investigation are typically announced, not by bob mueller, but by rod rosenstein because you see bob mueller is an officer of the justice department, accountable to the attorney general. and in that structural reform, a good reform, i think we are structurally consistent with our separation of powers in a much better place. it does carry with it certain things such as the president will not be indicted, unless the department of justice changes it's fairly long held and well articulated constitutional view. i don't agree with that as a matter of constitutional law. i respect it as a personally reasonable condition. and since i have the floor -- there's a yellow light on -- i use the hypothetical in the wake of clinton versus jones which i think is another example of president clinton's contempt for the rule of law. so he took the position, we'll recall very vividly, that the president should not be subjected to civil process throughout his tenure as the president of the united states. and the supreme court of the united states rejected that proposition 9-0. with a very thoughtful conc

that brings the event you bob mueller and expansion of jurisdiction. the regulations are very clear, when you parse the words of the regulations under which bob mueller was appointed, you cannot have a rogue prosecutor out just decided i think i would like to look into this and i would like to look into that, without the check. it is very clear under the regulations that bob mueller must have a specific approval of rod rosenstein as the acting attorney general in order to open some new avenue of investigation, of inquiry. what was not understood as i try to describe in the book, this is just alluded the american people, and so perhaps we can take part of the blame for not engage in vigorous enough education that that wasn't our job. it was really caucuses job with the justice department's job to engage in the public education function, not ours. but in any event it was absolutely clear under the independent counsel statute that for expansion of investigation authority, the independent counsel had to go to the attorney general of the united states. ther

and that brings me to bob mueller. the regulations are very clear. when you parse the regulations under which bob mueller was appointed, you cannot have a rogue prosecutor just deciding saying i would like to look into this or that without a check. it is very clear under the regulations that bob mueller must have the specific approval of rod rosenstein in order to open some new avenue of investigation of inquiry. what was not understood, as i tried to describe in the book, just alluded the american people and take part of the blame in not engaging in education, but hat wasn't our job but the justice department to engage. not ours. but it was absolutely clear under the independent counsel statute that for an expansion of investigative authority, the independent counsel had to go to the attorney general of the united states. there was that check in the statute itself. and then the attorney general would make the assessment and hers, was, i believe, not reviewable. and we can talk about that and there was no check to say no. we are not going to expand t

peter carr, chief spokesman to bob mueller. in a moment, i'll be joined exclusively by a law professor who was also approached in the smear against mueller. i begin with prosecutors, former watergate prosecutor nick ackerman and former federal prosecutor john flannery. nick, when you look at this unusual announcement and this unusual plot, what does it tell you that mueller's office is speaking on the record and referring it to the fbi tonight? >> i think this is very important for the public to know. i mean, this is a situation where everything has been thrown at robert mueller. they have tried to undermine him through the congress. they have tried to undermine the manafort jury deliberation. you had one juror even referring to the whole investigation as a witch hunt, copying basically what giuliani and trump have been saying. they have tried everything. so it does not surprise me that they would go to this length of trying to obstruct this entire investigation by going directly after mueller. >> you said they. tonight, we're

given all of the discussion about whether president trump will or even could fire bob mueller, it is perhaps ironic that present grant, in fact, fired henderson because he thought that henderson had made statements about grant to a grand jury which he considered to be impertinent. it's up to the justice. if that was his intent, , it did not work. following intense criticism, grant appointed a new special prosecutor, james brodhead, and investigation continued. it's of course important to note that special counsels are not the same as independent counsels. pursuant to the ethics in government act, an independent counsel is appointed by a three-judge panel of the d.c. circuit court of appeals and was truly independent from the justice department. for all intents and purposes, an independent counsel was the attorney general when he came to rethink the specific matter that led to his or her appointment. that is not the case for special counsels, at least in theory. the days of the independent counsel ended, at least for now, when the act expired in 1999 and was not reauthorized. the robe

>> that's no one more by the book than bob mueller. and the fact that there's any public conversation about roger stone's role at all, i'm sure has nothing to do with mueller or his team who are famous for not leaking. it's a boat that never leaks a drop. i'm sure to the frustration of many of the reporters that work with you. what they are going to do is follow up on things like as they have revealed, they know a russian intelligence operative fed information that russian intelligence operatives stole from the clinton campaign and others to wikileaks. and they know that wikileaks released that information in order to harm the campaign. they know at the time that that occurred, there was a multimillion dollar campaign to undermine our elections, and they know that was directed by military and intelligence operatives in russia. so of course they're going to follow up to see who might have been if contact with those russian military and intelligence operatives. >> absolutely. i think what's so important about this is, remember that roger

except for up to now, when you have bob mueller. so it's a tough line for him to walk, the fact that he got called in, whatever this probe does or does not about. here is a class in his role in the campaign. it is roger stone who treated what they have on the others as a real proliferation. >> mimi, we've established you can't be intimidated, so i'll ask you, as i ask you all the time. where does it tell you this investigation is right now? >> they are still very clearly focused on stone. they are also listening to people like steve bannon. they're trying to figure out when stone said publicly. this is a way of testing what he said in confidence. that also tells us about what knowledge -- possibly what knowledge people had wherein these e-mails released when they were released by roger stone, and it could also be people in the pain that he created. i need you to talk about it. if americans are willing to take about what russia has done to the united states and what their role is in our politics. >> the heart of this question and the

what is bob mueller want from an interview with the president and what does bob mueller need from an interview with the president. what he wants, i suggest, is more evidence and direct evidence of the president's intent when he was engaged in certain conduct. that is when you asked director comey to lay off flynn, what was your purpose? what was your intent? what was your motive? when you went onto fire director comey, what was your intent, purpose and motive? it's always better to have direct evidence rather than circumstantial evidence. i think that's what bob mueller wants and the other thing that he wants is to give the president an opportunity to have his side heard which i think is going to be important once bob public scho mueller tips his hand and discloses his findings. then he'll be able to say i gave the president the opportunity to be heard. what does bob mueller need out of an interview, i suggest he needs relatively little because hesita he's elected up so much information about what the president has done. every tweet is evidence of his intent that koulcould be used ag

that's not bob mueller. it's laughable for two reasons. one, it's not the white shirt, starched shirt, straight arrow boy scout that we all know and love, but rather it's laughable because of the sloppiness with which this hoax was perpetrated. if you read the details into it where business phones are coming back to somebody's mom, and there are businesses created, llcs created in the last two weeks to kind of perpetrate this fraud, and linked in accounts with actors' photos on them, you can see there is an act of desperation as we approach the point where they can't find any real dirt on bob mueller, so they decided to do what desperate people do. they'll pay for what they need, and that's what we're seeing tonight. >> ashley parker, adam goldman at the other newspaper, the "new york times," wrote, the plot appeared to be the latest and one of the more bizarre in a string of comments by reporters as a hoax and a witch hunt. he has secured six guilty pleas and a trial conviction in the 17 months he has overseen the investigation. that is a

mueller regularly, calling bob mueller a tool of the establishment, the exact same lang wanl a language and attacks the president of the united states uses. >>> nikki haley gets the last laugh. that's coming up. as their spokesperson because apparently, i'm highly likable. see, they know it's confusing. i literally have no idea what i'm getting, dennis quaid. that's why they're making it simple, man in cafe. and more affordable. thank you, dennis quaid. you're welcome. that's a prop apple. i'd tell you more, but i only have 30 seconds. so here's a dramatic shot of their tagline so you'll remember it. esurance. it's surprisingly painless. so you'll remember it. i never thought i'd say this but i found bladder leak underwear that's actually pretty. always discreet boutique. hidden inside is a super absorbent core that quickly turns liquid to gel. so i feel protected and pretty. always discreet boutique. whooo! want to take your next vacation to new heights? tripadvisor now lets you book over a hundred thousand tours, attractions, and experiences in destinations around the world! like new

you go back and look at the indictments bob mueller announced months ago. this one specifically would relate to the social media activity. that's provided a foundation for other offices inside the justice department. the eastern district of virginia. >> is he telling us i've got other offices that can do this work? it doesn't matter if i'm here or not. >> that can do this work and also that there will be ongoing investigations into russian interference. he's laid the foundation here. he's shown the justice department how to bring these cases. what the elements of this conspiracy are. and now other offices inside the justice department and other offices inside the fbi can continue that work related to trump or not related to trump after he's gone. >> and to echo matt's point, he transferred those cases after he indicted them to the national security division and said keep go chasing these russians and that's what they did by bringing this case. >> robert mueller is one of the smartest people i'm sure that will ever serve his country. and this seems to be the

and how are you certain bob mueller is looking at this now? >> well, i was told -- the investigation started in the southern district of new york in the cyber division. before donald trump was elected, it was august two years ago when politico was doing a big, lengthy piece on catfishing, there was somebody looking to get information on me and other republicans, pretending to be a lawyer representing big republican donors. the catfishing of me began the day that i publicly confirmed "the washington post" piece that trump did have a super pac in the primary, because i had seen lewandowski lied about it. we realized that's when the catfishing started. politico was getting ready to publish in august 2016 while they were calling around team trump was when the hacking took place. and before there was -- before it was published. at that point i had been working with the u.s. attorney's office, at that point i think the fbi had been watching it -- >> you don't know who hacked? >> at this point, no. >> but you were told my -- i'm going to lead you alo

we saw the exkrush nacruciating with which bob mueller and his team charged 13 russians. it seems like we may have underestimated the capacity of the fbi and bob mueller to really get right down to the keyboard in understanding what people did and when? >> that's right, and it's kind of amazing that here we are towards the end of your hour, many great topics today, but there is a case today that shows that the russians are spending millions of dollars to undermine not our last election, but the election that's about to come up. >> 19 days away. >> and it's barely catching people's attention, and that's a problem. we're at war. it's a war that's being fought digitally, but it's on our democracy and our country. outstanding work by the prosecutors, agents -- >> so from nbc report, the charges filed friday in the eastern district of virginia accuse elena of st. petersburg of using social media platforms to create thousands of social media and e-mail accounts appearing to be from american persons. >> and you look at the details in this, they're amazing. they go and analyze ea

no one knows what bob mueller has done but bob mueller. that article i was very jealous of, it had great forensic work in it. it clearly -- rudy giuliani shut up around mid-august and he had been the only one telling this narrative we were negotiating a letter. bob mueller has subpoena power. he doesn't have to do a written agreement with them. if those questions are uncomfortable and get to things like the president's finances, which they appear to, which is the third rail of this. i don't think trump cares about collusion. you know, he recognizes that he might have obstructed justice. but the real heavy metal in this comes into any financial dealings he's had with russia and the extent to which that established quid pro quos between his tecampaign, his transition team or the white house. >> and he doesn't think he's capable of colluding because as everyone around the campaign said at the time we couldn't collude with our press office. but that is spin. if you look at "the washington post" story reporting on steve bannon being back in wit

even the president at this point has to know it would be politically unpalatable to fire bob mueller with no reason, so whether the president is involved or not, we don't know that. there's no reason to believe he is. but these folks on the far right are coming up with the sort of an allegation that if true would certainly be a reason to remove bob mueller. what this is is a thinly-disguised effort to derail an investigation that's inching ever more close to the oval office and the president. >> and donald trump was asked about that by laura ingraham. here he is talking about his new cozy relationship with rod rosenstein. let's watch. >> why are you and rod rosenstein such good friends now? it seems like everything's been settled. >> look, i do get along, but this should have never -- there should have never been a special counsel, in my opinion. it's an illegal investigation, totally. a lot of people agree with me. a lot of people on your show and on other shows agree. there was no collusion. there was never any collusion. >> the written questions to mueller's -- answers to his ques

on but bob mueller was u.s. attorney in san francisco. when the clinton administration came in, he was fired. that is the normal course of things. and bob mueller went to private practice for little. eric holder the term is u.s. attorney in washington d.c.. he asked holder if he could work on local murder cases in washington d.c.. this is a guy that had been u.s. attorney in san francisco. he came back to washington d.c. to be lined prosecutor. to prosecute murder cases in washington d.c.. this is a guy that just loves doing this. this is bad news for the president. right? you know, he loves doing it i think is generally a fair guy. but he doesn't. he's killer. he has you in his sight and he believes you've done something wrong, you can develop the evidence to take you, he will not hesitate. i've never known him to be unfair. i think one of the things that is evidence of that, though! oh, you've not seen that in the office. >> it's been incredible. >> no leaking. that doesn't happen by accident everybody. you ha

bob mueller in particular have spent 50 plus hours with paul manafort over the last 28 days. that to me -- a couple things. it suggests that november 8th, it's not done and they are waiting for the election is over to press the button or send it to rosenstein but i this isly it's interesting that donald trump including as recently as his interviews this week has emphasized that the manafort stuff has nothing to do with me. this is years ago and he's right that what paul manafort pled guilty to has nothing to do with him, dealing with ukraine, but bob mueller and his team aren't spending all those hours falk begun ukraine in the 2,000s, and in his plea deal, remember, it's absolutely hinged to the level of coordination and information that he provide so i would circle that with a big red pen saying that's a lot of time for one of the three people in the room at the june meeting in june 2006. don't underestimate that that's important. >> the former white house counsel has also spent a lot of time with robert mueller to where president trump where he signed off him signing down

bob mueller has been quietly proceeding along with exactly what it is he was tasked to do. the midterms are a marker where we expected he might come up with something and the president might use the midterms for some of the things he has been asking for like a shake up at the justice department. sort of out of the headlines but it is not halted in any way. >> it is true that robert mueller might not have no comparison in american life. the only thing frank left out was marine corps captain and became an army ranger for good measure because it was missing from his resume. how common are threats and smear attempts against public servants like prosecutors. >> not common at all. for the most part prosecutors, you know, in the department of justice and u.s. attorney office are untouched, you know, even the mob who is infamous for going after that because they don't go after prosecutors. they know that prosecutors are replaceable. you knock one off, you will get another by threats, violence or intimidation. here they were trying to do some sort of intimidation scheme or getting m

you have the saudis, which as somebody mentioned today, the saudis don't have a bob mueller. so one can question how can the saudis investigate themselves, and at the same time, a lot of reason to question turkish motives, as well. so it sort of puts the u.s. in a box. i do wonder what the purpose was for the secretary of state to make such a quick trip to both countries if, in fact, as susan said earlier, he didn't seem to walk away with any more information than he had, at least that he's publicly shared than he did before he went. >> bianna, if you take a look at the regional situation, clearly saudi arabia, a big loser right now. who are the winners right now, as a result of this uproar? the turks, arrival of saudi arabia, the iranians, a maj major rival of saudi arabia. they are looking at this and applauding. >> and we have the embargo coming up as well from the united states, the sanctions against the iranian oil that a lot of people had been warning the u.s. about putting all your eggs in one basket with this saudi leadership. because, of course, u.s.'s foreign policy

but it's bob mueller's job and his assignment to pick apart every detail to set up the timeline, to figure out what roger knew when he knew it. and i think that is going to be more important in the long run than perhaps we might have thought at the very beginning. >> betsy, final thought on all the above. >> the important thing to remember with the mueller probe is that it's simultaneously a criminal investigation and a counterintelligence investigation. there are two different silos. as these indictments come out, and if any future mueller indictments come out, they will cast significant light on the ways the russians try to influence the election process in 2016. however, mueller's also gathering an enormous amount of information that will never see the light of day because it's going to be related to the way the united states monitoring foreign espionage. much of it will be highly classified. as people are trying to make sense of the probe and figure out what impact it will have on american politics going forward, everything we know from mueller's team is very much going to be the tip o

bob mueller and his investigators don't seem to take endless meetings for no reason. if they think someone's worth ten hours, they do ten hours. what does it tell you that we're up to 50 hours here with cohen? i mean, what does that mean? >> that's a workweek with overtime. i spent about 10 hours with michael cohen. and he was largely unhelpful and didn't recall a lot of what was asked of him. but we still learned a lot in just 10 hours, where he was not cooperative. so i can only imagine what the mueller team has learned with 50 hours of full cooperation. >> and just to put a point on that, you're suggesting, you believe that he's far more forthright with mueller than he was originally when he was fighting with you guys? >> yeah, like many of the trump witnesses, you know, they had all learned the phrase, "i don't recall," and they tried to distance themselves as far away from donald trump as possible. you would think that they were all just, you know, pen pals and rarely interacted with each other from donald trump's body guy to his personal secretary, to michael co

but tonight, a different be trump lawyer is going on the record to reiterate that bob mueller has not had a subpoena issued for president trump and saying there's no litigation about that. an unusual statement that is rebutting an article that suggested that maybe the mystery grand jury witness could be trump. by prominent former prosecutor nelson cunningham who joins me tonight and appears to have gotten that answer out of the white house. i'm also joined by my wiley former counsel, msnbc legal analyst. nelson, your view of where mueller is headed here, and also this big mystery debate. >> well, this is a -- for those of us who are lawyers and who actually can follow the clues on these terse docket sheets, these docket sheets from the court of appeals show something pretty fascinating. remember last month or in august when rudy giuliani, out of nowhere, said we've almost finished writing our memo posing the subpoena? that was on september 15th. this mystery litigation was filed the next day, september 16th. it sat at the district court of d.c. for a month. it was disposed of on septe

bob mueller was the u.s. attorney in san francisco when the clinton administration came in. and bob mueller went to private practice for a little while, and so hated private practice that he called eric holder, at that time the u.s. attorney in washington dc, and he asked holder if he could work on local murder cases in washington d c. this is a guy who had been u.s. attorney in san francisco. he came back to washington dc to prosecute murder cases in washington dc. this is a guy who just loves doing this. that's both good news and bad news for the president, right? think he'sing it, i a generally fair guy, but he loves it. he's a killer. if he has you in his sights and believes you have done something wrong, he will envelop the information to take you. he won't hesitate. but i believe him to be fair. the last point i will make is, you haven't seen anything leak out of his office. no leaking. that doesn't happen by accident, everybody. you have to work hard to make sure people inside your office know, if they leak, they are out. that's another indication about how fair rober

it is moving.e everyday befa.m., bob mueller comes into the garage, slips in. witnesses will come in through the garage. they're bringing in every single white house official they can. meanwhile, they're talkinge through all fferent russian interference on social media. this is a sprawling, active investigation. >> now there's this new reporting om the "wall street journal," reporting that special counsel robert mueller's... >> narrator: some of mueller's investigation was finally going public. >> special counsel roblet muhas issued subpoenas... >> narrator: trump campaign foreign policy aide george papadopoulos pled guilty to lying about russian contacts. de>> ...that former trump george papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to making false... >>narrator: trump's campaig chairman, paul manafort, and his deputy rick gates were indicted on numerous charges ranging from conspiracy to money laundering. >> ...manafort and his former business associate rick gates were td to surrender to federal authorities this morning. >> narrator: mike flynn pled guilty to that charge o

everybody is nobody and bob mueller is everybody. joyce vance, thank you so much. >>> after the break, the georgia governor race is one of the closest races in the country and today democrat stacey abrams is calling on her opponent republican brian kemp to resign over reports of voter suppression. we will bring you that story next. it's kind of like playing your own version of best ball. because here, you can choose any car in the aisle, even if it's a better car class than the one you reserved. so no matter what, you're guaranteed to have a perfect drive. [laughter] (vo) go national. go like a pro. see what i did there? i'm still giving it my best even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin, i'm up for that. eliquis. eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. eliquis is fda-approved and has both. so what's next? seeing these guys. don't stop taking eliquis un

they go through this step and they will see what bob mueller wants next. >> great reporting. thank you so much. brooke is in florida. >> reporter: here we are. i'm brooke baldwin in mexico beach, florida. what has been referred to, and for good reason, look over my shoulder at ground zero of what was hurricane michael. category four and winds clocked at 155 miles an hour. that explains this. you see this mattress moved from who knows where. stories of homes being thrown because of not just the wind, but the 13-foot storm surge that i have seen within people's own homes. homes kicked about on the other side of highway 98 and search and rescue continues through the fire chief in just a second who has numbers for us as far as the status of mexico beach. the death toll overall across state lines is 13. it is expected to rise. as i mentioned, search and rescue is under way. convoys and first responders are going door to door looking for survivors and in some cases having to extricate certain people who are physically not able to get out of the homes themselves. sending others to h

bob mueller is, you know, an american hero, in my view. he carried -- while he was injured carries one of his fellow soldiers out of harm's way in vietnam. he was a serious prosecutor. we met with the mid-'80s. we were prosecuting in different places, and i have respected him throughout. >> mueller's an american hero. that's different from what you hear from the president. >> i think when ty cobb was at the white house and is no longer there, there is a mutual respect between the team of mueller and ty cobb, who had pre-existing relations. and they knew each other -- relationship. they knew each other well as attorneys, as prosecutors. and, so, i think all of that has sort of gone out the window now. and what you see and you saw ty cobb say i don't think it was a witch hunt. he kept the president from tweeting all the time. and then ty leaves and, boom, it is an onslaught of tweets about bob mueller. >> fascinating on every level. thank you very much. >> it is a national holiday to have gloria here with us. >> there you are. >>> doctors ar

they wouldn't be spending as much time talking to bob mueller if they did. elise: just from my vantage point as a foreign-policy adviser on senator rand paul's campaign, it was suggested and meeting with mike flynn might be an interesting thing for the senator to have during the campaign. i said that's not a good idea. these are usually the kind of say,e you have around who no, we are just not going to do that. it doesn't necessarily have to get to the high level. but you ended up dealing with a personnel issues because you took over the transition where nothing was happening at all, put these plans into place, and you have specific personnel recommendations. they -- michael lewis' book just came out, and there is a terrific scene talking about you on the couch sitting next to to donald trump at about 1:30 a.m. when pennsylvania is called, and the reality sunk in the donald trump is going to be president. he doesn't even have a concession speech, much less he himself hasn't thought about the transition. mr. christie: he didn't want to talk about the transiti

bob mueller has a job to do and a new jng will conduct investigations that have not been looked into that looked into. >> the majority of the new congress. we have three weeks to go. >> the president was asked also about his relationship with various world leaders. specifically, vladimir putin and kim jong un. listen to this exchange. >> why do you love that guy? >> look, look. i get along with him, okay? >> you love him. it's like an embrace. >> let it be an embrace. >> he's a bad guy. >> let it be whatever it is. i get along with him very well. i have a good energy and chemistry with him. >> do you agree that vladimir putin is involved in assassinations, in poisonings. >> probably he is. i don't know. i rely on them. it's not in our country. >> why not they shouldn't do this and this is a terrible thing. >> of course they shouldn't do it. >> he makes a point that it didn't happen on u.s. soil. >> the u.s. is at its most orderly when we are the moral beacon. over the last two years nj the north korean leader having a relative kill and vladimir putin's forces conduct a killing and th

>> i'll offer a real tribute to bob mueller. the answer to that question is an unequivocal no. you might imagine that mueller, given the stakes and given the performance of the house intelligence committee under chairman devin nunes, would treat us like we had small pox and, in fact, i think for that reason -- and also because it would be inappropriate in an independent a political investigation to have communication with a political body. we don't know much. in the early parts of this investigation that we did, we set up a mechanism to make sure that we didn't do an interview that would screw up his legal process. >> right. >> but beyond that, no, we've gotten nothing. >> congressman jim himes, thank you for taking time. >> thank you, chris. >> still ahead, robert mueller has his eyes on roger stone and his changing stories about his connection to wikileaks during the election. the latest on that coming up. >>> plus, mar-a-lago member turned diplomat. it's a good thing one thing two tonight. stick around. >>> thing one tonight, president trump's golf resort at mar-a-lago has b

mueller, doesn't know bob mueller. i don't understand why exactly she was pursued, why people thought if it is true that she would be prepared to say for relatively modest amount of money, ruin someone's reputation and put herself in the spotlight. it doesn't make a lot of sense to me, so i would like to see more facts come out. >> it is a very, very bizarre situation. let's talk about some of the other issues going on right now. >>> the president just a little while ago on the white house lawn as he was leaving the white house to head down to florida, he said that he hasn't been subpoenaed by robert mueller and his team, but do you expect the report from the special counsel in the coming months without an in-person -- not a written, but an in-person interview with the president? >> i do. i think the prospect -- we have been talking for some months, wolf, after, you know, weeks -- after weeks and weeks and weeks, that the president keeps maneuvering through his lawyers a way not to have an in-person interview. it is hi

bob mueller is a very deliberate and conscienceous person. my work with him as his deputy he is very methodical and thorough. and given that, i don't think he is basing his investigation timing on any external standards. he is doing a thorough job that is going to take it to the logical conclusion, whatever that is, on the timetable that makes sense from his perspective. recognizing the huge potential impact of the outcome of his investigation. but not defined by an artificial deadline. >> julie: mueller took the reigns as f.b.i. director about a week before the 9/11 attacks and he had to oversee some of the most significant changes in the century-old bureau. he is now special counsel. also politically speaking there is a lot of talk about political bias in this investigation with former f.b.i. members, texting things that were clearly biased. what would you say about robert mueller having to weed through the political bias that surrounds and engulfed the russia probe? >> right. i think the american people should have great confidence in know

it's going to be bob mueller and a federal grand jury. so his responses could ultimately be important, but you know, prosecutors rarely talk to targets in front of the grand jury. it's not unusual to not have that testimony. they don't need it. >> it's a great point. everybody is nobody and bob mueller is everybody. >>> the georgia governor's race is one of the closest races in the country. and today democrat stacey abrams is calling on her opponent brian kemp to resign over reports of voter suppression. we'll bring you that story next. e psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause seve

>> i mean literally without knowing what bob mueller has or what they're doing at this point in time i mean the fact that they have a meeting in the trump tower and emails are exchanges which express their love of receiving from russians the materials calculated to hurt the other kand tcandidate they're r against is prime -- i love the idea of getting dirt from these other people you don't have a meeting. where that goes in the larger legal sense? will all the sufficient qualifications be met? is there excull puatory evidence, i'm not suggesting what bob mueller should do but there's no doubt in my mind that trump campaign was anxious to get information from anywhere and the president went out and said i hope they release all the emails. i think nobody's fooled by the protss that you hear today. >> so many of us -- final question. so many of us are consumed with the kavanaugh process and the mueller probe, meanwhile the unemployment rate is at a 49-year low, 3.7% according to jobs dottau that came out friday morning. is that going to be the more significant issue to midterm voters? >

finally bob mueller handed them a bunch of questions because you can't claim executive privilege preinauguration. the lawyers are busy writing these responses like a tame home test they are doing for the president using documents submitted to bob mueller. the big question is, what are they going to do about obstruction and the question that comes after he became president? >> does this mean there is no way the president is going to sit for a face-to-face interview? >> not at all. in this arrangement, the special counsel reserved the right to go back and ask more questions and they are doing it in two parts. so it's hard for me to think on the obstruction issue when it goes to intent and what is in your mind at a certain point, the special counsel won't say we need to sit down with the president. they are taking it one step at a time. negotiations went on for a year and that was about

again, it's the reason why we need to insure that bob mueller conducts a full, fair, and comprehensive investigation, gets to the bottom of this whole sordid affair connected to the 2016 election, so that we can determine whether the cloud of illegitimacy that is hanging over 1600 pennsylvania avenue can be wiped away or whether there should be consequences. >> i want to ask you also about brett kavanaugh. the top democrat on your committee, jerry nadler, over the weekend, let me may you what he said. he said this, and this is if democrats regain control of the house. watch this. >> we would have to investigate any credible allegations certainly of purgy and other things that haven't been properly looked into before. >> if kavanaugh is confirmed, do you still want to investigate him? >> well, i think we're going to have to proceed on two tracks, and our primary focus is house democrats will be fighting for the people, lowering health care costs, increasing pay, cleaning up corruption in washington, d.c. that's what we promised the american people we would do should we be successful in

what we have seen in this investigation is first bob mule hae -- mueller has been silent. when rosenstein has announced the indictments and he's done the announcing of those indictments, he's only been talking about things that have already been put in the public through the indictments. here he is giving an interview on the kind of check in on the investigation which i find very unusual for him to be doing and it's one of dtwo things. he's trying to placate the president by saying i serve at the pleasure of the president and i can be terminated or he's sending a message saying that you are filling up the vacuum bob mueller has left with all of your rigged witch hunt talk and comments, but what we're doing is absolutely appropriate. it's completely independent and is following the evidence that we are learning. >> maybe he's also making the argument that what we're doing here isn't going to touch trump personally and that's what matters to him most, which takes me to michael cohen. we have learned from michael cohen that he is spending more time meeting with federal prosec

roger stone has always been one of bob mueller's biggest targets. i think roger stone himself has said he expects to be indicted by mueller perhaps before the year is over. this isn't altogether surpris g surprising. the fact of the matter is that roger stone seemed to have advanced knowledge of that, no matter how much he denies that he knew anything about what wikileaks was planning, he did say it's going to be podesta's time in the barrel in august of 2016. now we're learning from this wall street journal report that this conservative activist peter smith who committed suicide allegedly last year, he died after talking about his efforts to find hillary clinton's missing e-mails. he may have had advanced knowledge of this as well. now it's putting together these pieces. did peter smith talk to roger stone? we know that peter smith had a relationship with michael flynn. now it's all about connecting the dots. >> barbara, paul manafort, the former trump campaign manager appeared in federal court in virginia on friday. he was in a wheelchair, missing

. >> now, there is a shot in one of the pictures that we showed of bob mueller sitting with judge william webster, one of the former fbi and cia director to write an op-ed and i have never known him to write a piece like this and i have known him for 30 or 40 years with the op-ed saying "keep your hands off of bob mueller" in the washington post and the new york time s to just tell you how the republican establishment is really appalled by this as well. but we have not heard people speaking out from the congressional leaders certainly. >> well, when the history is written, the role of the republican establishment such as it is, and i would maybe even strike establishment, and say right-minded republicans who as you noeknow even better than i will say one thing off camera and off of the record, but say very different things when they know that the base for the leader of the base president trump is listening. there is a massive cognitive dissonance about what people believe privately is going on and what they are willing to the say publicly in order to the take on the president. john kenned

. >>> coming up -- >> i told myself if bob mueller appeared i would literally throw my hands forward and say arrest me. my hands forward and say arrest me -ice dispenser, find me a dog sitter. -okay. -and make ice. -pizza delivered. -what's happened to my son? -i think that's just what people are like now. i mean, with progressive, you can quote your insurance on just about any device. even on social media. he'll be fine. -[ laughs ] -will he? -i don't know. -will he? not long ago, ronda started here. and then, more jobs began to appear. these techs in a lab. this builder in a hardhat... ...the welders and electricians who do all of that. the diner staffed up 'cause they all needed lunch. teachers... doctors... jobs grew a bunch. what started with one job spread all around. because each job in energy creates many more in this town. energy lives here. brbut how will his dentured to thicope with... a steak. luckily for brad, this isn't a worry because he's discovered super poligrip. it holds his denture tight and helps give him 65% more chewing power. leaving brad to dig in and enjoy t

he also had a relationship with bob mueller that went back. i think there was mutual respect and clearly listening to ty cobb yesterday, i think it still exists. now, he doesn't think it's a witch hunt. he didn't go out and say i this i the president is guilty of something. he doesn't believe it. he doesn't believe that. but it was interesting to hear him disagree with the president. >> let me explain, rebecca, why he's the former white house -- >> exactly. these are what you would call in a marriage irrec samable differences, washington, that is not going to fly with trump and certainly you need people on your team who believe in what you are doing and what you are saying publicly. it would be hard for ty cobb to be in that position with those doubts and with those feeling, very strong feelings about robert mueller. >> it would be hard for him with the president tweeting every day. i think that's a big difference. i don't think he thinks mueller has been perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but, you know, he tried to and reigned in the

. >> i will say, i don't think bob mueller is leaking. ken dilanian would know better than i. >> somebody leaked this whole conversation about him who probably had the objective to get trump to fire him. and so you've got to say who did that? who is leaking the things -- there's always a leak before mueller announces something. who is doing that? probably not bob mueller but there are a lot of people work ing with him. >>> still to come, one country, two very different takes on thursday's testimony. today is the day you're going to get motivated... get stronger... get closer. start listening today to the world's largest selection of audiobooks on audible. and now, get more. for just $14.95 a month, you'll get a credit a month good for any audiobook, plus two audible originals exclusive titles you can't find anywhere else. if you don't like a book, you can exchange it any time, no questions asked. automatically roll your credits over to the next month if you don't use them. with the free audible app, you can listen anytime, and anywhere. p

. >> i think beneath the surface, bob mueller continues to look at u.s. persons who could have worked with the russians, but we're 18 days away from the election. i don't expect any indictments until after the election. but just in the last few weeks, he's had paul manafort, he's had under grand jury subpoena people around, roger stone. it looks like this is still a white-hot investigation, zeroing in on cooperation with u.s. persons and the russians. >> as you point out, this russian woman and her team had an operating budget of about $35 million. what does that say to you? >> again, it shows the determination of the russians, but also that they believe they still have a permissive operating environment in the united states, because donald trump is not really confronting them or taking any measures in the united states to counter them. and this is all the more reason we must protect bob mueller's investigation, because i don't think this would have been caught or stopped by anything else that the president would have done. this is special counsel, you kn

. >> i told myself that if bob mueller appeared, i would literally just throw my hands forward and say, just arrest me. ♪ when heartburn hits... fight back fast with tums smoothies. it starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue... and neutralizes stomach acid at the source. ♪ tum tum tum tum... smoothies... only from tums not long ago, ronda started here. and then, more jobs began to appear. these techs in a lab. this builder in a hardhat... ...the welders and electricians who do all of that. the diner staffed up 'cause they all needed lunch. teachers... doctors... jobs grew a bunch. what started with one job spread all around. because each job in energy creates many more in this town. energy lives here. breathe right strips are designed to simply when nighttime nasal congestion closes in, open your nose right back up. ♪ breathe better. sleep better. breathe right. you need insurance. but it's not really something you want to buy. it's not sexy. or delicious. or fun. but since you need both car and home insurance, why not bundle them with esurance and save up to 10%? wh

department of justice as a result of the bob mueller investigation yes we haven't seen any evidence yet this is simply an indictment being handed down by the u.s. department of justice no evidence yet presented. and surprisingly the story has hijacked western headlines given it contains all the latest clicked big words russia g.r.u. and hacking but former british intelligence officer animation advises to be careful with mainstream media claims about cyber attacks ever since the whole russia gate juggernaut started in america in the wake of the donald trump election assertions of the major repeatedly on many different fronts and because they can never be proven one way or the other they then just become the the the media narrative and therefore the political narrative we have a situation now where people to stress the media they are worried about what the spies might be feeding into the media process and i think that has particular accelerated since the lies that took us into the iraq war in two thousand and three were exposed whatever is being said today if anything comes out it will pr

. >>> this morning the president is not ruling out an interview with special counsel bob mueller. listen. >> mr. president, there's no collusion, but there's no conclusion either. so -- intentionally laying out now, and is there anything -- have you thought again about sitting down for an interview or written questions or any type of hybrid approach there? >> well, it seems ridiculous that i'd have to do it, when everybody says there's no collusion. i'll do what is necessary to get it over with. >> former u.s. attorney and msnbc legal analyst joyce vance joins us now. the president says i will do what is necessary to get the interview over with. what's your reaction to that? >> i think we've heard that before, stephanie, and i think bob mueller is still waiting on his interview, so i wouldn't read too much into that just yet. >> the president responded to the reporting out there that says he spoke directly to jeff sessions chief of staff matt whittaker about replacing sessions, and i want to share what president trump said. >> i can tell you, matt whittaker is a great guy. i mean,

maybe because he was inside, as politico reported, inside meeting bob mueller. the lawyers were later seen grabbing lunch and headed back in. i would have loved to have been a fly on that wall. that does it for us tonight. rachel will be back in the chair >> i'm just trying to picture paul manafort under cover. is that a beard? what is that? thank you, joy. >>> the fbi investigation of brett kavanaugh has more to work with tonight including this statement by kavanaugh's yale roommate. >> the other roommate said he never saw him blackout. he was with him when he got home at night and saw him when he woke up. your response to that in. >> i unfortunately believe that probably my now ex-friend is lying.

the seven russians who have been charged have already been charged in previous indictments from the bob mueller investigation so these are individuals that have already been named by the department of justice in previous indictments so that's what we're looking at this is all that alleged the indictments are coming down from the department of justice. thank you for bringing us that report. now as caleb mentioned the u.s. has indicted seven people for work spells from the netherlands according to this morning's hearing has more on the findings of the dutch and u.k. investigations these are four russians that were recently expelled from the netherlands for attempting to hijack the o.p.c. w. in april while it was dealing with the investigation into the poisoning of gay and . they released images of these four suspects in the netherlands their diplomatic passports and at the very same briefing briefing in the hague the british ambassador to the netherlands accused the g.r.u. of attempting to hijack porton down which is the u.k.'s military. here in the u.k. and the u.k. foreign office in the