comment out of respect for the office of the special counsel and its process. mueller still in place, of course, as special counsel, reportedly learned of the incident through interviews with white house staff and document requests. joining me is white house correspondent kristen welker. kristen, i mean, i'm not even going to say, do we know why robert mueller -- i mean, excuse me -- president trump wanted to fire mueller, but why did he back down on it? >> reporter: well, he backed down because his white house counsel, don mcgahn, refused to do it, steph. he essentially argued that it would be a catastrophe for the trump presidency, to fire robert mueller. he said he wasn't going to do it. i think that ultimately allowed cooler heads to prevail and the presid

robert mueller is special counsel. i'm not familiar with any conversation that i've had with the president intimidating to fire robert mueller. chris: would congress object to make it harder or impossible to fire him, is that something the president would sign? >> i don't know. chris: the president responded this week to report that is the special is investigating him on the issue of obstruction of justice, here he is. >> there's no collusion. now they are saying, o well, did he fight back, fight back -- [inaudible] >> it's obstruction. chris: what does the president think the difference is between obstruction and fighting back? >> i don't know, i'm not involved in those conversations regarding the investigation. you know the president has been frustrated and felt that there's been billions of dollars of taxpayers spent and no evidence of collusion. he recognizes that something that's been underreported the day before he accepted position of robert mueller, so i'm sure there's concern that obviously he was going to be

that has criminal consequences if you do it before robert mueller. they may try to go by question and answer. that's a safer way to go. written question and answer that answers can be reviewed. putting the president in a room with experienced prosecutors, i think that's fraud material. >> michael zeldon is joining us, one of robert mueller's former aides, legal analyst for us here at cnn. michael zeldon, to you, now knowing that comey sat and was interviewed by the mueller team at some point last year -- and we have talked many, many times about those memos and how he says that trump was asking for comey's loyalty and how the president was pressuring him not to -- you know, to drop the flynn investigation, take us behind those closed doors. what would that back and forth questioning look like? again, how would it have differed from what we saw on capitol hill? >> previous guests are correct that the setting is much more controlled with mueller than it is on the hill. comey testimony that mueller will want to get is all about the white house conversat

what was he telling robert mueller? >> well, ken is exactly right. the memos jim wrote after his days with the president are mighty important to bob mueller's team. so the mueller team is going to want to go through them line by line, word by word. what did the president say, was anyone else there, what did you say in response, what did you do, if anything. it's really important for the prosecutors to essentially validate the comey memos, because the memos are at the heart of some of the most important conversations in this case. >> how do they validate the memos? can you do more than he said/he said? you have james comey writing those contemporaneous reports, saying the president said one thing and you have the president of the united states coming out and saying i absolutely never said that, there are tapes, james comey responding obviously oh, lordy, i hope there are tapes. so far we haven't found out that there are any tapes of that meeting, but if there are not, what does robert mueller do with he said/he said versus the former fbi director and

again, this is not the end game for robert mueller. he does not want to focus exclusively on whether you obstructed justice but what it is you were trying to find out. that's not been fully panned out. >> so, phil, i want you to listen to the three reasons why president trump at the time was thinking of firing mueller, thinking that he had a conflict of interest. this is according to the "new york times" reporting. first, a dispute over fees at trump national golf club in virginia that caused mule ter end his membership there, two, that mueller worked for the law firm that represented jared kushner and what do you think about that reasoning and those potential conflicts of interest? >> i don't think those fly. there is only one issue to focus on here, jakijake, and that is issue of intent. he never fired anybody. in these investigations, it's very difficult to figure out what somebody thinks. for example, i go back to terrorism investigations, which is what i worried about. we would have subjects say i would researching al qaeda online

. >> you considering firing robert mueller? >> no, i'm not. >> that is a sample from the president's denials. here are those from his administration. there have been several. our graphics department working overtime to get them in one screen. are these the actions of an innocent man? if you want to and you should want to believe in the innocence of the president of the united states, are these the actions of an innocent man? >> certainly many will conclude they're not. that becomes a problem. what is his credibility? if he is innocent, many say let the investigation complete. >> he had said that. >> he has said that. then these stories come out behind the scenes he is trying to stop it. he is trying to discredit it constantly. it looks bad. >> what is his agenda? he is talking about regulatory reform and tax cuts. immigration plan dropped overnight. what does it mean for the agenda? >> i think it hurts it because it undermines his credibility with both parties and consumes the news. we have a bit of momentum after the tax cut a

but robert mueller is going to know the answer to that. and i think one of the questions here is what happens to rod rosenstein. we know from our white house colleagues over there that he and fbi director wray met with chief of staff john kelly today. and the second question is what does this mean for robert mueller. >> well, they're surrounding him. let me go to barbara mcquade on this, u.s. attorney in michigan, msnbc contributor. thank you, barbara. look at the pattern. it is a slow motion saturday night massacre. they're going after everybody involved in the probe, the russia probe. >> yeah. it makes me think of that comment that president trump made a while back where he talked about how frustrated him that he couldn't control the department of justice. and he admired priors attorneys general who he believed were there to protect the president. it seems like that's what he is after in leadership as opposed to the independence that we've traditionally seen at the department of justice. you know, there is a concept in criminal law calle

mueller's team and robert mueller himself out to give all of us a reason to take this action. there is nothing downward or no down side about passing this legislation. and it would help send a message to the president that there will be a firestorm. that there will be no tolerance for him firing special counsel. >> do you believe the president will sit down with the special counsel, robert mueller to be asked questions under oath? >> i think he will. he said he will. he said he's looking forward to it. the legislation that we've offered i want to emphasize is bipartisan. i think there will be a bipartisan demand that he sit down with the special counsel. i think there will be a bipartisan firestorm if he, in effect, stone walls the investigation. >> senator richard blumenthal, thanks very much. >> thank you. >> and outfront next, billy graham granddaughter says evangelical leaders are wrong to forgive trump for alleged a fair with a porn star, that next. sitting in gum. and walking into a glass door. but for everyone else, there's directv. for #1 rated customer satisfaction ov

president, did you seek to fire robert mueller. >> fake news, folks. >> the plot to fire mueller. >> typical "new york times" fake stories. >> tonight new concerns the threat to the special counsel hasn't passed. and yet, one republican is backing off his plan to protect robert mueller and what all this means for the russia investigation. >> i haven't given it any thought. >> then. >> yeah, maybe donald trump wanted to fire the special counsel for conflict. does he not have the right to raise those questions. >> can trump tv sustain the president through his latest crisis. >> the president says it's fake news. what do you think? do you even care? >> the finance chief for the republican party faces new allegations of sexual misconduct. >> steve has always got advice. >> when all-in starts right now. >> his advice i like to listen to. >> good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. the president just landed back in washington from his trip to davos. he returns to yet more questions about his actions toward special counsel robert mueller's investigation. the president was attending the

the firing of special counsel robert mueller. president trump: fake news, folks. robert: one of the president's confidante's, news max c.e.o. chris ruddy, told the "pbs newshour" last june, that mr. trump was actively considering firing mueller. >> i think he's considering perhaps terminating the special counsel. i think he's weighing that option. robert: and there are new reports that at least 20 current and former white house staffers have spoken with mueller's team. it all comes as the senate intelligence committee prepares to release transcripts of interviews with donald trump jr. and jared kushner. some republican critics of the russia probe are raising questions about the integrity of the f.b.i. the democratic response to reports of a secret club of anti-trump agents -- >> paranoia, delusion. why? robert: plus, president trump strikes a more inclusive tone on his america-first doctrine. president trump: the america first does not mean america alone. robert: we will get insights and analysis from brian bennett of the "los an

president trump won't say if he'll sit down for an interview with the special counsel robert mueller but as it seems unlikely, insisting many times that there was no collusion with russia. the president is calling on republicans to, quote, take control of the russia probe. >>> we need the wall. just a day after telling a bipartisan group of lawmakers that he'll sign any immigration deal they come up with, the president backs off, saying he won't sign a bill without fund for a border wall. >>> performance art. the president invites the news media into his cabinet meeting where he praises his own performance a day earlier. >>> clearly ignored. a senate report warns that russian hackers are still targeting u.s. elections and that the u.s. needs to boost its defenses. a key lawmaker says a u.s. president has never so clearly ignored such a grave threat to national security. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> this is cnn breaking news. >>> breaking news. president trump refuses to say if he's willing to be interviewed by the special counsel robert mueller's team but say

mueller's ousting. >> robert mueller needs to go. >> mueller needs to go, 100%. >> the president should actually demand that he resign. the american people should demand that he resign. >> mueller has a legal obligation to recuse himself. >> the deep state has its clutches in, the clinton machine has their clutches in and it's been the special impeachment counsel from the beginning. >> mueller needs to get out. >> get out. that last line actually is key, this is amassing, you're going to have to see this, when this news broke last night, first sean hannity denies it, then he struggles to process it and think it through on live tv. and he goes from the denial to arguing that trump has the authority and then he says, well, actually, maybe, um, this is a story best dealt with after a 24-hour pause. >> at this hour, the "new york times" is trying to distract you. they have a story that trump wanted mueller fired sometime last june and our sources, and i have checked in with many of them, they're not confirming that tonight. and the president's attorney dismissed the story and says, nope, no

are you considering firing robert mueller? >> no, not at all. >> are you considering firing mueller? >> no, i'm not. >> so, john, his staff and his attorneys also denied it at least five other times. yet we know now that's not true. >> it is not true. and this all will be used or could be used against him at some point. it's going to come up when he is questioned by mueller, asking him how could he make a public statement that is 180 degrees from the truth when he clearly has evidence that the exact opposite happened. his staff is complicit as well. whether this is sufficient to join a conspiracy to obstruct is not clear, but it's certainly ooh willingness to play along. we need more evidence to see if they actually agreed to conspire. but this is serious stuff, don. and it's a remarkable breaking story because it does show and complete the pattern that we've been seeing. >> yeah. carl, i've got to ask you, and i asked in the tease before the break, did he learn nothing? did he learn nothing from the blowback from firing james

uno de ellos trabajaba para el equipo de robert mueller. el presidente le dijo a un grupo de periodistas que estÁ ansioso de hablar con robert mueller, pero dijo que esperara los consejos de sus abogados. presentadora: la prÓxima elecciÓn de los gobernadores en california-- jaime garcÍa tiene un adelanto . jaime: en tan sÓlo 12 meses, el procurador general de california ha demandado cinco veces al gobierno del presidente donald trump por sus polÍticas en inmigraciÓn, cuidados de salud y medio ambiente. >> el nÚmero uno en la confrontaciÓn es inmigración. el estado de california estÁ lleno de san doris para inmigrantes. jaime: con los tres principales puestos polÍticos de california representados por polÍticos demÓcratas, no es extraÑo que cuatro de los seis principales precandidatos que buscan labor natural estado en noviembre se demÓcratas y anti trump. >> aquÍ tuvimos a un donald trump hace 25 aÑos. jaime: una silla para cada uno de los precandidatos se ha colocado para el foro organizado por univisiÓn y la colisiÓn ma

. >> keeping them honest, because this is exactly what robert mueller could be considering. we show you the timeline of what some may call -- the list is certainly long and exhausting, item one, january 27 of last year, fbi director james comey had dinner with the president. the president first asked him if he wanted to stay on as fbi director, then he said loyalty, i expect loyalty. >> and you have never had any of those requests before from anyone else you've worked with in the government? >> no, and at that point i'm director of the fbi, the reason they created a 10-year term, so that they don't feel like they political politically owe anyone. >> was that on the president's mind when he demanded loyalty from director comey? february 13, national security advisor michael flynn is forced out. at the time it was for lying about ties to russia, that of course was not true, he has since pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. in a meeting in the oval office, the president sends everyone out of the room except for director comey, then comey says the president tells him this about f

>> 4,000 miles away today donald trump denied it. >> why did you fire robert mueller, why did you want to fire mueller? >> fake new, folks. "new york times" fake stories. >> but it is not just the "new york times," it is the "washington post," nbc news and fox news. something sean hannity had a hard time swallowing last night. >> at this hour the "new york times" is trying to distracts you. how many times has the "new york times" and others gotten it wrong? so we have sources aknd i conf m confirmed that, yeah, maybe donald trump wanted to fire the special counsel for conflict. does he not have the right to raise those questions? you know, we'll deal with this tomorrow night. we have a shocking video of the day to bring you, this comes to us from arizona where you see that red suv? high speed police dhas. >> nothing to see here. let's look at a car crash instead. that was priceless. just ahead, new jersey democratic senator cory booker joining me to talk about this, but first let's get to our team of reporters. let's start with julia ainsley. layout the time line for us. what was happe

president, why did you fire robert mueller? why did you want to fire robert mueller? >> fake news, folks. fake news. typical "new york times," fake story. >> so fake news to the president, maybe. but to be clear, this is a story confirmed by a wide swath of organizations with many sources, including nbc. as you can see from the headlines that are there. what's more, it's one more piece of a puzzle that could indicate the special counsel may be pursuing a potential obstruction of justice charge. joining me, ken dilanian, intelligence and national security reporter. ken, tell us more about this report and how it could fit into a potential obstruction of justice charge. >> good afternoon, chris. a source with firsthand knowledge confirmed to nbc news that president trump ordered the firing of robert mueller back in june but backed off when his white house counsel threatened to resign. as you just saw there, president trump has called the story fake news but importantly, the white house has not issued any kind of specific denial of this story. this alleged firing happened

so should the president to sit down with robert mueller? joining us with reaction, she is the host of "justice." she also fills in on the show. she's a very nice person and a great lawyer. how are you? >> the answer to your question is very simple. the president should not sit down, he should not agree to do it. you and i both know the president. he said there is no collusion. i don't believe that his lawyers have agreed that he will do it and he said it is subject to the lawyers. let me tell you why. number one, why should he answer questions about the firing of comey, if he has a constitutional right to fire hi him? >> sean: shouldn't that be his answer if, in fact, he goes? >> yes. it's never going to end. i know federal prosecutors are going to go -- >> sean: i gotta stop you. i've talked to my friends that are attorneys. they say to me -- i brought the scenario on, what if i'm being interviewed. he says, you say no, and then you got to be willing to sit there. i am used to it in my life, no dead air ever. but i will tell you, i'd be ab

robert mueller is clearly able to proceed. and congress once again should proceed with an investigation. it is not in the interest of republicans to cover up for this. it will not seven their interest in the 2018 november elek -- elections and they need to investigate and convene hearings as in the watergate matter to determine whether there is abuse of power by the president of the united states. >> thank you both. >>> and up next, breaking today, the sexual harassment allegations against a top adviser on hillary clinton's 2008 campaign and reports that clinton rejected a call from her own campaign manager to fire him. >>> and late. >> congress demanding an investigation into how larry nassar as able to prey on some gymnasts for so long. we'll be joined by a senate leading that effort. needles. essential for vinyl, but maybe not for people with rheumatoid arthritis. because there are options. like an "unjection™". xeljanz xr. a once daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. xe

why did you want to fire robert mueller? >> fake news. typical new york times fake story. >> that's what they called a non-denial denial. joining us tonight for an exclusive interview with his first public reaction is the author of the best selling book in the world right now, michael wolff. the author of fire and furry. inside the trump white house. michael, first of all, thank you very much for coming back. >> thank you for having me. >> your book is filled, filled with versions of the president complaining about the special prosecutor making references to wanting to fire the special prosecutor. the special prosecutor has talked to reince priebus. he's going to talk to steve bannon who you spent a lot of time talking to. he's been talking to many of your sources in this book. has the special prosecutor reached out to you to talk to you about either the firing of the special prosecutor or any other elements of this story? >> he has not. >> if the special prosecutor does want to interview you, will you cooperate with that? >> good questio

it's a possibility he might decide to fire special counsel robert mueller. let's take that to the panel. would that be a wise move for the president? >> not at all and i don't think the president is going to do that. hopefully this investigation is going to get wrapped up quickly here and move on. i think it's kind of an unfortunate sign at this stage we have an important state of the union address and it's easy to have the rumor. it's a big night, but the president may fire him. i think, at a certain point, we need to push back. unless someone is going to put their name on it, don't give it that much ox gin. >> the russia story is the scandal that is eating the trump administration. this is one part. this is the best part for the president. he needs to tell our country how we are doing and where we are going. he is feeding this and his colleagues and friends and allies on the hill are feeding this, with this nonsense on the hill with the memo. the republican memo and wait a week for the democrats rebuttal. all that is building toward making a case for firin