rod rosenstein: thank you very much. good afternoon. thank you for joining us on constitution day to discuss a topic central to the rule of law in america. i want to say a special thanks to jesse panuchio, our acting social attorney general and his team for putting together superb agenda inviteing so many superb speakers. more than a decade lapsed between the adoption of the declaration of independence and constitution. a decade during which our citizens devoted significant attention to the question of how best to secure the blessings of liberty. on this 231st anniversary of the constitution, we properly praise the written document for establishing the framework of liberty. the constitution did not write itself nor did it take effect automatically. the drafters engaged in a lengthy debate about first principles and the people carefully considered the terms before accepting them. their decision reflected free thought and it required free speech. as jesse described it this morning, freedom of speech was a precondition for the american rep

rosenstein: i don't have enough to do. sen. alexander: i think it should be a two or three year process because everything in the university's works slowly. -- universities works slowly. there's a building over here that bill bennett used to call the block where all the universities have their associations. i think they would be happy to organize almost every one of their meetings, a forum for college presidents. you need the presidents and the board members to say what i've said before. here is what the history is, here is what the law is, here is what you can do and here are your options. i think if the university of chicago president says here is how and why we adopted the principles and the princeton university president says here is how we make controversial speech routine. and you can say at the beginning of every year, here is what you may do, here is what you may not do, and if you violate that, you will be punished. i think that would make its way through the various campuses. the other reason not to try to do it by a

rosenstein comes over. i expect the topic will come up. again, as far as we know, there's no change to the russia investigation. one of the reasons is the president's attorneys, rudy guliani and jay sekulow has said look, we're getting close to the end. don't do anything that will upset the apple cart and set us back to square one here. if the president were to have whitaker take over the entire investigation, that may be 1 of those things that upsets the apple cart. that's why people inside and outside the white house don't appoint emmett flood because we'll have to bring in somebody else to work on the mueller investigation. that's why pat sippalone is coming in. the president's counsel saying let's getting close and keep things going and see how soon mueller has a report. if he doesn't come out in a report in the next few weeks, you'll see pressure from the president's attorney on mueller to put up or shut up. >> shepard: no doubt we'll go back to you at least one more time, a couples times at the rate n

because they were thinking of whitaker to replace rosenstein, remember when they all thought rosenstein was going to get fired because of what he said in a private meeting about the president. so whitaker was on deck. so rosenstein still remains, but if he has lost his authority and he has expressed faith in mueller, which he has publicly, will he resign? is this one other way of decapitating the justice department? and then congress also, schumer just said in but there's been legislation that you got to protect the mueller investigation. you could get that passed in the house in five seconds now. >> does rosenstein stay, number one? if he resigns and whitaker overseas that investigation, one possibility is that he fires mueller, tries to end it. the president said something very different today. whitaker could curtail and limit the scope on the investigation. >> let's not forget, jeff sessions among republicans in the senate was very well liked. he's a form are u.s. senator from alabama, the first republican senator to endorse donald trump. and the way he was treated by the president a

attorney in baltimore, rod rosenstein. you know, kaitlan, i'm anxious -- what did you think of that little goodbye that the attorney general -- now the former attorney general, jeff sessions had? it was all staged, as evan correctly points out. they wanted to show that. but some are already suggesting maybe it was a little bit of a slap at the president for firing him. >> well, of course. and we have seen jeff sessions take those actions over the past year with when president trump has criticized him. he went to dinner that time really publicly with rod rosenstein at a very popular washington restaurant and a photo with them dining with the solicitor general quickly surfaced and that incensed president trump after it surfaced online. that's what likely this was. look at me, i'm walking out. and you can see the faces on those justice department employees as jeff sessions is leaving. they're not pleased. they're clapping, they're thanking him. but no one looks pleased to be there, to be watching jeff sessions marched out lik

rosenstein, too. one of the things trump may like about whitaker, he's openly criticized the mueller investigation, writing in an op ed, quote, it is time for rosenstein, who is the acting attorney general, for the purposes of this investigation, to order mueller to limit the scope of his investigation to the four corners of the order appointing him special counsel. if he doesn't, then mueller's investigation will eventually start to look like a political fishing expedition. this would not only be out of character for a respected figure like mueller, but also could be damaging to the president of the united states and his family. and by extension to the country. for his part, sessions resigned at the

i also didn't touch rod rosenstein. i have no issue with him following "the new york times" revelation that maybe the 25th amendment being talked about or him wearing a wire. i'm just going to replace the person who made it possible that rod rosenstein would have his position and mueller would have oversight by that person. and so by putting matthew whitaker in the position, which by the way is not in line of succession. it would naturally go to the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, then to a solicitor general. the chief of staff or the a.g. is not the person who is supposed to be in line. so one has to first wonder by what authority he's going to put him there. but the president's already told us he's temporary. he'll have a more permanent placement put there in the long run. so i'm wondering if in many ways this is the president's attempt to gain information about the investigation. so once he's downloaded everything and debriefed from robert mueller and then he walks away to have a permanent replacement who is

let's hope rosenstein is next. it's time to get control. >> it always looks sneaky when you do it the day after an election, like you've been hiding something from the public and now we can do it. we knew it was coming but there's still something weird act it and it is to distract us from the takeover in the house last night. >> it seems entirely calculated to just change the news cycle even though this was a long time coming. that seems entirely calculated. >> theoretically, had the democrats won control of the senate, i don't think he would fire jeff sessions. he'd never get a replacement. there would be no attorney general. >> that's probably true. >> better to have sessions, as feckless as he is, than to have zero attorney general. >> do you think -- i mean, when you look at the landscape of things, you didn't like jeff sessions. is matt whitaker maybe better than the a.g. that trump would pick next? like is this a lesser of two evil t evils? >> i'm not talking about him as a.g. or anybody as a.g. i'm talking a

rosenstein, too. one of the things trump may like about whitaker, he's openly criticized the mueller investigation, writing in an op ed, quote, it is time for rosenstein, who is the acting attorney general, for the purposes of this investigation, to order mueller to limit the scope of his investigation to the four corners of the order appointing him special counsel. if he doesn't, then mueller's investigation will eventually start to look like a political fishing expedition. this would not only be out of character for a respected figure like mueller, but also could be damaging to the president of the united states and his family. and by extension to the country. for his part, sessions resigned at the request of the president, writing, quote, dear mr. president, at your request, i am submitting my resignation. the letter, of course, addressed to the president, but it was delivered to his chief of staff john kelly just hours after the midterm elections wound down. but donald trump's displeasure with ses

i've just been informed that rod rosenstein is on his way to the white house. we're informed that he's on his way to the white house for a previously scheduled meeting. bret baier for context from washington. bret, the timing last night, he lost the house of representatives, the investigative arm in the house. this morning he holds what could be described as nothing less than at least an extraordinary news conference from the east room of the white house no less and moments later, these shoes begin to fall. >> yes. we don't know exactly, shep, how that came out, how long to the judge's point that letter has been ready to deploy. did he feel like the news conference wasn't the focus he had and this is a development that takes a lot of oxygen in the room. the real question now as democrats take control of the house, that doesn't happen until january and their oversight capacity. do republicans step up and say and protect the oversight of the mueller investigation? what is the extent to which republicans on the senate side or the house side come out with statement

i also didn't touch rod rosenstein. i have no issue with him following "the new york times" revelation that maybe the 25th amendment being talked about or him wearing a wire. i'm just going to replace the person who made it possible that rod rosenstein would have his position and mueller would have oversight by that person. and so by putting mathew whitaker in the position, which by the way is not in line of succession. it would naturally go to the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, then to a solicitor general. the chief of staff or the a.g. is not the person who is supposed to be in line. so one has to first wonder by what authority he's going to put him there. but the president's already told us he's temporary. he'll have a more permanent placement put there in the long run. so i'm wondering if in many ways this is the president's attempt to gain information about the investigation. so once he's downloaded everything and debriefed from robert mueller and then he walks away to have a permanent replacement who is

does he tell rod rosenstein i'm in charge. number two, does rod rosenstein stay? number three, quickly, jeff sessions sends a message here. the president repeatedly attacked the men and women of the justice department, the men and women of the fbi. jeff sessions says i'm particularly grateful to the fabulous men and women in law enforcement, we have restored and upheld the rule of law. that's a push back. >> pamela, the president declined to answer any questions at that hour and a half news conference. now all of a sudden we learned he fired jeff sessions. >>reporter: that's right. he was asked what he was going to do specifically about jeff sessions. he said he'll talk about that at a later time. he made it clear he didn't want to take any action before the midterms, but this was a long time coming, as one white house official just told me. no one here at the white house seemed surprised by this action by the president, asking for the resignation of the attorney general. there is some surprise that he did it today. as you saw, the president came out today claimin

>> everything i know about rod rosenstein is he's a public certificate vanlt. he's field goal to stick it out. especially with the installation of whitaker, who is perceived, i think correctly, as a political choice. the fact that rod rosenstein, even though he's a political appointee, he's a career justice department person, a u.s. attorney under democrats and republicans alike. i think he'll want to be the ballast for as long as possible. >> excellent points all around. stick around. there's much more. we have a lot of breaking news. we'll be right back. liberty mutual saved us almost $800 when we switched our auto and home insurance. with liberty, we could afford a real babysitter instead of your brother. hey! oh, that's my robe. is it? when you switch to liberty mutual, you could save $782 on auto and home insurance. and still get great coverage for you and your family. call for a free quote today. you could save $782. liberty mutual insurance. liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ . >>> the president keeping the announcement under wraps until after he he

so long as rod rosenstein was in charge of that investigation. so now you have a new person coming in, as has been pointed out by the reporters on just before me. you have someone who looks like he's prejudged the mueller investigation, has talked about a reduction in the budget for the mueller investigation, has talked about a narrowing of the scope of the mueller investigation. all of which are things that are on the record that he said when he was on cnn and else where. and so you have a concern that there might be an undo restricting of that investigation, and that it's not going to be allowed to complete its course. the other thing you have to be concerned about, given what president trump has said over and over again about jeff sessions. the one thing about jeff sessions we know for a fact did ethically was consult with people in the justice department and recuse himself. and that's the one thing that president trump has hated about jeff sessions' conduct. so you've got to believe that the president got a different kind of understanding in

rosenstein also substantially controls the budget for mueller's investigation. if jeff sessions is fired or resigns right after next week's election, that would leave rod rosenstein still in charge of the mueller investigation temporarily until a new attorney general could be confirmed and sworn in. at that point the new attorney general, which presumably would have no reason to recuse him or herself from the russia investigation, so once the new attorney general was sworn in, at that point, rod rosenstein presumably would have to hand over the reins overseeing that investigation to whatever the new attorney general was. that said, this rod rosenstein is fired too, or if he too is forced to resign, boom, right? that's it right away. as soon as that happens, the mueller investigation would instantly become somebody else's property. now, we have known about this possibility or the a long time. just as a technical matter, we have known how this would work. when a special counsel is appointed, robert mueller, the special counsel's office is supposed to be overseen b

we will still wait to see what happens with rod rosenstein. >> that's the big question. that's the big question. and after an hour and a half long press conference in which the president covered a lot of ground, very interesting that he waited until after that to do this. but the question is what this means for the rosenstein investigation overseeing mueller's investigation. i know you were talking about that and we'll continue to do so, katy, thank you. >>> good afternoon, everyone, i'm ali velshi. we're starting with that major breaking news. attorney general jeff sessions is out. in an abrupt tweet last hour, the president wrote we are pleased to announce that mt. you g. whitaker, chief

>> well, there is an ethics apparatus at the department of justice, in rod rosenstein's office. one of rod's senior staff people is the senior ethics official for the department. i happen to know that individual. he's a fine lawyer, a fine person, a long-time career official. if asked to, i'm sure he would produce a fine legal analysis with a recommendation. this is a more subjective kind of you know it when you see it. it should be so obvious that someone with statements atributed to him that before whittaker has, should have nothing to do with oversight of the mueller investigation. and so an ethics insurrection arises within the department where he is pressed on to recuse himself, it's improbable he's going to give any credence to recommendations that he recuse himself. and it's inconceivable that he would recuse himself, because the president installed him in this job to get rid of an attorney general who could -- who was recused. so it's just -- we are in this hall of mirrors here where we are now stuck with a perilous situation at the department, and we are going to have t

rod rosenstein may still have a card yet to play. but with chris christie, it would be black and white. under the same doj regulations that caused sessions to have to recuse himself. he had a role on the campaign that was -- that is now under investigation. it would be just as clear that chris christie would have to recuse himself as well, if he was nominated and eventually confirmed as attorney general. >> harry litman, chris christie, his body of public statements about mueller compared to matt whitaker's body of statements about mueller puts him far more sort of -- i don't know if there's a center anymore in politics but he has not called for mueller to be fired. he's not ever called the mueller probe a witch hunt. he was very critical of pete strzok who sent anti-trump texts. but he's never criticized the probe as an effort, as an endeavor. do you think that he is confirmable? and if i could just tack on a two-part question here and have you whack at both, what role does an incoming democratic, you know, house judiciary committee

he installed a new guy to become the acting attorney general, slotting him in above rod rosenstein. and the new guy will take over instantly all of the work at the justice department, including taking control of the mueller investigation, taking control of the mueller investigation away from rod rosenstein. putting it instead in the hands of this trump loyalist. if the justice department's announcements are to be believed on their face, as of right now, rod rosenstein no longer oversees the robert mueller investigation. this guy, who trump just installed on his own say-so, right at the top, as the acting a.g., matt whitaker, robert mueller reports to him. which means robert mueller's budget is controlled by him, and whitaker has a say over anything mueller wants to do, including new indictments, new avenues of investigation, a report to anyone about his findings, any major step. it all has to go through matt whitaker now, who the president just installed on his own say-so, no warning, and he had to leapfrog the order of succession at the justice department in order to do it. so, the

is putting pressure on rod rosenstein, who is in charge of this investigation, do something a little more stage crafty than the blunt instrument of firing the attorney general and trying to replace him. >> john. >> you know, whitaker, it seems to me to be the new bourque. we have done to this justice department what happened when we had nixon and we had mitchell and klein destroy the reputation for law and justice in the department. this is such an attack on the justice department and what is it like? it's like a criminal running away. he realizes if he waits too long, the house may have democrats who can stop him. so this is going to be a midnight raid and i wouldn't be surprised if in the next day or so we see the rosenstein thing. i think if you look at the original order. >> that i have problems as a matter of law getting around that order. mueller is no fool. you can be sure he isn't sitting on his hands right now. he is dealing with what he anticipates will be the misconduct of this organized crime system that passes for this administration. >> tough words. gene. >> whoa. >> i

is he trying to fire rosenstein who oversing mueller? ne of that has been true. as the president made clear today in his press conference, 's true. he has the right to end the investigation. he has complied, he and i think 33 witnesses have testified and complied, produced papers, over one llion pieces of papers have been produced. the president and his team ha

rosenstein would not be a good pick for this. are we to think whitaker is unethical because he thinks there should be limitations to the special counsel? kennedy: i don't know, a little later on in the show, we'll talk who might succeed jeff sessions. doesn't seem this is the guy who's going to be confirmed as the official attorney general. he's the chief of staff, and i'm still curious, do you know who appointed him chief of staff? was it sessions or was it the president? >> i believe -- although don't quote me on this -- i believe jeff sessions brought him in. kennedy: that makes sense, when you're the attorney general, seems you appoint your own chief of staff. >> not something that requires any kind of congressional authorization. kennedy: that's the issue that judge napolitano raised with whitaker's interim appointment is that he does not have that sort of congressional stamp necessary to lord over the bastion of justice. >> this is the process, the process is you appoint interim attorney general, have you somebody who becom

rod rosenstein. what is going on with him? why hasn't anything happened? >> reporter: >> the president is probably satisfied mister whitaker is acting attorney general and rosenstein is out of the picture in terms of supervising the mueller investigation. congress failed in its oversight of rod rosenstein and the justice department. the justice department refused to cooperate and congress hasn't pushed back appropriately. he got away without testifying today. once the republicans lose control of the house, they will be in no position to force the doj's hand and democrats won't ask rod rosenstein why he was conspiring against the president of the united states in a way that would overthrow him. heather: they expect they delayed it long enough that it won't happen. >> i suspect rod rosenstein won't be testifying to congress anytime soon about his jokes about wiretapping the president and invoking the 25th amendment. heather: the justice department says donald trump did not break the law when he sidestepped the deputy attorney general and appointed someone el

mueller's jurisdictional boundaries have been set by rod rosenstein and they were amended in the memo that we have not seen. there has never been a prosecutor that had unfettered power to go investigate whatever the heck he or she wanted to do. if your estate prosecutor you can't investigate federal crimes. if you're in new york you can't investigate things in idaho. the notion that we are going to create a special counsel that has no boss, no jurisdictional structures at all is just typical chuck schumer and i think it's why so few people take them seriously. >> bret: what about rod rosenstein in his role here? he's a deputy if the attorney general is not there that he would step in as acting. >> these are interesting times that we are in. rod rosenstein, i was ready to question him, i had 37 pages with questions for him, a couple weeks ago. he was alleged to have wanted to vote the 25th amendment and question the president's fitness for office, i'm not sure that would've been the right pick. he is overseeing the speed probe right now, i don't think anything is going to happen to rod

rosenstein is a trump partisan. people justifiably expect, short of actual pooling the plug, some big changes. >> the president said i have the power to shut this down, declassify everything. i'm not doing that, letting it play out. this is what trey gowdy said on special report about what he thinks mueller will ultimately do. >> i think mueller, an exhaustive report on what russia did which should unify america and then he will disappoint cnn and democrat friends by saying there is no evidence of collusion. that is what i think he's going to do and i think it will happen before the end of the year but i don't know that. >> reporter: whitaker will have some say over what happens to that report and information and how it is disseminated. quick reaction from each of you. stay with you, tom. >> that is a significant game change with whitaker in charge of the russia investigation. it is virtually 0 that he goes so far as to terminate mueller or end the investigation. he will let it play out. i do think mueller, the conc

rod rosenstein and others. two nights, he is under scrutiny for an op-ed he wrote last year about a redline he said special counted mother should not have cross. it doesn't take a lawyer even a former prosecutor like myself to conclude that investigating donald trump's finances or his family's finances was completely outside of the realm of the 2016 campaign. that goes be on the scope of the appointments of the special counsel. behind the scenes, he was described to fox news as a quite advocate for the declassification of the russia records. that includes a surveillance renewal preterm campaign, approved by rod rosenstein. the president recently backed away from the desk classification but indicated it is back on track. >> it is amazing how people of the other side just don't want those documents declassified. we are looking into that very carefully. i wanted to wait to after the midterms. he is not deputy attorney general rod rosenstein's boss. he now oversees a special concert robert mueller and set of rosens

this is rosenstein. >> i think it is a superb choice for attorney general. staunlds the work and priorit s priorities -- understands the work and priorities of the department. >> this only adds to confusion, david. >> right, fred. i'm going to take deputy attorney general rosenstein at his word he thinks highly of acting attorney general matthew whitaker. let's face it, if this guy is his boss for however short a time period, doesn't behoove him to start a wharf worar of words him. rosenstein was caught in the mix not in a good way when james comey was fired in 2017. he was one of the authors, was the author of the memo justifying it, that justification or reasoning behind it was a little questionable, maybe he didn't realize the president was dead set at that time on pushing ahead with getting rid of comey. now you have to wonder, though, if he is not privately asking himself why he as the number two guy at department of justice is not put in position of acting attorney general. is it because, and imaski am as is it because president trump likes how whitake

forced out by president trump, rod rosenstein no longer in charge of mueller, and democrats already sounding alarms about the new acting attorney general whose been openly critical of the russia lanvestigation. we havte details and what it all means and wh's next. >>> also, the president lashing out and defiant as democrats seize the house. >> i thought it was a very close to complete victory. >> tonight, the new faces headed to congress, a record number of women in power. >>> an emergency alert about hundreds of boeing airplanes, what pilots boare being warned about a fatal crash that remains a history. af>> a husband's call to actter losing his wife's life. she pleaded to help from 911 before falling unconscious right outside the emergency room. >> why can't the operator call the hospital ed say there is someone outside your door? >> i know, that would have maybe saved her. >> tonight his call for change to save the lives of oers. >>> the fbi urgently searching for a 13-year-old girl kidnapped outside her home. authorities asking the public fp. >> i cannot express this enough, every second

rod rosenstein. >> dana: so it's not mr. whitaker? >> the president has taken whitaker and promoted him above rod rosestein. >> dana: i have a tweet from the president. we are pleased to announce matthew whitaker will become our new acting attorney general of the united states. he will serve our country well. we thank attorney general jeff sessions for his service and wish him well, exclamation point. a permanent replacement will be nominated at a later date. >> acting attorney general whitaker is a former united states attorney. i think iowa. i'm not sure where. >> i believe that's correct. >> in that context, he was confirmed by the united states senate. but he was not confirmed by the united states senate for a leadership position at the justice department. the white house will have to work this out. who has been confirmed and who's next in line? deputy attorney general rosenstein. >> dana: i mean, i don't know what's going to happen. probably not gonna happen. i'm not in the prediction business. >> i am serving this up for the pol

rod rosenstein, the deputy ag has just said that matt whitaker is a superb choice to succeed him. oversee the investigation. that he was confident, and the loyalty of the members of the doj. this is a guy that the left is pointing to, rod rosenstein, as the guy they feel is the firewall. he is the one that is going to make sure that the mueller investigation goes forward. he has called whitaker "superb." >> melissa: what you think of that? >> adrienne: i completely agree with chuck schumer and nancy pelosi come here. there letter simply says, issued to the ethics officer at the department of justice, please issue guidelines. we are looking for your objective opinion on this. that's the least i think -- >> melissa: but with the guidelines they come at the should recuse yourself? what are you looking for in the guidelines? make sure you separate this and that? what would they say? >> adrienne: i would assume it would be in the same lines. matthew whitaker has made some biased statements about the mueller investigation. this shouldn't be that hard to do, right? there are other people

what does your reporting say it triggers in terms of what happens with rosenstein and mueller and the investigation? >> well, whitaker is now mueller's boss, right, so he oversees the entirety of the mueller investigation at this point. so if mueller went to him and said, hey, i want to indict this person or said, hey, i need more funds to do this, or, you know, whatever it may be that mueller wants to take a next step on whitaker could feasibly say no. the caveat there is that if whitaker were to deny any requests by mueller then it would require mueller to go to congress, and essentially disclose that this has been denied. so there is a check built in there, which is, you know -- it's definitely comforting. it's comforting for people who worry that this political loyalist, exactly what he is, a loyalist to the core, to oversee the investigation. it's premature, we'll have to wait and see whether or not he is nominated by the president to fill this position on a full-time basis. he might be, you know, playing his cards close to his chest at this point, you know, leaving aside all of

we know the answer now but the question is what happens to rod rosenstein? >> right, i've been told for a long time by senior house republicans and other source nothing is going to happen with rod rosenstein. obviously this opens the door and this is why chuck schumer, he held a press conference as we were learning about jeff session's fate earlier today. i'm going to read what you chuck schumer said, he would it would be a prelude to crisis if tends the mueller probe. right before we came on the air, house minority leader nancy pelosi made her official announcement she is going to seek the speakership. she talked about oversight and constitutional authority, checks and balances. the question is how far are democrats willing to go? republicans think that democrats, this is going to be a carte blanche here, what they're going to try to do to the administration. nancy pelosi historically has said we have to do this in a tempered fashion. her word today was it can't be a scatter shot approach. the question however, kennedy is can she control her caucus? she can

i say with great regret, that jeff sessions has been an abysmal failure and rod rosenstein is the most politically corrupt deputy attorney general in the history of this country. he needs to go. lou: on birth right citizenship. some counsel to president, his idea of a an econom -- executive order to lay a foundation as i understand it practice of granting birth right citizen sip. >> this is a brilliant move by the president and his legal advisers, president setting up a case or controversy under the constitution that can be litigated. setting up a test case, he wants to he will interpret 14th amendment with an executive order to prohibit birth right citizenship for children born in united states of illegal alien, supreme court has never ruled on, that they will deny a child citizenship, who is born here of an illegal alien that will stett stage for a court challenge rather than wait for 10 or 15 years for the right case to come along, this say brilliant maneuver, some so-called legal exports are manifesting ignorance of how you set up a constitutional case that is staggering, i heard a

say rod rosenstein -- >> quickly judge. >> robert mueller only answers to one person, rosenstein. that has been charged to a person who is not lawfully authorized to be his superior, then we have a serious problem. probably a constitutional crisis. quickly rosenstein is the engineer of a runaway train, any engineer of a runaway train is the problem. so that has to be fixed at some point. coming up next -- >> the president can fire rosenstein. >> he could, we'll see if that happiness. >> foster freeze on how the midterms are redefining both parties. >> the democrats are another part of the rich and republicans are now the party of the everyday guy. fact is, there have been twenty-six in the last decade. allstate is adapting. with drones to assess home damage sooner. and if a flying object damages your car, you can snap a photo and get your claim processed in hours, not days. plus, allstate can pay your claim in minutes. now that you know the truth... are you in good hands? i can do more to lower my a1c. because my body can still make its own insulin. i take trulicity once a week to

despite that, rosenstein said this today to cnn. let me play it for you. >> i think it's a superb choice for attorney general. he certainly understands the work, understands the priorities and i think he's going to do a superb job as attorney general. >> superb job, hex. considering their tricky dynamic, are you surprised that rosenstein spoke out at all? did he need to today? >> i'm not surprised. rosenstein, first of all, you're -- he was asked a question about his current boss and of course he's not going to criticize his current boss publicly. it would have looked weird if he said nothing. you know, james comey famously, i think, referred to rod rosenstein as a survivor and i don't think he meant it as a compliment. i think rosenstein was doing what he needed to do to keep his job in that situation and to please his boss. >> well, and then there comes the "wall street journal," ken. reporting that the fbi is now investigating this company as jessica laid out, that matt whitaker is linked to. for this time period that matt whitak

they include robert mueller and deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. when asked about that, the fact that also rosenstein was also seen behind bars in the picture, the president responded to the reporters in the interview saying he should never have appointed a special counsel. meantime, the president talked about a potential pardon for paul manafort. the former campaign chairman and he was found out to have lied to the fbi. the president saying it is not off the table for a presidential pardon for paul manafort. he is ratcheting up the language against robert mueller. comparing the probe to mccarthy-ism. also in the interview, the president threatened to declassify documents he claims would be devastating to democrats. these are documents he talked about this past september. he says in the interview, white house lawyer emmitt flood, would not conclude that they would be a good idea, but the president is threatening to declassify the documents if the democrats go after him. back to you. >> pamela, thank you. >>> president trump has denied two claims sp

rosenstein will have in the investigation. that's something to watch closely and carefully. look the department of justice needs to enjoy public confidence in its impartiality in its integrity and unless. nowhere is that more essential in an investigation as sensitive and high profile as this, public confidence needs to be at its ze knit in the department's handling of this investigation. there is no way we can get to that point with mr. whitaker in the position he's now been given. >> hmm. that's strong words coming from you. finally, briefly, if mueller moves forward, the question of indictments, would he need whitaker's ascent? >> he will be reporting to whit kerr. under the regs that apply, he will have to socialize with the department of justice in a substantial decisions pr acknowledgmentles he wants to take. so if there is charging digs he wants to make that he hasn't communicated to the department, that will have to go to whitaker. if there are litigation decision to condition test through the courts,ests to avoid contempt citation like mr. stone's associate, that wi

he didn't go to rosenstein. everybody in the planet said he's got to go to rosenstein as the fallback if he gets rid of sessions. out of nowhere, he picks this guy who auditioned for the job of trump protector for months. he got the job. how come we all thought he couldn't do this and now he's done it in our face and nobody is trying to really stop him from doing this? he's taking control of his own investigation, an investigation of him. it's all in his control now. it's breathtaking, and nobody in the republican party or in the democratic party has stood up and said we're going to stop this. this will not stand. no one is saying this about his picking of whitaker. how come? >> well, democrats are certainly calling for his recusal. >> of course, they're calling -- that is so wifty. i don't co what the word is. of course, he's not going to recuse himself. he took the job not to recuse himself. why would they call for him to do it? he's now the acting attorney general. he doesn't have to listen to democrats. >> t

if rod rosenstein still is in charge, it's a reassuring thing and hopefully something that lasts for some time. in terms of what the plea agreement means today, you're right to look at this as the special counsel moving his way up the ladder as he's been doing and i would look at this document. not just the -- the signif scanse not that michael cohen plead guilty. he's plead guilty to much more serious charges than the one today. the charge today will give him a sentence of 0 to 6 months in prison. likely it gets fold inside with the other charges he's already plead guilty to in the southern district of new york. the significance is what he laid out in the plea agreement. you look at today in the same way when he charged the first russian indictment, he laid out this legal architecture of conspiracy to defraud the united states. he laid out the legal architecture for which, you know, he'd charge other individuals, both russians and americans in the future. today was laying out the architecture for how he can bring charges or how he can show criminality by others. so you have to look

rosenstein was stepped over. he should have been the logical person in the order of ascendancy in the justice department to take on this acting role. this fellow, he's indeed only acting. he's not the attorney general, and as if -- obviously he appointed him because he was not the best advice but because he had people he wanted to knock off. >> professor tribe, the president is one of the most transparent criminally minded people we've ever had in public life. he's on public record saying he wanted a roy cohen type in the attorney general's office he would protect him. he was a criminal himself a disbarred lawyer who operated exactly in the way donald trump would want. and so you have this public set of statements by the president of actually wanting criminal conduct out of his attorney general. and then you have -- you install someone who has made these public comments that are fully compatible with what donald trump wants, which is closing down the investigation. >> donald trump seems to have an amazing compuls

i've been saying more than a year rod rosenstein need to go. he is now engaged, his staff is engaged, his deputies in deliberate coordinated attack against the acting attorney general. you cannot have a situation like this where this, you know, it is a sop to democrats. why you have democrats and leftists rallying in front of the white house to defend rosenstein . i think president sees rosenstein's allies are. they are the enemies of the president. i'm sure rosenstein is probably a short timer there you would hope. neil: so, was the president of leery of firing him at same time he was firing jeff sessions because it would like palace coup or another richard nixon "saturday night massacre"? was that the thinking behind keeping rosenstein in power or what? >> i think so. matt whitaker is well suited to deal with somebody like rod rosenstein. he has the compass to do it. he has the guts to do it. i think why rosenstein his gang of deputies are so upset about whitaker showing up. neil: finally i'm getting a sense from the mueller probe, and some o

rod rosenstein with respect to any review of that. heather: that pushes the mueller report to come out sooner or later. the time is 18 after the top of the hour, republicans keeping hold of the senate as democrats take control of the house was why we could soon see a flood of conservative judges filling vacancies on the federal judiciary. remember this? unreal. snoop dogg pretending to assassinate donald trump. the wrapper is back with a brand-new video taking aim at the president. ♪ i am a family man. i am a techie dad. i believe the best technology should feel effortless. like magic. at comcast, it's my job to develop, apps and tools that simplify your experience. my name is mike, i'm in product development at comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome. >> the trump administration rolling out a new immigration policy is the migrant caravan grows closer to the border. after the policy any migrant who attempts to cross into the country illegally will not be eligible to claim asylum in the us unless they do so at

we don't know necessarily rod rosenstein was inclined to do that either. asking president trump for written questions, that would indicate to you at least at this point they were not looking subpoena the president, they were looking for a more voluntary back and forth. obviously we'll see if anything changes and how that tone may change now that whitaeker is overseeing that investigation. >> let's get some more perspective on all of this from james clapper, a cnn national security analyst. thank you so much for coming in. we're just getting some quotes from the new acting attorney general of the united states, matthew whitaker, what he told a radio station back in march of 2017. he said it's clear in his view, no crime has been committed of what mueller is investigating. he said the left is trying to promote this theory. let me read to you a direct quote from this interview. this is the theory the russians interfered in the u.s. election which has been proven false. they're trying to suggest that essentially the trump campaign had these deep ties into russ

rosenstein was stepped over. he should have been the logical person in the order of ascendancy in the justice department to take on this acting role. this fellow, he's acting. he is indeed only acting. he is not the attorney general. and it's as if don corleone appointed luca brazzi as consigliere. not because he thought he was the best for advice, but because he had people he wanted to knock off. >> and, professor tribe, the president is one of the most transparent criminally minded people we've ever had in public life. he's publicly on record for a couple of years now saying he wanted a roy cohn type in the attorney general's office, who would take care of him. roy cohn himself was a criminal and a disbarred lawyer who operated exactly the way donald trump would want. so you have this public set of statements by the president of actually wanting criminal conduct out of his attorney general. and then you have him install someone who has made these public comments that are fully compatible with what donald trump