and thanks to all of you for joining us. you can watch "outfront" any time, anywhere. "ac 360" starts right now. good evening. thanks for joining us. the senate votes to proceed on debating a health care bill still mired in history. jared kushner behind closed doors in the russian investigation. we begin with the president's continued i tack attacks on je sessions, his attorney general, and his own fbi director. today, the white house, the president was asked if he was going to fire the attorney general or if he was trying to make him resign. >> why are you letting him twist in the wind rather than making the call for him? >> i don't think i am doing that. but i am disappointed in the attorney general. he should not have recused himself almost immediately after he took office.

and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me prior to taking office, and i would have quite simply picked somebody else. so i think that's a bad thing, not for the president, but for the presidency. i think it's unfair to the presidency. and that's the way i feel. >> when pressed by another reporter about whether he would fire sessions, the president said we'll have to wait and see and that "time will tell," which seems that the attorney general is twisting in the wind. but the bigger issue is whether the president understands or cares what the role of the attorney general is supposed to be. he's criticized sessions for recusing himself. he's called him beleaguered. today, the president tweeted this -- attorney general jeff sessions has taken a very weak position on hillary clinton's crimes. where are e-mails and dnc server and intel leakers? now, putting aside the obvious point that the president may be reviving attacks on hillary clinton to divert attention from the russian investigation, the role of the attorney general regarding hillary clinton should

not be a surprise to anyone. keeping them honest, six months ago, sessions' own confirmation hearing, he made it clear he had no intention of going after clinton. >> with regard to secretary clinton and some of the comments i made, i do believe that that could place my objectivity in question. i've given that thought. i believe the proper thing for me to do would be to recuse myself from any questions involving those kind of investigations that involve secretary clinton that were raised during the campaign >> for all the new attacks on clinton, the president didn't seem that interested in fulfilling those campaign chants of "lock her up" after he was elected. here's what he said in mid november talking about the clintons. >> i don't want to hurt them. i don't want to hurt them. they're good people. i don't want to hurt them. >> what a difference eight months and an escalating investigation makes. as for attorney general

sessions, today, anthony scaramucci said the president "wants his cabinet secretaries to have his back." what president trump doesn't seem to understand the role of attorney general is to represent the country in legal matters, not to have the president's back. one person among many does seem to understand that is the current attorney general. here's what he said at his confirmation hearing in january. >> the office of the attorney general is not a normal political office. anyone who holds it must have total fidelity to the laws and constitution of the united states. he or she must be committed to following the law. he or she must be willing to tell the president or other top officials no if he or they overreach. he or she cannot be a mere rubber stamp. >> and for a president who has often talked about how important loyalty is and asked then fbi director a pledge of loyalty, the president doesn't seem loyal to his attorney general.

in an interview with "the wall street journal" today, the president said this about the campaign rally in alabama, where he won sessions' endorsement, his first from a sitting senator. "i had 40,000 people. he was a senator from alabama. i won the state by a lot, massive numbers. a lot of the states i won by massive numbers. but he was a senator. he looks at 40,000 people and says what i do have to lose and he enfodorsed me. i'm very disappointed with jeff sessions." jeff zeleny now joins me. it started with the president tweeting and the attorney general, but it seemed to go on throughout the day. >> reporter: it started at the 6:00 hour and the flurry of messages that the president was sending out, clearly still agitated and fuming about his attorney general. now, he's essentially setting the tone for the rest of the day with that. he did an interview with "the wall street journal." he held that press conference in the rose garden all along, so agitated with his attorney

general. so the question hanging over all of this, would he fire him? but this is what he said in the rose garden. >> i want the attorney general to be much tougher on the leaks from intelligence agencies, which are leaking like rarely have they ever leaked before at a very important level. these are intelligence agencies. we cannot have that happen. you know many of my views in addition to that, but i think that's one of the very important things that they have to get on with. i told you before, i'm very disappointed with the attorney general. but we will see what happens. time will tell. time will tell. >> reporter: so saying "time will tell, time will tell," not exactly a ringing endorsement, but not giving any certainty either way there. but interesting, anderson, for the first time he's bringing up the fact that he wants his attorney general to be harder on leaks. of course, the reason for his anger, the root of his anger, you talk to any of his advisers, it is the entirety of the russia

investigation. still so upset about that. but he shouldn't have been surprised, because the attorney general jeff sessions, then senator, said he would recuse himself during his own confirmation hearing in january. >> why is the president so hesitant to fire sessions if he's so clearly upset with him? >> reporter: anderson, i think his first inc. stichstinct was him or make the shaming so obvious that he would step aside. but he's been advised by many of his advisers here in the west wing, as well as some outside advisers, that replacing the attorney general will be so incredibly difficult. imagine in this environment in washington trying to confirm someone, trying to get someone through the senate. even the republican controlled senate. some of the republican senators are coming to jeff sessions' defense saying look, the attorney general is not the president's lawyer, he's the attorney general of the united states. so that's why advisers are saying the president has held off as of now on firing him,

because he has been persuaded at how difficult it would be to replace him. but still tonight, anderson, the attorney general very much uncertain, sort of in limbo if you will, and the president still fuming. anderson? >> jeff zeleny, thanks. the president is in youngstown, ohio. sarah murray is there and joins us now. so the president taking the stage, what has been his message so far to the ohio crowd? has he talked about the attorney general? >> reporter: certainly we've been watching for any sign the president was going to bring up jeff sessions. he did leave him twisting out there today, even though he was asked repeatedly about it. he hasn't mentioned sessions by name, but he did hint at what people thought was erratic behavior from the president, especially when it comes to this sessions issue. listen to president trump just recently earlier this evening talking about his not so presidential behavior. >> i'll be totally honest with you, sometimes they say he

doesn't act presidential. and i say, hey, look, great schools, smart guy, it's so easy to act presidential. but that's not going to get it done. in fact, i said it's much easier, by the way, to act presidential than what we're doing here tonight. believe me. and i said, with the exception of the late great abraham lincoln,ky be more presidential than any president that's ever held this office. thatky tell you. >> reporter: that seemed like a veiled reference to the game of chicken he's currently playing with his attorney. it wasn't the only newsy item. so far, president trump brought up health care warning that any senator who votes against repeal

and replace is probably going to have some problems. >> sarah, thank you very much. joining me now is my panel. i know you've been talking to folks probably close to the president. what is he doing with jeff sessions? >> look, a lot of this is a kaleidoscope, so you're looking at it through different vantage points. he is angry, he blames jeff sessions. he said this last week in the oval office. he has continued to say it. he's been saying it privately. i think in his heart of hearts he would like jeff sessions to be gone. i do think jeff is correct, that he's caught in this catch 22. he wants him gone, but who is the replacement, and how do you get the replacement in, unless it's a recess appointment? in terms of backlash, he's choosing the one person who really is enacting a pretty pure conservative policy formula, and if anybody in his administration with the exception of scott

pruitt to attack, and he has a lot of cred with the conservative base. the reaction and support jeff sessions has gotten surprised the president a bit. >> "the washington post" says, jeff sessions' chief of staff told reince priebus, the attorney general had no intention of stepping down. making it clear that sessions mans to move forward with his agenda. priebus did not say president trump planned to fire sessions. what do you make of that, david? >> we're missing, what do you think of that, mr. president? the ball is in your court now. clearly what sessions and the team rrmd them are trying to make clear, if you don't want me to be your attorney general, mr. president, you have to fire me. i'm sticking around. it's not surprising that is the posture after a day where all of

his former colleagues on capitol hill and the senate put out statements supporting him, some going as far to make the case that he was correct to recuse himself which is at the very core of what angers president trump about sessions. >> kirsten, what sort of message does it send to other senators or folks on capitol hill who may be facing, whether it's tough votes on health care, when the president says i'll have your back, he turns on jeff sessions, why would they believe he would support them? >> they shouldn't, because they discussed loyalty is a one way street with donald trump, he doesn't feel necessarily the need to send it back. so why would anybody take the job when they see what's happening? i think one of the reasons he isn't firing him is he talk about what would it take to get donald trump's base to turn on him. this could be one of those things. even breitbart ran something

critical of the contract. so this is somebody the base loves and carrying out one of the few things in terms of conservative governing. so probably for trump, he would refer that he resigns versus him firing him. so maybe he thinks he can humiliate him into resigning. >> what's really, i think, really the substantive disturbingly part of this. the interaction of his lack of loyalty is kind of creepy, but that's just a personality matter. the department of justice exists to enforce the law equally with regard to all people. the president of the united states entered the office under investigation. jeff sessions realized correctly that, as an important campaign surrogate, he couldn't lead that

investigation. everyone agrees that was a correct decision, and trump's obsession with loyalty, as you pointed out, it was a big theme of his interactions with jim comey. this is why he's mad at sessions. mr. scaramucci, the new communications director said, you know, cabinet members have to have the president's back. no, not the attorney general. the attorney general's job is to be independent. the president doesn't get that. >> that's not how it went down, though. there's an important factual issue. it's not that jeff sessions realized this is taking place and i need to recuse myself. jeff sessions gave a botched answer during his confirmation hearing. when was that confronted with that, he recused himself and didn't give the president a heads up in the process. so in the president's mind, i am saying i don't think it was because jeff sessions realized there was some issue at play. it was an issue that he created. >> but that makes trump's

position even more bizarre. >> i understand what you're saying. >> it's not -- it's because there was this intervening fact of a botched testimony. >> correct. what sessions did, most people think was the right thing to do. the president would be one of the few exceptions. but it is an important point. >> the president is essentially criticizing sessions for being tough on leaker, but sessions did oversee the arrest of a leaker and is cracking down on immigration, the war on drugs, all the things the president wanted him to do. >> true. but this is about none of that except russia. when the president fired james comey, there was a cover story that lasted less than 24 hours. you remember the a.g. rosenstein e-mailed a mel memo how comey mishandled the clinton investigation. the president said how comey handled the russia investigation. here now before the president

makes a move, he says, outright, it's about how he handled the russia investigation. that's what this is. the president has said it himself and it fits with a pattern here, that he's upset with a number of people, whether it be sessions or mueller or comey before him. because it's an investigation he's uncomfortable with and that he wants to go away. as the president often does, he measures loyalty and effectiveness via the prism of how does it affect him, himself, and with sessions here, he's the latest victim to fall to that. sessions did not defend him from this russia investigation, did not make it go away, and sessions is not doing his job right. that's the way the president sees it. it's not the way democrats see it or the way many republicans see it. but that's the way the president sees it. >> kirsten, have you seen anything like this, of a president going after his attorney general or such a high level position? >> of course not. you know, this is kind of -- the only word i can think of is

bullying. it seems like somebody who is taunting somebody. it's not bullying in the sense that je that jeff sessions is an adult and can take care of himself. but it >> we'll continue the conversation after a quick break and look at this idea of loyalty in the trump camp. and john mccain making a plea for bipartisanship after voting to bring a health care bill to the floor, a bill he says he has no intention of voting for in its current form. i'm ryan and i quit smoking with chantix. i tried to quit cold turkey. i tried to quit with the patch; that didn't work. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. for me, chantix worked. it reduced my urge to smoke. compared to the nicotine patch, chantix helped significantly more people quit smoking. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix,

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>> >> tonight, the attacks on attorney general jeff sessions continue from the man who appointed him, even saying that sessions' endorsement of him was "not like a great loyal thing." it was all about the sizes of donald trump's crowd in alabama and sessions saw that and decided to get on board. we know how this president feels about loyalty. he said it to the boy scouts yesterday and other crowds for a while. >> we could use some more loyalty. i love loyalty. loyalty can be a wonderful thing. loyalty is very important. loyalty. you know, some of these people have like a 10% loyalty, meaning if they sneeze in the wrong direction, they're gone. >> this isn't a new thing. for the president he said this back in 1994.

>> i'm like this great loyalty freak. i'm loyal to a point of the absurd. >> back now with the panel. scott, last week you said that attorney general sessions was a man of integrity, and a lot of members of congress who have come to his defense who disagree with what the president is doing. do you disagree with what the president is doing? >> well, i think at some point they should think about talking. jeff sessions could call up the white house and ask for a meeting and they could clear the air or they want. what sessions has signaled this week is if you want to fire me, fire me, otherwise i'm going to at the office enacting your agen agenda. what the president is frustrated about is he's going to be put through the investigatetory ringer. and something that caught my eye tonight, it appears that reacting to perhaps the president's frustration, some conservatives on the house judiciary committee are going to

try to move forward with a congressional investigation with loretta lynch and some things that came out in jim comey's testimony. i don't know what is going to happen to jeff sessions. i don't believe he's going to resign, but i think the president may get his wish. people will look into hillary, but it might be the congress, not the doj. >> ken, does this make sense that the president is doing this so publicly? >> no, i wouldn't use that phrase, that it makes sense. but i will say that jeff sessions is showing people that he's a standup person when it comes to the rule of law and respecting the constitution and the office he holds. sit nice to hear after eight years, so much of the left, media establishment defending the role of the attorney general as independent. the last attorney generals for president obama did his will. but they were much smoother about not doing all this public junk that we're seeing almost

daily from the president directed at attorney general sessions. >> to your point, you had director comey testifying about loretta lynch, telling him what j jadtective -- >> down. >> noun it was of how to describe whether it was an investigation or a matter, which is just -- and he went along with it. i saw a tweet from you this morning where you went through folks who have been fired. and who did the firing. it never seems to be the president himself. for a guy so well known for saying "you're fired," does he not like actual interpersonal pressure? >> people who worked for him and worked with him closely over decades say that he really dislikes interpersonal conflict, when it's direct. he's fine with this kind, which is tweeting that jeff sessions is beleaguered or this is terrible or giving a shove in a

certain way. and i asked a couple of people close to him, why is he doing this? why doesn't he just fire him? the answer i got back is because he can. he can do this. in all of these instances, with comey, he sent keith schiller his aide. corey lieuen do yewandowski, it june jor. flynn, steve bannon had to deal with that. with chris christie was shoved off, again, it was steve bannon. this is not something that president trump does. it is very counter to this image he created on "the apprentice." >> who is it that he's so loyal to, when he was saying i'm a loyalty freak. is there somebody he's been loyal to? you did the whole list of he has other people --

[ overlapping speakers ] >> and he's loyal to his family. >> politically, think about the house republicans who voted for the health care bill. he has that big celebration. all these house republicans took a tough vote that they may lose their office because of. and then he turns around and says, you know, the house bill was too mean, which chuck schumer jumped on immediately and said even the president says it. that's an absence of loyalty that may cost republicans their jobs. >> if sessions is replaced, what does that mean for the leadership of the russian investigation? it would revert back to the sitting attorney general instead of rosen stein? >> that's right, but first of all, if you fire sessions, does rosenstein stay? and then you have a question as to who would be willing to carry out what the president wants. i mean, you have these watergate parallels that come up, and you remember the saturday night massacre. you had the attorney general, the deputy attorney general resign, refuse to carry out the firing of archibald cox.

who could that character be in that scenario? beyond that, you have -- would the senate, in light of not just being upset with this decision but also with their loyalty to a former fellow senator jeff session, how quickly do they go through the process of approving a presidential appointment to replace a jeff sessions? >> anderson, to that point, if you were trying to replace jeff sessions as a political matter, with someone who was as popular with the nationalist conservative base that trump has cultivated, i don't think you could get that person confirmed right now. at the end of the day, you have sessions who is popular with trump's base. if you try to confirm someone knew, the trump base wouldn't like whoever they get through. so sessions staying around may be the best thing for the president. >> sessions isn't just popular with the president's base, he's also popular with the movement

conservative base that didn't initially get on board with president trump. but did later. and he -- so he has a broad coalition of grassroots support himself just in the attorney general. >> and to a point i think kirsten made earlier, at the justice department, he's doing things to enact the agenda. it's not as if he -- it may not get coverage every single day, but he's moving forward. >> tonight at the rally in youngstown, ohio, donald trump touted how much the administration is being on sanctuary cities. he didn't give any tips to jeff sessions tonight, but he was touting it as a big achievement of his administration. he was touting the work of jeff sessions. >> ken, did you say maybe he should tweet it? >> yeah, maybe jeff sessions should tweet this stuff. >> i want to thank everybody. up next, the other breaking story out of washington. the senate barely voted to move

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more breaking news tonight. the senate eked out a vote to move forward with the gop repeal and replacement plan. two votes, johnson and mccain, who returned to washington for the vote, made it all possible with the tiebreaking vote by the vice president. but mccain's support may not extend to the actual bill or the process his party leaders are using to create it. take a look.

>> i think we all agree they haven't been overburdened by greatness hately. and right now, they aren't producing much for the american people. both sides have let this happen. we keep trying to find a way to win without help from across the aisle. that's been employed by both sides, mandating legislation from the top down, without any support from the other side, with all the parliamentary maneuvers that it requires. we're getting nothing done, by friends. we're getting nothing done! i voted for the motion to proceed. i will not vote for this bill as it is today. it's a shell of a bill right now. we all know that. >> cnn's phil mattingly joins me from capitol hill. what are you hearing from sources about how republican leadership was able to pull this off today? >> reporter: a lot of policy promises, a lot of political

assurances and arm twisting. i'm told that even this morning, president trump, vice president pence, on the phone to on the fence members, trying to get them across the line. one source saying the president would tell members how well he did in their state and why it would be effective to vote with him on this, as the vice president ran through details. don't look past what senator mitch mcconnell was doing, behind the scenes, making the promises to his members, that they would get opportunities to vote on what they wanted policy wise. but in the end, it was the pressure that worked. members recognizing it. this was a vote, they were going to be going on the record. and almost fear of being the person that killed this issue that they voted on for several years or campaigned on for seven years. the process will continue. but there's no question, it was not easy to get here, probably won't be easy to get it done either. >> where do things stand in terms of passing a version of the health care bill? >> reporter: right now they're in the process of debating. take a listen to what mitch mcconnell said after the

procedural vote today, underscoring the difficulty they face going forward. >> it's an open amendment process. this is just the beginning. we're not out here to spike the football. this is a long way. but we'll finish at the end of the week, hopefully. so we're pleased to have been able to take the step in the direction today. >> reporter: one of those amendments that was offered to those wary senators to get them on board, something that would add $100 billion for the medicaid expansion state senators, that will be on the senate noor f-- floor for a vot. that will fail. you're seeing votes -- all of those amendment votes are expected to fail. so where does that leave members and mitch mcconnell? it's an open question. you have democrats that have

been delaying things as much as possible up to this point. they'll start to throw out a lot of very damaging political amendments, trying to make must bes vote on those types of things. there is no clear end game right now, anderson. we're going to have to watch this play out. there's real concern and a very real possibility they don't have the votes when this the done. >> phil mattingly, appreciate it. earlier, i spoke with senator bernie sanders. based on what you saw today, president trump calling today's vote a big step forward. do you think the republicans are going to be able to repeal and replace obamacare? >> anderson, i think i can say without any hesitancy that there's nobody in the united states senate who has a clue what's going on or what will go on. what president trump thinks is a great step forward is part of his belief that we should throw 22 million people off of health insurance, raise premiums for all the workers and cut medicaid by $800 billion.

that's not what the american people think is a great step forward. what happened today with the tiebreaking vote by the vice president is that we are going to proceed. what i think is going to happen later tonight is that the trump-mcconnell bill is going to be defeated. we'll see what happens tomorrow. nobody quite knows where we are. but i was disappointed that only two republicans had the guts to say no to this process. >> if it is defeated tonight, what is the next step? republicans clearly want to push this forward. >> what i think is -- there's so much confusion and disagreement within the republican ranks that what they may end up doing is coming together on a much, much narrower bill. it would be a bill that perhaps repeals the individual mandate, repeals the employer mandate, repeals the tax on medical devices. and then if they can pass that, and by the way, there's no

guarantee that they can pass that. if they could pass it, they would go to conference committee with the house. but this narrow bill is very, very different from the bill in the house. and whether they can reach agreement and how long that would take frankly nobody knows. >> earlier today, you tweeted "this is america, we are not going to pass legislation that allows thousands of people to die." some critics pounced on that saying is it fair to insinuate that the republicans are going to put forward legislation that would allow thousands to die. >> this is not what bernie sanders said, anderson. this is what study after study has shown. no republican in the congress wants to see anybody die unnecessarily. but what study after study, including studies done at harvard show is that when you throw 23 million people off of health insurance, people who are now receiving cancer treatment, people who have serious heart diseases, people who have diabetes, people who have life threatening illnesses, what do

you think happens? and what study after study shows is that many, many thousands of people will die. republicans don't like to hear it. tay don't want to hear it, and then they should not pass legislation that would do that. >> what can democrats do next? is there hope for bipartisan effort on this bill? senator john mccain called for it. >> senator mccain called for it, and i heard him. this whole process has been absurd. you can't write a bill behind closed doors without any public hearings and without any serious debate. so i would hope that senator mccain and my other republican colleagues will, in fact, vote to junk this process and there will be amendments being offered by democrats to enable them to do that. take this bill back to the committees and let's see how we can improve the affordable care act. nobody thinks the affordable care act is perfect. serious problems. premiums too high. deductibles too high.

co-payments too high. prescription drug prices off the charts. let's see how we can improve the affordable care about, not destroy that. after that, we have to go forward and move towards a medicare for all single payer program like every other major country guaranteeing health care to all people. >> the president has said, well, if the republicans can't pass this, let obamacare fail on its own and the democrats will come to the table. >> that is what he says. i want you to think about that for a second. here is the president of the united states saying i, the president, and this is what he's doing now, we're going to sabotage the law, we're going to make sure components of the law are not being implemented. we want millions of people to lose health insurance. how pathetic is that for a president to say? and by the way, mr. president, if you think the democrat also

be held responsible, the american people know what's going on. you, mr. president, and your republican colleagues will be held accountable. >> more of that interview in a moment. i'll get his take on john mccain's return for the vote and what he thinks on the president's attacks on jeff sessions. and the president's former campaign chairman and son-in-law spoke with congressional investigators today. one got a subpoena dropped. details in a moment. what is your nationality and i would always answer hispanic. so when i got my ancestry dna results it was a shocker. i'm from all nations. it puts a hunger in your heart to want to know more.

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quite a day in washington. the senate barely advances the gop health care plan with john mccain returning just days after brain surgery, and the vice president breaking the tie. at the white house, the president not backing down from his attack against his attorney general, jeff sessions. i talked about both of these issues with senator bernie sanders. here's more of that interview. just on a personal level, what did you make of the speech that senator mccain gave, what was

that moment like? >> well, i've known john mccain for many years, and i'm personally very fond of him. obviously, i was disappointed by his vote today. but john is an old timer, and john remembers when the senate functioned in a very different way. and what john was essentially saying is this is not working. it's not working on health care or anything else. and i think it was a message to -- he indicated he would not vote for this legislation in its present form. and i think what he was saying is, let's get back to regular order, which means you have committees. i'm on the health and education labor. let the committees work on these issues. let's have serious debate. i think what he said was useful in that regard. >> i know you spoke to him. can you say what you told him? >> i know john and every member of the senate regardless of their political views, has a lot of affection for him. he's a real american hero. he's an icon. he has time and time again done

things that you would not expect a republican senator to do, and he did it again today. >> just last night, i want to ask you about what is happening between the president and your former colleague jeff session. what do you think is going on here? the president just telling the "wall street journal" that it wasn't even a loyalty thing with sessions, that he was attracted by the large crowds during the campaign in alabama and that's why he stood by the side of trump. >> anderson, i would tell you that what the president is doing is unbelievable, but that's become a hackney word. how do you appoint the guy, a member of the united states senate, make him attorney general, and then undermine him and then humiliate him? you know, sessions' views are very different than mine. and i think many of his ideas as attorney general are disastrous.

just very much the opposite of what i think we need in terms of criminal justice and immigration and so forth. but you don't treat a human being, somebody you have appointed to that position in this kind of humiliating way. i think it sends a message to every member of trump's administration that you have an unstable guy at the top who will turn on you for whatever reason. it's just how hard he can have an administration run thing country with that mentality. >> senator sessions -- sorry, senator sanders, appreciate your time. >> thank you very much. >> probably the only time he's been mistaken for senator sessions. more breaking news from capitol hill. the committee has pulled back on an effort to force the former campaign chairman to testify. manu joins us live. so the subpoena issue to compel paul manafort to appear tomorrow was dropped. are there plans to have him testify publicly at this point? >> reporter: that is still under

negotiation. it's one thing that senator feinstein told me yesterday, that he absolutely needs to appear in a public session. the matter is when. he will not appear form, atomor. they issued a subpoena to compel his appearance wednesday, because they believe he backtracked on a separate deal which they agreed to have an interview with him privately, for him to submit documents, after which they said that manafort only agreed to have one transcribed interview. today, manafort did meet with the senate intelligence committee, gave a private interview about that trump tower meeting in june 2016 with donald trump, jr., which donald trump, jr. was promised dirt from the russians. he did meet with investigators on that. but the judiciary wants their own meeting with him, and right

now they dropped that subpoena threat after manafort agreed to negotiate for a private interview and provide more documents. >> curb nekushner's appearance will that be the last time? >> reporter: they said absolutely, kushner must appear again. because earlier this week he talked to staff of the senate intelligence committee. but today he met for more than three hours with if house intelligence committee, mike conway, the republican leading that committee, told me he doesn't have a need for kushner to come back. he said if democrats wanted him to come back, he would be open to that request. i tried to ask jared kushner that, he would not answer questions. but expect pressure for him to come back, particularly on the senate side. >> appreciate it. president trump is back on the road tonight.

this time playing to a crowd of thousands in ohio. what his supporters at the rally think about the russian investigation, next. y siri, read my schedule. [siri tone] ♪ rock. ♪ hey siri, take a selfie. [siri tone] want to see more of the rock and siri? just grab your iphone and say, "hey siri, what are you and the rock up to?" ♪ [siri tone] there are the wildcats 'til we die weekenders. the watch me let if fly. this i gotta try weekenders. then we've got the bendy... ... spendy weekenders. the tranquility awaits. hanging with our mates weekenders and the it's been quite a day... ...so glad we got away weekenders. whatever kind of weekender you are,

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crunchy outside. chewy inside. tum tum tum tum new tums chewy bites. ♪ the rock: hey siri, read my schedule. [siri tone] [crash] [tires squeal] ♪ rock. [siri tone] merci, gimme some. ♪ hey siri, take a selfie. [siri tone] ♪ [siri tone] frit we caught up with trump supporters before the rally started. >> jojo arrived for donald trump's rally at 5:00 a.m. >> that's okay. >> devoted. you are devoted. true. >> she is among many others like her. the people who come to donald trump's rallies are among the most loyal portion of his base.

>> stop talking about hillary clinton and move on. >> he wants her locked up. >> want her locked up too. >> tweet away. what i say is tweet away. as long as he gets his message across. all that matters. >> amid the loyalty and devotion though, there is a difference of opinion between the president and supporters about jeff sessions the attorney general has been loyal to donald trump from the beginning. trump is tweeting about him. saying things like he is shaming his attorney general wanting him to step down. do you think that donald trump should try to get rid of jeff sessions? >> i personally like jeff sessions think he is doing a good job. i think he is dedicated to what his job is to do. >> does it bother you that donald trump is doing that? >> in a way it does. >> sessions is a good attorney general. i don't think they should get rid of him. i don't think donald trump wants to get rid of him. the news media makes that out. >> president trump called his attorney general beleaguered and criticized him for being weak. many here agree with that. adding that jeff sessions should

go, for the good of the team. >> i think that if donald trump feels that sessions is not doing his whole job, bye-bye. >> reporter: danielle is one of many we talked to here like the president is angered the attorney general recused himself in the russia investigation. >> what some people think is the donald trump want sessions to quit so he can bring in a new attorney general who would then get rid of robert mueller the special counsel. >> i think the special counsel should be gotten rid of. it's ridiculous. >> robert mueller had an esteemed professional career. not much talk of that here. >> hope that mueller is trying to get himself fired. he is obviously a very, he is not a, it's not a special counsel. it's a witch-hunt. >> you know that for sure? >> look at all the people he hired. >> reporter: you know that for sure, you think he is corrupt. >> i believe he is. >> he has to do what is best for him? >> who does?

>> donald trump. trying to make america great again. >> helps him stay out of trouble. get rid of the special counsel. >> if it helps him stay out of trouble. >> what if the president gets into truchblt donald trump could pardon himself. get in legal or ethical trouble, do you think he should pardon himself? >> i don't think that's the case. i don't think he should do that. >> what's the case? >> he shouldn't pardon himself. >> most people we talked to do not agree because they believe and hope it will stay a moot point. >> he doesn't need to pardon himself. there is noth fug find him guilty on. >> gary joins me now from youngstown, ohio. we heard the folks there, some of them chanting lock her up when some one was asked about hillary clinton. did you hear a lot of that today? >> anderson, today as people came into the parking lot outside the arena came inside this arena felt like they had gone through a time portal, back in time to a date before november 8, 2016, when the campaign was going on when he was businessman donald trump.

we heard chants of lock her up. outside. chant of lock her up inside before donald trump took the podium. another chant we heard during the campaign we heard today while donald trump was speaking was build the wall. donald trump said, we will build the wall. but what was notable, andersen. he did not say mexico will pay for it. anderson. >> gary tuckman. thank you very much. >> next, the panel's take on whether the attorney general will resign. the loyalty question. sessions was the first senator to support the president. president trump says loyalty is important. why the disconnect now? "the wall street journal" reporter who asked the president about that joins me as well.

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on a busy day in washington there were crucial votes in congress. trump team members behind closed doors in the russia investigation. the president of the united states lashing out at his attorney general. the fate of jeff sessions job is in limbo tonight. as of a few days ago he was to stay put. cnn confirmed, sessions' chief of staff, said the attorney general had no intention of stepping down. that conversation over the weekend. the president criticized sessions several more times since then, right up today. sarah murray in youngstown, where the president had a val rally. she joins me. the president finishing the rally a short time ago. curious, did he mention session he's talked