always unstoppable. kayle welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thanks for sharing your day with us. there are a lot of big moving parts here in washington this afternoon. the attorney general jeff sessions is the day's star witness on capitol hill. set to give public testimony about his election year meetings with russian officials and his controversial role in the firing of former fbi director james comey. >> i'm going to ask him questions about essentially what he knew when he knew it. and what happened in that february 14th meeting with the president when he was asked to leave the room. >> the deputy attorney general also testifying before congress officially to discuss budget matters, but there is no

escaping the russia cloud. >> is there anything to some secret plan that's out there from you or anyone in the administration to try to go and remove the special counsel? >> there is no secret plan that involves me. >> and president trump after venting on twitter in the breakfast hours is about to have lunch with republican senators and getting an update on their very difficult obamacare repeal negotiations. >> president donald trump is going to keep his promise to the american people and working with this congress we're going to repeal and replace obamacare. this will be the north star of our administration. >> with us to share their reporting, abbey phillip, olivia knox, john yang, and yak key kucinich. here's one of the many questions for jeff sessions. is the president really debating whether to fire the new special counsel lead -- russian meddling investigation.

excuse me. of course not most white house aides say. political suicide is the reaction from most republicans outside the white house. the deputy attorney general, the man who would have to carry out such an order says he believes special counsel bob mueller is doing a fine job. why is this an issue? why is it a question? one of the certain questions the attorney general will be asked later today. because the president who surprised us all by firing the fbi director james comey has been complaining fiercely to friends of late about bob mueller in much the same way he complained about comey. >> i think he's considering perhaps terminating the special counsel. i think he's weighing that option. i think it's pretty clear by what one of his lawyers said on television recently. i personally think it would be a very significant mistake. >> and so that is a good friend of the president who is also the ceo of the conservative news max site. he was at the white house. says he did not talk to the president but he was talking to

other officials. then he goes on other programs and says i think the president's thinking about doing this and i think it would be a really bad idea. you can put that into friends like these file. he's doing this for a reason. christopher ruddy is trying to tell the president don't do this. and he thinks the best way to tell him is to start a conversation on television about it. >> he's not wrong about that. this has produced a sort of avalanche of cries from the outside, from the inside to say to the president really, don't do this. and this is all in the context of president trump being someone who doesn't really like being told what he can and cannot do. so i think a lot of his allies feel kind of hamstrung in moments like this when they know that he's kind of ruminating over something that could be politically damaging to him t.'s ha it's hard to tell him no. you get it out there and let the political dynamics over take the

situation and that he's maybe forced into going the right course. >> what does the attorney general say this afternoon when he is questioned? i guess he can say i have recused myself so i can't talk about it. >> except for the whole i helped fire comey. he's going to be asked about that anyway. whether he truly recused himself. but the attorney general is going to have to walk a very fine line. and i think will do so even on this question to avoid upsetting the president. because he's in a little bit of a spot with the president right now. >> he's also one of the great supporters of the president. he was one of the first senators to endorse him. i also think he's got to sort of weigh the question of executive privilege. yes, he can claim executive privilege on his conversations with the president, but his conversations with comey when comey said don't ever leave me alone with the president ever again, that's not coverage. >> there's a funny tug of war

now with newt gingrich who's out there saying the president should fire bob mueller, so we've got two friends of the support. >> the former speaker of the house when kent star was the independent counsel repeatedly went after democrat whose went on television questioning the integrity of the viability, whether ken star should stay in his job. we'll save that for another day. let's come back to the question of would the president do this. he surprised us by firing james comey. the conversations he was having about comey with friends and associates are similar the conversations he's having now about bob mueller. i can't control this. when is it going to end. it's going on forever. how did this happen. rod rosenstein by law, jeff sessions has recused himself. so by law it would be the deputy attorney general who actually had, if the president called and said i want him fired, it would be rod rosenstein who had to do that. so susan collins, republican senator from maine, brought that issue up this morning to rod

rosenstein who's still on capitol hill. >> has the president ever discussed with you the appointment of the special counselor discussed the special counsel in any way? >> no, he has not. >> and seven, if president trump ordered you to fire the special counsel, what would you do? >> senator, i'm not going to follow any orders unless i believe those are lawful and appropriate orders. under the regulation, special counsel mueller may be fired only for good cause and i am required to put that cause in writing. and so that's what i would do. if there were good cause, i would consider it. if there were not good cause t wouldn't matter to me what anybody says. >> it's the last part. it wouldn't matter who told me. you see the republicans rushing to put the question to rod rosenstein. in part because they have tried many of them even though they're holding their noses a bit or they're nervous, they've tried

to stay by the white house or say the democrats are trying to get ahead of the facts everybody calm down. when they wake up on a day and hear the president is thinking of firing bob mueller, it causes a bit of panic among republicans. >> this is why it's such a bad idea. republicans need special counsel. they need someone who they can say is over here and is working on this investigation and it's going to in a professional way so they don't have to deal with it. to get rid of that would be to throw them to the sharks. that's why republicans are looking at the situation and they're saying don't shoot yourself in the foot, because this is something that will help at least shield them in some small mesh from the full brunt of what this whole russia investigation and scandal might end up being. >> but they also know that if the president is dead set on something, it's going to be very hard to convince him not to do it. look at twitter. many senior advisers who haven't told him to dial back what he says on twitter, and that hasn't

happened. he's even gone so far to say i don't care what the lawyers say. so it really is that feeling of unpredictability that is causing so much nervousness on the hill and elsewhere. >> and also where this anger comes from. it seems to be coming from comey's testimony last week that he put out his memos to try to trigger for a special counsel. so i'm sure that the president feels like he got played by comey. we know what he thinks about comey to begin with. so that just makes him even angrier. >> i want to get you more the republican answer. here's paul ryan. he would like to talk about health care and tax reform. the first question is about bob mueller. >> i think the best thing to do is let robert mueller do his job. the best thing for the president is let this investigation go on. that to me is the smartest thing to do the best thing to do and that's what i think hopefully will happen. i don't know his team. i know bob mueller and i have confidence in him. >> i think if nothing else mr.

ruddy has achieved his goal. you have republican senators and house members saying mr. president, don't do this or you'll open a trap door politically. >> you have the trial balloon, this novel 2017 trump reaching trial balloon. has it shot down? has it felolown free. we're still having this conversation. newt gingrich is still out there. the president is still frustrated with this investigation and heaven only knows how he's going to respond to jeff sessions testimony. >> to your point, we know the president is frustrated with jeff sessions. his decision was his only choice, but jeff sessions said i'll recuse myself because i was involved in the campaign, because ei was sa surrogate. the president got mad about that. caught him by surprise. that's what got you first the aggressive comey investigation, then the special counsel. you brought this up. let talk about one of the issues that kwill come up with jeff sessions. jim comey told the story about

being at the white house with the president in a room with several other people including the attorney general. the president says everybody else leave including the attorney general of the united states. i want to talk one-on-one with the fbi director. everybody in the room, everybody in america knows this investigation is going on at this moment. jim comey says it made him nervous and he says he thinks that jeff sessions and jared kushner felt the same way. >> my impression was something big is about to happen, i need to remember every single word that is spoken and, again, i could be wrong, but i'm 56 years old. i've seen a few things. my sense was the attorney general knew he shouldn't be leaving, which is why he was lingering. and i don't know mr. kushner well, but i think he picked up on the same thing. so i knew something was about to happen that i need to pay very close attention to. >> that something, james comey went on to say and he took memos is the president asked him -- the president told him i hope you could let go of the michael flynn investigation. the fired national security adviser. james comey said he took that as

a directive. donald trump lawyers said he hope, he didn't order you to do it. jeff session system going to get asked about that moment today. the president says shoo, i'm going to talk to jim comey. does he say i wasn't lingering, i left, i was saying goodbye. does he have any shield to not talk about that. >> it sounds like they are gearing up to refute some of what comey said. there was a conversation between comey and sessions in which comey basically said what happened here should really never happen again. by his accounting jeff sessions sha said nothing. sessions is probably going to say that didn't happen. it ends up being another important he said/he said

situation. he's technically comey's boss. he should have been between comey and the president. the question remains why wasn't he -- what was his reaction? did he have any follow-up to the president when comey specifically said that kind of situation shouldn't really happen. you should be between me and the president. we still don't know the answer to those questions. >> remember why james comey described that story. in order to make a case for obstruction of justice, you need to prove the intent. so the idea was that not only was james comey aware it was going to happen, jeff sessions was aware. jared kushner was aware something big was going to happen. james comey kind of looped them all into -- conspiracy, a big word, but that there was a motive here. it was unseemly. it was a very clear legal argument. >> be interesting to hear about that. >> 13 senators at the white house with a lunch for the president. could be a make or break moment. at least they hope for repealing or replacing obamacare.

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. welcome back. 13 republican senators are at the white house for lunch with president trump. a meeting with comes at crunch time in the senate gop effort to crack an obamacare repeal plan that can somehow bridge differences and win 50 votes. among those at the table, conservatives ted cruz and mike lee and susan collins. the white house meeting is certainly important, but private gop meetings later today on capitol hill are viewed as even more critical test of whether senate republicans can begin to put pen to paper and turn weeks of talking into an actual piece of legislation. we expect to hear from the president momentarily as that lunch gets under way. yesterday he said anyone frustrated with the pace of obamacare repeal should blame the democrats.

>> we will have zero backing from the democrats even though they should get in and do something, but we expect to get zero. if we had the greatest bill in the history of the world on health care, we wouldn't get one vote from the democrats because they're obstructionists. that's what they want to do. that's the game. they think that's their best political game. they're looking to '18. >> it would be a stronger case from the president if the republicans actually invited the democrats in at this point and invited the democrats to be part. they're not part of it. i get the president's political argument. they're been against the republicans on health care but there's been no -- they want this to be a republican only bill. how important is this today for the president in the sense that the senators have to go up on capitol hill and write this piece of legislation? what's the big ask for the president and what's his big ask of them? >> well, one of the things you always have to be mindful of in meetings like this is that this is not a president who is diving deep on the details of this

bill. so on some level meetings like this are about being a cheerleader for the process. and i -- i find it just hard to believe that anything coming out of this meeting will be substantive moving this negotiation forward. on the other hand, it will give him a better sense of where the moderates are on this legislation because they're the ones who hold the key to this entire process. and i think that it's as much about kind of bringing him into the process as it is about sort of having them at the table and having him be a sort of convene or of all the various factions on this bill. >> not only does he not dive deep into the details but i get the sense when you hear him talk he doesn't care about the details. i got the sense during the campaign this was not a big deal for him but he signed on because it's a republican doctrine that you have to repeal obamacare. i don't think he is enmeshed at all in the details of this legislation. >> i think the senate leader

sh ship would be happy if the white house stayed out of it because they really hurt the house process by throwing things out there that weren't necessarily true or ahead of their skis a little bit. by bringing him in it makes sense. when the white house starts getting involved. senate leadership is sort of like we got this. >> that's the key here. the house, when the house was debating this, the white house was a net negative at every step, whether it was threatening house members or saying take one for the team which is really popular for someone about to face the voters in 2018. the white house screwed up the process during the house debate. it's going to be interesting to see what lessons they learn as they sit down with the senate. >> mitch mcconnell is paul ryan. >> and mitch mcconnell is not there but he's leaving it to the working group. one senator who is at the lunch, part of his message was that if the senate gets a bill, do not tweet that now we negotiate. because that's what happened. speaker ryan had the house bill and the president said great,

now the negotiations begin. their point is if they can somehow get to 50 votes in the senate with mike pence being the tiebreaker, that will be so fragile that there will be no room and the president, to your point, let them do their business. say they they're getting closer. they say their hope is to vote before the july 4th recess. again, you'll tbelieve it when you see it. here's rand paul. susan collins, li -- here's ran paul on the tea party side saying -- >> my current impression is they've taken the house bill and it's probably going to include more subsidies, probably include more federal money and more federal involvement in health care. that's the wrong direction and that will lose me. but i'm still in the mix. i'm still open to voting for something but it's got to get

better, not worse. the house bill would have to improve, not get worse. >> there are only 52 of them. there are 52 of them. if you lose rand paul, you're at 51. this math's not hard. and if you lose rand paul i assume you're losing mike lee. that puts you at 50. now you're done. that's it. or what? can they pull this off? >> they have to. and i think just to your earlier point about the president always talking about democrats, it really shows an underlying lack of understanding of how this process works. he personally has done almost nothing to bring democrats into either the health care processor the governing process overall. almost no good will. then you have a republican caucus in this house, republican caucus in the house and senate. you have moderates and you have deserves and you have to bring those people together. that is how governing is. and ultimately that's why the president really needs to stay out of it because he is assuming if you have an "r" next to your

name you need to sign on to this bill because this is what we promised them to do. every state, every senator has their own concerns. mitch mcconnell is someone who understands that. i actually am not -- i have a certain amount of confidence in mitch mcconnell's ability to sort of twist arms and get things done. i just don't think that the president really understands how that process works and that's why he's kind of on the sideline. >> one of the challenges will be anything they can put together in the senate, can they look people in the eye and say it's obamacare repeal. that's their mantra is repeal. >> that's the problem with rand paul and mike lee. they want complete repeal and this is a tweet. there are very heavy modifications but this is not a full on repeal process. i do like rand paul saying he's in the mix. the minute you're not in the mix, no one is talking to you. they don't need your vote. didn't rand paul runaround the house side during the house process looking for the secret bill? >> yes. >> so he's been pretty involved

this whole time. i rather withonder whether he's doing the same thing. >> we'll wait and hear. we're going to hear remarks from the president we're told in two minutes. they brought the travel pool reporters into the meeting. the president delivered some remarks. we're told in about two minutes we'll see that tape. as we wait to hear the president. another setback on his agenda, health care is on hold is a kind way to put it. he lost again in the ninth circuit court of appeals yesterday. yet another males couappeals cog against his travel ban. the president's authority is subject to certain statutory and constitutional restraints. the president not happy with this tweeted out this morning well, as predicted the ninth circuit did it again. ruled against the travel ban at such a dangerous time in the history of our country. the president continuing to call it a travel ban which his attorneys have asked him not to do. >> yet again, right? and the ninth circuit quoted his

twitter feed. i guess it's not a first. >> but it becomes very significant because they're viewing those as official presidential statements. >> that's right. which they obviously are. they obviously are official presidential statements. although it's good to get the white house to confirm. that they're just angling to get him quoted more. >> he's his own worst enemy on this issue. as much as he's pushing it, he is the one who's setting it back by doing just that. it's not like he's not aware that it's hurting this process and it's hurting their argument. his lawyers have told him and he's rejected that advice. >> the idea that he's setting this up as kind of like it's such a dangerous time, they are stopping us from protecting the country is something that i think we need to sort of keep in front of mind here. because that's a pretty deliberate strategy. and it's one that i think actually kind of sets them up for trouble. because the question later on i think is going to be why haven't -- hadn't the administration done more to

actually tighten vetting procedures. >> let's go with the president of the united states in the cabinet room having lunch with 13 republican senators. let's listen. thank you very much. greatly appreciate it. very happy that you're all here today. republican senators are going to be discussing the urgent need to repeal and replace the disaster known as obamacare. it was just announced yesterday that two million people have dropped out of obamacare. two million additional. they are leaving fast. premiums have increased by an average of more than 100% nationwide. in north carolina premiums have gone up 176%. in arkansas premiums have gone up 128%. in pennsylvania premiums have gone up by 120% and i hate to say this to you, lisa, but in alaska they've gone up 207% on obamacare.

i used to mention only arizona because they were up 116% in arizona. now arizona is, like, goodbye comparison to some of the numbers. but they're way up in arizona also. insurers are fleeing the market. last week it was announced that one of the largest insurers is pulling out of ohio. that could mean another 20 counties, at least 19,000 people in ohio will have no plan at all. nationwide one in three u.s. counties have only a single insurer and many of those insurers as you know have announced that they're leaving. obamacare has been broken and it's been a broken promise. one after another americans were told that if you liked your doctor, you'll keep your doctor. that was a lie. they were told that if you liked your plan, you'd keep your plan. that was a lie. americans were told the premiums

would go down by $2,500 per year and instead their premiums went up to levels that nobody thought even possible. the house has passed a bill and now the senate is working very, very hard and specifically the folks in this room and i really appreciate what you're doing to come out with a bill that's going to be a phenomenal bill for the people of our country. generous, kind with heart. that's what i'm saying. and that may be adding additional money into it. come out with a real bill, not obamacare. and the results are going to be fantastic and hopefully it will be announced at the appropriate time and everyone is going to be happy. but by contrast, republicans in congress, as hard as they're working, you have the democrats on the other side who truly have become obstructionists.

even their new motto, resist, and i guess it's a pretty accurate motto. every time i see it i say that's right, that does represent the democrats. called resist. and it's very unfortunate. i actually said if we came up with the greatest health care plan or tax cut, because we're coming out with massive tax cut and tax reform, but if we came up with the greatest health care or tax cut ever in our country's history, we wouldn't get one democrat vote. it's an obstruction. so the republicans are working hard. we passed and signed 38 pieces of legislation which nobody likes to talk about. i think probably seldom has any president and administration done more or had more success, so early on, including a record number of resolutions to eliminate job killing regulations. and we see it all over the country where jobs are starting that would never have started

ever under any circumstances. so i'd like to thank our great vice president for being here. i'd like to thank all of the senators who i have so much respect for. i've gotten to know and love some of them and know and like others. but i have great relationships with every one of them and i tell you what? i do have a lot of respect for the people in this room and i appreciate you being here. just a little bit on the economy. unemployment has fallen to a 16 year low. manufacturing confidence is at an all-time high. just came out with a report. the highest level of confidence in the history of the reports which are in particular statistics for many, many years. and in the history of this report, the confidence level is at the highest point it's ever been. companies are moving back into the united states. you see that michigan where the auto companies are coming back in and they're expanding their existing plans. and they're saying well, maybe we're just going to have to build in the united states.

that's the way it's going to be. i was also really thrilled last week and had a lot to do with even their opening ceremony wherein pennsylvania they're opening a brand new coal mine. that's the first coal mine that's opened in this country in a long time. it's brand new. many of them are being reopened. but this is a brand new mine. that hasn't happened for many, many years. so we're keeping our promise to the american people. that's why it's so important for the senate and the senators that are with us today to come up with a great health care plan. and i really believe they're going to be able to do. we're really close and i really believe they're going to be able to do it. the economy is great. everything seems to be working really well. and a very big focus for us over the next short period of time are going to be tax cuts, tax reform. we're going to be putting in a very major infrastructure plan and for this group in particular

we're going to be focused on obamacare repeal and replace. i've been talking about repealing and replacing obamacare now for almost two years. don't forget on june 16th, june 14th is my birthday, but june 16th was the day i announced i was running. some people said really? that going to happen? and it happened. but it's been exactly, so in three days, it's exactly two years. so we're very happy about that. from day one i said we're going to repeal and replace obamacare. that's what we're going to do. so we've kept our promises. we've gotten rid of the regulations. the economy is going really well and going to get even a lot better. numbers for the quarter are going to be very good. when the numbers are announced, i think they're going to be shockingly good based on all of the facts that we're hearing and based on the enthusiasm from the businesses because they're doing well. and we've just started. so i want to thank you all and i want to thank you senators for

being here. we appreciate it. and now what we'll do is we'll start talking about the replacement for obamacare which will be far better than obamacare. thank you very much. >> as soon as we can do it. thank you very much, everybody. thank you. >> the president refusing to answer some questions at the end including somebody shouting at him, one of the reporters, should bob mueller be fired. the president not taking the bait on that question. that's the special counsel. one of the questions in washington today. let's talk about what we did hear from the president there. he started off by talking about health care. then he wanted to plug the administration's other goal. says the economy is doing great. says the infrastructure bill will be coming. tax reform. he says it is tax reform negotiations are moving along. i think he'll get pushback from that. but specifically to the issue of obamacare, we talked a little bit beforehand about his potential role for the good or for the bad of the republican

cause in this. what did we learn there? >> well, not a whole lot. let's start with that. i don't think we learned anything of of substance except he thinks it's going to be a really great bill and that perhaps he thinks it needs more money which i think, you know, maybe mitch mcconnell would have something to say about that. you know, i think this is about the president basically telling the world that he's working on it. that things are going swimmingly in his administration. they are very eager to show progress here. that's what these sort of photo op moments are all about this week. >> 150 days in to an all-republican washington, obamacare is still the law of the land. it gets hard at some point to keep making the case things are going swimmingly. i do get psychology matters as you're trying to move negotiations forward. but to your point, before we got to the president, we played senate rand paul. there are 52 republican senators. they can only afford to lose two. if mike pence is there to break a tie. he said one of his concerns is

that already they were putting too much money in and the president of the united states says it might take more money. is he knowingly or not undermining the very sensitive negotiations that are going on at this very moment? >> i don't know because i don't know whether rand paul listening to president trump or to leader mcconnell more closely. we don't know what that final bill is going to look like. the other thing i would say is for the last ten days or so the trump white house has taken a page from the clinton white house. they were upset by scandal and has been making the case while you guys are focusing on this other thing we are at work. last week was infrastructure week. it didn't end up being infrastructure week because comey's testimony swallowed up the entire span. but they've been making this argument steadily. that's what he is doing today. we are getting things done. i have a real jaagenda. >> but he undermines himself. usually what white houses do is stay on message. he undermines himself by tweeting about the russia investigation. i can't imagine him not

responding to things that sessions is asked or said. >> we will find out. jeff sessions in the chair in a little bit. up next a return to that story. this big question for the attorney general. how can he be recused from the russia meddling investigation yet still play a role in the man leading that investigation? can you actually love wearing powerful sunscreen? yes! neutrogena® ultra sheer. no other sunscreen works better or feels so good. clinically proven helioplex® provides unbeatable uva/uvb protection to help prevent early skin aging and skin cancer all with a clean light feel. for unbeatable protection. it's the one. the best for your skin. ultra sheer®. neutrogena®. see what's possible. i'm the one clocking in... when you're clocking out. sensing your every move and automatically adjusting to help you stay effortlessly comfortable. there. i can even warm these to help you fall asleep faster.

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murkow welcome back. one big area of questioning this afternoon for attorney general jeff sessions will take us back to 2016 and his election year meetings with russia's ambassador to the united states. and as he is asked to detail those meetings, here is the related issue of explaining this. >> and if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the trump campaign communicated with the russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do? >> senator franken, i'm not aware of any of those activities. i have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and i didn't have -- did not have communications with the russians. >> remember that, did not have communications with the russians? we later learned he had at least two meetings with the russian

ambassador to the united states. he says it was senate business, it wasn't trump campaign business. that's the distinction he made. we'll see what happens this afternoon. another focus getting him to how he could have been a part of getting the approximate to the fire james comey after he promised to not have anything to do with the aspect of the hugz med russian meddling investigation. >> since i had involvement in the campaign i should not be involved in any campaign investigation. i have studied the rules and considered their comments and evaluation. i believe those recommendations are right and just. therefore, i have recused myself in the matters that deal with the trump campaign. >> let's take these in reverse order. how does he explain that? if you read the papers put out by the white house on the day of the comey firing, there was the memo from rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general in which he said he believed james comey

lost the faith of fbi and then there was a short letter from the attorney general of the united states recommending the president fire him. how can a man who is recused from all things involving the russia investigation write a letter to the president of the united states saying fire the man leading the thing i'm recused from? >> i can't wait for his answer. i really can't. because it's going to be asked. >> don't you think he's going to answer if you look at the memo by the deputy attorney general, it was all about comey's management of the clinton investigation? isn't he going to say i wasn't acting on the russia investigation? i was acting in my capacity as disciplining someone involved in the 2016 hillary investigation? it's going to be a nightmare. he's going to get questions like this up and down. i don't know that the average person watching this really gets what recusal means and why it matters. >> i think we should also pay very close attention to what he did say in that press conference. he said he's recusing himself from all things related to the trump campaign because of his

involvement in the campaign. comey's firing, if you read rosenstein's letter, is about his conduct during the campaign as it relates to hillary clinton's e-mails. so i guess it depends on how far jeff sessions is taking his sort of involvement in the campaign and what that means as it relates to other things related to the campaign over at the fbi. but that -- i think that is going to be brought out in this question and answer. sessions is trying to draw a line between what he recused himself for and why and what he can be involved in. i think because they pinned this so heavily on comey and what he did in the campaign and how that affected the campaign in terms of hillary clinton's e-mails, he'll have a lot of questions about that part too. >> and to your point, the question is they're going to ask him so you're saying this is just about clinton. comey's conduct there. did you discuss this with the president who said it was about russia? that's where i think executive

privilege will come in. let's go to the other issue which is how many times did jeff sessions meet with the russian ambassador during the campaign, number one and number two, why didn't he disclose that on his form when he was applying for security clearance which asks you have you met with representatives of foreign governments. this came up when comey was testifying when comey told the senate there were some things, significant things, they did not tell jeff sessions about and comey explained why he -- let's listen. comey explained why he did not tell the attorney general of the united states about big things in the investigation. >> i don't remember real clearly. i have a recollection of him just kind of looking at me and there's a danger here i'm projecting on to him so this may be a faulty memory, but his body language gave me the sense, like, what am i going to do. >> did he shrug? i don't remember clearly. i think the reason i have that impression is i have some recollection of almost imperceptible, like, what am i going to do. but you don't have a clear recollection of that.

he didn't say anything. >> that's not the sound i was looking for. let's talk about this one. this goes back to the other issue of the at some point jim comey saying he told the attorney general you can't leave me alone with the president of the united states, that's improper and wrong. then comey says jeff sessions looks like whamt am i going to do. >> the fbi and the justice department should maintain the proper amount of communication and contact. they're directly in conflict on that. >> but how does he explain that? i mean, saying that they should follow the protocols and then doing nothing about it is the same as doing and saying nothing. so i think we need more information about what happened next. what did jeff sessions do as a result of being confronted with this problem by james comey? did he go to the president? did he go to the white house counsel and say hey, we need to establish a protocol to fix this level of contact?

nine one-on-one contacts between trump and comey in five months. that's a lot of contact. >> and if there were such conversations, who relayed to the president? did the attorney general? did the white house counsel relate, sir, thaents ht's not h works. this is where james comey flights the idea of something we don't know. >> what was it about the attorney general's own interactions with the russians or his behavior with regard to the investigation that would have led the entire leadership of the fbi to make this decision? >> our judgment as i recall was that he was very close to and inevtae inevitably going to recuse himself for a variety of reasons. we also were aware of facts they can't discuss in an open setting that would make his continuing engagement in a russia investigation problematic.

>> he said they were aware of facts that he wasn't able to discuss in an open setting. we're told from sources later that was the possibility that there was a third sessions meeting with ambassador kislyak. i have to assume that the attorney general understands the cloud over the nation's top law enforcement officer and if anything, he is prepared today to say meeting one, meeting two, if there was a meeting three or forcefully pushback and say there was not. but to finally put on the record the meetings, what they were about and weren't about or is he not going to answer those questions? >> this goes back to his confirmation hearing where he said flatly that he hasn't had any contacts with the russians. this is also where there is so much smoke here. so much concern here. if all these meetings were innocent and there was nothing to them, why not just tell us about them to begin with? why not just come clean instead of this drip, drip, drip. >> we should note there's been a controversy, remember james comey said he gave a good friend

of his his moemos about his conversations with president trump. members of congress have been asking for those memos. the freniend has just told cnn he's turning those back over to the fbi. up next, high praise for president trump like we've rarely seen. and a cabinet meeting like we've rarely seen.

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welcome back. you know the old saying imitation is the sincerest form of flatterer. flattery works just as well if you're a member of the president's cabinet. >> thank you, mr. president. greatest privilege of my life is to serve as vice president to a president who's keeping his word to the american people. >> mr. president, what an incredible honor it is to lead the department of health and human services at this pivotal time under your leadership. i can't thank you enough for your privilege you've given me. >> on behalf of the entire senior staff around you, mr. president, we thank you for the opportunity and the blessing that you've given us to serve your agenda and the american people. >> the senate democratic leader chuck schumer just couldn't

resist and in example imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery. >> i want to thank everybody for coming. i just thought we'd go around the room. lucy, how did we do on the sunday show yesterday? >> your tone was perfect. you were right on message. >> michelle, how did may hair look coming out of the gym? >> you have great hair. nobody has better hair. >> before we go any further, i just want to say thank you for the opportunity and blessing to serve your agenda. >> all righty then. little "b" movie there from senator schumer. they're trying to just get the democratic base. have a little fun. but back to the president's cabinet meeting. i covered the white house for almost ten years. did a lot of cabinet meetings. yes, there are times when someone around the table is trying to curry favor with the boss. but i have never seen anything, anything anywhere close to that. am i wrong? >> the backdrop also makes this particularly interesting. i don't know what the percentage

of people around the table that have been undermined by something they've put out and the president put out after them but it has to be 25% at least. knowing that it also made it even more interesting to watch. >> everybody also knows that the easiest way to donald trump's heart is to flatter him. it's not just his cabinet . it's world leaders. it's pence. it's everyone around him. they know -- sean spicer, you go up there and you say the nicest possible thing. you talk about strong leadership. you give him credit for everything. that's the way business is done in this white house. >> john, you've led this conversation with incredible eloquence. part of is they're not being distracted but they are. they're being undermined. that was part of this whole -- the comey thing is a side show.

the mueller thing is a side show. it was wildly over the top. that's part of their message. >> isn't there a way to say we're implementing your plan to get america back to work? doing your plan for energy and independence whatever it is without, like, wow. >> there wasn't much talk of work. it was just a lot of talk about -- >> no, but they're uninified behind their boss. >> i was speechless. >> i think that's grace. you're showing great grace. that's good. thank for joining us "inside politics." remember a big afternoon ahead. jeff sessions the attorney general of the united states will be in the witness chair before the senate intelligence committee. a number of primportant questio. and then involvement in the firing of james comey, a very consequential afternoon ahead. thanks for joining us "inside politics." wolf blitzer with more of our

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hello i'm wolf blitzer. wherever you're watching from around the world thanks very much for joining us. up first jeff sessions in the spotlight and under oath. the attorney general of the united states testifies next hour before the senate intelligence committee in an open hearing. you're looking at a live picture coming in from the hearing room right now. sessions arrives on capitol hill this hour for what could be another major round of dramatic testimony stemming from the russia investigation. among the issues, sessions will likely be questioned about revelations from last week's testimony by the fired fbi director james comey. his decision, his role in the decision to fire comey and his meetings with russian officials. while the sessions testimony is unfolding up on capitol hill, president trump will be on the