in the east. brook baldwin joins me. president trump ending his short lived twitter hiatus, blasting the russia investigation, blasting the appointment of a special council as the greatest witch hunt in american history. this move by rosenstein, the man that the president said he respected so much that he took his advice in getting rid of jim comey, agreed upon by democrats and republicans, when is the last time that happened, now being trashed by the president. of course the former fbi director is the choice to look into the questions surrounding russia's interference. >> you have these three separate congressional committees who want james comey to testify about what president trump told him, essentially making him the most wanted man in washington. and several new reports about michael flynn adding to the crisis facing this trump administration. we have it all covered for you.

let's begin with joe johns at the white house. joe, crickets no longer from the presidential twitter account. he is firing off this morning. >> absolutely. what a contrast from last night when he huddled with his advisors issuing a carefully worded, even terse 57 word statement. this morning a much more visceral reaction from the president of the united states to the news of the last 24 hours or so. this most recent tweet, this is the greatest witch hunt in american history. apparently referring to the investigation into russian interference in the last election. and then in the previous tweet, with all of the illegal acts that took place in the clinton campaign and the obama administration, there was never a special downcounsel appointed.

so the status here of course, the most important thing in the last 24 hours is the appointment of rob mueller, a towering figure in law enforcement to lead this russia investigation. >> the white house issuing a statement from president trump, responding to the appointment of a special counsel. the president says in part a thorough investigation will confirm what we already know. there was no collusion between my campaign and any foreign entity. deputy attorney general rod rosenstein naming robert mueller to oversea the investigation into russia's election interference. rosenstein citing the order before alerting attorney general jeff sessions and only giving the white house less than an hour's notice before making it public. the announcement becomes before

mustn't mounting pressure. >> he made a recommendation. but regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. >> one source telling cnn rosenstein is throwing president trump overboard with a special counsel, a move is the white house opposed. >> there is no need for a special prosecutor. you have two senate committees looking into this. the fbi is conducting their own review. >> a statement from rosenstein saying the public interest requires me to place this authority under a person that exercises a degree of independence from the normal chain of command. the move follows back-to-back bombshells for trump, include ing comey's statements. and today more bad news for the

embattled administration. the new york sometimes reporting that president trump knew flynn was under federal investigation for secretly working as a paid lobbyist for turkey and yet still named him as one of his top advisors, giving him access to the nation's biggest secrets. another report connects the dots further, alleging that flynn stopped a u.s. military plan that turkey opposed. the plan was eventually restored after flynn was fired. beyond the tweets this morning, there may be an opportunity to ask the president a question or two for journalists today about the bob mueller appointment. he is expected to appear at a news conference with the president of columbia following a meeting with him here at the white house here today. >> thank you. the trump turmoil intensifying today.

let's bring in april ring and jeffrey tubin. i don't know what the record was for the reticence or silence on twitter, but that's all shattered as of seconds ago. we'll look at these two different tweets from the president. he said with all the illegal acts in the clinton campaign and obama administration, there was never a special counsel, with a c, appointed. and then he appointed this. this is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in american history. david, go. >> i'm sure if he talked to some of his predecessors at his job they say that feeling may not go away. they probably thought they were the subject of the greatest witch hunts as well. what is really revealing here is that the silence is over. so he clearly is feeling differently and expressing that on his twitter feed than that

very staged statement out of the white house last night from the president where he really tried to sort of take a more measured tone. nothing measured about this response. this is donald trump the combatant who now feels like he is in the fight for his political life. >> we know the president watches this show. we appreciate the viewer ship. he doesn't want to talk to us and come on the show. but it is a moment to talk to him. you know, the question of whether or not you deserve criticism is answered in these two tweets. this is another round of self-inflicted negativity. the special counsel needs to be respected. the white house put out a statement saying you wouldn't talk about this anymore because you want to help the special council and you have trashed him. now it is going to drive a cycle of criticism of your words and your deeds. and it is not just political. it is also policy oriented.

jeffrey, tubin, the idea of what you needed a special counsel. maybe you do. maybe you don't. rod rosenstein, the man who has made metaphor for the legitimacy of getting rid of comey. the president trusted him so much that he went on his recommendation. that was the original line of b.s. now the same man he is accusing of participating and promoting in a witch hunt against him. if you ever needed a reason for a special counsel, the president of the united states just gave you one. >> absolutely. robert mueller is going to have to investigate what the white house did or didn't do. that means he's going to have to try to get records and try to get cooperation from the white house. does that tweet look like he's going to get any cooperation in the white house? what about when he tries to get, mueller does, access to highly classified national security agency records? will the administration fight him or will they cooperate with

him? will there be fights oaf access to information, access to records? this certainly suggests that mueller will not get any cooperation. that suggests fighting in court over access to documents, access to people. could stretch out this investigation a long time. >> april, we talked on my show. we take the spicer briefings, right? so with these last couple of cycles with these stories, whether it is the comey firing or classified documents from the russians and now this, it is like you have the statement the night before. the president wakes up and tweets and sean spicer is stuck there like how do i, you know, juggle all these questions from reporters like you? >> he tries his best to juggle these questions. and i'm sure shawn is watching right now because he has those tvs in his office and he listens to what he considers the chatters glass, the pundits,

what is at issue is the fact we're looking for truth. the president talks to the public via his twitter rants for his twitter comments. and at issue, he has to deal with the fact this is under investigation. he is going to be restrained to a certain point but there are issues he could help us with. but the problem is for sean spicer he could say something and the president says something opposite. so he is frustrated. and that frustration comes back on us so as we are the enemy of the people trying to find the facts as to what has been happening. you have to remember these issues are real. the issue of collusion is not as tangible right now as the issue of possible obstruction of justice. these are real issues that we have got to get good answers too. today it will be the president at that press conference and reporters will be asking those questions. >> but that's controlled circumstance.

he is with the leader of columbia. he may or may not take any questions outside that am bit. but, david, again, a simple review of the record, there is a war of words going on. the president has decided to make the media the enemy. but if you look at the recent state of events, we would have never known about the flynn warnings if it hadn't been for the media in the form of the washington post. we wouldn't have known they knew about michael flynn if it whether or not for t"the new yok time times". comey's firing, the a.g. letter, only to be revealed by the president himself in an exacting interview. the divulging of classified intel from a leak. the comey memo from a leak. and now from the president himself, clear indications that he will not stay out of this investigation. the facts are clear. this is a president who is

intent on influencing that investigation any way he can. >> well, there is no doubt about that. i would add one more to your list, chris, which is our reporting and others about how totally upset and disenchanted rosenstein was with the fact that he was being made the fall guy in the explanation of comey's firing. when that become clear, we started to understand why the president of the white house was changing its story. >> is this move reaction formation by rosenstein? was he so sensitized to the need for independence that it was, in fact, part of the momentum of the president in exposing rosenstein that way that led to this decision? >> right, right. you say this afternoon when he meets with -- has the press conference with two questions from each side, the columbians and the u.s., yes, that is a controlled circumstance. but we have seen very revealing moments with the president, even in those controlled circumstances before. and then this twitter activity

this morning suggests to me he is not -- for all the talk, there is a sigh of relief in the white house. there is no evidence of a sigh of relief here at all. at all. >> there was until this. hyper concern and combativeness. and watching to see how the president keeps that under wraps this afternoon is going to be very, very interesting. >> that's the whole point, is that it is all self-inflicted april. >> go ahead, april. >> yeah. it's very much self-inflicted. you have to remember, though, when your own party says they are concerned, that's a problem. not only your party, your donors are very concerned. he's hearing it from his party. and also, for rosenstein, he realized the public out cry was at its height yesterday and he also has to remember and what he did with this is the fact that the department of justice is tainted. the fbi is tainted. he had to get someone independently to deal with this,

for the public interest, for the public good to make sure they got to the root of this. >> there is the political isolation issue. mueller's appointment was heralded by democrats but also republicans. the president is saying all these republicans are saluting the greatest witch hunt in american history. that's a pretty isolated place to be. now, as always with these sort of outbursts from donald trump, i always like to remember he got elected president of the united states with these outbursts. so maybe he thinks we're all wrong about what their effect is and he's right and he's got some evidence that he was right about that. >> it's a high bar to be president. >> april ryan is right there. context matters. it is one thing to talk the talk. he is now walking the walk. >> >> even some of his closest

friends and confidants thought he would rise to the weight of the oval office. but now they're not sure. >> as you monitor your news needs today, this didn't need to happen. this was a good move, the special counsel. everybody agreed. and now the president has once again created a cycle of negativity. >> thank you, everyone. >> any way you want. >> thank you. new developments concerning former national security advisor michael flynn this morning. news revealing that flynn stopped a military operation that turkey opposed after he was paid by them as a foreign agent. so let me bring in national correspondent who wrote the piece. tell me more about when this decision was made, when it was that the pentagon was waiving.

>> so the pentagon has been planning for months this operation to retake the capital of rocca and they wanted to arm the syrian and kurtish forces to do that. turkey has strongly opposed that for a long time. it was decided that the obama administration would let the trump administration decide. and it was reported in february that was michael flynn who told susan rice, his predecessor to hold off. that was reported back in february. but in march flynn ended up registering as a foreign agent with the justice department and we ended up getting all of these details on how he was paid half a million dollars and how he secretly met with the foreign minister of turkey and had all of these connections to turkey. it raises a question of looking back with fresh eyes and seeing all the decisions he might have made who could have benefitted

his client who he was secretly lobbying for. >> did anyone know with regard to not disclosing, working as a lobbyist, getting the paycheck for half a million dollars for working with turkey, who in washington knew? >> we now know his lawyer reached out to the white house and ended up asking. we new already he had asked if flynn registered as a foreign agent. and now we know he told the trump administration he was under investigation for these connections. but nobody -- they knew that he was lobbying for a dutch firm owned by turkish businessman. but they didn't know the extent and how much was being paid. >> with the breaking piece of information here. thank you so, so much. >> thank you. >> on flynn a. thank you very much. >> so with all of these issues of intrigue.

>> all of these yeah. >> a brief moment in time when the special counsel had the gop and the democrats on the same page. good. now we'll have somebody to get to the end of it. and the president couldn't leave it alone. he just called this move an extension of the greatest witch hunt in history. not only is that inaccurate, but it is corrosive to this brief moment of being on the same page literally derailing his own party's agenda here and once again distracting from the ability to get anything done for you. how will the gop respond? we have lawmakers ahead.

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this the single greatest witch hunt. >> well, brook, i think that's unfortunate and you're right there is a big tax reform hearing on capitol hill today. i think the best thing that this congress, that this government can do for the american people is enact broad, bold, tax reform that could get this economy going and give people the jobs and economy they want in this country. but there is a lot of distracting news again today. look, we should all be celebrating that this independent council has been established by the justice department, that the investigation will be independent. the person that was appointed enjoys broad, bipartisan support and a lot of respect throughout the country. >> but the president doesn't see it that way based upon his words. >> i can understand why this situation is frustrating to the president. it is frustrating to me and probably every single american. but what the president needs to understand is until we get to the bottom of everything that happened, and this is a serious

issue, and we're not accusing anything of anything done anything wrong. that's what the investigation is for. but the bottom line is that a foreign government did attempt to undermine our elections, our democracy, that which is secret to i hope every american and we need to understand what happened and we need to make sure we can prevent these things in the future. not only do i think we need this independent counsel and i think mr. mueller will do a good job, but we need additional resources by appointing a select committee. the executive branch has a process ongoing. that's good. we should celebrate that. but the congress also has to invest more resources in uncovering the truth so that the american truth can rest easy and know we are going to get to the bottom of whatever happened. >> and americans will agree with you that they want facts, but if you are the president in this case and, yes, looking into election meddling but he's

saying over and over there has been no colluding between my campaign and russia, if you have nothing to hide, why fight the notion of having a special independent counsel? >> my recommendation to the white house, to the entire administration is to cooperate with mr. mueller. if it is true that there was no collusion, that no u.s. persons in any way worked with the russians to try to undermine our elections, that's great. and the american people should know that and that should be the result of a thorough, broad, independent investigation by mr. mueller and by republicans and democrats here in the congress if we want to get this cloud of controversy of scandal and doubt out from over us, we need to go through this process. i hope the president understands that. i hope he cooperates. i want to get this behind us as well. but we can't do that until we know what actually happened. this has been the longest we could watch and it's just

thursday morning, right? with every single curveball every day, every hour, how concerned are you that this noise is really derailing your party's promise and mission to the american voter? >> well, it can be distracting, brooke, but there are many republicans and democrats here in the congress who, even though it doesn't make news every day, are working on issues like tax reform, like infla structure investment, like immigration reform, the issues the american people want us to tackle, a lot of issues discussed during the campaign. take infrastructure. that's an issue that has broad bipartisan support. most americans are happy with that promise the president made. there are many of us who are working on making that a reality. it is not going to make front page of the newspapers or breaking news, but it is happening. >> on these issues, you were first to call out the president and the first republican to suggest that the president could be impeached perhaps if it is

obstruction of justice if in fact he truly stopped to stop the flynn investigation. what do you want to see and hear from the leaders and your party right now? >> well, i want to make sure that everyone is taking this very seriously and that everyone is committed to finding the truth. if there was in wrongdoing, if this is much adieu about nothing, that's fine. let's show that. let's demonstrate that. if there were people who acted improperly outside the law or outside our ethics rules, then that should be uncovered as well and those people should be held accountable. i remind our leaders. i remind every single member of congress that our duty is to the constitution and to our constituents before any political party or any political effort. th that's what i'm committed to and many of my colleagues are as well. >> i appreciate it very much. have a wonderful thursday.

>> have a good day. >> chris cuomo. >> thank you very much. we are living a very big moment right now. how will lawmakers respond to the president's clear intent to influence this russian investigation, even after the appointment of a special counsel? we have lawmakers from both sides ahead who are players. and it is time to play. next. ooks like somebody needs a new network. when i got this unlimited plan they told me they were all the same. they're not. verizon has the largest, most-reliable 4g lte network in america. it's basically made for places like this. honey, what if it was just us out here? right. so, i ordered you a car. thank you. you don't want to be out here at night 'cause of the, uh, coyotes. ok, thanks, bud. bye. be nice to have your car for some shelter. bye. when it really, really matters, you need the best network and the best unlimited. just $45 per line for four lines.

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a special counsel is now in place on the russia investigation, and the president calls it part of the greatest witch hunt in history. this morning he's tweeting exactly that. joining us now, democratic whip senator dick durbin of illinois. there has been debate even with rod rosenstein about whether or not special counsel was necessary. i guess these tweets kind of make that need all the more clear. what is your response to the president calling this the greatest witch hunt ever and saying that all the illegal acts

by hillary clinton during the campaign and in the obama administration did not warrant the same? do you agree? what do you say to the president? >> i'd say to the president he should get to know bob mueller as i did. he's smart. he's principaled. there is no doubt in my mind he will put country first when it comes to this investigation. this is no witch hunt. i trust he will come to the right conclusion, whatever it may be. this president has no one to blame by himself for the mess that he's in. things that he has done, things he has said, tweets that he continues to release just made his life much more complicated. >> he just fired the fbi director. the white house tried to pass it off as being about a memo from rosenstein. we now know that was basically b.s. do you have any confidence at all you can keep the most powerful man in our government from influencing this investigation? >> well, i certainly had doubts

until last night when bob mueller was named. i don't have any question about his principals, nor his strength, his moral strength when it comes to this assignment. i know him. i know how he served this country, how he was reupped as director of the fbi because of the bipartisan confidence we have. he's the right person for this job. >> you're a man of great experience, senator. but the idea of a sitting president saying what's happening here is bogus and i am going to say it every chance i can and more importantly i am going to do anything i can, witness him getting rid of the fbi director because he didn't like this investigation. how can you have such confidence that he won't be able to influence? >> first i trust on constitution. second, i believe elected officials like myself are in the position where we have taken an oath to preserve and protect that constitution and our form

of government. i believe my fellow colleagues in the democratic party, my colleagues in the republican party will rise above party if necessary to preserve that constitution. >> where did that confidence come from, senator? the gop has been ghost for days about this. ryan putting out statements about it, more than the majority of these who needed to speak were quiet until today, and that was before the tweets. where is the confidence that people will stand up and own the mandate of the people and speak truth? >> a little over 40 years ago, another constitutional crisis, president richard nixon and watergate and what happened? all of it leaked after some time. several senators went to the president and said it's over. we're not going to cover for you any longer. what's important is to maintain this country and maintain the values we're sworn to uphold. i trust this will happen again. >> now, bob mueller has created

an odd dynamic in washington, agreement between republicans and democrats about something. but it may have thrown you a curveball in that this expectation of having jim comey come out and make his witness, all those questions, do you think you are going to have to wait on that because comey is obviously close to mueller and there may be a legitimate issue of interfering by testifying. are you concerned about that? >> well, i am concerned. i don't want us to interfere with a legitimate investigation. we are going to meet with rod rosenstein this afternoon and talk to him about his decision to release this laughable memo that the reason for comey's dismass sal was his treatment of hillary clinton. give me a break. we want to know what was behind it. i said after that memo came out and after president trump ref e refuted it with lester holt that rosenstein only had two choices.

he had to appoint a special prosecutor or resign. he's appointed that special counsel and he picked a good one. >> you guys gave plenty of political cover for getting rid of comey. so many democrats were calls for his oust after what he did to clinton. that's what rosenstein pointed out in his memo. the problem is that doesn't seem to be the reason the president dismissed comey as much as he said with his own words and tweets and continues to do so. so going forward, what does this special counsel mean for these parallel investigations in the house and senate? >> the special counsel means when it comes to the criminal side of this equation, which is a very essential part of it we're going to have an investigation supervised by bob mueller. he is going to be the prosecutor if prosecution is necessary. he'll have the resources and if there is any complaints at the department of justice, the president is trying to deny those resources to him, you can get there will be a strong

reaction on capitol hill. i think he's going to move forward now that the house and senate intelligence committees have their responsibility to take a look at this from a policy viewpoint, a counter intelligence viewpoint and we certainly still, i believe, need an independent commission to talk about protecting the american electoral process. this won't be the last time that putin decides to meddle in our election. we have to make sure we're ready for its next attack. >> and it is a time for leaders to stand up. senator durbin thank you for being it was on new day. >> president trump this morning lashing out on twitter. is the president hurting the party attempts to work with their own agenda? peter king joins us next.

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this is cnn breaking news. >> there is big news in the media and political world. the man on your screen, the father of fox news, has died. there is a statement from his wife saying she is profoundly sad and heart broken to report that my husband passed away this morning. we confirmed this. fox news is reporting it.

there is much heart break for those who knew him. obviously, his death is going to be in the shadow of his fall from grace amid very ugly allegations of his conduct during his time at fox news, but this is a big blow. >> it's huge. but more recently, as we have been talking about roger ails in the news, not only as an advisor to the trump campaign, but also when a former fox anchor came out last summer and made the allegations of sexual harassment and we all witnessed over the course of several months the fall out, other women coming out and telling that are stories and ultimately the fall of roger ailes. he had been the ceo since 1996. >> he started it.

he came up with the idea of it. that all matters. it's real. it's relevant. still has to be dealt with. still hasn't been satisfying to many of the people involved, true, fair. but when someone passes, you have to take the full measure of the man or woman. this is a man who has such importance, not just in the media world but in the political world. with the idea of messaging and how to protect through media, he was one of the founders of media manipulation. and i mean that for better and worse within politics. he was then introduced to the world at large through fox news. nobody thought that could work. and he did it. and on a personal note he gave me my start in the news business. alisyn camerota worked at fork news for a long time. roger ailes was very good to me. he has his criticisms, but his

loss will be felt by his family and friends. our hearts go out to them. all right. let's turn right now to president trump. making big headlines this morning and of the wrong kind. he's calling the appointment of a special counsel in the few moments we've had in months of politicians coming together and saying this is a positive move, he's calling it the great egs witch hunt in history. his words, you are looking at them on your screen right now. joining us, peter king of the new york, also a member of the house intel committee. some big headlines for you to address. the death of roger ailes, your take. >> he was a giant. i had some differences with him, but he was a giant and he really revolutionized television, television news and the world of politics. and again may he rest in peace. >> okay. now, to the political side. this was a good move, peter

king. you had said that. special counsel, you could debate whether it was needed or not. but bob mueller brought democrats and republicans on to the same page. and then the president this morning blows it all up. calls it a witch hunt. basically implicates all of you on the right who agreed with this move as being part of a witch hunt. basically den grades rosenstein. for him to tweet this way, what is your message to the president of the united states, as a member of his party? >> fist, chris, let me tell you one thick. you have been implying all morning that republicans are coming out of the wood word and you have been showing my picture. i was on your show two weeks ago. i'm not hiding from anyone. i have appeared on television continually on this and i have strong views on it. so i don't appreciate the

implications until now i am suddenly appearing. >> i know we wanted you to be on yesterday. also true that we couldn't get anybody on when we were trying to discuss the implications on this. i don't have to sell you on the point that your leadership had been quiet on this. >> i'm talking about myself. and i followed carter page, which is no easy thing to do. i was opposed to the appointment of a special counsel. however, if you are going to have a special counsel, you cannot have a better man than bob mueller. he's universally respected, and i am convinced he will do a fair and impartial investigation. as for the president, this is unforced error. i have said from the start and i continue to say i see no evidence of any crime, no evidence of any collusion, but the investigation has to go forward. i think the president should let it go forward and it will basically get out of the

headlines, let him do his job as president, let us do our job in congress. >> isn't it a little deceptive to say you don't know of any proof? why would you? the investigation isn't concluded. it seems to fuel a sense of sabotage, a sense of ill legitimacy when you say we haven't seen any proof. isn't it true to say you should not have seen any proof at this point. the only stuff coming out are leaks. there is a small circle of people doing the main investigating and holding that information. so not knowing, do you believe that not knowing is proof that there will be nothing to know? >> i am not aware. i have contacted a number of people. also you don't know and we have an investigation going forward. if there is an investigation going forward, there should be some basis for it. i have not seen a basis for it after everything i have seen and heard and even going back to

general clapper who said he was not aware of anything at all. >> he said he wasn't aware of anything because he wasn't aware of the investigation. >> right. >> he hadn't talked about it. he hadn't reviewed the record. that's different than saying i have looked at everything and i see no basis. >> it is not that different. he haas has access to intelligence throughout the world. if there was collusion going on between the trump campaign and russia, the director of national intelligence would have picked it up from somewhere. doesn't have to be part of a criminal investigation. now, again, i want the investigation to go forward. i'm just saying so far i isn't seen any concrete evidence. watergate we had evidence all along the way. we have no evidence here. >> but i don't know that a crime -- this is different than watergate. you had a burglary. and i don't know that having a crime is the bar of having something that warrants our attention. reuter's is reporting you have

18 different points of contact that need to be reviewed. you know about flynn. you know about the other questions that have arised. you know james comey took great lengths to come out and say, look, this is real. we've got to look at this stuff. not saying he would predict a certain conclusion and that's fine. but do you really believe there is no reason to look into questions of collusion? >> it should be looked into. but the overall issue of russia interfering in the election, it's dangerous from a criminal perspective because that's a very narrow perspective. i think there is a real issue of russia interference. but when you start criminalizing the process, it becomes dangerous. the criminal focus shaould be narrowed. but i am not aware there is not evidence yet of any collusion. >> but i'm just saying usually let the process play out, right? that's the way we usually do it.

and it seems like some of you aren't doing it here and it smacks of political cover. go ahead, please respond. >> i came out of a closed door meeting -- >> that could be b.s. also. >> and i think many in the media are guilty of that. i come out of a closed door meeting and the story broke of comey. reporters reporting trump should be impeached. this is before they've seen the memo. why didn't comey report it to the justice department? why didn't he tell his own deputy director? where is the memo? i accept the fact the memo was there. i'm not anti-comey. all i'm saying when you have this hysteria from one side, i want to say wait and see. >> i think wait and see is the national push back.

we have never forwarded the idea that this must be impeachment or something like that. we were asking the questions you were just asking right there. these tweets from the president this morning, you did you didn't think he needed a special counsel. after these tweets, after him getting rid of james comey and saying he did it because he didn't like the russia investigation, you still think having a russia investigation is a bad idea? >> i have an opposition to special counsel. i saw what happened during the ken star investigation. i oppose impeachment in the end. i saw how many people really driven to financial ruin who had no involvement whatsoever. people like the fact of independent. that also means they're not responsible to anybody. you always always be responsible to someone. unfortunately past experience has shown special counsel often go off on their own. i am convinced rob mueller will not. >> thank you very much.

you're always welcome on new day. >> let's get to our other breaking story. roger ailes has died. he was ousted with allegations of sexual harassment. on the phone bill carter and also cnn chief political correspondent dana bash. but, bill, our condolences to mr. ailes statement. what more do you know? >> i don't know anymore. obviously we know after he was ousted, you know, he sort of dropped off the radar and people really didn't know what he was up to. we do know he was, you know, a man in his late 70s who was obviously not in the best shape, i guess. a bit overweight. but i didn't know he was ill. so i take this as a sudden move. >> the world from shawn hannity, we just were on the phone with him, is that he had been in

decline. and why we don't know yet. the statement from his wife just says that he passed this morning and she remembers roger as a husband to her and a father to his season zachary and a loyal friend to many. she points out he was also a patriot. so dana bash, this man overlapped so many worlds. yes, you must give voice to what happened in his career, the allegations from multiple alleged victims of what was done and the influence on the culture there that needs to be changed still. but his influence in politics and media is giving birth to something that people said would never survive and is now the most rated of all cable news in history. a big man. >> no question. look, i worked at cnn before there was a fox. and so i remember cable news before there was a fox. and it changed the landscape. there is no question about it. now, we can have a long discussion of whether it was for

better or worse for the democracy of this country. but if you are a republican and you are a, you know, frankly, a hard right republican and even those who, you know, just frankly like info-tainment at night, it gave them a place to watch and there is no question it changed the landscape and it changed politics. it changed republican politics. i saw the change in the years since fox news was on the air. >> we'll cover his death. i'm sure we'll talk to a lot of voices throughout the day here. but let me talk about president trump. big news, people are waking up this morning, the appointment of former fbi director mueller now leading this investigation. rod rosenstein. we're talking to mag give haber man almost three hours ago and he was saying how thrilled the white house must be that we've heard nothing from the president on twitter. >> because the president was

probably watching and said, oh, yeah, i'll show her. >> that's exactly the point chris made earlier today. >> this is i think -- assuming that he has lawyered up, more than he was before and that his lawyers are being more aggressive in telling him lay off the twitter, this is probably the most tame thing that he could have said legally based on what he probably wanted to say on twitter this morning. you know, i mean, it's hyperbolic. it is not true. and, you know, it is what it is. i think the bigger question and the most interesting thing that i'm hearing from republicans on capitol hill is a sigh of relief. not so much about the long term implications because it could be bad. but the short term implications for them when they go home to their districts, they have an off ramp. they can say, you know, yeah, it's a special counsel and bob mueller is handling it and i don't really know because it is a closed investigation, so let's let that play out. >> proof of two things.

one, the president's suggestion as recently as during this coast guard graduation speech that he's essentially a victim. this is proof he's not a victim. these are self-inflicted wounds. he did not need to tweet this and disparage the people in his party who were for a special counsel. the man he relied on so heavily just last week and the process. he didn't have to do that. he's going to have a negative cycle and he is why he's going to have one. we just talked to peter king. if you didn't think you needed a special counsel after these two tweets and him firing comey, how can you not think it was necessary? >> peter king is an outliar on the motion of a special counsel. some say they weren't there yet on the notion of a special counsel, that they wanted to let the investigations in the fbi and justice and frankly on capitol hill play out a little bit longer. but just because you didn't hear republicans calling for a special counsel doesn't mean they didn't necessarily want

one. they just didn't want to be the ones out front to say, yes, we need it because of the notion of the political off ramp. the one thing that republicans i have talked to are concerned about who want to get to the bottom of the comey memo in particular is that this shuts down the notion of comey coming to capitol hill and testifying. >> it could, right? >> definitely. >> okay. dana bash, appreciate it. you have another day where once again the president creating a negative news cycle. thank you very much. brooke, thank you for being with me. >> i'm be back tomorrow. >> thank you. cnn news room with john berman has big headlines for you. stay with cnn. short break now. your insurance company

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on auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. good morning, everyone. the breaking news this morning. special doesn't always mean good. not for the president. president trump just lashed out at the appointment of a special counsel to investigate russia's meddling in the election and russian ties to the campaign. he wrote with all the illegal acts that took place in the clinton campaign and obama administration there was never a special counsel. followed by this is the springle greatest witch hunt of a politician in american history. first, there has never been a special counsel appointed in the world, not s