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tv   Anderson Cooper 360  CNN  June 16, 2017 9:00pm-10:01pm PDT

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>> what we are going to learn here today. >> the best way to better the situation is to offer them opportunities to feel empowered. >> to see how jennifer cox is helping kids in shelters create a path to a brighter future, go to cnnheroes.com and nominate someone you think should be a 2017 cnn hero. that's it for us tonight. thanks for watching. good evening, john berman here in for anderson, it's been quite a week and it's not over yet. we have seen a man with two guns, try the politically motivated mass murder and failed. and. a decision could come any minute. we begin with new friday night tension inside the justice department about the future of deputy attorney general rob rosenstein. remember, he is the one with the power to fire special counsel robert mueller, and he is the one that came under attack from the president today. who wrote earlier, i'm being investigated for firing the fbi director by the man who told me to fire the fbi director, witch
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hunt. there are new developments in all this tonight. evan perez joins us with that. the new question is, will the attorney general rob rosenstein recuse himself from the russia probe. what are you learning? >> john, it's looking more and more like that's where he's going to be, probably not in the next couple of days, but certainly as probability mueller starts staffing up his investigative staff, he's got about a dozen lawyers now, the real possibility is that rob rosenstein is going to become a witness in that investigation, because obviously he was part of the decision making to fire james comey the fbi director, and now that is going to be wrapped into whether or not the president was trying to interfere or obstruct the ongoing russia investigation, obviously this is something that has been on rob rosestein's mind. he has said he will recuse himself, when he learns from
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robert mueller whether he's going to be a witness, then he's going to have to make that decision. >> and we're learning more information about tension building inside the justice department. what are you learning? >> i think rob rosenstein is facing a lot of criticism not only from the president, but also from inside the department. all of this goes back to his decision to hire robert mueller as the special counsel, it was something that came as a surprise to his boss, the attorney general, we're told that essentially there's a lot of criticism inside the justice department, because of the way he has handled this. everybody there, including at the white house, and at the justice department believes that everything got worse the minute that rob rosenstein decided he needed to bring in a special counsel. there is now a parade of people inside the white house, they have been hiring outside attorneys and the story has gotten worse and the investigation has intensified because of this criticism. >> certainly a lot of activity in the investigation we are just
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learning about today. more now on the president's statement on twitter jim acosta is traveling with the president. what is the white house saying about what the president wrote and what the president meant? >> reporter: when you call the white house and i called a white house official this morning, they are referring all questions to white house -- fbi director jim comey, we're told by source inside the special counsel's office, that rob rosenstein was venting his frustrations with what he perceives to be these illegal leakings coming from the justice department. but now. jim acosta, we're also learning more tonight about the president's finances, what can you tell us? >> the financial disclosure form for president trump came out
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late today, just some of the numbers to run through for you, $288 million in income, according to this financial disclosure form. there's also some properties owned by the president. he brought in $19.8 million from his club in new jersey. $37.2 million from his club in mar-a-lago, just up the road in west palm beach. and then also $19.7 million from that new hotel in washington, the trump hotel in washington where a lot of people connect with the president, mix and mingle. so no question about it, john, the president is racking up a lot of money from those very high profile properties that we cover all the time, go figure that that publicity also generating income from the president. one thing we're not getting from this financial disclosure, john, is the tax returns. we have not received the president's tax returns, the he brought in $19.8 million from his club in new jersey. $37.2 million from his club in
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mar-a-lago, just up the road in west palm beach. and then also $19.7 million from that new hotel in washington, the trump hotel in washington where a lot of people connect with the president, mix and mingle. so no question about it, john, the president is racking up a lot of money from those very high profile properties that we cover all the time, go figure that that publicity also generating income from the president. one thing we're not getting from this financial disclosure, john, is the tax returns. we have not received the president's tax returns, the white house is still refusing to release those tax returns, we have been asking where are the tapes with respect to conversations possibly had within the white house, and as to the question where are the tax returns, we don't have those. >> the president's making more money from mar-a-lago as he's sitting in the white house than he did before. >> matthew rosenberg, kirsten
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powerings and matt williams. i'm old enough to remember when the president was considering filing robert mueller as the special counsel. >> it was like four days ago. >> now let's talk about the future of rob rosenstein, will he recuse himself. will the president force him to move out? how serious is this? >> that tweet this morning was a missile shot at the deputy attorney general. my understanding with the people who have spoken with the president about this over several weeks, he realizes that it's going to be very hard for him to actually actively remove rob rosenstein himself, i don't think he's going to have an easy time getting anyone through senate confirmation, he is trying to make life as uncomfortable as possible, a and this is just again based on people who have spoken with him and their sense of what this is. i think that rob rosenstein is a career justice kind of person who is going to be focused on represerving what he can about this case. there is a question as to
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whether he's going to recuse himself. and he's going to have to decide that, and there's been focus on the number three in the line of succession. i would be very surprised, obviously things can change, but i would be very surprised if the president tried to remove rob rosenstein. and sometimes he has a way of looking around until he gets the answer he wants to hear. >> rob rosenstein, not some holdover a guy was forced upon him, it's a guy the president chose to do this job. you obviously were part of the campaign, worked on the transition, and yet, earlier, it seems like eons ago, you said it would be a bad idea to fire robert mueller. is this another bad idea to fire rob rosenstein? >> the problem isn't so much with rob rosenstein, i think it's with these leaks coming from the department of juice. we saw jeff sessions bringing this up earlier in the week, saying there were several
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ongoing investigations, we saw the statement from rob rosenstein, talking about leaks that people are seeing outside the media. i think that's what the department of justice is dealing with at the moment. i think from the president's aspect, he's probably frustrated that there seems to be a daily set of leaks that are coming out. >> i appreciate what you're saying, but that's not what the president was saying this morning when he seemed to be going after the attorney general there, i'm being investigated for firing the fbi director by the man who told me to fire the fbi director, not a single mention of leaks in that sentence. i'm asking if it's a good idea, bad idea to taunt the deputy ag like that? >> i think ultimately the bigger picture going on this week, at the beginning of the week and even at the end of the week. this was a pr fiasco dealing with russia, now this is a pr
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fiasco dealing with the white house. >> matt rosenberg, let me bring this into your discussion right now. maggie alluded to this before. deputy general rob rosenstein, that leaves who in charge? >> she's not a prosecutor, she doesn't really have a background prosecuting or investigating criminal cases, she wasn't a trump appointee. it's mueller who's running the investigation and it's mueller who he seems to be unhappy with, ultimately. >> she's going to have the same problem with rob rosenstein is
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going to have, not of her own making, a bad situation not of her own making. >> it didn't really matter who has that job, in the end, the president will probably be unhappy about this. look, can the person in that job in human resources affect that job? i think they can. >> one thing that evan perez was reporting was inside justice department, the deputy attorney general's staff, the attorney general's staff, there's infighting there. if you look back, that seems to make sense right now, jeff
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sessions did not know that rob rosenstein was going to appoint a special counsel. and jeff sessions is mad at -- >> there could be a legitimate issue here, at having written this memo about why james comey should be removed, how do you now oversee this continuing investigation when it starts to touch on that very subject. a partial recusal. a complete recusal. the office politics of an agency. let's keep in mind it's still in the middle of a transition. and trying to get its act together and get a full staff. >> the white house has explained to jim acosta that one of the reasons that the president is saying what he's saying, these statements he's making on twitter, is he's trying to take this into his own hands, make this a political fight aside from the legal fight. >> this is the only strategy he could possibly have, because if he is found guilty of obstruction of justice, his problem is going to be a political problem, it's not
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going to be a legal problem. because the justice department has a policy, now they could change it. but right now their policy is to not indict a president, so it would become a political problem, to go over to congress to basically decide whether or not they're going to impeach him over obstruction of justice, so he has to win that political fight and delegitimize this investigation that's probably what he's up to. it doesn't, you know, i think, would i had vise him to do this? i don't know. >> when we come back, we're going to ask you if the president's political support may start to crumble based on all this, because one influential senator's warning that the president may be getting ready to get rid of the special counsel. and steve scalise's doctor says that when he arrived at the hospital, he was in imminent
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breaking news, growing tension inside the justice department. deputy attorney general rob rosenstein could end up recusing himself from the russia proper because of his role in the firing of fbi director james comey. dianne feinstein, chairman of the judiciary committee, says i'm increasingly concerned that the president will attempt to fire not only robert mueller, the special counsel, but also rob rosenstein the man who appointed mueller. president trump through his tweets has said that the rule of law doesn't apply to him. she's been a calm reassuring force, saying she hasn't seen any evidence of collusion up until now, now she's issuing a
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very strong statement which seems like she's giving a stern warning to the white house. >> there may not be any collusion, but there could be an arkansas land deal that turns into a president perjuring himself, which was the case with bill clinton. a lot of times these things get out of control. there was a study a few years back that we each commit three felonies a day without knowing it. you know, look, the question is, nothing happens unless republicans right now, unless republicans are willing to take a stand, though, in the house,
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that's the question, i have encouraged in my column with the daily beast, i have encouraged republicans to go ahead and say, look, if you fire mueller, we are just going to reinstitute the independent counsel and get mueller back, and so just go ahead and pre-empt that, don't even think about doing it, mr. president, but i honestly don't think republicans are going to take that kind of stance, i think that it's going to, for republicans in congress, i think it's going to take electoral loss or the fear of electoral loss for them to actually change. >> i think a republican supporter of the president earlier this morning, when this tweet came out, talking about going after rob rosenstein, he leaked physically uncomfortable. i wanted to bring you some of the reporting in the "new york times" today, that the trump
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transition, the people who worked on it, is being asked to preserve records right now. what is do you make of it, this sort of spreading out of the investigation. >> they understand that the president can tweet that this is fake news, a witch hunt, but the people around him realize they need to preserve evidence. and there's five names under investigation. we have seen reports on most of these people, we haven't really had confirmation, michael flynn, the national security advisor and paul manafort. >> you see how far this is going and more and more names coming up. jason miller, you worked on the transition, so i have to ask you, have you been contacted by investigators, have you learned anything about the documents that the staff that you worked on has been asked to preserve? >> you learned through the reporting that a letter has gone out to everyone who worked on the transition team, and quite frankly, i think it's a little disingenuous to ask a question like that, you didn't ask anybody like loretta lynch or any of the clinton people. >> i've been contacted could
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mean anything, the transition members were asked about transition lawyers to preserve documents today. i. >> there were letters sent out to everyone who was on the transition team. as matt just pointed out a moment ago, again, i think one of the things with the leaks are, i think there's an important thing i want to go back to for just a moment. when these stories come out. it's not just that there might be erroneous reporting or leaking of classified info, one of the other problems with the leaks is that they're putting out little process details to try to make it look like there's a big scandal. it's been out there for a while that anyone working on the
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transition team, or anyone involved that they would sent out things asking to preserve documents. but something that went out last night and try to build a news cycle around it. i think too many people try to make that a sensational aspect when that's old news, that's out and been reported on for a while now. >> a, no one should assume that they have any idea where the information is coming from and who the sources are, i always think that's a bad idea. i think that -- we do have a new name on the court's deputy. but a name that's still unknown, whether he is actually a target of this or whether he is being looked at in connection with paul manafort. in general, there is essentially not a huge amount of new information that we have learned over the last couple of months. and to your point about what
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dianne feinstein said, there is no evidence of, again, anything that we know of, we are not privy to all the investigations. but i do think the people involved are all in question. >> but the president who push this is forward with statements like the one he made today. >> it's not just statements, these statements have real impact. having rob rosenstein show up for work on monday and having cemented and controlled the loyalty of his staff members. we always compare this to watergate and the saturday night massacre that's been brought up. there's the possibility of a slow rolling one, people that the president finds unpalatable, or somebody who the president doesn't want to have to deal with, they're made so uncomfortable they leave.
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>> we're discussing cries out for legal advice so next week going to get some and get some focus on the claim that the president who said he's being investigated for possible obstruction of justice. is not committing the same crime by firing investigations. this is me when i feel controlled by frequent,
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go irish! see that? yes! i'm gonna just go back to doing what i was doing. find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. with the president writing that he's under investigation and campaign figures being told to preserve documents and the president's lawyer lawyering up, there's no terms for a legal team. newt gingrich, first seen praising robert mueller and now disparaging robert mueller. is now weighing in on what special counsel mueller is investigating, namely whether the president is guilty of on instruction of justice, not that he denies the crime, he denies that any president ever could. >> presidents of the united states cannot obstruct justice. the president is the chief executive of the united states, if he wants to fire the fbi director, all he has to do is fire him. >> newt gingrich accused president clinton of obstruction of justice.
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page, first to you, first the fbi director does serve the president and can be fired any time. but do you agree that the president cannot obstruct justice? >> newt gingrich is right that the president has the constitutional authority to fire the fbi director, the attorney general, the deputy attorney general, anyone in the executive branch. but if a president acts with corrupt intent, if he's doing it for a bad purpose, he's stepping outside of his role as president and he's doing it as donald trump private citizen, and i think that's what we have here, we have a president who's acting with a corrupt intent. if he's trying to influence the investigation, for some reason that's personal to him, some
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friend of his, something other than the best interests of the united states, i do believe that is a crime and i think he can be prosecuted for it. >> if he is working with criminal intent. the president today tweeting that he's under investigation, essentially calling out the deputy attorney general. does this digital trail hurt him when it comes to the idea or the investigation of obstruction of justice? >> the majority of his tweets undermine his credibility and frustrate his lawyers and with good reason, because every time he talks or indicates that perhaps he is confirming the existence of an investigation, or that he himself is the
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subject of an investigation, he muddies the waters and puts himself right squarely under the magnifying glass, not only of the media and the public, but of the department of justice. so if the comments he's plead -- remember, his own statements, his own conduct and actions, including the firing of fbi director comey, has put him under the suspicion of the fbi and special counsel so it would be appropriate to investigate him. >> there seems to be a lawyer arms race, robert mueller has hired a private lawyer. and the president has brought on -- >> when you throw a rock in washington, d.c., you hit at least six lawyers. i hope i'm not one of them. but you do have white house counsel and the office of legal counsel, people might be confused, they are not private attorneys who represent personal people in their personal matters, they're there to direct and guide the actual office lists. so when you have that contrast between their role as private counsel and white house counsel, there may be a difference versus what's good for pence or kushner or donald trump. each of those lawyers has to protect each person. it's often very crowded to
quote
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protect everyone by having separate attorneys. >> and everyone is well within their rights to hire a private attorney in this situation. one of the big issues we have been reporting on, the deputy attorney general, rob rosenstein, will he recuse himself from his oversight from the special counsel investigation, might he be fired? you know rob rosenstein right now, what do you think is weighing on him? do you think he might step aside? is this the type of decision you see him making? >> what i see going on is that he is a potential witness to the obstruction of justice case, which some of my panel think that that is a fact, but he is a witness, he wrote the memo that is the basis for firing jim comey at the time. so he is, i know wrestling with that right now, because i'm sure he doesn't have clear visibility as to whether or not director mueller is actually investigating that yet and he knows that if that happens, then he's going to have to recuse himself. and i don't think ultimately
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this president is going to fire rob rosenstein, who he and i served together in the bush administration, but rob is certainly under investigation right now, and quite frankly, one of the reasons this investigation is spinning out of control. the appointment of bob mueller was not appropriate under those circumstances. >> i just want to make one thing crystal clear right now, the reason he could be a witness, part of the issue, and the president brought this on himself, he said the reason i fired the fbi director was russia. did the president tell you he was going to fire the fbi director because of russia or was it because of your memo about the clinton administration? he could be forced to asked that and be forced to answer, couldn't he? >> and the first thing i would ask is who asked you to write this memo? there's a lot of questions surrounding that memo in the first place. i agree with the substance of that memo, i think that jim comey stepped out of bounds with
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his investigation. >> the last point that matthew was making right there, that bob mueller may not be the best pick as a special counsel because of his well known relationship with james comey, the two guys are friends. do you think robert mueller should step aside and why? >> yes, i two think he should step aside. it's not that he's anything but a man of integrity, the problem is that the ethics rules that
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govern the department of justice say that if a prosecutor or an investigator has a personal relationship with a potential witness that calls into question his partiality, then he has to step aside. as you correctly pointed out, mueller and jim comey have a personal relationship that goes back a long way. they were arm in arm when they confronted the then white house counsel for president bush, alberto gonzalez about whether a particularly broad surveillance program should be continued. in other words, mueller and comey became friends at the formative moment in his career, and the thing for which he's best known. that being the case, i think the ethics rules dictate that mueller step aside. >> it's interesting because mueller was hired to investigate russia initially and the possibility of collusion, but it shows where this investigation is going, it might be a challenge, it might be that when he was hired by rod rosenstein, he wasn't even considering that recent mueller would be investigating the department of justice. is that one of the problems?
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>> that's one of the problems and one of the reasons that special counsels are problematic and that congress did not renew the law, and appoint an independent counsel, is that a special counsel has a preselected defendant and then you follow the evidence to it. the way an ordinary prosecutor is supposed to work ethically, is that you follow the evidence and find the defendant at the end of the evidence rather than at the beginning. and that is a problem in this case. >> so you do not see that as a problem? >> i don't see that for a problem for several reasonings, one, simply having a relationship with a potential fact witness in the case does not mean that there needs to be a new special counsel or that rosenstein needs to recuse himself. i think we just need to let the invests proceed. everybody was pretty comfortable
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with bob mueller when he was close chosen as special counsel because of his integrity and now people are questioning that integrity simply because he may know one of the witnesses. every too many you fire a prosecutor who may know a potential witness of any investigation, i don't think it's a real conflict, even though some people may see it here. >> if i can just say, the fact they were arm in arm is a bit disingenuous, their personal relationship was a professional setting. they were not coming out of a fralt house and developing a friendship that way. and they're professional colleagues.t house and developi friendship that way. and they're professional colleagues. that does not prevent him from being objective. >> there will be more time to update on this. today we learned that congressman steve scalise faced imminent risk of death, that's the word from one of his surgeons. what they are saying now, next. where are we?
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a glimmer of good news tonight for congressman steve scalise and a frightening perspective on how serious his injuries were. he faced a serious imminent death. he is still in critical
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condition in the intensive care unit, but doctors today say they see signs of improvement. ryan noble outside the med star hospital where the congressman is being treated. and also you have some new information about the shooter, what can you tell us? >> reporter: that's right, john, cnn learning from law enforcement sources saying there was a list found on the shooter after the shooting took place on wednesday. that list included the name of a number of members of congress. some who were on the field at the time, among them mo brooks. none of the victims were on that list, john. at this point, law enforcement sources tell us that they're not ready to call this an assassination list, but this is obviously a key part of their investigation going forward. >> it's got to be chilling for the people who were on that list, ryan. what can you tell us now about the condition of congressman steve scalise.
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>> reporter: he's still in serious condition, and we heard from the head of med star hospital, said he was very much at the risk of dying when he arrived here on wednesday, he was facing serious injuries and required multiple surgeries to stop the bleeding and he has a long recovery ahead. he is considered to be in critical condition, but he is definitely improving, there could be setbacks, but overall they're hoping he makes a full recovery. >> is a long hospital stay and more surgeries imminent? >> reporter: that's what it looks like, and they said that even if he's in the hospital for a long time, after he gets out of the hospital, it will require months and months of rehab. but his doctor says he'll be able to walk again maybe even run. which is remarkable when you consider the extend of his injuries. he was shot in the pelvis with a high caliber rifle, bones are broken, significant organ damage, the fact is that he's
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still alive right now is an amazing feat by all of the people that rushed to his aid on wednesday. >> very giving the news giving the word he was in risk of imminent death. ryan nobles outside the hospital. thanks so much. while congressman steve scalise face a personal health battle, his colleagues in the senate from work to do. mitch mcconnell says there could be a vote on repeal and replace obama care by the fourth of july recess. but there is one problem, other than the republican law makers crafting it, nobody knows what's in the bill, especially those who will be affabilitied by that. phil mattingly up on capitol hill.e by that. phil mattingly up on capitol hil by that. phil mattingly up on capitol hile by that. phil mattingly up on capitol hilc by that. phil mattingly up on capitol hilt by that. phil mattingly up on capitol hile by that. phil mattingly up on capitol hild by that. phil mattingly up on capitol hill. only a handful of republicans know what's inside. what's the strategy here? why do the people inside that room feel that that's the best way to handle it? >> reporter: it's a bad look, that's republicans inside
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congress are saying they don't have enough information and specifically they don't like the process. but one thing is for sure, this is deliberate, this is exactly what senator majority leader mitch mcconnell wants to do. there are incredibly divisive issues inside the republican party, whether it's the medicare advantage, the structure of the tax credit, the reason they're doing this behind closed doors, shield their member, allow them to get things out on the table and allow them to fight it out behind the scenes. i have heart from several senators, several top senate aides saying we don't want to repeat what we saw in the house, a very long and difficult process. that's why it's behind closed doors. it's subject to a lot of criticism. but when you talk to senate leadership, that this is the only way to move this bill forward. >> it might be the only way to pass the bill. what are you learning tonight phil about opposition?
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>> reporter: ramping up, we learned today there's a seven figure ad buy targeting crucial senators, the types of senators who are sitting on the fence, could go one way or the other. democrats really trying to push forward on this, and the republicans acknowledge, because this was done behind closed doors, they haven't had specific provisions to target. so they know the clock is ticking on when republicans could actually vote on this. seven governors, bipartisan governors, including three republicans, two, one from nevada, one from ohio, sending a letter to senate leadership saying they have serious problems with the house bill. saying be careful what you do with medicaid. i can tell you i know for a fact these senators are very
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cognizant of the fact of what those governors can say and do to them back home. those are the things you need to keep an eye on. >> over the last few days, i can't even remember the timing anymore, but the president called the house bill mean, this is the same bill that he had a rose garden passing ceremony on. what effect are those having comments having right now on the senators and their staffs? >> reporter: it looked like a signing ceremony, which is a bit odd. from a practical perspective, what he was saying is something senators are trying to address. they're adding more money to the bill, they're making the tax credits more robust. they are keenly aware that with 23 million fewer people would have insurance over the course of the next ten years, but i think the key issue is what it means for the house bill when it
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comes back. lawmakers voted for this. now it feels like the president is under cutting them. that's a problem i have heard repeatedly. a u.s. navy destroyer collides with a merchant ship off the coast of japan. what we know about the crew of the u.s. "fitzgerald" next. a. the stage is yours. step two: choose la quinta. the only hotel where you can redeem loyalty points for a free night-instantly and win at business. so, if anyone has a reason that these two should not be wed, speak now. (coughs) so sorry. oh no... it's just that your friend daryl here is supposed to be live streaming the wedding and he's not getting any service. i missed, like, the whole thing. what? and i just got an unlimited plan. it's the right plan, wrong network. you see, verizon has the largest, most reliable 4g lte network in america. it's built to work better in cities. tell you what, just use mine. thanks. no problem.
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guard, seven u.s. sailors are missing after a navy destroyer collided with a merchant ship off the coast of japan. it's the "uss fitzgerald." you're look at pictures of it right now. cnn's diane gallagher joins me with the very latest. what do we know about the ship and its crew at this hour? >> the most important thing is the crew. according to the japanese coast guard, there were seven people missing and one injured. at this point, the u.s. navy is only confirming that the entire crew is not accounted for. we are expecting the navy to give us an update any minute now. the japanese have started medical evacuations of the most critically injured. you can see we have video of this, still frames.
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they're showing us the rescues. intense moments. they're working to get them to hospital on land as soon as possible. it's an emergency situation. it's changing by the moment. the navy has set up a hotline for families to call. they are communicating on twitter. as far as the destroyer, the "uss fitzgerald" has damage above and below the waterline. it's taking on water. the crew is working to pump it out of the hold. >> thanks for being with us. joining me now retired rear admiral john kirby who served on surface vessels over the course of his navy career. as mrl, thanks so much for being with us. we're getting word right now that seven sailors are unaccounted for at this point. this is some time now after this incident. what kind of operations do you imagine are under way right now to try to find them? >> as i understand, the number seven is the japanese reporting injuries. i don't think that i have heard them in terms of unaccounted
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for. the navy is trying to do an accountability of every member of the crew right now. as i understand it, before coming on with you, that's not -- that work is not done. look, i mean, first of all, you have injuries. that can be expected with a collision of this magnitude. you can see how significant the damage is. it wouldn't surprise me that in the early hours that they would still be trying to make sure they have accountability of everybody. i hope that everybody ends up turning up safe and sound. those who are unaccounted for. you have to make sure that you have done a complete muster so that you know where everybody is. >> what is one of the issues here? some people might be under the water line or some of the living areas below, might they have been there during the collision? >> sure. you can see the damage, the collision happened at some rate of speed. there's significant damage to the ship both above and then we know we have some below the waterline damage. that could -- that kind of impact could close off work
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spaces or even living spaces where sailors might have been working or sleeping. they just can't get to them right now, or they don't know how they're doing. whether they're conscience or not. you could have had sailors go into the water. that's a terrible thing to think about. but it's a possibility you could have lost sailors overboard with a strike of this magnitude. >> in the vessel, it is taking on water right now. what kind of situation does that make it for the people still trying to deal with this? >> as soon as you have a collision like this, they sound the alarm. everybody goes to their duty stations for these kinds of emergencies. they're going to be focused on three things. one is obviously the safety and well-being of the crew and making sure they get everybody the help they need. they will try to stem the flooding. that's what you are seeing -- you can see water being pumped
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over the side. they are doing de-watering. the navy does this very, very well. they're well trained for this. the fact that the ship is not foundering, not sinking, tells me that the below waterline strike, that's not -- you don't want to see that. but it's not overly significant. it's something they can manage. the third thing is look for a fire. you can see there's fire hoses on the deck. they will want to make sure that if the collision causes any fire that they can put that out. >> it's great to have your expertise for this, admiral. with all the technology out there today, it sounds strange this kind of collision would happen. is it? >> yes, john. it's extraordinarily unusual for a navy warship to have a collision at sea, even with something as small as a fishing boat. these things are very rare because the navy has a full watch up on the bridge that are trained to make sure that the ship is in safe water all the time. it is even more rare for a collision of this magnitude with a ship that big, because you
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know they're going to be looking out for it. this is -- they're going to do a full investigation. i would expect that there will be discipline taken. >> thank you so much. coming up on the same day the president writes about being the subject of a witch-hunt, reports of tension within the department rinning that investigation. and the possibility that the deputy attorney general could recuse himself. the implications of this ahead. whoooo. you're searching for something.
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the breaking news tonight, rising tension at the justice department and concern the president will swing the ax at the top officials investigating him. he's already fired james comey. he is fired up about rod rosenstein and robert mueller. one top democrat is expressing fears the president may try to get rid of both. first, the latest from inside the doj. cnn's evan perez joins us with that. what's the latest on whether rod rosenstein might recuse himself from the russian probe? >> well, we're edging closer and closer to that point. the problem is he played a role in the firing of james comey. everything indicates that's where this investigation is going next. robert mueller is staffing up. he's got about a